Sunday December 11, 2011
For the first time since arriving in Puerto Rico, I slept in late. It felt so good, and I think really helped me on my way to recovering from the bad sore throat I suffered through all week. Today was the day I gave up my suite and moved in with Mom and Gary. It was perfect since we would be out and about, and since they were on the ocean side of the hotel, I would no longer have to hear the parties until 5am. So all packed up, I moved my stuff into their room and then Gary, Mom, Shirley, and John headed down to the San Juan Marriott Resort to get some lunch and try and rent a car.
Lunch was great, tho a bit overpriced, and the view was awesome. The SJ Marriott has a much better beach than the La Concha Resort. Gary and John attempted to secure the car after lunch and it was then that I realized I missed the fact that the Aricebo Observatory was closed on Monday and Tuesday. That left us 15 minutes to get a car to make the drive out there. Turns out there were no rental cars available which meant no Gorn at the Aricebo Observatory photo. I was majorly bummed, but at least now I have something to see if I ever make it back to Puerto Rico.
We walked back to La Concha and worked with the reservation desk to get a car for tomorrow. This way, we can all drive out to the rainforest and possibly do some zipline action. So we could accomplish something today, we piled into a cab and headed to Old San Juan again to visit the two Forts that guard the city – Castillo San Cristobal and Castillo San Felipe del Morro (or “El Morro”), both which are part of the San Juan National Historic Site. Traffic was pretty heavy getting there. Mom decided to sit it out and read at the Entrance area to San Cristobal which was our first stop. Gary, Shirley, John, and I hiked over and under the fort and took tons of photos.
Following the outer wall, we headed over to El Morro. Along the way, we took photos of the historic Cemetario Maria Magdalena de Pazzis and the expansive park in front of El Morro. The park was going to host a Yanni concert the following week, and some of us were more excied than others. (I was in the ho-hum section). Gary and Mom decided to relax on a bench, and John, Shirley, and I headed into El Morro. It was $5 to visit both fortresses, and was well worth it. The lower levels of El Morro were full of great photo ops, and we all took full advantage. We spent about an hour wandering around before we all met back up at entrance to the park and then after a short walk, caught a cab back to our hotel. It was an arduous trek back as traffic was worse than when we arrived. I was completely zonked by the time we got back to the room.
We relaxed some more before heading out to Mike and Charlie’s pizza which was just down the street in the opposite direction than we had ventured all week. I think we were all suprised at how much nicer this section of the road was compared to the area between La Concha and the SJ Marriott. It took forever to get our pizza and it was good, but not exceptional. I enjoyed everyone’s company and it was a nice way to end a busy day.
After everyone had settled back into the hotel rooms, I did some strolling along the waterfront over to this lookout point of our cove. It was just past a full moon so I played with my camera a bit to try and get some good shots. Finally, I headed back to the room to call it a night. Can’t wait to go exploring tomorrow!
