Feels like home / Se siente como hogar

After many months of settling in to our beachside abode, it's finally starting to feel like home. For me, it took a house sitting job before I realized how much I enjoy living and coming home to our cozy home in Condado!

Another reason why it's difficult for me to perceive this place as "home" is because of all the fun adventures we get to experience in our free time:

Kite surfing...

Ethan at his first kite-surfing lesson!

He made it way out in the ocean!

Exploring Caves...

Cueva del Indio

A lot bigger than you think!

Beautiful water and rock formations

Enjoying the water!

Near the caves

Hiking in the rainforest...

Hiking in El Yunque with the Adrenaline Junkies

Heading to the peak!

Gorgeous views once the clouds parted

View of the ocean from the rainforest

Wandering about a very old city...

The views from the balcony of the apartment in OSJ

A constant supply of delicious and eclectic restaurants... I don't have any photos of the food or anything, but we've discovered some amazing pizza and Mexican restaurants!

And of course, always seeing the tourists roaming around our neighborhood.

There's been plenty of things to keep us entertained... So anytime you want to come and visit, our door is open for you! :)

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 ;)

More Visitors / Más Visitantes

Ethan and I have had a slew of visitors over the past few weeks. First, my PhD advisor was in San Juan for several days attending a conference. On one of her days off, we took her for a hike on our favorite trail, the El Yunque Trail, at El Yunque National Rainforest. It was a long 3.5 hour hike, but well worth it! This was the second time Ethan and I have hiked this trail, and on the first time, we missed the incredible view from the top because the clouds were passing over Los Picachos peak, one of the tallest peaks in the El Yunque Rainforest at 3,175 feet. But on this day, we lucked out. Check out these views!

View of Luquillo and Fajardo from Los Picachos peak

Another lovely view!

We had to take our photos quickly... the clouds were coming in fast!

Then, Ethan's sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew came to visit for a week at the end of April. We had so much fun with them! Ethan's sister planned so many fun activities...  Check out some highlights, pictures courtesy of Ethan's sister:

Ethan and our nephew playing in the sand at the beach near our house. 

Playing at the pool... Don't drown, Ethan!

Snorkeling at the Seven Seas

Enjoying lunch and the sunshine on the catamaran

Check out this snorkeling video I found online. This is footage from the same area we went snorkeling... and possibly from the same tour group in Fajardo. This was my second time snorkeling ever, and it was so much fun! The tour boat gave us bread to feed the fish and they got really close! There were so many of them and all different colors and sizes... I can't wait to go again!

Here are some photos of the Bio-Bay tour we did in Fajardo at La Laguna Grande (the Grand Lagoon). There are only 7 Bioluminescent bays in the world... and three of them are in Puerto Rico! Here is a post from one of our favorite blogs about fun things to do in Puerto Rico with more information on the Bio-Bays. 

They had a food cart near the Bio-Bay that sold corn dogs wrapped in bacon! 

Got our life jackets on, ready for some adventure!

Getting our stroke in sync

We took the early tour before the sun set so we could get a better view of the lagoon and the mangroves. You can't see the dinoflagellate during the day, so you have to wait until after the sun sets to see the action. I was a little weary of going kayaking around a lagoon in murky water, but it was an incredible experience. These little dinoflagellates light up so much in the dark! Every time we moved our hands or oars in the water, it would light up! Ethan said it was one of the coolest things he's EVER seen. So obviously, we are going back next time we have more visitors.

Ethan's Churrasco Mofongo entreé at La Estación after the Bio-Bay tour

On the last day of their visit, I gave them a tour of the lab. I also showed the kids some fun science stuff. Check out my niece's fascination with a human heart!

A future cardiologist?

She was in awe over this heart... much the same way I am in awe of the brain!
I also explained to them what we study in the lab and showed them some of our "subjects."

Overall, this was a really great visit with my new family. We packed in a lot of activities and I think they had a great time.

We had about a week and a half to recover from this fun visit before my mom and step-dad came to visit for Mother's day and my birthday. My mom arrived first to stay at our house for a few nights, then joined her husband at the Conrad hotel and resort, where they stayed the rest of the week. They wanted to mainly relax, so we spent most of the time hanging out at the pool or walking along the beaches. For Mother's day, Ethan and I made my mom some breakfast, then we headed out to Playa Mar Chiquita, my favorite beach in Puerto Rico. We also wanted to do a little shopping, but the Puerto Ricans like to close EVERYTHING on Mother's day (this is also the case for Father's day too! who would have thought?). While we are used to Mother's day sales on the mainland, the Puerto Ricans use Mother's Day as another excuse to celebrate and party!

For my birthday, Ethan brought my mom to the lab, and I gave her a quick tour and introduced her to all my fun lab mates. After lunch, the lab surprised me with a birthday cake! It was so yummy. Then we finally went shopping. They have the Premium Outlets here, just like Waterloo in upstate NY. For dinner, we ate at Silk, where I enjoyed some delicious sushi!

After my step-dad arrived, we gave them the usual tours of Old San Juan and El Yunque. This time, El Yunque was a little different. Because May is one of the rainiest months in Puerto Rico, the rivers and waterfalls were gushing at El Yunque!

This stream/river is usually half the size of what we saw here!

My mom and I on the flood steps at the Baño Grande pool in El Yunque. 

It was nice having my mom here to show her where we live. I wish she could have stayed longer. Can't wait for your next visit, Mom!

Sunset stroll in Old San Juan con mi mamá

Wow, you are a trooper if you are still reading this! This was quite the long blog post... until next time!
¡Hasta Luego!

¡Ganamos! / We Won!

Yesterday, Maria and I rode in our first bicycle tour, the Paws & Pedals 60 mile ride to support Save A Sato. Save A Sato is a volunteer organization which has set out to rescue the many homeless dogs, or satos, living in Puerto Rico.

We did a few training rides around San Juan to get ready for our 60 miles, including one out to Piñones, an area where the locals hangout at the beach and a great place to sample some local foods like bacalaíto, arepas, and pinchos.

Here's Maria on one of our training rides:

We woke up on Sunday at 5 am in order to get ready for our ride. We got our nice new bike Jerseys on, ate some quick breakfast, got our bikes out the door, and began our 2 mile ride over to the meeting/starting area near the Caribe Hilton, the place we stayed when we first visited San Juan last year. We made it in plenty of time for the 6 am sharp check-in time for the ride that was supposed to start at 6:30 am sharp.

This is the sun greeting us at 6 am:

We checked in and as 6:30 came and went, people continued arriving; then 7:00, 7:15, and finally around 7:25 they started the ride. It's a good thing we hurried out the door at 5:45 or we might have missed it.

Aside from the late start, we had a great time. The ride took us briefly into Old San Juan then back into Condado where we live. We then took a turn south onto the route 2 highway and rode into Guaynabo, a San Juan suburb. We then headed north west into Cataño where we made our first stop, then past the Bacardí distillery and into Toa Baja. We then continued the ride along the coastline in Dorado, where we made our second stop, and looped back toward Toa Baja to arrive at the midway point of the ride.

Before we made it to the half way point we had seen a few people on the side of the road dealing with flat tires. I was thinking to myself that Maria and I would be pretty lucky if we made it the whole way without any flats. Well, when you start thinking like that I guess you guarantee yourself an outcome because 4 miles from the midway rest stop I got a flat. I didn't even realize it at first, I just thought the road was a little rough, but I looked down, and sure enough it was flat. I tried calling out to Maria, but she left me in her dust. I started feverishly tearing my wheel apart hoping I could get a new tube in and catch back up with Maria and the group, but before I knew it the SAG vehicle was there to pick me up and told me it was only a couple miles, so I hopped in. But before we could leave, Maria came back to find me. So she hopped in for the ride too!

At the rest stop, I quickly changed tubes and was up and running again with enough time to top off on water and chocolate brownie cliff bars.

The return trip was a slightly modified version of the route out. We were able to ride along the highways and in places we otherwise never would be able to. Our last pit stop was at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum before heading to the park where we started and as luck would have it... I got another flat! This time I got the tube changed before the SAG wagon could get to me. This time I had Maria helping me get it changed. While I was tearing the tire apart, she couldn't help but be in awe of all the stragglers coming in. As I was putting the wheel back on my bike, the SAG wagon showed up in time for me to say, "Está bien."

Needless to say, I was preoccupied with getting another flat in the last 5 or so miles of the ride. I eventually forgot about it and enjoyed the support of the pedestrians as we rode through Santurce and Miramar on our way back to the park in Old San Juan.

Aside from 2 flat tires, I had a good time and I wasn't as tired as I thought I would be after riding 60 miles. The riding was pretty comfortable early in the morning and later in the day some clouds came out to shade us from the sun. The hottest it got was when we were off our bikes at the rest stops not moving or pumping air into tires.

As we coasted back into the park I said to Maria, "Ganamos." She looked at me and said, "What?" I said again, "Ganamos! We won!" She promptly informed me that it was not a race, which was exactly my point. We won, because we finished, because we survived two flat tires and kept on riding.

Here is the route that we rode: http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/193406100

We got to enjoy a post ride meal and meet some satos as they recognized a young boy for the work he did rescuing them. We were not even aware that there was going to be a post ride meal, since it wasn't mentioned on the website. There was also a raffle after the meal that we were never informed of until checking in that morning.

Always on the look out for free stuff, we waited around to see if our numbers were called. Many of the numbers called were of people who had already left, and so many of them were so close to our numbers. At one point they called a number so close to Maria's that when the announcer began counting off, "going once, going twice" (in Spanish of course) before assumming the person was gone and pulling another number, she heard him say the raffle number followed by "one" and thought it was her number. Luckily I stopped her before she got too excited.

So we waited and waited, getting excited and then deflated each time a number close to ours was called. I was even starting to think that maybe Maria was right, maybe that was her number that was called earlier, and I told her it wasn't. Oops. But then, 32551. Maria won! She won a super cool bicycle pendant that she promises to wear everyday! We were still waiting around for my number to be called, crossing our fingers, hoping for one of the pairs of sunglasses or the $50 gift cards, or the bike seat bags. But those went to some other lucky people. Then they started giving out DHL airplanes. Not real airplanes but little models or something like that, which I was hoping I did not win.

Then they announced some other DHL thing and something about $50. I looked down at my number as they called out 32501. I looked again and waited for him to repeat it. "Hey that's me." I went over to confim my prize and claim my number. A nice woman took my name and phone number and said, "Do you understand what you won?" I had to admit that I had no idea. Apparently I won $50 in shipping on DHL. A pretty cool prize when you live on an island. With that, Maria and I hopped back on our bikes and headed home, a little happier about two flat tires and our sore butts.

I think we might have to make this an annual tradition!

Busy, Busy, Busy / Tan Ocupados

Wow, I just realized it's been over two weeks since our last post! March has definitely felt a like a whirlwind; so many things have been going on this month!
First, the Quirk lab had our annual "winter" retreat the first weekend in March at this beautiful mountain resort called Casa Grande in Utuado, PR. Utuado is about 2 hours southwest of San Juan, tucked away in the beautiful mountains. The purpose of these retreats is to step away from the busy lab and get to know each other better and talk about science on a philosophical level. We read and discussed a chapter out of Karl Popper's book The Logic of Scientific Discovery in addition to some other philosophical readings on science related to the Socratic Method, theory testing, etc. We also had another session on women in science and what that means for the lab and for the future of science in general. Overall, it was a pretty enlightening retreat, and I had a great time. One very interesting thing I learned was that Puerto Ricans do not really care for peace and quiet. The mountain resort we stayed at had a lot of non-Puerto Rican tourists who were there for relaxing, mediating, and doing yoga, and several times our group was asked to be quiet! It was very interesting to see the different cultures from both perspectives: the Puerto Ricans being loud and rambunctious were not doing so to be intentionally rude, but were just having a good time... which lasted into the late hours of the night. On the other hand, the non-native guests were trying to have a peaceful visit and probably seemed onery to the Puerto Rican guests. Greg (my advisor, the professor in charge of the lab) was saying that maybe next year, we should go to a place where there are more locals. But I am not sure if I will be able to handle all that loudness! haha :) Anyway, here are some pictures from the retreat:

Casa Grande Terrace

View of the pool from the terrace

One of the lab members ordering a drink at the cozy bar

The Quirk lab goes for a hike

Beautiful view of while on the hike

A few of us also stopped by a cave on our way home. It was beautiful! You can see the other side of the mountain where Casa Grande was located from this cave. I can't remember the name of the cave, unfortunately :-/

Second, our friends Ben and Leora came to visit us from Rochester last weekend! We were so excited to see them. They also brought their baby Misha and we had such a great time. We took them to the beach, had them try lots of Puerto Rico's tasty foods, and strolled around Condado and Old San Juan. We also cooked a feast of America's Test Kitchen Pulled Pork for them and invited our neighbor over and had some fun late night conversation. Here are some photos from their visit:

Enjoying the day at the Piñones Beach with some agua de coco

Strolling around Old San Juan near the Old Wall. Look at those huge waves!

Cool statue near the Old Wall in Old San Juan... the Three Kings perhaps?

Brunch at Caficultura in Old San Juan. It was delicious!

Our second visit to El Morro. Always a beautiful sight!

Third, I made a trip with some of the lab members to Vieques to teach kids about neuroscience! It was part of Brain Awareness Week, a national event that promotes awareness of the brain, mostly to school kids, but really to anyone who is interested. Our lab actually participated in several events we planned in Puerto Rico. We had some artists come visit our lab who were interested in our research and how we can connect the mind with art. They in turn, invited us to their space and showed us their artwork and what they do. They were a very interesting group that I hope our lab keeps in touch with. One of the undergrads also planned a Brain Awareness Week event at the Río Piedras campus for the psychology department. As you can see, we love spreading the word about the brain! Anyway, Vieques was so beautiful and I had a great time helping with this event and watching the kids get excited about science. Here are some photos:

My first time on a little plane. There were ten of us. How were we all going to fit on that thing!?

All packed in like sardines... but still smiling!

Getting ready to head to Vieques! The plane ride was only about 5 minutes

Up up and away!

Five minutes later, we are landing...

View of the ocean from the school we visited in Vieques

Teaching kids about the brain

Wild horses roaming around Vieques!

So as you can see, it has been a fun-filled March. We are ready for more! We have some more visitors coming in April and May... hope you are planning a trip here if you haven't already done so! ;)