March 21-San Juan

The crews of Christopher Columbus first sighted the island over 500 years ago, in 1493, when Juan Ponce de Leon arrived with 50 men. The Spanish empire began in 1540, with the completion of La Fortaleza. The fort, El Morro, was completed 51 years later to resist an attack from the British privateer Sir Francis Drake and it still stands today. When the war ended in 1898 and the Treaty of Paris was signed, Puerto Rico was ceded to the United States. In 1917, Congress granted Puerto Ricans American citizenship.

Today was a busy day. We got up at 7:00am to get ready for the day. People were everywhere coming and going. Today was the day where most people were checking out of the ship while we are staying on for another week! We planned a tour of the Old San Juan City and the Bacardi Distillery. We had a quick snack for breakfast and off we went on the tour bus. We toured the Fort San Felipe del Morro, San Cristobal (the towering fortress built by the Spanish between 1634 and 1771, and enjoyed the amazing views of San Juan Bay and coastline. We walked through the Ballaja Barracks, formerly a military barracks which now houses the Museum of the Americans. We took a tour of the Bacardi Distillery and enjoyed a couple of yummy cocktails. At the end of the tours we were supposed to be brought back to the ship but we had the bus driver leave us in Old San Juan to do some more exploring by ourselves. We walked up and down the cobblestone streets and shopped. Then we ate a wonderful lunch at a little restaurant called, “Lupis” which was a Mexican Sports Bar. When we were done we hailed a cab and had him bring us back to the ship where we checked back in for our second week of relaxation.

When we got back to our room I took off my shoes and realized why my legs were so sore…….my ankles are so swollen you can’t even see the bones. Mike says I have elephantitis now.  I wanted to go to the gym since I didn’t have time this morning but can’t seem to walk up there. Maybe tomorrow.

Mike took his usual afternoon nap and I watched a movie and worked on my blog. Then I had to go out and change over all of our internet minutes, keys, and excursion stuff for this week.

By the time we got our stuff together it was already 7:00pm so instead of going to the dining room for dinner we opted for a quick bite out by the pool and watched “Up” as the “Movie Under the Stars” movie tonight.

There is a different kind of feeling around us today……..lots of kids and younger people on the ship this week. We’ll see how it goes!

Until tomorrow.
Mike and Cathy