San Juan

We have left St Martin… Our transit to San Juan takes us through the North Atlantic, away the protected passages through the Bahamas. It’s a bit rough, not too rough, but the ship is rocking, and I suspect some are suffering…

By morning it’s much calmer, broad, long swells of maybe 4 feet. The ship is still rocking, but no white caps, and a blue sky, a Caribbean blue sky, is showing through big fluffy clouds… We will see rain today, but today won’t be defined by rain.

We pass by El Morro, the fortress, a castle that guards and defines San Juan, enter the harbor and dock… then wait, and wait as U.S. Customs and Immigration inspects the ship, her documents, and calls for several passengers, presumably for “special attention”... It seems a bit overkill for a cruise ship that left a US port with those same passengers only 4 days before…

We had a bit of good news, really good news from an unexpected source… I was wearing a Google tee shirt… (Tina works for Google… Google only hires really smart people… Tina is really smart) So, someone saw the Google tee shirt and said something about the “news” and that I must be happy… The New York Times had an article saying that Google had given all employees (including the lovely Tina, no, the NY Times did not specifically say Tina, or Lovely Tina, but she is an employee and all by definition includes her) a raise, a 10% raise… A quick Google search confirmed the news… (how better to find news about Google than to Google it…) It is not everyone who finds out they got a raise by reading the NY Times, but for Tina it worked…

T. and I walk off the ship, through the throng of duty free liquor store sales people, onto the street with the taxi drivers and shore tour operators… “Tour of the City, $10.00, still some space” “tour of the City, $9.95” “Tour the rain forest”… Within a block we had escaped the port shuffle, then headed down the bay front towards El Morro… It was a pleasant walk… it wasn’t too hot, but it must have been close to 90 percent humidity… We find the “Casita” aka the “little yellow building”… Apparently, there are plans to open it as a gallery, but today it was locked up tight… but the first picture in our walking tour guide is of the Casita, and we found it… we saw it… but we didn’t get inside… renovation is apparently planned…

Having found the Casita we continued along the bay on the walking path… There were fountains, and art work, and a grand boulevard… The walking tour guide said we could see the Bacardi rum factory across the bay, but we were not sure, it looked a lot like a large power plant with lots of smoke stacks… Continuing on we soon found and passed through the City Gate… through the city wall, into the old city… We passed by several government buildings… I took photos… Tina pet the cats… this is a city of cats… lots of cats… Tina likes cats… (Their is a local organization that spays and neuters, vaccinates and feed the local feral cats… this town apparently likes cats)

We walked across the open area around the fort… it’s a very impressive approach…to the gate… through the gate… They charge admission, but I have a National Parks Annual Pass, a magic card, and Porto Rico, although an “exotic” Caribbean island, is part of the U.S., and El Morro is a U.S. National Park, operated by the National Park Service… so we get in free… Score one for the magic card. El Morro is a fierce fortress, more medieval castle than new world fort… there is a keep, a central fortified tower, with a chapel as all castles should have… there are walls, and since this castle is from the age of gun powder, cannon ports. It would be an easy place to defend, but not an easy place to attack…

Having toured the castle, we headed back into old San Juan, the area defined by the city wall, as this was a true walled city… once common in Europe, but not common in the new world… we are in search of historic sites, a beer or two, shopping, and beer… we are feeling the heat and humidity… We have maps… we both know how to read maps… we decide to head for the Casa Blanca… the white house… built for Ponce De Leon… although he died before he could move in, it is now a museum, but it was closed for renovation… We went in search of other (alternate?) wonderful things…

Continuing our wandering, we found the “Iglesia San Jose”, a famous local church… (it made the National Park Service’s map of significant sites… There were only 10 sites carefully marked in brown on the map, in English and Spanish…) but it to was closed for renovation… next door, on the square was the Museo Pablo Casals… (it didn’t make the NPS map) It to, sadly was closed, although this time there was no evidence of planned renovation…

Modern Old San Juan is a study in contrasts and conflicts… not the conflicts of fights, but the conflicts of senses… It is very much a Spanish Colonial city, a Caribbean tropical island city, with the colonial Spanish buildings, the blue brick streets… the language (knowing Spanish was not required, English is spoken universally, but knowing some Spanish made things easier)… and yet this is an American City… The U.S. National Park Service runs the historic forts… publishes a map of the city… the U.S. Postal service is delivering mail… Dollars are not just accepted, they are the official currency… and my cell phone works… I suspect there are conflicts that are not apparent to the casual visitor… Maybe it’s time to admit that there is a long term relationship and offer the population full statehood (assuming they want it.)

We forged on… we found one of the identified shopping streets (when on a cruise, you will be provided with information about shopping, where and who, and in many cases what you must buy to make your cruise vacation complete.) We found a store selling Ben & Jerry’s Ice cream… It wasn’t beer, but it was a close second… We were refreshed… Now refreshed, and on a shopping street, Tina proceeded to shop, not with gusto, but she shopped… We found a Tee Shirt… We liked said tee shirt… it’s goofy with an academic twist… we bought it for the daughter (who has said “no more tee shirts” sorry daughter) We found a café, really a bar (the store which sold us the tee shirt recommended it…) it had outdoor seating… we sat, and fulfilled the second goal, beer, cold beer… There seems to be only one local beer… a light beer… Medalia Light… We ordered two Medallia Lights… It was good… strangely while all information about the beer, the ingredients, the marketing pitch was in Spanish, the warning label, as required by U.S. law (Porto Rico is after all part of the U.S., and all Porto Ricans are U.S. citizens…) was in English…

Having drank, we continued our wandering… we found the cathedral, it was undergoing renovation, but was open… things were looking up… we didn’t stop to go inside… We continued our wanderings… We found the Plaza de Armas… every major city with a Spanish heritage in the new world has a Plaza de Armas… This one had a Wendy’s, a Mashall’s and a Starbucks… We asked a little old lady where to eat… She looked at an article we had printed out from the New York Times (the NY Times had an article saying Tina got a raise…) about where to eat in San Juan… she was talking about buses and transfers and long and complicated trips… She made a suggestion about a local place… El Jibarito, with vague directions… We found it… others on the street thought it was a good choice…

It was a wonderful neighborhood hole in the wall… in a good way… It is called La Fonda El Jibarito, locally known as El Jibarito… we received menus… we asked the waitress questions about what we should order… She told us what to eat… we did good… first there were pastiles, banana and masa around pork, like a tamale, fried… I had roasted pork, Tina cube steak with onions.. both with rice and beans, and an order of mofongo to share… How can you visit San Juan and not order mofongo? It may be their national dish… it consists of plantains (aka bananas, just not the yellow things from the supermarket) mashed with garlic and other good things… fried, with a garlic sauce… we also ordered beer, the local beer, Medalia Light… We ate until we could eat no more… It was good…

We were fast fulfilling all of our goals... we stumbled out onto the street… We headed aimlessly… we discovered that our wanderings had brought us to the other significant fort guarding the city… Castillo San Cristobal… As a fortification, the Castillo may be more impressive than El Morro… but it lacks El Morro’s dramatic location facing the sea, guarding the harbor… instead, the Castillo is protecting San Juan from land attacks… Like El Morro, it has layers of walls, gate houses, a chapel, and would, and was a significant defensive position… We explored… as we reached the top, we could look down on the Nieuw Amsterdam, docked about 5 blocks away…

We explored, then made our way back to the ship, our ship… boarded and relaxed… The ship left port just before 8:00, as we went to dinner… now, some hours later, we are at sea again… smoother now… but at sea, with the occasional roll, and the noise that a ship makes as she makes her way through the sea…

Tomorrow we visit San Martin… (their are alternate spellings depending on your political allegiance…) The island is half Dutch, half French, each with their own “style”… We will be landing on the more conservative Dutch side… We don’t really have a plan… we have been here before and there is nothing we must see… but there are possibilities… there is a beach where airplanes pass directly overhead while landing at the island’s one airport… they pass so low that you can feel the jet blast… On the French side is Orient Beach… known for its nudity… the problem with Orient Beach, is that most of the beach goers tomorrow will be my fellow cruise passengers… This is a group which is generally older… and has not wanted for food… Here on the cruise many are eating 7 and 8 times a day… I have seen them do this… Chronological experience and large quantities of food are not a good recipe for a “Beach Body”… In short there are not many of them I would like to see naked… of course I am not sure I would want to see myself naked… I after all am a cruise ship passenger…

Tina and I will likely go ashore and watch airplanes land… and shop… there is information about shopping available… and find beer…