Puerto Rico

I finally had the opportunity this summer to visit the island of enchantment. It was something I had been wanted to do and and experience I will charish for many years. My friend and colleague Hilda, had a destination weeding and that destination became San Juan. I bought my tickets only a couple of weeks before the travel date. When I arrived there I was surprised that a tropical storm was hitting the island. To everyone's surprise, the storm wasn't the strong down pour everyone had expected. In fact, I walked the 45 minutes to Old San Juan and the 45 minutes back to my hotel. The picture opportunities weren't great given the cloudy disposition, but there was Beatle any tourist walking around which made it fun for me. I walked down a deserted Paseo de la princesa and along the fortificad wall. I was surprised at the amount of cats that were roaming the streets of Old San Juan and an aggressive black bird that would get as close to me head as he could and make a tap sound.

Several things surpriced me about San Juan. For one, San Juan haws very much culturally Latinamerican but had a fantastic infrastructure. The streets were padded with colorful blue bricks in the old city and the buildings were well conserved. You could find modern buildings in the adjoining neightbourhoods and a well kept highway system. Another thing that also fascinated me was the use of Spanish. Tourism no doubt is one of the main if not the main industry for the city. You can generally find most signs inmspanish and locals will speak to you fluently in Spanish. Their English is obviously not their native language, but you can code switch as much as you want with your taxi drivers. The only taxis I saw, were white vans. I am not so sure how they came to this norm (possibly the large groups of tourists) but I often felt weird traveling in van by myself. It was easier when you traveled with another 3 people. 

Later that evening I went to my friends wedding. It was a fascinating wedding with cigars, samba music and great people. I happened to meet some friends there and the next day was blessed with fantastic sunny weather so we hit the beach most of the day. The beaches are beautiful for being urban beaches and there you can find plenty of locals and yummy empanadas and of you chose the right location hot people and a bar tender that will bring you drinks right to your beach chair. 

The next day I had to fly out so we took a short trip to Old San Juan and visited the Castillo de San Cristóbal. The fort is a gigantic fortification employed in the defense of the city against pirate attacks and users as barracks and a prison back in colonial times. It was impressive to walk thought the portly lit cells and the spacious rooms. The inside of the building provided a cool relief from the sun outside and provided beautiful panoramic views of the city. 

I rushed to the airport only to find out that my flight was delayed by over an hour late and that spirit airles is possibly the worst airline to fly internationally. They argued that I couldn't travel internationally without a return ticket. So after waiting in line for over an hour, being told that my ticket couldn't be processed in their check in machines and choosing between paying $50 for a check in or $47 for a carry on... I bough a return ticket for my trip. Did I also mention they don't give you complementary snacks! Ends up being that their tickets aren't really cheap... They are just a horrible airline. 

Nonetheless PR was amazing and I hope I can go back and visit again soon. 

Castillo de San Cristóbal 

San Juan de Puerto Rico