Our friends from Madison, David & Marilyn, flew down to visit us for a few days. They suggested that Jean and I spend a weekend with them in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on their way back north. And so we did. Jean had been to San Juan once before to meet with Bishop Martinez, and I had spent a night at the Casa de Playa on the way home from our first sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands.
Getting to San Juan is not difficult with a choice of air carriers, but we flew American Eagle to be with our friends. Marilyn had made reservations for us at the Radisson Ambassador Hotel in the Condado district; she'd been told that it was a "safe" neighborhood.
Cabs were plentiful and remarkably inexpensive -- I noted that none of them were using their meters. Perhaps the rules have changed? In any case we took a cab to the old town to tour the Castillio de San Christobal. The park service has done a very nice job opening almost all of the fort and its extensive grounds to tourists and there were numerous exhibits, although I do wish they'd had some explication of the altar painting in the chapel. By the time we left the fort, restaurants were closing for the after lunch --dinner transition, so we walked around for just a bit before catching a ride back to the hotel. We ate that night in a Cuban restaurant just down Ashford Avenue; the food was good but I was disappointed to discover that the bartender didn't know how to make a real daiquiri.
I was awake and up before everyone else -- no surprise there -- and so I went for a walk on the beach. (I met a flight attendant in the elevator on the way down; she didn't know we were even close to the beach; that says something about air travel, I think: How to see the world without really seeing anything!) Anyway, the Condado is an interesting district with a mixture of older homes, some with historic significance, small hotels and newer high rises, shops and hotels. There's a good sampling of Art Deco architecture and several small parks or plazas with a lot of sculpture. There seems to be quite a lot of government investment; the new construction is all high rise but you see smaller buildings and once gracious single family homes abandoned or being rehabbed. (We found at least one "challenge" for ourselves.) Jean didn't like it there, though -- too crowded and busy.
The hotels here rake the beaches at night like they do in Bermuda -- St. Croix should do the same even if it means more government jobs! I got chased off a breakwater by someone speaking Spanish way too fast for me, but he was polite and I understood what he wanted.
David and Marilyn danced the night away, and on Sunday we went back to the old town. We had to ride a trolley because our cab couldn't make it through some political rally going on. That gave us a chance to see the cruise ship docks and confirm our lack of interest in that form of travel. It was gray and drizzly. El Morro is not as big as San Christobal, but is positioned to defend the harbor entrance.
Both forts make ours here on St. Croix look pretty puny. Again the Park Service has done a nice job, and there were lots of people walking around, Puerto Ricans as well as tourists, despite the grey and rather damp weather.
Sunday night we wandered a little further and found a seafood restaurant with live music. Unfortunately the singer believed in too much amplification and that rather spoiled the ambiance. On the other hand, it kept Jean and David from arguing about politics too much. He and Marilyn had to leave early the next morning, so we said our goodnights and good-bye's early. Jean and I slept in, had breakfast, and walked around the Condado some more. We hoped to catch an earlier flight back to St. Croix, but it was cancelled and we ended up waiting several hours at the airport. Still, I was back in time to teach my first class of summer session at UVI, and Jean went to the kennel to pick up Edgar. All is back to "normal", if that word ever really applies in the Caribbean.