Port #1: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Current Location: Not sure, but we passed St. Lucia and Barbados this morning
Ship Time: 2245
Time at Home: 8:45pm

First of all, I will again apologize for posting this two full days after leaving San Juan. Hopefully, in the future, I'll have more time to go through photos and write after ports. The fact of the matter is, this is probably going to be the busiest semester of my life, and I'm only taking 12 credits! There's always something going on on the ship. There has yet to be a night where we haven't had a mandatory meeting of some kind. I think the problem is that I spend too much time chatting, and every meal generally lasts about an hour and a half.

Oh, and by the way, I still haven't figured out a way to access my e-mail on the ship, and I still haven't read any since I left. Hopefully that situation resolves itself in Brazil. Sorry.

Also, while I'm thinking of communication. My cabin number is 4017, and if you mail anything to me, you ought to include that. Anyway...

When I blog I tend to avoid writing in a manner that is reminiscent of a diary, but because I haven't posted so while, and because I know that at least my parents will read this whole thing, I did write summaries of the three days I spent in Puerto Rico. I'm glad I wrote them when I was still in Puerto Rico, because I haven't the time nor the energy to recollect everything right now. And for simplicity's sake, I'm just going to attach a couple pictures at the end of this post, instead of interspersed within it.


Day 1
Apparently getting up an hour before the ship docks is not enough time to see us come into port. By the time I'd moseyed on up to the dining hall for breakfast at 7:15am (we docked at 8), I could see a Puerto Rican fortress slowly crawling by the window. So I ate very quickly, and spent the remaining morning taking pictures, until we finally docked. Then I went on this city orientation walking tour that I'd signed up for, which was a complete waste of time. I kept running into people from the ship during our breaks, so I could have seen everything myself for free. Oh well. Then I got back to the ship with this guy and we decided to head back out and walk around some more, and so basically I just walked around for hours and hours. This guy, Matt, was a curious fellow to walk around the city with, because he always seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere, but mostly we just kind of walked in large, irregular circles all day. Then when we were boarding the ship in the evening he had vanished into thin air, and reappeared later that night all dressed up and heading out towards town, although he wasn't very clear at all about where he was going when I asked. A mysterious fellow, indeed. I think I like him.

At night my roommate and I found ourselves with nothing to do, because basically everyone on the ship had signed up for this Welcome Reception at local universities, which we wanted to go to as well, but we forget to buy tickets each of the three times we were told to buy tickets. Eventually I talked him into going to town with me to get a real Puerto Rican mojito, which I'd been very excited about. It was quite excellent, but overpriced. Evidently mojitos are actually Cuban, though, which I found out at the rum plant (more on that later), so I've made it a life goal to have a mojito in Havana.

Day 2
Captain Jeremy was over the loudspeaker:

...there will be a crew general emergency and lifeboat drill at 9:30, in ten minutes time. This does not concern passengers, it is for the crew only. Again, there will be a crew general emergency and lifeboat drill at 9:30, in ten minutes time...

I checked my watch. I checked my alarm clock. Then I frantically put on some clothes, ran to the nearest public square on the ship, and checked that clock. The Captain was right; 9:30 was in 10 minutes time. The problem, was that I was supposed to leave for a rainforest hike at 8 o'clock.

I calmly walked back into my cabin, and said to Rick, my cabinmate: "A word of advice. When setting your alarm clock, make sure you set it for AM, and not for PM." I myself had missed the miniscule P that pops up when the clock is set for PM. He kindly informed me that, "that sucks". I agreed, and crawled quietly back into bed, silently cursing Puerto Rico, myself, and the stupid 12-hour time system. This is why I wanted a clock that uses ship time, where PM doesn't exist. Most of all, though, I cursed my windowless, continuously pitch black inside cabin.

Inside cabins are great for falling asleep in, because there always pitch black. They're great for napping in, because they're always pitch black. However, because they're always pitch black, they really do SUCK for waking up in. But it was my fault, entirely. I forget how much I paid to go on that hike, but I really don't care to find out. Oh well. Better to learn this lesson early, on a day trip, and in what is probably the least interesting port we'll be in, rather than when I'm about to leave for several days at a time in a fascinating place.

So we went to the Bacardi plant instead, which made my day. We paid $7 to get there and back, the tour was free, and it included two free rum drinks. Plus, we filled out a questionnaire, and got tickets for another drink, so between the four of us I got to try all manners of Bacardi rum, including the Limited Reserve, which is only available at the plants. I loved it all, except the Bacardi Coco (coconut), because it's too strongly flavored. Then I got really sleepy.

Day 3
Most of this day was spent waiting in line for a tour of the Rio Camuy caves. The caves weren't at all what I expected, once we finally got inside, but they were still pretty awesome. I can't even think of a room big enough to compare this Cuava Clara cavern to. Not even a theater venue. It was enormous.

All right, so I forgot to write about Day 3 until just now, and really all I did was see the caves and walk around some more, so I'm not going to expound on that day anymore.

I've got quite a list accumulating of things I mean to write about, so check back in a few days.

Entering the San Juan port

The beautiful buildings of Old San Juan

Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag?)

Casa Bacardi
left to right: Mark, Kate, Rick (roommate), Me

Cuava Clara of the Rio Camuy Caves