Day 04 11/24/21 - San Juan, Puerto Rico

With a projected arrival time of 1pm, the first order of the day after breakfast was to assume a proper viewing position in the Crow's Nest to watch the sail in.  What's a proper position you ask?  It's at a small table with a beverage of choice and some peanuts.  The small tables are just behind the row of chairs at the window.  I was very content there updating yesterday's blog when two ladies came by looking for a seat.  So I offered them two of the chairs at my table.  They accepted and that led to interesting conversation for the next hour and a half about their heritage (born in Mexico but now living in Texas.  My wife joined the group and we enjoyed a most pleasant sail in.

 

Sailing into San Juan during the day is a very pretty sight.  First the historic fort El Moro comes into view and then increasing amounts of detail become apparent.  The little pilot boat made its appearance and deposited the local pilot.  He provides guidance to the ship personnel to sail it up up the narrow channel marked by the now familiar marker buoys.  We passed a very stealthy looking warship which I later identified as the USS Sioux City.  The cruise terminal is located next door to it and we smoothly and efficiently slid into our booth.

 

We gathered our things and exited the ship and found our tour group to attend a folkloric show which was a 4 minute bus ride from the port .  The show was excellent, and Juan Carlos Garcia is a 81 year old flamenco guitarist born in Spain who played on the Ed Sullivan show when he was a teenager.  Besides his guitar and flamenco dancing shows, he rescues stray dogs which are sent to the states for adoption.  We have friends who adopted one.  After the show our the driver would not let us walk back to the port, so we rode it back there and dropped some things and headed back out.  We ended up walking east and west and at the westernmost point we were asked by a local fellow what was the name of the stealthy looking ship.  Fortunately I had just looked it up on the internet and had the info.  That led to a 45 minute conversation about a wide range of topics.  It was a good time.

 

We walked back to the ship and enjoyed another terrific dinner in the Tamarind as the sun set and the ship prepared to leave.  After dinner we attended our first ever comedy show not on the Main Stage on a  ship, and Cathy Ladman was pretty funny and clean.  I tried to stay awake during the following Planet Earth II film and live concert, but failed miserably.  Fortunately I have seen it several times so it was no loss. There's something about a full belly, a dark room, and beautiful music.

 

Tomorrow, Thanksgiving,  is a sea day and the only thing on our schedule is a Mariner's awards event mid day.  But I'm sure we'll have a good day.



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