Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Tuesday, February 28, 2012 – San Juan, Puerto Rico – Partly Cloudy – 79F

Distance from Ft. Lauderdale to San Juan, Puerto Rico: 920 Nautical Miles

Before we get to San Juan, I am scheduled for my second presentation - “Cold Cases Solved” (10 AM).  I arrived about a half hour early and there were about 20 waiting for me.  The AV Tech didn’t get there for another 15 minutes so I chatted with some of the early birds.  The talk was very well attended – SRO plus many people sitting on the stairs.  This may have been the largest crowd yet – 200 plus.  Maybe one person left early and the applause at the end was loud and long.  Lots of positive feedback from both the audience and entertainment staff. 

We went to the Grand Epernay Dining Room for lunch (Tuna melt Panini) which took a little time but was pretty good.

]We were at lunch for the last sail in to San Juan but this time we were on the open deck to get a great view of the approach to San Juan.

Nearing Puerto Rico (Small)

Nearing San Juan (Starboard Side)

Nearing Puerto Rico 1 (Small)

Nearing San Juan (Port Side)

Nearing Puerto Rico 2 (Small) 

Fort San Felipe del Morro in the distance

Fort San Felipe Del Morro 1 (Small) 

Fort San Felipe Del Morro

Fort San Felipe Del Morro 4 (Small)

Fort San Felipe Del Morro (side view)

Sea fortification (Small) Sea fortification 2 (Small)

Additional Fortifications along the sea (pictures above)

Port in Sight Eurodam (Small) Port in Sight Eurodam 1 (Small)

Approaching the port of San Juan (two above)

Captain Gerry waving (Small)

Captain Gerry waves to us from the Crows Nest

Our plan today is simple – find a bank and get some cash and then gets some steps in walking the streets of Old San Juan.  Our first stop – as usual – is the statue of Cristobal Colon.  I was able to get a much better shot this time and even posed with the First Admiral (a great new addition to my talk on Columbus.

Cristobal Colon (Small) Cristobal Colon 1 (Small) Cristobal Colon and me (Small) 

Cristobal Colon Statue Relief (Small) 

Relief on Statue of Cristobal Colon

We continued our walk though Old San Juan, checking out the stores and various examples of colonial architecture.  We headed in a different direction that our last visit.  This took us to new places (at least for this trip) like the Plaza de Armas, complete with fountain and interesting sculptures.

Plaza de Armas (Small)

Fountain at the Plaza de Armas

Local Plaza de Armas (Small) Local Plaza de Armas 1 (Small)

Ellen posed with a local (statue) complete with a pigeon (also a statue) in the Plaza.  There were lots of actual pigeons as well.

Esperanza apparently runs a cafe on the side (joke…).

Cafe Esperanza (Small)

A little bit of a climb took us to an area we had visited before.  One of the other times we were here, we chatted with an artist, who was renovating his studio.  Today, we went for the view (below).

View from Fortification (Small)

A little park in the same area contained statues of strange animals – don’t know what they are but there are interesting (below).

Statue of X (Small) Statue of Y (Small)

The street just down from the animal statues looked like a rainforest complete with plush trees.

Residential Street Old San Juan (Small)

We eventually ran into another interesting statue commemorating the establishment of San Juan in 1524.  I am not sure about the symbolism (the Catholic Church is represented) but the work is fascinating (below).

Staue San Juan Dedication (Small)

After dinner in the Cafe (the sir was really good but a tad spicy), we caught Adam Trent’s show.  From the description in the Program, we thought it might be different but it was the show we last week.  I did get a better angle on his “angular man” trick (the legs appear fake and he may have hidden his legs behind the apparatus). 

Incredible twisting man pt 2 (Small)

In any event, he did his Metamorphosis Illusion again and his card tricks are great.  We may have figured out one of his tricks – he has an envelope with pictures and sheets with writing on it and he asked the audience to shout out a favorite breakfast cereal.  In both shows, the cereal was “Lucky Charms”.  Do I smell a plant in the audience?

We sat out of the deck after the show and watched the sail away (10 PM).

San Juan Sail Away Ft. San Feliipe (Small) 

Sail Away – San Juan

Seas are smooth – hope to get some sleep.

Pedometer: 9029 steps; 4.28 miles; 442 calories

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