Day 2: San Juan & Begin Cruise

Today we checked out of our hotel bright and early to return the rental car. We took a shuttle over to the cruise ship to check our baggage, but they were not yet accepting check-ins yet L So – one of the taxi drivers that was waiting in the long line of taxis told us of a place in Old San Juan Barrianos– a restaurant –that would store our bags for free! Yay! So we paid a ridiculous cab fare and went into Old San Juan – dropped our bags and ate some breakfast at a darling bakery –El Meson – that was right next to pigeon square. We ate yummy picadillos & pastries!We hit Pigeon square after eating, and were not totally impressed. The pigeons were crazed! Yikes – flying everywhere… which I suppose is what pigeons do?! Then – we hit shopping, seeing TONS of shops on these little narrow streets. The buildings there are great – bright colors (and varying colors) stacked right next to one another. The streets are an old brick shaped cobblestone. Drivers there are insane!

We decided to break from shopping to see the old forts. El Morro is on the northwest point of the island of Puerto Rico – a very old (15-1600s) fort built to protect the Spanish from others sailing along with the trade winds from Africa & other countries. It is HUGE! There is such a grand space surrounding it – covered with grass, and then dropping of sharply to the ocean. A mile or two down is Fort Cristable. Both forts are connected by a huge city wall that is still in tact from the 1700s. Fort Cristable was meant to protect from any unfriendly visitors coming from inland. Both forts were very cool. We got to see dungeons and other interesting things. After walking around for quite some time – we all decided to go find some air conditioning. I must say – for a winter season, this was HOT… dripping hot, literally! We opted to eat at Café Puerto Rico – it was a few blocks from Fort Cristable. It was DELICIOUS! We had a variety of steaks, chicken in eggplant and chicken mixture in a bread/plantain bowl. I’ve decided that I really like Puerto Rican food – it’s good!

After lunch – we hit the last couple streets of shopping. We didn’t find any amazing deals, but had fun wandering the streets – in and out of shops. Dave & I stopped to get a caricature done – it was amusing. We headed back to get our luggage, and caught a taxi back to the ship – checked in & made our way on board. This ship is so big! Literally a floating hotel. We settled in – showered & checked everything out on our ship before our “safety emergency drill”. Then it was dinner time. Our food was very tasty & the table beautifully set. After dinner we went out on the top deck just in time to see the boat set sail. There was great latin music being played by the live band – it was great. Then we headed to another level of the ship to watch some entertainment. I only could hang there for a few minutes before the “motion” set in – I could feel a definite sway, so we grabbed the “motion” wrist bands & headed back to our room. Tomorrow is St. Thomas - I can’t wait!!