KC's Family Comes to Town and Arecibo

Wednesday, February 18th

Part of KC's family came to visit the week of February 16th.   They got in from San Juan around 5:00 on Wednesday, after spending some time in Old San Juan.  They settled into their rental place and we headed to Desecheo for dinner.  Her dad's favorite part of the entire meal was the french fries- ugh...

We made KC's family take lots of photos of us- since we usually only have selfies! ;)

Wednesday night was KC's dad's highlight of the trip.  We parked across the street from the airport because we saw a plane coming in.  Then, we waited for a few more planes to fly over us.  Once Jake and KC had a 747 fly over us, which was amazing.  Even though these were smaller planes, we think everyone enjoyed being so close to the landing strip.

As we were leaving, Jake told KC's dad to be careful for the big huge drop-offs.  Well, Jake refused to turn his lights on while leaving, and he landed the car into one of them!  We were afraid the car wouldn't be coming out of that hole...  Luckily, Jake was able to get it out, and it appears there is no major damage other than a few scratches to the frame which we are assuming are there because of the loud noise the car made when bottoming out with the entire wheel in the hole.  These drop offs were probably 18 inches deep.  Puerto Rico roads are REALLY hard on vehicles!

Thursday, February 19th
 On Thursday, we drove to Arecibo to see the Cueva Ventana (Window Cave).   The owner of this cave, and the government have come to an agreement to try to preserve the wildlife living in the cave,  and protect the cave from vandalism.  So, you have to wait, and a biologist leads the tour and answers any questions you may have.  This was a lot different than a few years ago when we went, but a good change.

They warned us that we might see snakes, bats, roaches, and other creatures.  Luckily, we only saw bats!

Hardhats and flashlights were another addition!

This picture gives you the best idea of what it was like inside.

Taino petroglyphs

Petroglyphs

This is why it's called Window Cave

The view to exit the cave

The view from the road below the cave

After the cave we headed to the Arecibo Observatory.  The Arecibo Observatory is home to one of the world's largest radio telescopes, which is used to study the ionosphere and nearby planets.  (Parts of two movies have been filmed at the Observatory: Contact and 007- Golden Eye.)

The trek to the Observatory took us on many windy roads, and gave KC's family a chance to experience the windy Puerto Rico roads...

It was raining on our walk up the steep hill to the Observatory, but when we got into the museum Matthew spotted this rainbow.  We spent about a half hour looking at the exhibits in the museum.

Then, we watched a video on the history of the Observatory, and what it is being used for currently.  

Next, we were taken out to the telescope.  The size of it was pretty amazing!  

We ended our day with dinner at Le Spezie.  It had been raining on and off during the day, but it down poured at night!  We had to run to our cars, and were soaked!  It was the first time the heat has been turned on in our car since moving to Puerto Rico! :)