PapaMarshall

Day 2 – 1/3/2022 – San Juan

When last we heard from our intrepid explorers they had poured themselves into bed in the wee small hours of the morning.

Before we retired we hung a room service breakfast order on our door with a requested delivery time of 9:00. Room service was important for this meal because we were quarantined in our cabin until our late night spit test had returned a negative result.

Of course, we got the call at 8:00 releasing us from quarantine but at that point returning to sleep was not going to happen. So we got up, spit (yes, we had just done it 6 hours earlier, but thems the rules) and got ready for the arrival of…

Breakfast on the balcony

Following breakfast and a bit of catching up on the Viking Daily Cheryl decided it was time for a nap. I worked a bit on the BLOG while her nap was interrupted by the Cabin Attendant stopping by to introduce himself, phone calls, and such. Finally we both gave up and headed out to tour the ship. This is obviously a photo-intensive venture, so I’ll break it up into sections and post them separately from the daily news.

The last stop on our tour was the “World Cafe” – Viking’s version of the cafeteria. It being lunch time we gave it a try.

Swordfish was excellent, but the green pea risoto was amazing!

After lunch we headed back to the room to get ready for our afternoon excursion – a walking tour of old San Juan. I won’t bore you with lots of photos of brilliantly painted building fronts, but here are a few photos of other things to bore you with:

Our tour guide was in his 80’s. This was his second tour of the day. He’s done this twice a day for 15 years. He was a bit old, a bit crotchity, a bit funny.
Monument to Christopher Columbus
House-front honoring the 3 kings (of orientar)
Statue of Honest Abe in front of the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School (former army barracks). Note that Abe appears to be looking to the left. Some time ago someone knocked his head off. When they cemented it back on they got it crooked.
The yellow insert is the narrowest house in the western hemisphere.
This is the last remaining gate from the original city wall.
Here’s a section of the wall complete with guard box. There are round projections like this along the whole length of the wall.
Most of the time we spent at the Castillo San Cristobal. I wanted to get a shot of Cheryl and me to match the Dave and Glenda pose at this sign, but…

Unfortunately we had an accident. One of our group fainted, fell, and was in pretty bad shape. We waited until the paramedics arrived and began rendering care before we continued on with the tour. It was a sad situation that put a damper on the day. We haven’t heard if she’s OK but at the time she was awake and alert and trying to deny care (I think her husband stepped in and overruled her.)

Eventually we made it back to the ship, to a shower, and a tall cool drink.
I had to throw this shot in. Notice the guy in the infinity pool at the back of the ship.
This is a view of Castillo San Felipe del Morro (El Morro) from the ramparts of Castillo San Cristobal.

In the original defenses of the city San Cristobal guarded the eastern approaches and El Morro (along with El Canuelo across the straight) guarded west and entrance to the harbor.

Passing El Morro as we sailed away – headed for tomorrow…

2 Comments

  1. I must know more about this very narrow house. What does the bed look like? What does the bathroom look like? The kitchen? Why wasn’t more time on your tour dedicated to this house? GO BACK!

    1. When we get past this stupid pandemic we can all take a trip to San Juan. Incidentally, the tourguide told us that told us that the original owner sold it to one of the neighbors who is trying to turn it into a museum.

Comments are closed.