San Juan, Puerto Rico
Day 4 San Juan. This is what Mary and I were waiting
for. I am happy to say we were not disappointed. In fact the visit exceeded our
expectations. I awoke early (6 am). I went to the Lido deck for coffee and then
to the deck . I could see PR in the distance. Went and got Mary. A little later
I
came
back with my camera just in time to see Morro castle in the near distance. What
a truly awesome sight! Took a lot of pictures as we cruised into San Juan
Harbor. The Explorer of the Seas was already in dock. What a monster ship! At
142,000 tons (before first buffet) it towered over our little Maasdam (55,450 tons).
The Explorer of the Seas has a small airfield that can accommodate most jet airliners, as
well as a bus system to get around the ship. After docking and customs were complete (around 9) we decided to
do a self guided tour of Old San Juan. Thanks to prior research on the Internet
we were ready to go. Walking around I heard a mixture of English and Spanish.
Saw Puerto Rican flags everywhere. Thought I was back in Miami. We headed towards Morro castle located at the northwest
part of OSJ. It was a hot and muggy day but the sun was out and not a cloud
in the sky. As we walked we noticed the splendor as well as the poverty
that is all big cities. We found our way to Morro easily. The fort was very
impressive! We paid
the $3 entrance fee and toured the fort on our own. Quite a bit of walking was
involved. Took many pictures with my new Minolta s404. We then proceeded to head
towards San Christobal located on the other side of OSJ. We could see San
Christobal from Morro so it wasn’t too far. We paid the $3 to enter San
Christobal and did the self tour routine.
History lesson: El
Morro was attacked by the Dutch and English whenever they got bored with
fighting each other. The French wanted to attack too but they got lost. They
ended up capturing La Isla de Nada
off the coast of Cuba instead. They sure were proud of that little island
with one coconut tree. San Juan was a major gateway to Spain. Ships
loaded with gold and other goodies would past through here. Big deal. The real
target was the Bacardi Rum Factory. The sailors didn't care about the loaded
ships. They wanted to get loaded themselves! A ship's
captain would give the order to attack the Castillo de San Felipe del Morro and
the sailors would reply "say WHAT?" After firing a few cannonballs and realizing
that their tiny rickety little wooden ships were no match for the 20' walls of CdSFdM
they would sail away to Half Moon Cay (pronounced KEY) to drink and bar-b-q. Or something like that. In
1732 give or take a hundred years the Dutch came up with a clever plan. They
would sail around Puerto Rico and attack Bacardi from the south, thus bypassing
CdSFdM. This would be a three hour detour, a three hour detour. The weather
starting getting rough, the tiny ships were tossed, if not for the courage of
the fearless crews, all would be lost. Fortunately the crews shipwrecked on a
deserted island and named it after their leader. The Spanish translation is La
Isla de Gilligan el Loco Cabeza. The famous Bacardi Bat symbol came from
this story. The locals thought the Dutch had "bats in the belfry." Imagine
what the English could have accomplished if they sailed up in the Explorer of
the Seas. Would have struck fear in the hearts of the Spanish for sure! Or maybe
the Spanish defenders would have sold the crew tours of the fort and city at
inflated prices. Who knows. Anyway, the sailors left their women at home. They
knew that if they brought the women they would have to stop at St Thomas and
shop. They would rather face El Morro and the Spanish.
Next we went in search of El Jibarito’s. I read on the
Internet that this was a good place to eat and served pastilles. After going
the roundabout route we finally found it. Mary says the pastilles were very
good. I had whole fried snapper which was excellent. Mary had four pastilles and
I of course had to have one, too. After this great lunch we went and did some
shopping. OSJ is not as touristy as Nassau or St Thomas. We returned the ship
and dropped off our goodies.
Off we were again to take a ferry to see the Bacardi plant.
After crossing we met some other people from the Maasdam and shared a taxi with
them. Sorry to say I was not impressed with the Bacardi tour. It was like a
Bacardi family ego trip/sales presentation. The prices of the products were
actually higher than at the duty free cruise port. Glad it was a free tour. We
then returned to the ship and purchased Bacardi at the port. After dumping this
off in the cabin we again returned to OSJ. It was around 7 PM and not much was
happening. Mary made a small purchase from a sidewalk vendor and we finally
returned to the ship for good. It had been a wonderful day and we didn’t want it
to end.
San Christobal from Maasdam
-
Although we walked from the ship to El Morro then to San Christobal, then up and
down OSJ we didn't run into a single street hustler. Very refreshing. Still, be
aware of your surroundings. Heard an unconfirmed story about a French tourist
with a camera wandering into the wrong neighborhood. Story goes he took a
picture of a drug deal. Dealers did not like it.
-
We took the advice of a previous trip report and took the ferry and taxi to
Bacardi. Round trip ferry was $1 each and round trip taxi was $4 each. Much less
than shore excursion. Bacardi tour is free. But more important was the
ability to take it when we wanted, not a pre-determined time.
-
Taxis were readily available. We choose to walk the entire OSJ as exercise.
Great way to lose those extra calories.
Plenty of OSJ pictures at
Webshots or 
Ports of call:
Nassau, Bahamas
St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands
Half Moon Cay, Bahamas
Return to main page