I didn’t post from Puerto Rico (Happy Valentine’s Day); it had been quite a hot day, and Mark and I both were exhausted. As a result, today you get a two-fer!
San Juan was really enjoyable. The old city—which is where we spent the day—was full of picturesque streets and buildings, cafés, and shops. It didn’t take us long to find our way to a café/bar called Café Caleta (Café de dia / Bar de niche). As I said, it was really hot, and we were walking uphill from the port, so everyone felt they could enjoy a drink and perhaps a nosh. Mark and I ate on the ship before we went ashore, so I didn’t have anything to eat. And my stomach being my stomach, I also skipped the drinks. Since I’ve given up soda and alcohol, my only options were water and water-based beverages. While the CDC and WHO say the water in Puerto Rico is okay for mainland Americans to drink, it has also failed to meet U.S. minimum standards for copper, lead, pesticides, and bacteria, so I didn’t want to take a chance. Luckily for me, though, it was fine; no one got sick, and when I was melting a couple hours later, I drank a glass of water before I thought about my earlier reservations.
After the boys had lunch, we gamboled up the hill to see the Catedral de San Juan Bautista. It was in pretty rough shape for a functioning church and tourist destination, but it did have a relic—the mummified remains of Saint Pio encased in a wax simulacrum—and the tomb of Juan Ponce de Leon.
I wanted mostly to see art galleries, but I didn’t push as hard as I should have, and our time ended up being limited both by the heat and by the ship’s schedule. Mark and I only got to peek into a couple. One, Galería Éxodo, had some pretty neat stuff, and the gallery owner was very nice. I tried to find my favorite painting—a Picasso-esque still-life of blue and green and yellow bottles—on their website to no avail. The Poets Passage, another gallery we stumbled upon, had some interesting paintings, but not so much what I look for.
We caught up with Dan, Alex, James, and Tom at a little side street café called La Madre. The waiter and waitress were fun and we cooled off with drinks (and had dessert).
Our main destination was Castillo San Cristobal, a National Historic Site and World Heritage Site fort built by the Spanish in 1783. I was less interested in the historic sites, and I’d been there before, so I didn’t go inside, but I took some pictures of the fort and the town.
We got back in time for another nice dinner in the dining room. Mark and I walked around the ship for the rest of the evening and turned in.
It’s now Friday—our second day at sea—so there won’t be much to report. Instead, I’ll summarize yesterday in St. Thomas.
… (That’s me twiddling my thumbs).
The first time we were in St. Thomas, we weren’t terribly impressed. This visit did not improve our opinion of the island. Perhaps with more time to spend, we’d enjoy it more, but unless you’re into shopping for jewelry or watches or women’s clothes (we aren’t), there ain’t much to do. We did go ashore hoping to find some art galleries, but there are actually very few on the island, and the only one we were able to locate only sold “tourist” art. And they were closed until 11.
That’s not to say that there wasn’t any excitement, though. We were looking to board a taxi (more of a pickup truck converted into a bus with lots of seating), when the gentleman who was organizing the loading of the taxi called us over and seated us. As we were climbing aboard, I realized that we’d walked into an ugly scene. The guide was putting us into two seats from which he’d just ejected a woman and her companion. She was arguing somewhat nastily with him about wanting to sit with other members in her group in another taxi, but that taxi appeared to be full. At one point, she said, “Those people…” to her companion, and the guide went ballistic. “Who are ‘those people’! What do you mean ‘those people’?!” At best her comment was a snooty dismissal of people she thought were below her. At worst, it was totally racist. “Ugly Americans” indeed! I thought a fist fight was going to break out.
We spent just a little while on the island walking through streets and alleys with salesman coaxing us to come inside to look at their fine selection of watches or walking by the doors of not-yet-open shops. It was extremely hot and humid, so after about 45 minutes, we decided to walk back to the ship. It turns out we didn’t need to bother with a taxi anyway; it was only about a 20 minute walk. Along the way, we ran into Tom and James, who were also giving up and going back, so the four of us called it a day. We were back on board by 10 a.m.
Mark and Matt joined James, Tom, Mark, and I for dinner in the dining room. It was “Orange” night, so I let Mark borrow one of my orange shirts for the evening. They went on to see the comedy show, and Mark and I strolled the decks for a while. We stumbled into at the end of another round of music trivia. I got 14 of the 16 correct this time, but the questions were much easier than the “general knowledge” trivia from the previous day. We settled in for the evening and watched Barbie, finally turning in at 11:30 (Atlantic time). I woke up in the middle of the night and felt the boat not only rolling but also pitching much more than I had at any other time in the trip. I was actually a little neverous and wondered if we’d run into a storm. By mid morning, it had settled down.
Mark and I are going to get cleaned up and just laze away the day. Tomorrow will be a beach day, so maybe pics, maybe not, but I’ll write a summary of the day either way.