This is the beautiful port of San Juan, Puerto Rico! It is a cruise ship terminal built in the center of an already bustling town, the capital of the country. But the best thing I figured out today was that I was in a US Territory… that means I can make phone calls! It was hilarious to shock my best friend for a second into thinking that I was standing on her front porch step (I’m notorious for pulling off great surprises).
We docked in the middle of downtown San Juan this afternoon at 4 pm. Gordon and Boz and I had decided to go “looking for trouble” together. Well, trouble found us quicker than we expected. We didn’t even get past the gangway before trouble found us…
There’s a new port manning system put into place this weekend, and like any technology, it has premiered with a fair share of glitches. Gordon was supposedly on when he should have been off, and my ID had expired with my first contract, and had not automatically renewed with my extension. So here we are, like Keystone cops, bumbling around the gangway just trying to get off the dang ship.
But finally we managed to get out by about 4:30. After a few quick phone calls, we began the deliberations for a taxi. This is a much higher-stress situation than it should be. Unfortunately, the taxis are mini-vans, so they’ll only take you for $4/person if you have four or more people. So whilst trying to gather a few more friends from different departments, speaking different languages, all trying to go to the same place, we got into some tiffs. Gordon needed to go to a FedEx to drop off a package for work, the photogs wanted to go to the mall, one girl had to meet a friend by 6 pm, Boz was doing the smooth talking and translating, and I was just sort of along for the ride.
Long story short, we got to FedEx in the nick of time, the girl met her friend in plenty of time, the cab only cost us $2 extra, and Boz made sure everyone was copasetic before parted and agreed on a time to meet back.
So Boz and Gordon and I were shopping in a mall. Not ideally what I wanted to do in San Juan, (I’d rather be out soaking up the historical stuff) but I looked at the situation as an opportunity to search for the yellow formal dress I need to wear to my sister’s wedding in a few months.
At the end of the day, no dress. But Boz found a few great pairs of shorts, almost lost his sunglasses (recovered them) and did some talking about tanzanite with the girl from Tiffany & Co., I got a few new blouses for a real good price, and Gordon got a delectable pastry stuffed with chocolate. We also all gathered for coffee at Borders before we decided to head back to the ship.
The boys decided to get dressed for the evening (it had turned a bit cool and rainy after the sun went down) and to head back out on the town for an evening of dinner and carousing. I decided to stay back on the ship and make phone calls before I had to get ready for an evening performance in the Crow’s Nest.
All in all, I did enjoy my day in San Juan. The port itself is exquisite, built for embarkations and departures by Carnival CL. But I am most definitely looking forward to making plans ahead of time when we return back in three weeks, so I can see all the beautiful places, historical sites, and educational value that Puerto Rico has to offer.
(P.S. For those of you watching the dead blog, we did get some good ones at a big water fountain sculpture here; so surf on over and check ‘em out!)
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