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 ;)

Rochester

Well, it's been a while since we wrote anything, so I'd better catch you up on our recent trip to Rochester.

We were in Rochester in June to celebrate the wedding of some good friends. It was a great wedding and while we were there we had the opportunity to catch up with our other friends and family.

We arrived at the airport on a typical rainy, dreary, and grey Friday afternoon in Rochester. We picked up our rental car and headed off to our first stop.

As soon as we hit 390 I couldn't help but feel a sense of openness and freedom. I was in awe of the lane choices I could make! You see in San Juan on a Friday afternoon, you'd be lucky if you could get the car up to 45 miles an hour let alone be able to change lanes when you want. It was highway bliss.

Anyway, we arrived shortly at John and Randy's home where they graciously hosted us for a few nights. We settled in and had just enough time to catch up before we headed off for our next engagements. Maria was helping to setup for a baby shower she had the next day, and by virtue of existing, I was helping out too. We did what we could quickly, because we then had to meet the Kumar's for dinner, and I had to get to bed early to be up at 5 am for a drive down to New York City for my friend's bachelor party.

It was craziness from the time we landed until the time we left.

It was a long drive down to NYC and back but it was a great party for a great friend and luckily, I was just a passenger in the car. When I got back to Rochester I was grateful to arrive at a party Randy had put together for Maria and I.

The next day we took some time to relax in the morning and catch our collective breath.

At this point I can't remember everything we did, which should be a lesson to all of you who plan to recount a story to write it down soon after it happens.

But here is what I do remember:

We got to catch up with great friends in Rochester, celebrate a birthday, Maria got sushi with Sarah while I ate a garbage plate with Andrew, but we didn't make it over to Dinosaur BBQ, Maria got her hair did while I fell asleep watching Big Fish, I spent an entire day with my nephew playing catch, shooting pigeons, and avoiding the police while he skipped school (typical boy stuff), we spent time with my family, ate some of my favorite hometown pizza, saw all three falls at Letchworth and had a picnic in the park, ran a 4 mile trail race, saw our friends get married, played cards against humanity until 5 am, had a late brunch and hopped back on a plane headed for San Juan.

Like I said, it was crazy. And it was great to see everyone that we could while we were there.

When we left Rochester to move to San Juan, I wasn't so keen on the idea, but Maria was ready. After having gone back, Maria didn't want to leave. We both miss all of you back home and hope to see you in San Juan and we'll try to see you whenever we can get to Rochester.

Until then, wish us luck with this tropical storm, although it shouldn't be too much trouble for us since it's passing to the south.

Lovely view of San Juan as we were taking off for Rochester

I love watching the chickens roaming around the yard at Ethan's house. And their eggs are delicious!

We forgot we saved the top of our wedding cake.  We decided to eat it while we were visiting since we wouldn't be back in August. It was better on the wedding day :)

Beautiful views of the falls at Letchworth

Drinks with friends in Rochester!

The Japanese gardens at Sonnenberg Gardens where our friends got married.

Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. Wible!

Had to make a trip to Wegman's! Look at the excitement on Ethan's face

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!

To each his Lechón

Warning: this post may not be suitable for herbivores, vegans, vegetarians... read at your own risk!

One of the most delicious foods of Puerto Rico is lechón, a whole pig that is slowly roasted over charcoal. Scattered along rural roadsides, you are likely to come across something called a Lechonera. This is where they prepare and serve the delicious slow roasted pork. 

Ethan and I first noticed these restaurants on our way to El Yunque one afternoon. As we were driving down one of the back roads, we noticed a huge line of people outside a building with someone out front furiously chopping up cuts of pork served alongside amarillos or sweet plantains, and arroz con gandules, also known as rice served with pigeon peas. And the cooks are there bright and early 6am to get ready for the day! 

After asking our landlords about these restaurants, they recommended a place nearby - Los Piñones - and we had to go check it out. When we first got there, it was not so easy figuring out where to place our order, where to pay, or where to pick up, since they display their food outside right next to the front door. However, this makes it easy to point at what you want because we didn't know the names of the dishes! Most of the Lechoneras also have a dining area, but we wanted to takes ours home since it was just around the corner. 

We also enjoyed some lechón at a different location after exploring the Camuy caves outside of Arecibo. Ethan overheard a tour guide informing his group that an excellent place to have lunch after visiting the caves was at "Rancho T" just down the road. We heeded his advice and it was quite delicious indeed. We even caught a glimpse of one of the cooks preparing to serve up some pork, hot off the skewer. Check out his sweet machete!

For more information on this famous Puerto Rican specialty, this article describes eating lechón in Puerto Rico quite eloquently: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/travel/eating-roast-pig-in-guaynabo-puerto-rico.html

¡Buen Provecho!

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! ;)