Blogs from Old San Juan, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Central America Caribbean - page 3

Arrived in San Juan in the early afternoon, a quick car ride from the airport. Got checked into the fabulous Hotel El Convento in the heart of the old city. Then, got out on foot to explore the old city squares, the cathedral, and the old Spanish forts guarding for ships from the Atlantic.... read more

This is why we love the east coast. Get on a plane at two in the morning and 3 hours later you are in paradise - Puerto Rico. First stop - SAN JUAN. To be more specific - historic OLD SAN JUAN. We drove straight here, because we have heard so many wonderful things. It was a Friday and everyone was running at 5am in the morning. Wow. We kind of just followed the runners and ended up at "the end of the city" guarded by the "GARITA'S" AT the FORTRESS. EL MORRO FORTRESS was used in defending the city many years ago. A beautiful fortress with views of the ocean and coastline as far as the eye can see. It was definitely quite the experience to just sit on the wall and watch the sun ... read more

We planned this Puerto Rico vacation about 8 months ago. We went all out since we wanted to do everthing to be first class. Once again we flew DELTA first class, it was Summer's first time flying first class, and she was very excited about this. we left LA at 5am, and got to San Juan at 10pm local time. The first 3 nights we stayed at the Marriott in Condado, Condado is actually the best beach in all of puerto rico, condado is next to Isla Verde, and Old San Juan. Condado was not what we were expecting, we felt lie we were back home, and we were not able to find real Puerto Rican here, then we found House of Orozco na dhtye did have rear puerto rican food. Condado is just like Vegas ... read more

Our 2 week group tour of Costa Rica gave us lots of wildlife spotting opportunities in the various national parks we visited including monkeys, sloths, iguanas and frogs. We visited the Sloth Sanctuary where the baby sloths were adorable! We spent Christmas and New Year in Costa Rica at the beach and enjoyed walks along the beaches watching the sunset and celebrating the holidays with champagne around the swimming pool or whilst relaxing in a hammock. Whilst here we had our most adrenaline producing (and at times terrifying for Andrew) experience of the trip in the form of extreme zip lining. (Why couldnt we stick to watching frogs?!) A total of 12 different zip lines across huge expanse of cloud forest, some as long as 1km at terrific speed, trying desperately not to brake too soon ... read more

DECEMBER 16 -- PACKING UP Today we leave, and there's lots to do. When we returned to the villa after sailing last night, I started packing while Jesse watched the little one. We wanted to be ready to leave right away in the morning so that we could have as much time as possible at Old San Juan before our flight left. In accordance with our lease agreement, we had to strip all the beds and leave the bedding in the laundry room. We also swept and made sure the fridge was empty -- that part wasn't hard. The teens had devoured most of the food already. I did still have a few snacks to bring with for the airport. After lugging our luggage downstairs, our next step was to get our rental car. Jesse and ... read more