San Juan, Puerto Rico

 

Day 1: Slava and I got up really early to catch the ship pulling into San Juan harbor along with the sunrise. To see the sun rise up over Old San Juan was beautiful. At then entrance of the harbor stands El Morro, an almost 500 year old fort built to defend Puerto Rico from pirates and other invaders. Around 8:30am, shortly after the ship had docked, the governor of Puerto Rico boarded the ship and addressed the entire student body. He welcomed us to Puerto Rico and gave us some background on the island. Accompanying the governor was a rather large crew of cameramen, reporters, and photographers from all the news agencies on the island, including Univision and Telemundo. This was a first for Semester at Sea, to be greeted by the governor. We then had to wait our turns in going through immigration. Within the first couple hours of the morning I was able to use my cell phone to call my parents and Emily. It was a nice luxury to have normal cell service the three days we were here.

    After going through customs, a few of us made the 35 minute walk into old San Juan, walking along the coastline, what a sight. We passed fort San Cristobal and the capitol building (looked like a mini version of Congress in DC). We spent the morning walking around, checking out some shops. We got to El Morro and spent a good amount of time exploring the fort, the place is amazing and offers some great views. We met some other SASers for lunch at a local Puerto Rican restaurant where we tried some local food and it was great. Apparently this restaurant was the birthplace of the pina colada, so a couple of the people we were with tried those out. We then went to Pigeon Park where, who woulda guessed it, but there were a ton of pigeons. Some people went so far as to hold corn in their open hands and the thousands of pigeons engulfed these brave souls. I wasn't about to partake, though it was a pretty absurd sight. We then headed back to the ship because I was signed up for the Bioluminescent Bay trip that was to leave at 4:30pm.

    A Bioluminescent Bay is a natural phenomenon that takes place in only 6 places in the world, 3 of which are in Puerto Rico. We kayaked into the bay and noticed that our paddles begin glowing green in the water. Some people went swimming and their entire bodies glowed green. The trip was awesome.

    That night we wanted to go out and see some San Juan nightlife, however because there wasn't any on a Wednesday night, we ended up with the rest of SAS at Senor Frogs, so much for seeing some of the culture…..

 

Day 2: Short and simple: we went out to a beach called Ocean Park and rented some surf boards and attempted (key word attempted) to go surfing. It wasn't a successful endeavor. We hung out on the beach where I burnt my back quite badly in a strange pattern due to some not so thorough sun screen applying. We headed back to the ship around 2 and found that the McDonalds across the street from the ship had free internet, I took the time to upload the pics from my previous entry. I went out to Old San Juan again to get some souvenirs and came back for an early night.

 

Day 3: Our original intentions were to go to El Yunque (the rain forest) on our own, however we found out that doing so might not be the best idea because of unreliable public transportation. Instead, we filled some empty spots on the SAS trip to El Yunque and Luquillo Beach. Hiking in the rain forest was incredible; we got to go swimming at some waterfalls where the water was so clean and pure, just like the oxygen intense air in the whole forest. After a hike of probably 2 miles, we got on the busses and ate at a local restaurant. Once again the food was amazing; Puerto Ricans sure know how to cook. We then went off to Luquillo Beach, one of the best beaches on the island. In short, this place just looked like a post card: a sandy beach with palm trees and blue water, with the mountains of the rain forest in the background. It was beautiful. After a few hours we headed back to the ship. I took one last trip into Old San Juan for some last minute things and boarded the ship for good.

 

Overall, Puerto Rico was a great port, the people were very friendly and I think I crammed as much into three days as I could. Some of my Spanish began coming back to me as it has been stored deep inside my brain for about four years of not using it. Next up is seven days at sea enroute to Salvador, Brazil. In the middle of this we will be crossing the equator. That's all for now, sorry for the length.