ELEMENTS OF A HIPPIE

It’s been exactly a week since I got back from my two week vacation. The second (and sadly) last stop on my trip was San Juan, Puerto Rico. Let me just start by saying that Puerto Rico was BEAUTIFUL.

Anyways, my friends and I headed out Thursday afternoon (a day before Frenchies birthday). The ride was long but smooth and being that airplanes aren’t my favorite thing in the world, I was very grateful for that.

We got to PR later that night and thankfully we didn’t waste much time because the hotel/apartment complex that we were staying in was less than 10 minutes away from the airport.

Sidebar| We rented an apartment at the ESJ Towers. It was nice. Microwave, stove, fridge, beautiful bathroom and a balcony .. however for the 5 of us it was a bit small in my opinion. However, I did appreciate the location of ESJ Towers. It was in the middle of everything, we had a mini mart, a supermarket, rental car service, taxis and tons of places to get food surrounding us.

Being that we arrived in the evening, we went straight to getting ready to go out for Frenchies birthday. She decided on going to Club Brava which is supposedly a main tourist attraction in the San Juan area.

I’ll be honest though, Club Brava wasn’t my favorite. Being that it was my first time in Puerto Rico, I really would have liked to hear more Salsa, Reggaeton, Bachata, etc. but instead we heard EDM, EDM and more EDM. On top of that, I’m all down for drunk people, having a good time but when 80% of the party are belligerent .. it’s kind of annoying.
I knew it was a tourist attraction but online reviews of this club stated that many locals frequented this club as well … although it didn’t seem like it, AT ALL. To top things off, one of my friends and I had drinks spilled on us .. so you know we were OVER IT, lol.

The next day we headed to a Snorkeling and Picnic event in Fajardo. The birthday girl decided not to come and treat herself to a Spa Day and some alone time while the rest of us decided to rent a car and have a mini road trip.

I had never been snorkeling before so being in the middle of the ocean, looking for fish is not something I was excited about. On top of that the weather wasn’t the best with the on/off again rain but turns out that I had an amazing time and it truly was an amazing experience. Everyone made us feel comfortable, the food was good and there was lots of laughs. Oh! and unlimited Rum Punch, you can’t go wrong with that .. can you?

That night while Bianca and Justine opted to stay in, Zoe, French and I went to La Placita. It was a little neighborhood filled with clubs, bars, stores, people having a good time and tons of nightlife. I definitely enjoyed the club scene more in La Placita than I did at Club Brava. Especially because I heard a variety of music – mission complete! Lol.

Then it happened. I got sick. Too sick to get out of bed. Yupp, that sick.
So the next day, I was bed ridden while my friends enjoyed Old San Juan and I was jealous.

The following day, I was ecstatic when my friends told me that they enjoyed Old San Juan so much that they had to go back <3. Seems like the day that I was sick, my friends just bar hopped and met some locals which was okay with me because that meant I got to be there when we really explored Old San Juan (yasssss) !

We visited Plaza de Armas de San Cristobal and basically got a mini history lesson involving the ancient beauty of Puerto Rico. I don’t know about my friends or maybe I’m a special kind of nerd (lol) but I really did enjoy learning about the historical past of PR. Especially learning about their involved with the Panama Canal and the rest of the Caribbean. Good stuff!

Oh, and of course we took 86946840 pictures. Lol

Following that, I finally got (what felt like) a real taste of Puerto Rican food from a little restaurant and bar called Palmas. Yes! Walking through that alley (which we had to go through to get to the restaurant) filled with people laughing and dancing and just enjoying themselves .. I loved it! I wanted to dance Salsa with abuelo. Lol, I need to become more courageous!
It felt like we were REALLY in Puerto Rico at that very moment. Definitely a trip highlight. Then my friends decided that they wanted to go back to the bar from the previous night aka my sick night (lol) and I was down for the adventure. It was definitely good vibes there too. The name of that bar was Blessed Cafe and it was a Jamaican owned bar .. so you know I was excited, especially when I got there and saw pictures of Bob Marley everywhere!

That entire night was good vibes. We laughed, joked around, drank and hung out with the locals that my friends met the night before. We even took a trip into the ‘ghetto’ and of course I have no pictures of that lol – not when we were warned not to take our phones out >_<.

That day/night was my favorite.

The last day was pretty chilled. We spent the day joking around and listening to music by the pool we had just discovered. Yea, we stayed there for days without knowing they had a pool, lol. But it was well worth the wait, because I did enjoy the simplicity of that day.

Then before we knew it …. the day turned to night and back to day .. specifically 5:30 am and we had to get up and head back to New York lol.

And just like that our time on the beautiful island was over .. and when we got back to New York it was 60 degrees and raining. Fun right?

Nevertheless, Puerto Rico was breathtaking … literally a breath of fresh air and I can’t wait to visit again!

xoxo

Keep up with me:
Instagram/Facebook/Etsy/De La Jipi Instagram

P.S I kind of vlogged my entire vacation .. it’s just a matter of editing it, which won’t happen until I get my new computer but when that happens I can’t wait to share my footage with all of you ❤