San Juan, Puerto Rico (USA) — 2024

     After almost 5 sea days crossing the Atlantic from Cabo Verde we arrived in San Juan around mid day on May 8.  We have been here several times before, twice since we started this blog.  Our visit at the end of the 2018 world cruise can be see here:  https://baderjournal.com/2018/09/12/san-juan-puerto-rico-usa/ and our 2022 visit at the end of the Africa voyage can be seen here: https://baderjournal.com/2018/09/12/san-juan-puerto-rico-usa/ .  You can read and see much more about this port in those previous episodes.

     The sail in to the bay of San Juan past the mighty El Morro fortress guarding the entrance is a particularly good one.  Last time we were here we got up at the scheduled time to watch, but the Captain got us there early, before sunrise and before we got out of bed for the scheduled arrival time, and it was dark and very rainy anyway so there wouldn’t have been much of a view even if we had arrived at the right time.  But this visit was entirely different.  Our arrival was in the middle of a clear and beautiful day, despite a cloud cover (arrival scheduled for 3:00 PM, but we think we got there an hour or two before that).  We went up to the top deck to get the best views of El Morro off the port bow.

     As we approached toward the bay from the ocean side (left in the pictures) we had views of the other major fort in San Juan, called San Cristobal.  FYI, we visited San Cristobal in 2018 and El Morro in 2022, with many pictures.  Outside the walls down at sea level between the forts is a neighborhood called La Perla, a brightly painted shanty town left vulnerable to hostile ships as well as hurricanes, one of which caused a great deal of damage in 2017.  In the picture of it you can see the signature red funnel of a Carnival ship docked on the opposite side of San Juan peering over the steep hill on which San Juan is built.

     We rounded the edge of El Morro and sailed into the bay.  Among other things we sailed past La Puerta de San Juan, a gate to the city through the walls.  Built in 1635, it is 16 feet tall and bright red.  This was the main gate to the city, through which all important visitors entered.  A Latin inscription above the door translates as “Blessed is the one that comes in the name of God.”  We also passed Casa Blanca (White House), built in 1521 to house the city’s founder, Juan Ponce de Leon.  He died in Florida before it was completed, but his family lived there for more than 250 years.  This is the oldest house in San Juan.  Our pier was just at the bottom of the hill in Old San Juan, but we had a wide view of the interior of the bay beyond.  We had visited the Capilla del Cristo, next to the pigeon park, in 2022, but this time we had a view of it from the water side.  We tied up at the pier at the foot of the old town, allowing us to walk right into town from the ship without need for a shuttle, a much better location than the distant dock to which we were relegated in 2022.  From our veranda we had a view of The Wheel, a large Ferris wheel that we understand was installed only about three or four months before our arrival.

     Because we arrived late in the day there wasn’t time for any real sight-seeing or adventures, so our plan was to walk through the old town and return to the lovely restaurant and Anita’s gelato place that we enjoyed so much on our last visit in 2022.  This was our first stop in the USA, which meant that we had to pass through customs here, much easier than doing it in Florida with crowds, lines and baggage.  Before long we, along with Bill and Robert, were on our way.  Walking through the streets of old San Juan is really one of the best things to do here because they are lined with colonial style buildings painted in a variety of bright colors.

     Its a good thing we enjoy walking these streets because when we reached the restaurant we found that the entire street for several blocks had an electrical blackout for some reason.  So much for our original plans!  We walked on for some time looking for a restaurant that appealed.  We walked along the street on top of the hill, where we saw Ponce de Leon and the Plaza del Quintro Centenario (built in 1992 for the 5th centennial of Columbus’s first voyage), both of which we had visited in 2018.  We walked by one restaurant that had lobsters in the window.

     We ended up (finally) stopping into a restaurant called La Mallorquina for a very late lunch.  It is, we understand, the oldest restaurant in San Juan still in operation (although it changed hands and was closed for a few months for renovation about 10 years ago).  It dates back to 1848, when it was opened by immigrants from Palma de Mallorca (the restaurant’s name means “woman from Mallorca”) and it still features Spanish food along with Puerto Rican.  It was a very good choice, not only for its historical significance but also for its good food, very friendly staff and warm old fashioned ambience.

     When we left the restaurant we headed downhill back toward the ship.  We were almost there when Rick suddenly noticed that he didn’t have his jacket.  He had draped it over the chair in the restaurant and hadn’t noticed it there as we left.  So the two of us turned around and walked all the way back to the restaurant (mostly uphill).  When we arrived our waitress brought it right out to us; she had apparently been expecting us.  Not sure it would still have been there in some places we have been before.  So we turned around (again) and walked back to the ship.  Between the restaurant and the ship we passed an interesting building and an unusual palm tree shaped like a Japanese fan (we have seen these before but not often and this was a particularly nice one).

     So ends our day in Puerto Rico, our last stop on the way back to Ft Lauderdale where this voyage, our longest so far, began more than four months earlier.  It had many ups and downs, but the ups far outweighed the downs.  I wish we could leave you with one final spectacular sunset, but since it was well after dark before we sailed away that is not possible.  So instead, here is a picture of El Morro taken in the morning that shows what it would have looked like if we had sailed away during the day.