This is the day we left Arecibo, which made me sad. Yeah, we were going to San Juan, with woring internet and chichi restaurants, but it meant saying goodbye to my
animal friends and Salitre. Once again, we took WAY too many pictures, but there's no good place
to break this set in half, so it's going to be a loooooooong page.
As usual, pics taken on Michelle or Karen's camera will have an M or K in front of them.
Firstly, I said goodbye to my little neighbor dog friend, who always seemed so lonely.
I had actually bought a box of dog treats for him and he didn't like them much, so we had leftovers. The night before we actually made arrangements with
Elizabeth from Salitre and she said we could drop the dog treats off with the kitchen staff. She would
make sure the local dogs (including the one I loved so much ^_^) got the dog treats. So between Elizabeth and me, my dog treats didn't go wasted. Yay Elizabeth!!
Michelle made sure to say goodbye to the horse across the street...
(M)
Goodbye awesome little house on the beach *sob*
This is a weird picture, I know, but it's a bit of graffiti I saw in San Juan. I just thought it was an awesome little piece of
impromptu art, and I wanted a copy, possibly so I could learn to draw it...
We headed over to El Canario by the Lagoon, but found out we couldn't check in yet. Here's a shot of the place anyways...
...more lobby.
Outside...
Everyone was hungry, so we decided to stop the first place we found that seemed halfway decent. Turned out it was
a Sizzler. I was a little hesitant, but everyone else agreed, so I didn't make waves.
Luckily, since I was in NO mood for eating boring old American food while still on vacation, they actually had an area of the salad bar
set aside for Criollo food (traditional PR dishes). Between hitting pretty much ONLY the criollo area and having me a Medalla Light,
I was able to meet my high food standards.
Yes, I'm very picky.
Here's a movie of the view we had of one of the countless marinas in the area...
I also got a shot of Condado, which is a world famous beach that we were near. We didn't have time to go, but I wanted to remember it.
After this, we headed back and checked into our rooms. I did a quck bedbug check and decided all was cool.
We immediately pulled out our laptops and tried to make up a little for the weeklong
backlog of not having the internet we were promised in Arecibo.
See that little table there? That's where
I made this post!
I also made a quick movie of the view from our balcony.
If I was going to break up the page, this is where the break would go. This page doesn't seem long enough, though. So if you want a break yourself on looking
at these pictures, this is the time to take it. After this, we're taxiing in to Old San Juan.
Ready??
Here we go...
I actually took about 10 times as many pictures as I'm showing here, including several of a cruise ship in port, the streets blocked off due to some
bike race or something, and other neatnesses, but most didn't turn out okay. Here's one that did, though...
We debarked our taxi in Old San Juan and began shutterbugging our little touristey selves insensate.
A piragua cart. I wanted to get some. Don't remember now why I didn't...
This is what most of old San Juan looks like.
i really don't have an excuse for all these architecture shots, except that they were all different and all awesome. So if it's overload, I understand.
In any case, some architecture shots, so you know more of what old San Juan looks like.
That last shot is part of a big ol' plaza. There were a couple in old San Juan, and, as usual, statuary was present.
More plaza
shots. Those of you who have gotten to San Juan probably think this looks pretty familiar.
(M)
In the center of one plaza there was this big wooden pillar thing. I remember reading it and it's supposedly about the people of Puerto
Rico or something. I assumed it would be easy to find more info when I had the internet handy, but that's been full of fail. So here is
a big wooden post thingy.
(K)
El Morro was under re-construction, so it seems we couldn't have seen much of it even if we'd gotten there earlier. Here
are some pictures, though...
A native finding shelter under some of the nicer metalwork...
Speaking of nice metalwork, here's a shot Karen took. It's a metal plate on some building. It's cool, but I don't remember where it was. Regardless, check it out. As I've said before,
if you want to spend your life making curly bits of metal, go to Puerto Rico and never be hungry.
(K)
Martin and Karen pondering some odd public statuary...
Michelle taking a picture of odd public statuary.
...and more shots of the beauty that is old San Juan.
"It's kind of a quiet day, what do you want to do?"
"Oh, I don't know... why don't we take the domino board to old San Juan and play a game on the sidewalk?"
"That sounds swell!"
We were having a bit of trouble finding a cab to get back home with. In the meantime, though, we met some people who tried to help us who happened to have cute
little dogs. Of course, I have pictures of the dogs and not the people.
(M)
More generic gorgeous shots...
Check out this next shot. Little beach houses on the outside of the city wall of old San Juan. First, can you imagine the cost of a beach
house here? Second, can you imagine how awesome it must be to be able to walk out back and touch a piece of history? Thirdly,
can you imagine this area in a hurricane?? With the high water AND the water bouncing off the huge wall behind your place? The
location of these little homes is stunning on so many levels...
And as the sun went down, we got some nice silhouette shots as well...
(K)
(K)
Almost done now! Here is another good place to take a break.
Ready, yet?
Okay, here we go...
Karen had decided while we were in San Juan to take us all out to a nice restaurant, so she made reservations for us at Ajili Mojili.
Most of my outdoor shots of the place kind of bit. This is the best one. There are WAY better shots if you follow the link, though.
We got an appetizer tray with several different types of comida criollo on it. I'd tell you what each one was, but there's a fine
line between taking lots of pictures and taking pictures AND notes. Maybe if someone hired me for a travel magazine...
(K)
And here's all of us at dinner, which was very tasty. From left to right, Karen, Michelle, myself and Martin. It should be noted this
was the first place in all of Puerto Rico that I was able to find a mojito. Not only did they have them, they had them made with
coconut rum. I loved it, got two (Thanks, Karen!!), and have made several more at home since then.
On the short walk home, we passed a very nice lighted fountain...
Karen and Martin after a nice evening out about to head up in the elevator at El Canario.
I may have mentioned that Martin, Karen and I had made a habit of going out and having a drink on the terrace every night
before bed, back in Arecibo (Michelle usually watched TV). Since we still had balconies, we did it one last night here.
No pics, but it was a nice little end to the trip to toast a few things on a balcony on a balmy San Juan evening.
Comments as usual in my livejournal.
Coming up next? Tales of Airline Horror... AKA: NEVER fly American Airlines.
