Puerto Rico Day Two

Day Two was Good Friday, which could have been a bad thing but didn’t turn out to be much of an issue. I mean, Good Friday is never a bad thing, of course, but we were worried that everything would be closed up. We didn’t realize that we were going to be in Puerto Rico over Easter until after we’d already booked our tickets (heathens!) so we had to do some careful planning to ensure that there were things to do on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

Friday we woke up with the sun, which rises really early in Puerto Rico (they don't do daylight savings), and headed to Old San Juan. After the compulsory getting lost we finally found the town and the parking garage that our Lonely Planet suggested and ditched the car in favor of walking. We explored the town on foot a bit before heading to the fort at the far end of the island.


Hills! Warm weather! I have greatly missed all of these things as we have neither topography nor warmth in Chicago. D climbed all over the fort walls while I begged him to be careful and not get too close to the edge. I also took a bazillion pictures.


I was pleased to find that in San Juan they make doorways just the right size for me. This is a phenomenon that I've run in to all over Europe but this fort was old enough to also have teeny tiny entryways and tunnels.


After we'd sufficiently explored the fort and were about dead with heat exhaustion (D) and hunger (me) we wandered back into town and came upon a local institution, Bombanero, where we ordered in Spanish (!) and enjoyed the first of the many many pina coladas we consumed on this trip. Puerto Ricans are big into rum, which is something that I fully support.


We explored San Juan a bit more and then headed back to our apartment to change and hit up the beach. I did not get any pictures of us at the beach because I didn't want to risk bringing my camera and having it get wet and ruined, even if it's just a crappy point and shoot. I hear salt water and electronics don't get along. Besides, we were too busy playing in the water to take pictures. The waves at this beach were pretty powerful, and I kept getting smacked in the face while trying to ride them to shore. D let me ride on his shoulders like I used to do with my dad when I was a little girl. I'm sure I got heavy and that he was also getting smacked in the face with this warm, salty water, but he held me for as long as I wanted, this wonderful, loving, patient boyfriend of mine.

After we inadvertently ingested as much salt water as we could handle, we cleaned up and headed out for dinner. I tried ceviche for the first time and let me be the first to tell you that ceviche is delicious. It doesn't taste fishy (the one I tried was made with grouper instead of shrimp, which I am opposed to--it's a bottom feeder! ew!) but is instead citrus-y and delightfully refreshing. We walked around the hotel a bit, and then around San Juan some more. D had to physically restrain me from picking up and taking home one of the islands' many semi-feral cats. People put out food for them at night and they're everywhere, peeking out from dark doorways and under cars. Then we headed home in order to get up early for Saturday's adventure.