Alive & Tweeting™ A Portfolio by Álvaro Soltero

#AdventureWeek, Spring break March 15-25 (Pictures below)

So what better idea than to make our spring break vacations from Tufts an extension of #AdventureSundays? Our last 3 Sundays had been spent in the library for midterms, so we decided to play catch up. The team was composed of two original Sunday adventurers, Brett Plugis and David Núñez, along with Jeremy Gross, Doug Stone, and myself. 

Destinations? We chose to go on a road trip around the island, going somewhere different everyday. 

#AdventureSunday kicked off in Las Tinajas, a cascade oasis in the middle of El Yunque rainforest close to Fajardo, PR. After the hassle of finding parking, it was a half an hour trek up the river until we got there, and it was totally worth it. Check out the video up top.

#AdventureMonday started early in the morning with a roadtrip to Rincon on the west side of the island to visit some lovely sisters from Alpha Phi at Tufts University. We met up with them at Maria’s beach and stopped by Villa Cofresi for what was tranquil nightlife.. until we got there.

#AdventureTuesday began with a search for a good shadow on a beach behind the palm trees (so we could keep on sleeping) as we woke up on Playa Corcega in Rincon. When the sun finally beat us, and Jeremy gave up on finding his wallet (#JeremyGrossproblems), we hopped back on the car and drove down to Playa Sucia (translation: Dirty Beach) in the southwestern tip of Puerto Rico, Cabo Rojo. After spending the afternoon on the beach, it was time to head home back to San Juan.

#AdventureWednesday was supposed to be a day to rest. David, Jeremy, and Doug were leaving us for other spring break plans elsewhere, so Brett and I stayed in Tuesday night and sleep around 15 hours each (we didn’t get much sleep on the beach the night before). We woke up around midday and decided to do like the locals and jump off from Dos Hermanos bridge over the Condado Laguna. We were accompanied by Sam Woestwin, also from Tufts, who decided to spend his last day in PR adventuring with Brett and I.

#AdventureThursday had the potential to be a great day out on the boat on Icacos, an island off the east coast of Fajardo, Puerto Rico. We got out there with a couple of friends but rain and clouds watered our day. Regardless, we got out there for a couple of hours and Brett decided to adventure around to the eastern side of the the island to take pictures of some nice waves. We called it a day at around 5 and spent the night in Palmas del Mar in Humacao, on the southeastern side of Puerto Rico.

#AdventureFriday was attempt #2 for Icacos Island and luckily, this time the sun decided to come out. We were joined by Sebastián Lopez, a friend of mine from high school who stayed the night with us down in Humacao. This time we were able to get out there and surprisingly, there was only one other boat there. A huge yacht called Mi Sueño was anchored out and had its crew take the passengers to the beach. We anchored right on the beach and after enjoying the water for a bit, went on a little hike around the island. Check out the pictures below.

#AdventureSaturday was the day we were going to go fly out of Isla Grande Airport in San Juan. I had scheduled the rental of a Cessna 172 Skyhawk at Silver Wings PR for the afternoon and was going to take Brett up to the Dorado practice area to show him PR from the sky and show off my flying skills a little bit. Since I hadn’t flown in 90 days the plan was to do three touch and go’s with an instructor before I went up alone with Brett, so we got there 2 hours earlier than departure time. Unfortunately, when the 172 returned from a previous rental flight, it was grounded because of an oil leak right before I could go up. Unfortunate, of course, because we didn’t get to go flying, but extremely fortunate that the Pilot in Command before me caught that oil leak or else you wouldn’t be reading all about it.

On Sunday we had our 6:30am flight back to Boston and sadly, to reality. So concluded our spring break and consequently, our #AdventureWeek. Internal tourism for me has become quite a hobby, the same way #AdventureSundays has for us over in Boston. Get our there and explore, no matter where you are, it’s worth it.