Old San Juan, February 2017

My wife and I took our first cruise, in this case to the Caribbean, in February.   We went early and stayed in Old San Juan an afternoon and full day before getting on the cruise ship the next day.   Unlike my wife, who had researched the place, I had modest expectations for Puerto Rico.

I wasn't impressed at first.   We took a taxi from the airport to our hotel on this tiny one-way street, then realized that all the streets in Old San Juan were like this.  In fact this was a lively main drag.

It was well below freezing when we left Minnesota earlier in the day so the lushness and warmth was a treat.   I captured this hummingbird working a small tree.

Despite being half dead from getting up to catch our plane at 3 a.m. and the long enough flight afterwards, we walked around the city the afternoon we arrived anyway.  We stopped at this tiny park overlooking the harbor.

We had several small showers at the park - note the rainbow.

We took refuge across the street from the park under an awning during another shower.

We had a good meal on a rooftop restaurant of the building housing our hotel with a fine view of nearby buildings.   My poor exhausted wife, along with me, is about eat a well-known plantain offering which we thought was interesting.

There was a fine view of our street from the restaurant near dusk.

The next day there were the two old forts in Old San Juan to tour, the big fort and the "little" fort.   This is a small piece of the big fort which is truly gigantic with a large field inside it.

Both forts were on hills with fine views off of all sides, this one looking south.

Now we're looking north to what I'm informally calling the little fort.   We ended up walking this street to the other fort; it wasn't that far, we needed our exercise, and we were too cheap to take a cab.

A couple of tourists (us) had or picture taken from an upper wall of the big fort, another view looking north.

The little fort had a large lawn, now a place for picnics and flying kites, but formally a killing field during colonial powers' battles.   Again, the views from this lawn and the fort itself were beautiful.

The front gate of the small fort was a lively place given the few entrances.

The fort had what once were tiny barracks and shops built into it.

We wore ourselves out with all the stairs in the two forts.   This is on the sea side looking up into the fort.

These windows undoubtedly had legitimate military uses in their heyday but now make fine observation points for tourists.

There were kites for sale and kids using them.

We trundled back to our hotel's street, foot weary but having seen all sorts of stuff.

I really appreciated sitting at a small sidewalk cafe, the food and fruit juice welcoming.

We had enough energy left to walk over toward the harbor after dark.

We walked more in the morning before boarding our ship.  The roots flowing out of a fig tree near the shore of the channel leading into San Juan's harbor was awfully exotic for us Minnesotans..

I've always thought that pelicans were quite the birds.

We sat down on a bench to enjoy tropical fruit sherbet - not shown - that is sold by street vendors all over town.  This charming park was uphill from an entrance through the fortified wall along the harbor.

We overdid the walking and sight-seeing but Old San Juan was genuinely charming.   Coming to the cruise early paid off.