Old San Juan

After a so-so lunch in a beautiful Oceanside restaurant (the food was underwhelming, but at least the service was slow – although the waiter was a good guy), we changed and hit the beach.

The red flag was up, which was, um, a red flag.  The warning notice said the currents were too strong and dangerous, so stay out of the water.  Maddy, Torie, and Toni went into the water anyhow, since there were no lifeguards.  Eventually a hotel employee monitoring the beach blew the whistle and waved them out of the water. 

After a bit, the four of us crossed the hotel property line to the beach where lots of people were in the water, either swimming or boogie boarding.  Many of the waves were huge, but the currents were fine.  None of us had to fight to stay in one place, and nobody bothered anyone at this public beach.  The condo building overlooking the beach was beat up – not sure if it was the wind, salty air, or damage from storms, but it was in bad need of reclamation.

Bodysurfing in, the huge wave I caught instead caught me, flipping me arse over teakettle so I rode in on my back and feet first.  Nice shot of water up the nose!

After a bit, we checked in to the now ready hotel rooms, changed, and cabbed it into Old San Juan.  Because of the crawling traffic on a Sunday, the cabbie only took us as far as Castle San Cristobal.  Luckily, it was open till 6pm even on Palm Sunday, so we walked around it and got lots of great photos, some of which will be posted here at a later date. 

We left via the upper gate, and followed the city walls.  I think we were able to walk up the hill to El Morro into the blazing sun at a faster rate than traffic was moving (that might be a slight exaggeration, but only slight!)

It was quite an amazing scene when we got to El Morro – the field was packed with a thousand people flying hundreds of kites, picnicking, kids running around.  This is what a park is supposed to be like.  El Morro sits on the spit of land that juts out into the ocean on one side and the bay on the other.  On one side, there is a bleached white cemetery hard by the ocean.  It’s got to be one of the most, if not the most, beautiful settings for a cemetery in all of North America.  After wandering around, taking it all in, and taking photos, we headed back toward Christopher Columbus square.

We hiked past the houses and stores – some were dive bars and crappy little shops, while others were high end restaurants and the finest stores – all crammed together in a very cool city.  There were street festivals going on throughout the city, and the sound of live bands could be heard emanating from various locales.

Even though it is small, walking the entirety of Old San Juan takes some doing.  We were heading for the Parrot Club restaurant, which I recalled being near Columbus Square (turns out it was just a couple of buildings up from the square).  So, as we walked the endless blocks of Fortelezza Street, several of our party were nervous that I didn’t know where we were going or what I was doing.  As they loudly remarked on that, Maddy muttered, “welcome to life with the Iron Tourist,” or something to that effect. 

I, of course, was triumphant when we got there.  Never go against a Bolger when travel is on the line.  The food was great as always.