Cruise: Day 5 (Part 2)

I was just reviewing my old entries and I realized I completely missed a picture on the Day 3 entry. It's one of my favorite pictures of the whole cruise...



OK, now on to the rest of San Juan...

Day 5, Wednesday, October 1: San Juan, Puerto Rico (Part 2)

Well, we survived our walk through the "ghetto" of San Juan and arrived safe and sound at the second fort, Castillo de San Cristobal. Soon after we entered, we ran into Steve and Freyja, which was a pleasant surprise. We chatted for a few minutes--they were about done with sightseeing and wanted to do some shopping, so I gave Freyja the shopping map I had gotten at the shopping seminar, since I didn't need it anymore.

Both forts had 3 flags flying over them--I recognized the US flag and the Puerto Rican flag, but couldn't figure out what the third one meant. A quick look at my guide to the fort told me it was the Cross of Burgundy, an old Spanish military flag.



Both forts offered excellent views of the ocean. I loved the way the waves were breaking on the rocks near the shore.



Tony took this picture of a cemetery.



From the highest level of the fort, we had a good view of our ship.



Tony, ever the daredevil, insisted on climbing into one of the openings and standing as close to the outside edge as possible. I took the first picture and then handed him the camera. He took the 2nd picture--see how it's a straight drop down? I walked away, telling him, "If you're going to fall, I don't want to see it."



I have to admit, though, this is a nice shot. I love the waves.



Tony wanted a picture of me in the same spot he'd been standing in, so we compromised and I sat, safely on the inside edge.



Then we decided to have a little fun with our pictures. We found this stack of cannonballs, so I decided to pretend I was trying to take one out, and Tony struck a meditative pose on the top of the pile.



Then we took a normal picture. I was still standing on the ledge of the cannonball pile, which is why you don't see the typical me-straining-to-fit-in-the-picture-and-Tony-leaning-down pose.



After we left the fort, we decided to slowly make our way to the pier, since it was getting close to the time we had to get back on. On our way, we saw this massive, disgusting caterpillar, and like the tourists we were, we took a picture (Tony stuck his hand next to it for scale).



There was a huge monument to Christopher Columbus not far from the fort.



We browsed through some local vendors, and then came across a shop called the Haitian Gallery, which featured (among other things) arts and crafts made in Haiti. Since we didn't think there would be any shopping opportunities in Labadee the next day (we were wrong, but more on that later), we took the chance to buy a few Haitian items, as well as other souvenirs. A couple stops at a few street vendors completed our purchases for the day.

Here's a shot of a few of our souvenirs from San Juan. The big black bag in the background is the one I got for free at Del Sol (and it made a perfect beach bag in Labadee). The 2 cups on the left were made in Haiti. The small picture frame is made from real leaves (but I can't remember what kind). The print is a sketch of del Morro--we decided that it would be a good idea to get a small print from each place we visited, thinking that's a better and more visible souvenir than trinkets that sit on a shelf (unfortunately, we thought of this after we'd been to St. Maarten). The pack of rings and the keychains are the color-changing things we bought at Del Sol.



Our last stop before getting back on the ship was a pay phone near the pier. We got to talk to Mom and Ari again. I had to ask Mom if our talking to Ari the day before had been a good thing, or a bad thing (in other words, did it make her cry and miss us more?). Mom said it was definitely a good thing--she said Ari was "beaming" afterwards and excitedly told Grampa about it when he got home that evening. Tony made a couple more phone calls, and then we joined the herd getting back on the ship.

As we waited in line to board, I said to Tony, "You know, all these people are probably all going to be heading straight for the Windjammer to eat lunch. What do you think about ordering room service for lunch? It wouldn't take any longer than waiting in line at the Windjammer, and then we can watch the ship leave port from our balcony." He agreed that that was a great idea, and as soon as we got back to the room, we placed our order.

While we waited, Tony was on the balcony, and he soon poked his head back into our room and hissed, "Hey, come out here!" He pointed down to the pier, and told me what he'd just seen. There was a fairly large group of Asian tourists getting back on the boat, and when they got to this one lady, they stopped her. Apparently, she tried to just rush past the ship's security, but they grabbed her and literally hauled her off the boat. By the time I got out there, they were in the midst of a heated discussion--lots of arm-waving and angry gestures, mostly from the Asian woman. She had a companion with her too--a man in a wheelchair--and what appeared to be a couple pieces of luggage. We couldn't hear a word since we were too far away, but we had fun speculating what might be going on. Border patrol was there as well, and a few minutes later, the 3 or 4 ship security guards got back on the ship, and moments later, the gangway was pulled back in and we took off. We watched as the border patrol escorted the woman and the man off the pier. We're still dying to know what happened there. Was she trying to sneak on the ship? Or was she a passenger who had lost her Sea Pass? But if so, why did she have luggage with her? Was she a passenger from another cruise ship who got left behind and thought she could just bum a ride with us? What on earth made her think she could take on several security guards? Or even sneak on a ship like this in the first place? I guess we'll never know.

And because we were being so nosy, we almost missed the room service delivery guy. After watching the scene for several minutes, it occurred to me that we probably wouldn't be able to hear a knock on our door from the balcony. I opened our door to check the hallway, and slightly startled the room service guy standint there, who smiled and told me he'd been knocking. Oops.

As we left port, we had an incredible view of the Puerto Rican coastline. Here's a good shot of La Forteleza.



Del Morro...



Another shot of del Morro... (and, in the water, our "escort" out of the port, fully equipped with a big ole' gun on the front)... I love the way the clouds are so perfectly centered behind the fort.



I love this coastline shot--the waves are amazing, and you can see all the colorful buildings (and also part of the 2nd fort, on the left).



I couldn't believe how quickly the island disappeared behind us...





After Puerto Rico was out of sight, and we were done our lunch, we decided to make it a lazy afternoon. We had done a LOT of walking in San Juan, and you know how being out in the sun just seems to drain your energy. Tony declared he was going to go get a soda, and I dozed off while he was gone. When he returned, he had Ben and Jerry's with him--the cone he'd gotten me was dripping all over the place. "Why didn't you just get it in a dish, silly?" I asked.

"Because I know you like it in a cone," he answered with a smile.

I ate the cone quickly, since it was such a gooey mess, and a little while later, we were both blissfully asleep in bed.

Tony set a wake-up call, and I'm pretty sure he answered it, but he must have fallen back asleep. When we woke up, it was much later than we had intended, and we both had to take showers (since we were sweaty and gross from all the walking in San Juan). And of course, it was formal night, too, so we had to look presentable. We raced through our showers, and somehow made it to dinner only about 10 minutes late.

We were so much better coordinated on the first formal night. And I know, I could have re-worn the same dress, but I didn't feel like it. And I didn't feel too bad for my less-than-formal outfit, because I quickly learned on this cruise that they don't really force people to abide by these "dress codes." There were plenty of people in jeans on "smart casual" nights, and plenty of people in just pants and nice blouses (like me) for formal night.



We had a great time at dinner--I don't remember what we talked about, but I know we all laughed a lot. We were so fortunate to have such great companions for dinner. I remember, before we left for the cruise, thinking how we could probably skip dinner once or twice--like if we didn't feel like getting dressed up, or we wanted to be lazy in the room. But we found ourselves looking forward to dinner each night, knowing we would miss our new friends if we skipped out.

As the meal ended, we all asked each other who was going to the show that evening, and it turned out that all of us were planning to. Nothing else was said, so we all went our separate ways. We returned to our room, got changed, chilled for a while, then headed out for the show. We decided to look around and see if we could find any of our tablemates, and to our delight, we saw Steve, Freyja, Kyle and Amy all sitting in a row, waving us down--they had saved us seats. We thought that was so sweet--especially since we hadn't all specifically planned to sit together (unless the 4 of them talked after Tony and I left dinner).

The show was excellent--it was a one-man show, featuring Paul Boland, the "Man of 1,000 Voices." I wasn't keeping count, but let's just say that I have never seen any one person tackle so many impressions, one right after the other, all packed into a less-than-one-hour show. He was fantastic, and he really knew how to play to the audience.

For his grand finale, he did an Elvis impersonation. He started singing to a lady in the audience and she reached out and grabbed at his hips as he gyrated in front of her. When she stood up, Steve and Freyja leaned over and hissed, "That's HER!" They had gone to a game show a few nights previous called "Love and Marriage"--basically the same idea as The Newlywed Game, but not strictly newlyweds. There was, of course, a honeymooning couple, then a couple who'd been married 18 years... and then Neil and Joan, married 57 years. According to Steve and Freyja, they really stole the show--they got every answer right, almost word-for-word sometimes, and they were witty, spirited, and hilarious. (They replayed the show on one of the many Royal Caribbean channels on the TV, and Tony and I had caught bits and pieces through the past couple days. Steve and Freyja were right--they were hysterical.) Anyway, once Joan started dancing with him, Paul Boland just went with it, and before we knew it, Paul Boland had her dancing for another guy a little further back in the audience. Then Paul Boland decided Neil was getting jealous, and had Neil get up and do a dance for that other man's girlfriend/wife. The audience was roaring, and it was the perfect end to an already-hilarious show. I almost felt bad for the people who were going to be catching the 11 PM show--without those same people in the audience, there was no way the ending could be that funny.

After the show, we walked Deck 12 for a little while, enjoying the fact that, now that we were going in the opposite direction, the wind was almost non-existent. We played ping-pong--I held my own through the first several points, and then somehow lost miserably.

A little after 11, we headed to the On Air Club for karaoke--not that we intended to sing, but we wanted to watch and listen. Kyle and Amy joined us. Tony kept bugging me to get up and sing (especially after a couple particularly awful people), but I said, "No way." It was a nice way to kill a little time--there was no one who was great, but most people were tolerable, and even the really bad ones were at least entertaining, for that reason alone.

Our towel animal that night was this stingray (with our pillow chocolates for eyes). Tony loved this one, because the mascot of his collegian (kind of like a fraternity) in college was a stingray.



Next entry... Labadee, Haiti!