20241223 Monday, December 23, 2024 San Juan Puerto Rico
As we had breakfast in the buffet, we were relieved to see that the ship was docking at one of the piers in front of Old Town. Google search said that Princess, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean dock at the Pan American Cruise Ship Terminal, which is next to the airport and across the bay from Old Town San Juan and the historic forts and a 75 minute walking distance. We were berthed opposite the Viking Sea which was embarking passengers with their luggage. The Royal Caribbean Serenade of the Seas later docked nearby, also in front of Old Town.
We were able to walk and see the major sights in San Juan with little difficulty. Castillo San Cristóbal and Castillo San Felipe del Morro were both on hilltops, but the San Juan Islet does not have a lot of elevation, so walking across the width of the Island was not difficult. We did get in over 18,000 steps today. The Castillo San Cristóbal is a large and imposing structure with 4 levels of defenses complete with ramparts, moats, tunnels and ravelins or mini satellite forts.
El Morro, defending the harbor entrance was even larger with 6 levels, not including the light house. Both forts were initially classic Spanish fortresses of the 14th and 15th centuries. Over the years, there were changes and additions to adapt to technology and local needs.
San Juan was originally a walled city under strict Spanish rule which forced everyone on the Island to live within the city walls. However, over time, it became so overcrowded that a portion of the wall on the harbor side was torn down and the city was allowed to expand outside the foot print of the original city wall. Old Town San Juan is very much like Old Town Cartagena with a lot of Spanish character.
It was interesting to learn of the history of the interactions between the world powers of the time. Christopher Columbus pioneered the circular North Atlantic route created by a combination of the currents and trade winds of the North Atlantic, which naturally delivered sailing ships to Puerto Rico, which forms the gateway to the Caribbean from the Atlantic. The so-called Triangular Trade (Slaves, sugar and gold) is actually more of a circular trade.
The Spaniards had been the first and most successful in exploiting the treasures of the New World including gold and silver. They had created a very well established logistical network for getting treasures of the New World back to Spain, including an overland link through the Isthmus of Panama to deliver treasures from the west coasts of the Americas. The British and Dutch felt it was fair play to plunder these treasures from the Spaniards, thus the Buccaneers and Privateers preyed on the Spanish galleons. To the Spanish, the British and Dutch mariners were simply pirates. This, of course, leads to the question of who were the real pirates of Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean? History can get a bit messy in an age of imperialism, but history is generally told by the victors.
San Juan was very walkable and surprisingly clean. It also felt quite safe, at least during daylight hours within the fort and old town areas. It was one of the nicer ports in the Caribbean that we have visited, despite its depiction as a floating island of trash during last year’s Republican Party convention. Apparently, Trump now wants to trade Puerto Rico for Greenland. Such a horrible man. This in addition to suggestions of making Canada the 51st US state and taking back the Panama Canal this last month in the news headlines a month before even taking back the office of President. He and Putin both think they live in a new age of imperialism. Some people will never learn from history.
The weather was hot for us but it was tolerable for the most part because of a pleasant sea breeze, low humidity and partial high cloud cover.
Ben and Janet returned to the ship to take cooling showers and have lunch, while John and Price headed back into Old San Juan to do some culinary explorations, sampling authentic Puerto Rican food and beverage specialties. John has had some exposure to Puerto Rican culture because there is a large Puerto Rican community in Jersey City.
John and Price both made it back to the ship with plenty of time before the 6pm departure. The dining room menu was not particularly inspiring so we hit the buffet tonight instead. You have to balance the troubles of finding a table and getting service with the fabulous selection this buffet has to offer. They did feature a Brazilian theme tonight featuring Brazilian steakhouse meats and soup. But is it a little racist to confuse the Brazilians for the Puerto Ricans? The food was quite good, overeating is always a problem with dining in the buffet.
The Princess Theater was featuring a second show of the Magician which supposedly featured more sleight of hand tricks. Since these don’t translate well in a huge theater format, we chose to skip it and do a gameshow activity called the Sherlock mystery challenge. This turned out to be a venue for community theater players to show off their stage skills as they elicited 8 audience volunteers to act out parts from a script on stage depicting a Sherlock Holmes who-dun-it. To keep the audience involved, they sprinkled gaps in the script where they would play a snippet of music where the song title would be incorporated into the story. In the end, it was a bit lame, unless you were really into the community theater aspect. But they were pretty generous with coasters and sparkling wine bottles since they gave each of 3 teams that tied for highest scores on the song titles prizes. That wasn’t us tonight.
John left to go see the magician's show halfway through the mystery, as did about third of the rest of the audience. This was immediately followed by a superhero trivia that was marred by technical glitches, but there were clearly many Marvel Universe superhero savants in the audience because at least 3 teams tied with perfect scores. Again not including us. Price did stick it out until the glitches hit, then he retired as well.
Ben and Janet did make a pizza run before turning in for the night. It is interesting to see so many teens and pre-teens wandering around after 10PM unsupervised.
Tomorrow we arrive at St. Maarten, where we will get to drive a 4x4 UTV around and spend some time on the beach. Ben and Janet have been to St. Maarten several times before, and driving in an UTV is fun on this island. We hope John and Price will get a kick out of it as well.
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