Warning: This cruise post has SO many photos. I guess it always depends on where we go and what we do, but man there were a lot of pictures for this day. And since pictures are worth a thousand words, this post is basically a Brandon Sanderson book. You're welcome.
Tuesday brought us to Puerto Rico. We didn't have to be up quite as early so we had a nice breakfast in the dining room with a view of a parking lot right outside. It is seriously amazing how close the ships can dock at some ports.
Beth basically had service the whole cruise, which is great for her. Tyler and I aren't so lucky, but I turned on my data in Puerto Rico and I had service. Is it because PR is technically part of the US? Who knows, but it was nice to catch up on a few things and text the kids.
I love cruising with Beth. And you can see that she still has her favorite hat!
We got off the boat and found our group. This day we opted for an excursion. Excursions cost money, so sometimes it is nice to forego doing them, but the organization is nice and the boat won't leave without an excursion group, even if they are late. I totally nailed the bus picture. You can see about half of Tyler behind my hat.
Our excursion was going to see the Old Forts of San Juan. They have two fairly massive forts that are now tourist attractions but saw some action in the fifteenth through nineteenth centuries. Actually, don't ask me about dates, I'm awful at remembering things. We drove through Old San Juan to reach the first fort. The city is really beautiful. Our guide Marcos talked about the differences between being a state and a territory (or commonwealth) of the United States. They have their own elections, but on the same day that we do them. Puerto Rico is a huge melting pot and people from all over the world come to live there and become brothers. Being Puerto Rican makes you a family. They also don't allow you to change the outside of your house if you live in Old San Juan. They want it to look a certain way, so you can only change the interior.
Then we arrived at El Morro. This was the fortress against naval attack, so it was right on the coast. (Well, the fortress against land attack was also on the coast, so I'm not sure what the big difference was?) There was a large field you walked across. Marcos told us people come all the time and hang out on the lawns and fly kites. The trade winds are almost always blowing there and it felt very good since it was another hot day.
Once inside, we were able to go exploring on our own. We went down first to the battlements, or the area with the cannons looking out to sea. It was really cool the way it was built and you could walk down into the little guard towers and see what they would have seen.
It was such a gorgeous day. The Caribbean is the place to be, I'm telling you. (I'm probably saying this because it snowed yesterday here in Utah and I'm already sad.)
From that main battlement area, you could look down to large storage rooms. Really, they were huge. There were some signs around that gave you info about the area. I believe they used at least one of them as a kitchen, which is super cool.
There were cool tunnels everywhere. I'm sad they closed down the stairs leading down to the shore, but I can see why. We saw a room where there was still shrapnel in the wall, and another place that was used a powder magazine. The men who worked in there wore as little metal as possible in order to avoid sparks.
We also went up to the top. Both fortresses fly three flags. The US flag, the Puerto Rican flag, and a military flag, I believe. That is the one with the red X. Also, I learned that the Puerto Rican and Cuban flags are the inverse of each other.
Eventually, we had to make our way back to the bus. We stopped by a cool cemetery briefly and there were already people starting to bring their kites out. So cool.
The second fort was San Cristobal. It was built later and as I mentioned, was to protect against land attack. We learned some really neat stuff. Apparently, the whole fort was built to let rain water run into a huge cistern underneath. Then that water is used in times of emergencies. The most recent time was when Hurricane Fiona passed through just a couple weeks ago.
We went to the dungeon first. In one cell, they preserved drawings on the wall that a captain had done. Yes, there are three ships drawn but this fort was built after Columbus' time. But you can see how much light the prisoners didn't have.
We had a lot of fun on the upper ramparts of San Cristobal. They had cannonballs stacked and it looked so cool. There was even a loose one that Tyler managed to pick up. Trust me, that thing is HEAVY.
There was an amazing view from up there. You could see out over the city. And we had a great view of the cruise ships. We weren't the only ones there. Our boat was the small one! The Mardi Gras (also a Carnival ship) made our ship almost look like a steamboat.
I don't even know what you call the openings in the top. There were ledges you could walk out on. It looks like that is where you would fire cannons if you had them. But now they are great places to view the surroundings. Just don't walk to far. There is usually a steep drop at the end. Jonny found a huge iguana sunning himself on one of the ledges. We were worried Tyler might try to catch it. Tyler actually thought it was a pigeon. Scariest looking pigeon I've seen.
The iguanas can be found all over the island. We saw many on the lawn around El Morro. Marcos told us they are NOT native to the island. They were originally brought over as pets and got loose and are now nuisances to the people. I could have taken one home and no one would have cared. Except maybe our room steward...
You can see from one fort to the other. I like the more modern lookout posts which are basically slits in the wall.
This picture is trippy. The picture is not turned in the wrong direction. In fact, Tyler is standing on the wall, holding himself up.
We went all the way to the top level which was really nice and windy. Those trade winds bring lots of rain and Marcos told us Puerto Rico has the only tropical rain forest in the US. Check out the flags again. And Tyler even rang a bell up there. It was locked so he just tapped on it.
When our time was up, they dropped us off in the shopping district. Shopping is possibly one of my favorite activities. I like to find things for the kids. However, I totally got distracted by a pastry window display. If I were a superhero, baked goods would be my weakness. So we got some guava pastries and they were magical.
Then we shopped for a while and found lots of cute things. One place had hand painted hats. That's a cute idea and I should get Robyn to do one for me. I also saw lots of really cute jewelry, but it tended to be pricier than I wanted.
We walked all the way down to another square full of pigeons. Tyler didn't even try to catch one. Weird.
We ended up splitting away from the Hulse's. We wanted to go back to find something for one of the kids. We slowly wandered back to the ship and saw lots of fun things on the way.
The Hulse's on the other hand ended up being accosted by very drunk scantily-clad women who wanted pictures of themselves and complained that even though they were so good looking, people weren't paying them enough attention. I think Beth really had a good time. :)
We met back on board for a late lunch and bid farewell to Puerto Rico! Tyler got a picture of the fort as we sailed out. This is how it would look to marauding pirates.
For the record, Tyler liked to go on deck for almost every sail out of port. He never understood why we all didn't want to join him. I told him...someday we'll take the kids and one of them will want to stand on deck with you as we leave port.
In the evening, we caught the 80s show. It was actually really cool, if you ignore the super awkward Madonna song. But Take On Me, Rhythm Nation, and Smooth Criminal were my favorites and the whole show was well done. I took this picture of Erin, our cruise director, mainly because I liked her pants.
Jonny ended up escorting a lady to dinner. I'm not sure what happened, but all of a sudden Jonny had a lady on both arms. We thought it was funny enough, we took a picture from behind. :)
At dinner, a magician came to our table and did some fun tricks for us. He did a slight of hand trick with hearts for Jonny and Beth and then a card trick for me and Tyler. He wasn't too bad, but his tricks were a little predictable. Every night they come and take pictures of you at dinner. We don't ever plan on buying those pictures, so sometimes we remember to take one for ourselves.
There was really weird art on the walls of the hallways on our floor. We got used to the strangeness of it and then someone put a googly eye on one wall. It was excellent. I wish I had thought of it.
We played up on Lido deck in the evening. I learned that Beth does NOT play Mau. She does not appreciate that game in the least. But I loved it. I had a creepy smile rule that was funny because Jonny can't smile creepily without laughing. Also, on Lido, there are strange decorations as well. In this picture, look at the stuff behind Beth.
There were little blue balls in the white slats. But lots of the blue balls were missing, so I figured they must come out. While sitting at games, I worked on a loose one until it popped out. That is probably theft of some kind, but my creepy smile isn't incriminating at all.
One more questionable animal before leaving. What do you say? Koala? Sloth? Why can't I identify linens?
Phew, you made it. Makes you want to read Way of Kings, huh?
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