Happy Anniversary / Feliz Aniversario

I can't believe it has already been a year! Today we celebrated our first year together as husband and wife. What an adventure is has been thus far!

For our anniversary, we decided to do something fun and adventurous... we joined our adrenaline junkie friends for an outdoor excursion that involved exploring the rainforest on the south side of El Yunque in Naguabo, Puerto Rico. The itinerary included hiking, repelling, body rafting and cliff jumping! I was so excited (and a bit anxious) to go!

We met our friends bright and early at 6am and headed south to Caguas to meet our adventure guides from Puerto Rico Hiking Tours. We arrived at our base camp around 7am and had a quick breakfast. Then we piled on the safety gear (helmets, life jackets, and knee pads) and headed out into the wilderness.

Getting the low down on the hiking tour by our tour guides, Gabriel and Jose

I decided to wear my funky vibram five fingers shoes... I should have worn some sturdy waterproof hiking boots with super grip! We were slipping and sliding all over the mud and rocks. Despite a few scrapes and bruises, we made it through. Here is a pic of us near the top, enjoying the amazing view of all the waterfalls!

Most of the adventure was pretty intense... you really had to do what guides instructed or you could be in big trouble. One of the activities required us to jump from a tall smooth rock (think slippery)  into a pool of water with pretty decent current, and swim to the other side to grab onto a flat rock before wading across to go underneath a raging waterfall. I could barely see where I was going! After swimming for our lives under the waterfall, we climbed up some more slippery rocks (still under the waterfall, mind you) and came out on the other side to wave at our friends across the water. Then we slipped back underneath the waterfall to swim back to the other side. As Ethan and I were going back under the waterfall, his legs were dangling a little too far out into the current of the waterfall and he got sucked in unexpectedly! I said to the guide, "Where did he go???" Then he said, "He's gone. You're next!" I was thinking, "What?!?! Going under this waterfall was tough enough!" Not to worry, the guide explained everything to me so that I would not get sucked in unexpectedly. After he calmed me down, I took a deep breath - what I thought might be my last - and went under... slowly but surely, I came out on the other side and swam back to Ethan and my friends. What an exhilarating experience!

After jumping from the top of rock (at bottom of pic), we swam across to that rock wall, then swam underneath that waterfall...

...and came out the other end! Cheese! I can barely see anything...

We also did some repelling... my first time doing this. I was nervous at first, but by the second time, I was enjoying the view!

Overall, it was an incredible experience and we are so glad we did it! I learned a lot about myself and my limits. Life is all about no regrets and feeling alive! That's why I can't wait to go back again and test my limits again ;)

Check out these amazing views:

Island Adventures / Aventuras de la Isla

Greetings, friends! The past few weeks have been all about adventures! We've been trying to stay active outside, and we've been keeping busy with several things. The most exciting thing that I tried was paddleboarding for the first time ever in the Condado lagoon. It was so much fun! I can't wait to get my own paddleboard. Check me out paddling through the water:

Paddleboarding at the Condado Lagoon

We've also been going on a group biking trip about once a week with some other island transplants we met who also enjoy outdoor activities. Here we are after biking about 5 miles to El Morro in Old San Juan. It is very pretty at night:

We found this group on meetup.com - The Adrenaline Junkies. We've been attending several of the meetups each week and hosting some meetups of our own including a beach run on Sundays. It's been a great way for us to stay active as well as train for a 5k trail race we signed up for in mid-August. I can't wait to run on the trails! I haven't had much luck finding good places to trail run around here (except maybe El Yunque, but that requires an hour drive and the trails good for running there are quite intense).

I've also been going to a bootcamp class on the beach on Saturday mornings... as you can see, I've been finding different ways to get around having to get a gym membership! haha! Here are some action shots of the bootcamp class:

Working out on the beach is really fun! Even if you get all dirty and full of sand, it is so refreshing to run in the water to rinse off and cool down a bit!

Hope this post serves as inspiration to keep all you folks out there active! Stay tuned for the results of the trail race - I hope to beat Ethan again ;)