Day #6: Tuesday

 

I'm back!  Noall summed up Day #6 pretty well, but I'll just recap.  We packed up our stuff and headed for the market outside of San Juan.  My directions were apparently incomplete, so I was driving around for a while (no surprise there), but finally did find it (MUCH to my surprise).  I chatted with one vendor in particular - he was really getting a kick out of the fact that I didn't recognize half of what he was selling.  He asked me how to say a couple of things in English and gave me a recommendation for a simple dinner to make and then we were off.  Emma's nap was LONG overdue and she wasn't as excited as I was about checking everything out.  I have really been surprised by the amount of traffic here.  That market was in the middle of a plaza that was surrounded by blocks and blocks of vendors...kind of like a huge Chinatown or the shopping district in LA where there are tons of people and no room to walk!

Anyways, it took us much longer than expected to get back onto the RIGHT freeway and head to Aguadilla.  I won't go into detail...just imagine frustrated driver w/o a navigator, frustrated kids, and screaming toddler...good times, good times!

Of course, once we were on track for a while someone had to go to the bathroom...which led to a whole other series of mishaps...(insert aforementioned visualization of kids asking when we're going to be there...)

The upside is that we drive through lots of small pueblos, saw where you can hunt wild turkeys and pigs, met lots of nice people who gave us directions (this will be a common theme through the next few posts), drove through beautiful and lush tropical mountains, and had scenic views of the Caribbean for most of the trip.

We were supposed to meet up with out renter at Wendy's in Aguadilla which was perfect since we were all hungry for dinner.  There were about 10 people in line and after waiting about half an hour and NO ONE being served, I realized that dinner at Wendy's wasn't going to be worth the wait.  So, instead we headed to our place, unpacked, watched cartoons and ate popcorn and chocolate/coconut bars for dinner. (Thanks for sending that for 12 Days, Mom!). Nutrition was not even on the radar that night...  I did feel a little bad when we were getting ready for bed and Camilla said, "But Mom, we didn't even eat dinner."  And I had to actually verbalize, "Yes, you did...don't you remember the popcorn and chocolate?"  Isn't that a terrible thing to have to say?!?

Here are some pics of the car ride...did I mention good times?