San Juan

Fort Cristobal

Tuesday, March 23rd

The ship arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico this morning. San Juan is the capital and has a population of 1.6 million. The island is approximately 3,400 square miles. We started our tour in old San Juan and drove around the city. The driver pointed our many historical buildings and gave some history. We then crossed into modern San Juan and continued to the Bacardi Distillery. The tour was interesting and gave insite to the company history and why the “Bat” is the symbol on their labels. In the early warehouse, the wife saw fruit bats in the rafters and Bacardi was looking for a symbol for his rum and decided to use that. Bacardi started a distillery in San Juan in 1936 and moved to the current location in 1958. Bacardi is still family owned today and is one of the largest distillers in the world. After our tour was completed we went to the Hospitality Pavilion for a complimentary cocktail. We then returned to Old San Juan and took a tour of San Cristobal Fortress. The US Park System now manages this historical landmark. The fortress is built on San Cristobal hill and is the largest Spanish fortification in the New World. Started as early as 1539, the Spanish spent over 250 years fortifying this location. This fort was still in use by the US Military in World War II and was turned over to the park system in 1960. The fort had great vistas of the area and city below. After visiting the fort we continued in Old San Juan to walk around the city and sightsee. A brief stop was made at the San Juan Bautista Cathedral, where Ponce de Leon is buried. We stopped at a spice place, recommended by our tablemate, Glenn. We found some great spices and hot sauce to bring home. Almost forgot, Chris picked up her 5-carat sapphire that she had won from one of the port and shopping talks and found a pearl necklace to buy. There were a few other pearls bought as well. Old San Juan is a beautiful city with a lot of history.

We then headed back to the ship to cool off, another 90’s day. Then we were off to the farewell cocktail party before dinner. This was our third and final formal evening. Had a great meal and visit at the table with picture takings of the group and our waiters. We then went and watched Star Trek, “Movies Under The Stars”, the large outdoor screen by the Neptune Pool. It was a wonderful night.