Blogs from San Juan, Puerto Rico, Central America Caribbean - page 4

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Have had a wonderful day exploring San Juan, breakfast (all included) early on the top floor of our hotel overlooking the areas around us, so beautiful!! Then off to the Old San Juan to explore, the Spanish architecture is just exquisite, with all the wrought iron balconies with flowers and creepers cascading over the edge, all the colourful homes etc and the people are so friendly even if we don't communicate in English, a smile gets us by. There is a lot to see - the island is 100mile x 35 mile so its not that big and there is a lot of history - invasion by the Dutch - they must have been very busy back when!! They also invaded Indonesia - they have a history everywhere. Blake and Suzi had to work in the ... read more
Barrachina Restaurant
Streets of Old Town


Friday morning, March 9th, we were walking out the door heading for the airport in Toluca, an hour and a half away, when the phone rang. Spirit airlines informed us that due to mechanical failure, our flight to Puerto Rico had been cancelled. We had two options: receive a credit for another flight with Spirit or fly with them on the following Tuesday to Puerto Rico. We responded that neither option was acceptable! We had a flight booked with American Airlines from PR to Saint Lucia on Sunday, and that we had to get to PR to make that flight. We were told we then had to go to the airport in Toluca to discuss the matter with the staff at the ticket counter. At 11:15 we were standing in line with other irate Spirit customers ... read more
Puerto Rico, between the 2 forts
Castillo del Morro
Serious Cannonballs


Like everyone else, I imagined PR to be just like the US (whatever that means). I’ve been told by folks who have been to PR that PR is very modern and at the same time underdeveloped.Well this is my opinion of San Juan, PR. To a certain extent, it can be compared to Miami. However, to me it is very comparable to any Caribbean country or the Caribbean coast of any Latin American country. Comparable in terms of the developed infrastructure in place for tourists, the vibe, the old town/colonial zone and so on. I stayed in the Old San Juan and I loved it. I am easily charmed by Old towns/Colonial zones. The architecture is amazing, people watching, shopping, good food, insightful museums and local attractions were all worthwhile. The architecture of the walls-castle-morro surrounding ... read more
Capitolio Beach
Photo 4
Photo 5


Yesterday morning started rather leisurely - it is vacation after all! I brewed coffee in the room, we made a rough plan for the day, and eventually moseyed on downstairs to ask a few questions at reception. 1) What are our options besides walking an hour to Old San Juan? 2) How do we get to the Bacardí rum factory and 3) Can we make a reservation at Pikayo, the hotel's famed restaurant? As it turned out, buses ran just up the street to Old San Juan for only $.75! The catch? There's no schedule! Thankfully one came within 20 minutes, and we much preferred the modern bus to sweating to death walking or a $15 cab ride. Once in town it was too late for breakfast and almost early enough to justify lunch, so since ... read more
Scandalous glass shower
Streets of Old San Juan
Lunch at El Jibarito

Central America Caribbean » Puerto Rico » San Juan February 23rd 2012

Our final full day started off late and slow on account of having gone out the night before. We thought it a perfect late morning to spend poolside, so we put on our suits and headed on down. We grabbed a table and ordered a couple frozen drinks - a marg and a piña colada- along with tostones (fried plantains) and little mofongos stuffed with chicken a la criolla and guacamole. Nothing like fried food and alcohol to get the day going! Afterwards we lay out in the sun for a while before heading back up to change and shower. Next stop was back to Old San Juan for the last time to clean up shop there. We waited some half an hour for the stupid bus, but still, I'd much rather wait than drown in ... read more
Mofonguitos
Plaza Colón
Santa Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery


It's certainly been a while, but saludos from Puerto Rico! Last night just before ten we headed to Logan where we found it deserted, the one perk to our red-eye. Only our flight and another to DR were still leaving that late. We were slightly delayed, but ended up landing around 4:45am after an uneventful flight during which we hardly caught a wink. We sat on the tarmac for quite some time, but once off the plane we quickly got our bags and headed to the taxi stand. At this point it was 530am, pitch black, and check-in was at 4pm... Getting to the hotel was quick, and we were greeted by a very nice concierge woman who helped us leave our bags, told us where we could freshen up, etc. We did a bit of ... read more
Walking El Morro
Fuerte San Felipe del Morro
Ceviche Lunch!


We wake up really tired in the morning and it has almost nothing to do with the late flight that we came in. Our car rental went ok, we navigated San Juan ok, we found the parking garage in Old San Juan relatively fast and we arrived at the hotel at about 1AM ready to go to sleep. So why didn't we sleep well at night? Well - it was Saturday night and it is party time in San Juan. Even as we walk to the hotel with our luggage we notice the people everywhere going to a club or just enjoying the night outside dressed for a night out. And unfortunately our hotel, Hotel Milano, is close to a nightclub which is blasting loud music all through the night which keeps us awake till almost ... read more


Awoke in San Juan and realized the ride thru paradise was over. Today (in the heat) we will endure the long lines in the cruise terminal, the long walks thru 3 airports, the comical banter with the customs guards to make it home. Our trip covered 2500 nautical miles, lots of great meals, buckets of Bombay Sapphire and hours at a slot mahcine. Every island had something different to offer and we didn't have enough time to see it all. I would think that a littler later in the season would be better to get slightly better weather. I am going to include my favourite pictures in this blog and look forward to the next trip.... read more
Prickly Pear
Raices
St. Lucia


The ship left the port of San Juan at 8:30 after dinner. Bars, bars, bars everywhere. Went to a Scotch tasting.. Macallans 18 yr old is wonderful, Highland Park is way to peaty for me. First day of cruise and it is one that is entirely at sea.. Very smooth ride but you can feel the ship moving. When sleeping it is just a gentle rocking motion. Elke's day at the spa... Wandering about looking for more bars... Heading ro the top deck, some sunset pictures and then dinner Barbados tomorrow.... read more
port side dekc 11
Summit
Stern




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