Old San Juan pt 1...

We flew into San Juan Puerto Rico on a Friday afternoon in early March 2011 aboard jetBlue. The leather seats and personal satellite televisions embedded in the seat backs really make for a nice trip. Turn on a movie and the time just flies by. I sat in a window seat on the way out and snapped a few photos out the window. The windows on the planes aren’t always in the best of shape, but this one was nice and clear. We were somewhere over the Bahamas chain when I snapped the following photo. Maybe someone familiar with the shape of the islands could tell me where this is. It was pretty and the photo doesn’t do it justice.

When we arrived, we wandered downstairs to baggage claim and waited for our luggage. It really wasn’t long a long wait, maybe 20 minutes tops before we grabbed our bags and stepped outside directly into a cab. A short 10 minutes later, we were pulling up to our hotel.

The Sheraton Old San Juan is a nice place for a pre cruise stay. The location can’t be beat. It has a casino, rooftop pool, outdoor restaurant area and an outdoor bar area right along the street. As you might imagine, it’s not the cheapest place in town and the casino didn’t yield a penny to us, but the rooms were nice and it was in an absolutely great location right near the port and in the heart of Old San Juan.

After we checked in, we decide to go for a walk. We ventured up the hill and ended up at Fort San Cristobal. There are two forts; San Cristobal was the closer one and El Morro was another mile down the road, yet in plain view from San Cristobal. The roads here are steep, narrow and many of them are made of cobblestone. Depending on your age and conditioning, a walk up to the fort can wear you out.

The fort is impressive. The rough surf, rugged coastline and high fort walls would make invading this place a tough task. I can’t imagine sailing on one of those old sweaty ships, then having to anchor and make your way to the beach, climb the cliffs and hills as you’re being shot at from one of the sentry boxes above.

The fort offers a lot of interesting photo opportunities.

Adjacent to the fort, down by the seashore, there’s also a very interesting cemetery. Seems odd for it to be so close to the seashore however. Rather than venturing down to it, we stood above and snapped a few photos.

After wandering around the fort, we made our way back toward our hotel. One the way, we stopped into this narrow little bar right off the sidewalk called the Brickhouse. It’s about a block behind our hotel and it bills itself as a sports bar. We had a drink and enjoyed listening to the locals chat about their day and interacting with them. They were following American basketball at the time we were there. Even though old and small, I found it to be friendly and enjoyable. I’d definitely go back.

It wasn’t long and we were sitting outside our hotel and enjoying a Medalla Light beer. If I remember right, they were two for one. We enjoyed sitting there watching the people and the traffic along the waterway and waited there until our friends showed up. We were all boarding a cruise ship the next afternoon for a 7 night vacation and an extra night in Old San Juan was an excellent way to start out the week. Once they arrived, we ventured out for a little while but made it an early evening.

The next morning, I walked out to the rooftop pool to see the cruise ships that had come into port that day. There were two of them sitting over at the dock across the bay disembarking passengers and getting ready for their next round of guests. One of them was ours; Serenade of the Seas. We were all starting to get anxious.

From the hotel rooftop pool area, I could also see a tall ship docked nearby our hotel. It was available for tours, but unfortunately we didn’t make it over there while it was open. I would have liked to board her and see what it looks like below deck. It’s hard to imagine crossing the ocean in such a thing after sailing on the large cruise ships of today.

Before going over to the terminal, we decided to go have breakfast at a local place called La Bombonera. The restaurant has been featured on the Rachael Ray $40 a day show. They are famous for their Mallorca sandwiches which are grilled and then sprinkled with confectioner’s sugar. I think everyone ordered one but me. I just had a traditional eggs, bacon and toast breakfast. The restaurant is nothing fancy and service was extremely slow, but everyone was happy with their food. Below is a photo of the façade with some of our friends that joined us on the cruise; Casey, Nick and Shannon.

We wandered around Old San Juan for the better part of the morning, once again walking by the forts and up and down the cobblestone streets. It wasn’t long however before the heat began to get to everyone and we decided to head back to the hotel and get ready to wander over to the ship. Part two, which I’ll post later, will tell our night after the cruise in San Juan.