You would think that since I lived in the Philippines for two years I would be comfortable with humidity. I even remember when I moved back to the mountain West I was stunned at how dry the air was. It seems being accustomed to humidity has a shelf-life.
A year late, but my wife and I are finally celebrating our honeymoon by visiting Puerto Rico. Getting married during the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult to have a normal wedding, not to mention a honeymoon to anywhere very interesting. Now, in 2021, with travel opening back up slightly we are able to get away for a few days to the beautiful U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico. 🇵🇷
We chose Puerto Rico specifically because it wouldn’t require us to take time out of our vacation to get COVID test in order to return to the United States, but wanting to keep the trourism industry strong, Puerto Rico did take some extra messures to ensure travelers were healthy before entering the island. This meant that we did need a negative COVID test in order to leave the San Juan airport. At least we could get that COVID test while living our normal lives on the mainland.
With our bags and QR code indicating our negative test results in hand, we were free to take on the city of San Juan. That is, if an Uber would pick us up. There are some downsides of getting cheap plane tickets that get you to your destination at 9:00 p.m. and one of those is a lack of available transit. What should have been a $12 ride to our Airbnb ended up costing $26 before a tip, but we were finally here.
I don’t know why I was sleepy since traveling East reduced my life by two hours… I was only 7 at home, why am I so tired?
For as much as I love visiting a new place, it takes some time to understand new cultures and customs. The first restaurant we went into was closed, it seemed like a lot of people were eating there, but I guess they weren’t taking in any new diners. The next restaurant we visited wanted us to stand in a specific spot in order to keep a 6 foot distance from the customers ahead of us, and to not let the line go the wrong way. Then once we did order our food to go apparently we were standing in the wrong place again. Eventually we got our dinner and decided to just sit in to eat it as we still needed to make a few stops before returning home.
A wonderful night sleep allowed us to be ready for church and looking around the city a bit. But stepping outside was like entering a sauna. Wheww, it’s HOT out here. How quickly I have forgotten how much of a difference a bit of humidity can make.