Blogs from Puerto Rico, Central America Caribbean - page 2

A sunny day in San Juan. Breakfast of empanadas and coffee. Blogging at the pool. A nice swim. A hike to Old San Juan. Lots of chickens hanging out at the parks. Lunch at a nice place in Old San Juan. Then it was on to see Castillo San Cristobal and Castillo San Felipe del Morro. Blisters from the 8.7 mile hike. Weather was perfect with sun and ocean breeze and temperature 80 to 84 degrees. Rest and relaxation and dinner at the hotel tonight overlooking the ocean. Bus boy's name was "Ocean" too.... read more

The pandemic has done strange things to all of us. For me, it's made me lethargic at times, a little more guarded and inward. It's a weird feeling, all of my life I've been able to travel to remote places on the planet, interact openly, meet and hug people, feel like we were all connected. Suddenly, as a traveler, I wasn't able to travel everywhere, and some of the places that were open to travel had dismal COVID transmission numbers. Honestly, it made me hole up for awhile, but a wanderer can only be kept down for so long. In the fall of 2021, I thought, where is a place that has good vaccination numbers, where the consciousness and culture of taking the pandemic seriously is important? I've also been commuting back and forth to Miami ... read more

San Juan Puerto Rico They should put up a “Welcome Back, Jean and Cope” sign here. We have been to Puerto Rico many times and love this island. It has been sad to see the slow response to their needs after Hurricane Maria from the United States, but…despite this they are coming back beautiful and amazing as ever. Today we have booked a food walking tour (we were worried we wouldn’t have enough food on the ship, LOL), of Old Town San Juan through Tours by Locals. Jorge Montalvo is to meet us on the dock. What luck that we reached out to Jorge. He was the best guide ever! Personable, sense of humor, educated, perfect English and knows a lot about history. His Facebook page is @eltourguidePR if you’re heading his way. After meeting up ... read more

I slept though our arrival in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Neither Peter nor I heard the loud silence from engines being cut, distant shouts from dockside crew catching heavy lines to secure the ship, rubber-soled patter from customs, immigration, health department and Coast Guard officials boarding us to allow for entry into the US. Nowhere on our travels did the officers and crew have to experience such scrutiny than that from their own fellow countrymen. I’m glad we missed it, especially since we landed at 0345 (3:45am). Bureaucracy is enough to discourage anyone from working at sea these days. I rose before a gorgeous sunrise, our last, over Bahia de San Juan, where the cruise ships always land, and spent the morning taking videos and photos of all parts of the ship. While this might not ... read more

Yes I did quote a Lil Wayne verse for the title of this blog, you should hear me rap it on karaoke. That's a story for another time but today me and Alonzo are heading to the island of Culebra. Culebra is a small island east of Puerto Rico, you can either fly over there or catch the ferry from Fajardo Ferry Terminal. The first ferry leaves at 9am heading to Culebra, so that means we have to get my up early since it's about a hour drive from Isla Verde. I'm up early to get breakfast, I warned Alonzo the day before they we have to get up which he wasn't happy about. I walked down the street to pick up some food, I got us some chicken empanadas and juice before our adventure begins. ... read more