OLD SAN JUAN
After returning from our cruise out of San Juan, we booked a room at the Old Sheraton, located right across from the cruise port. It was a very busy day and we checked our luggage in and went off exploring the city.
My goal was to walk along the ocean area and on the side of the wall, then cross under it by the gate. Now, my map/directions were packed away in my suitcase. I guess with all the planning I do, I still need some work on it because I did not factor in leaving that stuff out and having to wait for a room. I packed it thinking I would just get it out of the luggage once we were in our room and put our things down.
Oh well, I do study maps and google earth a lot before cruising, so hopefully I would be able to find it.
The city was full of fountains and it was HOT!!! It was not a good thing to be around that much water...I wanted to get in. It wasn't this hot while cruising around the Caribbean.
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We were already thirsty from the heat and Kendra stopped at a vendor who makes snow cones...basically from scratch. He would take this ice scraper and a block of ice and keep scraping it to make the ice that packs into the cone. He had a lot of flavors. It was only $1.00. He did not speak any English at all and we were giving hand signals and Kendra over paid him. She figured they would be at least $2.00 each. He was very honest and gave her the money back.
They hubby wanted something from another vendor and stopped here:
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I really wasn't sure which way to go. I know I needed to keep the water to my left. There was an area that you could turn down a street and go left. We stopped and ask several vendors, but none of them understood or spoke English.
Then when I seen "The Wall", I knew at least I was still on the right side of it (or should I say left).
We continued walking around and taking pictures of all of the neat architecture. Just look at the size of the wall!!!
This place is just full of temptation on a hot day! Why do they feel the need to torture me like this with all of these fountains???
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Now we were down by the water exploring...I have started to noticed that PR is loaded with super old and really weird trees everywhere I go (Banyan trees). At this point, we were super close to the water. I was almost wishing for a tidal wave to come along. The shade under the trees felt so good and I really didn't want to leave.
So do you see anything on the wall? Yea, I didn't either and the kids pointed it out to me...
This iguana was WAY up there. The size of this wall is MASSIVE...like you can't even begin to tell from the pictures just how tall this wall is. This iguana is pretty big too, but from the pictures, you really can't tell. He was coming down the wall. He was funny to watch. The hubby has a habit of being a commentator with animals and say what he claims they are thinking at any given moment. It really does get pretty funny. In his weird voice..."Why did I decided to do this today? It's too fricken hot for this crap. Is the food really better on this side? Whoops, that was slippery. This area looks safer...whoa whoa whoa...that was a close one".
It was time to head out into the sun and move along...
After looking at the map and seeing just how far we had to go to make it to the end, we decided to just cross over and go into the town, instead of continuing to walk along the water. It was just too hot and it appeared to be nothing but sun the rest of the way. So, we would have a better chance of finding "some" shade within the city. Did I mention how hot it was? Yea, it was HOT!
....And then I see this...Ugh. Hills and a fluffy girl or sun and a fluffy girl. I'm really not sure which was the best decision.
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So I'm going to show a set of pictures just roaming around the streets and looking at the beautiful buildings. The architecture is just amazing here and so colorful.
We wandered right into this...which was on my "to-do" list.
PIGEON PARK!!!
Of course Sakari screamed with excitement. She loves birds.
Kendra went to buy a bag of bird food...and then the birds would swarm you.
Right outside of Pigeon Park is Chapel of Christ the Savior (Capilla de Cristo)
And off we go again...
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PART 2: Time to eat!
So off to Senor Frogs we went, starved, hot and tired. Like always, it was an interesting place with a lot to look at.
The hubby and I ordered a chimichanga meal and some pop to drink. We waited and waited and the food arrived in about 45 minutes. When Kendra's food arrived, she really didn't like it AT ALL. Her description said it was pretty close to the taste of "vomit". Eek.
Our waitress did not once come back to check on us. I spent a lot of time looking around for her...I guess she was on break. The place was really not full at all...maybe 3 families eating and 2 people at the bar. Finally I spotted her and flagged her over. I told her I need a pop refill and told her Kendra really didn't like her meal. She ask if she wanted something else and Kendra ordered again.
We would wait and wait for our drinks to come back and I HAVE to have something to drink with my meal, to wash it down, or I get mad hiccups, which was starting. Finally the drinks came and we finished our meal. Kendra was still waiting on her food. (She ordered spaghetti...how long can it possibly take for them to make spaghetti???).
I flagged the waitress down again and ask for another drink since we were going to be waiting on Kendra now. She waited to bring the drinks out with Kendra's new meal, which she said was ok.
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We headed outside to take some pictures of the area and pictures with Mr Frog while we were waiting on Kendra to finish. Then a lady that was totally geeking on something came up to us and ask for money. Nope, we don't carry money on us. Can I get some food? Um, no sorry, we don't carry that on us either. She started flipping out, crying, talking out of her mind about she might as well just die, no one cares about her blah blah blah...it just went on and on. Then she'd all of a sudden forget the story and head for the next victim walking down the street. Over and over. Then she came by us again and said "I'm going in here to see if I can just have a piece of bread".
Now I see a lot of people standing around with signs back home, asking for money or food and saying they are homeless. But, this lady was ridiculous and just wouldn't take no for an answer and was totally hounding people and jumping in front of them.
This is a perfect description of what our waitress was...
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So back into Senor Frogs we went and obviously Kendra was done with her meal and had went to the restroom, but where are the kids??? I sat back down and noticed my drink was now at the table. I waited until I seen Kendra come back and she told me how the waitress was freaking out because she walked out to the table and we were all gone. Well, what do you know...she checked up on us. She didn't bother to take our dirty plates away or nothing. She was the worse waitress ever.
We paid our expensive bill $86 and noticed they charged for every single refill of pop we got. Geesh. I didn't realize they do that or I would have slowed down.
PART 3: Exploring the city in the afternoon.
It was a little later in the day and we decided to go out exploring again. We had hoped that the sun would not be as brutal on us now. I had really wanted to walk to El Morro, or at least the cemetery. I had read some things about the cemetery and found a few pictures online and it looked like an amazing place to explore and get pictures. However, since it was already around 6pm, we looked up the times they were open and we knew this was not going to happen this time around. So...we just decided to head out and go in the opposite direction that we went last time.
So let the fun begin...this street was lined with statues of the Presidents. I don't mean to offend anyone, it was all in good fun (and trust me, we were not the only ones coming up with things to do as this seem to be the "in" thing to do when people passed by). This entire area was so neat and plenty to see.
Heading back in the direction of the hotel and still discovering new things.
PART 4: Exploring and finding breakfast: Mallorca
I knew I had to get some type of Puerto Rican food in me while I was here and I wasn't leaving this lovely place until I found something. I remembered others on here talking about Mallorca. We put the address info in our phone GPS and off we went. Well, I remember passing this place yesterday, but didn't notice it at the time.
We sat down and I ordered some sugary goodness and the kids just ordered "normal" food.
The thing I did like about this place is that when you ordered pop, you got the entire can with a cup.
The place was pretty packed and I didn't want to be so obvious with taking pictures, so I didn't get a lot.
If this didn't perk me up, I don't know what would. It was yummy.
