The Forts of San Juan . . .

Today was the first Sunday/home port day where I didn’t work for the shopping specialists in the afternoon. Because of the Super Bowl, our entire schedule has been switched around. We’re not even doing a boat drill today; we’re doing it tomorrow afternoon instead. Don’t mess with the sports fans I guess. It meant that the shopping & port seminar was cancelled, so I had nothing to promote. And, I had a full day to myself in San Juan!

I convinced Logan to go out with me again and we visited both of the fortresses in Old San Juan - El Morro and San Cristobal. While I’m generally quite the history buff, with forts, it’s the structures themselves that interest me. They’re just so massive and impressive and have great views of the surrounding area. I took a TON of photos today. And now finally understand the geography of San Juan, the old city, the waterfront, the bay, etc. It really hadn’t made much sense to me before.

While I continually compare San Juan to Quebec City and adore it here, I found my first disappointment . . . looking down on the city, it just doesn’t look picturesque at all. (Whereas Quebec does.) You have to stick to walking the streets for it to look pretty.

And walk did we ever! Lolo and I think we must have walked 3 or 4 miles in total. I’d had a late crew bar night before and a very interrupted sleep - a lot of phone calls today for some reason. So I was struggling. Logan and I kept joking we were losing the war.

The forts were impressive. The views of the island were beautiful. And then there were fun little discoveries along the way . . .

Like the huge open area leading up to El Moro where families and couples gathered to enjoy the sunny Sunday. (Couldn’t help but be reminded of Quebec City’s Plains of Abraham on Sundays!) But all over this area, everyone was flying kites. Only $2 from the vendors gets you a kite! Little kids everywhere tossing kites in the air. I couldn’t stop singing “Let’s Go Fly A Kite” from Mary Poppins.

There is about a mile long walk between the two forts, a sidewalk that winds along beside a street. You pass the National Gallery and a nuerobiology centre. But the interesting thing to see was the juxtaposition of the neighbourhoods. One side of the street are quaint houses, posh restaurants and the odd hotel. On the other side of the street, slightly lower down the hill is a neighbourhood that is rough and impoverished. Quite extreme.

Another interesting discovery - this crazy cemetary right ton the cliff’s edge, also outside of El Morro, lining the open park area. Huge stone statues & headstones & above-ground graves. It was impressive and eery to me - and I’m not one to be bothered by cemetaries. Something about it just creeped me out. But also, something about it made me think of the visual aesthetic of the Bar Luhrman directed film - William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet - the sort of Venice Beach appearance of the film. Strange.

One of the funniest things was the Triangle Staircase in El Morro. Such a big deal. The brochures only thing to say about them is how dangerous they can be. Warning signs at the doorway to them. Needless to say, Lolo and I feared for our lives. Somehow though, we lived to tell the tale of climbing the triangle staircase!

---

---