Because we were arriving in port during the middle of the day, the crew allowed passengers access to the front decks of the ship to watch the arrival. It was a spectacularly lovely day. Our tour guide on the ship gave us all a history lesson and facts and details about the port. I took tons of pictures of Del Morro, the 200 year old fort that was critical to protecting Port San Juan from the danger of approaching enemy ships. I also learned that there were free trolleys traveling around Old San Juan and a brand new CVS just a few blocks from the cruise dock!
Armed with all the knowledge learned from my time spent on the deck watching our approach and listening to the tour guide, we headed into San Juan. Would you believe that the first thing we ran into was a Harley Davidson T-shirt shop? Since all the shops in San Juan close around 6:00, we went ahead and made the requisite HD purchases.
We left HD and went across the street to wait for the next trolley. We waited, and waited, and waited, and finally got on the first trolley that came by only to discover it didn’t go to our first desired location, Fort Del Morro. We got off along with 4 other frustrated folks from the ship and all grabbed a taxi. We were at the Fort in about 5 minutes. We enjoyed the tour of the Fort, a massive 200 year old concrete and stone structure with breathtaking views of the ocean and huge cannons, some with a range of 3 miles. Here's Buster and Dallas at Fort Del Morro.
By about 3:00, however, it hit me very hard that I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. We were too excited getting off the ship to think about lunch. The only thing the gift shop carried was water and Gatorade. I had a Gatorade and sat in the shade while Dallas finished touring the fort. We had much better luck with transportation on the way out of the Fort. There was a trolley waiting to leave just as we exited. We jumped on for a short ride to the main street on my list of “things to see in San Juan.”
The food situation was getting desperate. The first place we saw that looked promising on our walk down the hill was a Ben and Jerry’s with a sign that said “we have good food.” Worked for me! I ordered what ended up being a delicious platter of hummus, veggies, and pita. Dallas gave into temptation for an ice cream sundae. While eating, Dallas noticed that every picture, magazine cover, and newspaper article in the café was of a US Olympic medal winning gymnast. There was also a very tiny woman working at the restaurant. Dallas became convinced that the owners must be related to the gymnast and that the person working was probably her sister. Showing an unusual amount of reserve, he didn’t ask, so we’ll never know the whole story.
Feeling much better, we headed down the narrow, picturesque cobblestone streets to the San Juan Museum. This was a very quick stop since the term “museum” was a bit of an overstatement. We toured the San Juan Cathedral (established 1511), the final resting place of Ponce De Leon.
From the cathedral, we walked down a lovely street to the “Main Gate.” For security, the city of San Juan was originally surrounded by a huge wall. The Main Gate, the only way in or out, was locked each night. If you were outside the gate, you had to stay outside until the gate was unlocked the next morning. The only part of the wall remaining is the section at the ocean’s edge. The rest of the wall has been torn down to allow for expansion. We noticed a lot of cats lounging on the rocks at the water’s edge. San Juan apparently has a problem with stray cats. The National Park Service (this is the same park service that maintains all national parks since San Juan is a US territory) has a “Save a Cat” program and has made it illegal to feed the stray cats.
After wandering along the wall, we headed back into town where we stumbled upon the shopping district. No cruise dock is too far away from a shopping district! Having already purchased an HD shirt, we avoided the siren song of shopping and continued wandering. We were just about to turn the corner and head back to the boat when a shop owner lulled us inside with the promise of a 15 minute foot massage for $15. After walking on concrete and cobblestone all day, we couldn’t resist. The owner was committed to entertaining us. There were 5 of us inside, and the owner bet us a longer massage if we (as a group) could get 6 out of 10 trivia questions right. Dallas thought that was great! All the trivia was about Puerto Rico, and we didn’t do very well. I was just impressed that Dallas consented to a foot massage!
We stopped at a restaurant with outdoor tables to eat. The maitre d informed us that if we wanted good Puerto Rican food, we should go down the street; however, if we wanted great Puerto Rican food, we should eat at his establishment. How do you argue with that? The food was good, but I’d take Cuban food over Puerto Rican any day!
After dinner, we were beat, and the only things left open were the bars. We took advantage of the brand new CVS to get some bottles of water and soft drinks and headed back to the ship where we went to the Mainstage for the night’s entertainment, a comedian named Julie Barr. Julie had on very bright clothes and her hair was hot pink and purple. She was quite a colorful character, entertaining but not hilarious. Since there was no trivia contest for Dallas to win, we called it an early night.
No comments:
Post a Comment