Trip Update

I felt like a proper tourist yesterday morning. I made my way down to the restaurant the Normandie uses for breakfast. Having breakfast in the hotel restaurant is standard procedure during a holiday. The breakfast was continental which stunk. I like a hearty breakfast with lots of sausage, bacon, eggs, potatoes and a pastry or two. It'll keep me going all day. A Continental breakfast WON'T.

After breakfast, I waited about 15 minutes for someone to show up for the tour I'd signed up for. The tour was one of the main reasons I chose to stay 2 days in San Juan. I wanted to get to see Old San Juan and the Bacardi Distillery. I didn't know what to expect from the tour company RICO Suntours. To my surprise, a van pulled up and a guy called out my last name. I gave him my voucher and hopped in. There were 7 of us, all from the mainland U.S. Incredibly, all or most were from Maryland too. I remember one lady saying she lived in Bel Air which I've heard of.

We drove around old San Juan with our guide/driver pointing out buildings of note. Then, we parked and began the walking part of the tour. We walked along the old city wall to the only surviving city gate. We walked through and saw packed houses with cobblestone streets. The cobblestones were used as ballast on ships coming out to Puerto Rico and then abandoned. The city decided to take advantage of the situation and used them to pave their streets in older days.

Our tour guide took us to Il Convenuto which is a former convent that was converted into a wonderful hotel. He told us some of the history and pointed out things of note. Right across the street was the Cathedral of San Juan. It isn't a super ornate building but, it still had charm. It was neat visiting it. We continued to walk around the old city gradually making our way back to the van.

From there, we drove to San Cristobal Fort. It was 1 of 3 (I believe) forts that protected the city. The fort was huge and very impressive. It had a dungeon and thick walled barracks. It also had great views of the city. In the old days, it would've been the highest building in the city. It was fascinating to walk around and learn of its history. After that, we would drive to the Puerto Rican legislature.

Puerto Rico has it's own Senate and House of Representatives. There are 8 Senators and 30 or 40 Representatives. Politics are a lot more passionate in Puerto Rico. In the last election, over 70% of the population voted compared to around 35% in the mainland U.S. The building is impressive with 26 different kinds of marble. It also houses the Puerto Rican constitution which was adopted in 1950 something. It was a beautiful building.

Bacardi Rum is known worldwide. They have the number 1 brand in the U.S. One of the things they advertise is you can take a tour of their distillery in San Juan. You can and you can't. It turns out you get to see the outside of the distillery. You go to a presentation building where you learn the history of the company and how they make rum. After the presentation, a drive outside the distillery, bottling and administrative buildings, you come back to a pavilion where you get 2 free drinks made with Bacardi rum. I found the drinks to be small. There is also a building called Casa Bacardi where you can buy any kind of rum they make including their 151 rum which you can't take to the U.S. because it's highly FLAMMABLE. It even says that on the bottle. I bought a beach towel there as I needed one for my check dives Sunday.

After the distillery tour, our tour was over. Our wonderful guide drove us back to our respective hotels. My guide also tipped me that I wouldn't want to go into Old San Juan. There were going to be 4 cruise ship loads of tourists there. I decided to take his advice. I chilled out at my hotel room and waited for the cruise ships to depart. They finally started leaving around 10 p.m. To my astonishment, the Celebrity X ship left the Pan American pier going backwards. I can only guess that the ship is so big that it can't turn around in the harbor area. I thought that a bit of a trip. I was impressed by how fast the ships could move. I made the mistake of not checking on 1 of the cruise ship for about 20 minutes. When I checked on it again, it had departed the pier and was halfway out of the port.

The day ended up being really nice. Sunday March 9th, I'll get to do my check dives and check in to the cruise I'll be going on. Stay tuned for further updates. Cheers all!