I am starting a new mini-series called "Places I've Been." This is not a brag board about my "travels," but rather a way to document my experiences. A real world traveler would take one look at the little islands in the Caribbean that I have visited and laugh! Jeremy and I have visited these places together and hopefully we will take Ava with us one day! (If she is anything like her momma, she will be begging for a Caribbean vacation every year!)
My first trip "out of the country" was to Puerto Rico, on a Norwegian Cruise in 2006. The Norwegian Jewel had been built the previous year and was advertised as being the first "Panamax" cruise vessel (meaning it was too large to fit through the Panama Canal) All the online photos were beautiful and colorful and it seemed like a good fit for us. It also advertised having 12 restaurants on board along with Freestyle Dining (meaning that we would not have to sit at a table with strangers and we could eat whenever we wanted) It was a HUGE selling point!
Our first port of call on the itinerary was San Juan, Puerto Rico:
Our ship pulled into port in San Juan at about 10am. We were awake and got to sit on deck while our ship pulled in and docked. I will never forget the Caribbean music that a band was playing while we exited the boat. Puerto Rico was a neat place; a blend of old and new, colorful and bland, fast and slow, and metropolitan and country. Jeremy and I did not take a shore excursion. Instead, we caught a bus, rode around San Juan, went shopping, and walked back to the ship. It was a leisurely little stop and I enjoyed every second of it!
Our bus took us to a memorial on the coast of the city. I wish I could remember what the memorial was for. I guess we will have to go back so I can find out!
This was a beach that we stopped at. I loved that the city was built right along the coast. I thought it was so neat that a person could take a lunch break on the beach!
We visited the inside of the fort that greeted us as we docked in San Juan. This was a mausoleum inside the fort. I loved the architecture of the structure as well as the view of the ocean behind it.
Jeremy and I wandered the streets for a few hours before returning to our ship. The buildings were so colorful and unique! When we stood at the end of a street, all the buildings looked like stripes of different colors: gold, pale blue, pink, lilac, yellow, turquoise, etc. I love color, so it was pretty amazing to me!
We had a great time on the island of Puerto Rico. We have not been back, but hopefully one day we will take our children with us to re-visit some of these same places.
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