Sunrise over San Juan.
Yes, we saw the sunrise – we were up well before dawn from a combination of docking noise at 3:45am, other miscellaneous noise in the early morning and our general travel day insomnia. Let’s get going!
We had our final breakfast in Chops – which was an absolute zoo. Because of immigration, inspections, what have you, they were totally understaffed. We didn’t care – we had hours to waste – but other weren’t so forgiving. People. Sigh. We intended to stay aboard until around 9:30 or 10:00, but ended up saying screw it, and got off well before 8:00 – with Diego using his “special” card to take us down to the gangway in our own personal elevator. We need that card for the duration of the cruise!
We whisked through customs and passport control, and then were in a cab before we even knew it. Crazy early, but we’d rather be walking around San Juan than cooling our heels on the ship – where they really wanted us gone.
The taxi driver was great, took us right into town, then apologized profusely when he had to leave us at the curb a block away from the hotel because of a downed tree! Old Town streets are so small and narrow, most (if not all) are one way, and the tree was blocking our way around to the hotel. Heck, we’re good – can’t argue with a tree….and what a tree it is! We thought the tree at Newport was bad. Ha!
Thus, hauling our bags down the street, we ended up at Villa Herrencia at 8:20. Yeah, we’re a little early! So early in fact, there is no one there and there is one of those Sunset Ridge Slage code lock doors. Uh oh. Fortunately, there is also a 24 hour phone number for assistance. We called, and the sweet girl, gave us the entry code. Big sigh of relief! We wandered in, shoved our luggage to a corner and began to look around. This is a gem of a hotel. It is an old convent, converted into 8 rooms with a reception room and dining room – complete with huge dining room table.
The entryway is covered, but the rooms all open off a small cobblestone courtyard, with stairs at the end leading up to the 2 upstairs suites and the terrace.
It’s amazing! There is an Asian family eating breakfast, and we finally go in and ask them about reception. They say there is no one there, and finally one of the breakfast ladies comes out and says reception will open at 10am. We ask if we can stow our luggage, and grabbing a map, we are off.
Our first stop is El Morro, the fortification overlooking San Juan bay. We wander up the narrow little cobblestone streets to the sloping drive, dodging bike riders (there must be a bike race today) and other walkers. At the top of the walk – all the doors are closed. We are looking for a bathroom by now, and there are signs, but nothing appears open. We snap a few pictures, sweating to death, walk toward the building that appears to be the bathrooms, but end up back at the top of the hill, figuring out plan B. We stop the landscaper cutting the grass, and he says everything is closed. Ok, closed for good? Closed because it is Sunday? Closed? Don’t know, we set out to explore the old town in search of bathrooms – and now coffee too!
There is a cafe in the Americanos Museum, so we head there. Closed. Hmmm…this is not going well. Cell service is spotty at best, so we are sort of navigating blind. Ed’s phone actually picks up some service and we find the Waffleria, which we successfully navigate to, and find it is open. Success! We peruse the menu, which has tons of great looking waffles – both savory and sweet. But we just want coffee and end up ordering expensive cappuccinos, which we enjoy, but they ain’t Italian, that’s for sure. Ah well, what to do? Talking to the adorable waiter, we find out that the Waffleria just reopened on Friday – so they are excited to be back at work – but only have a limited menu. That’s fine – at least they are open, we understand.
By the time we are served, and finish, it is after 10 and we can go back to the hotel. There we find Ricardo, who we have been communicating with since the hurricane, waiting for us. He is a doll as well – young, personable and efficient, he pre-checks us in, tells us (as we guessed) that our room isn’t ready, but gives us ideas of things to do while we wait. Today, there is a festival on Paseo de la Princesa celebrating the start of the holiday season, so we head down that way. As we are walking down Calle del Christo, the traffic is at a dead stop. At the end of the road, there are tons of security guys, and we’re wondering what’s going on – so we stop at the corner, and here comes the Governor, out for his late morning run – stopping traffic with the security detail running with him, and the SUV following. Cool – he’s nice and says Buenos Dias as he runs by.
After that excitement, we head down to the Princesa walkway and wander around all the different craft, food and poinsettia stalls. it’s interesting, but nothing much strikes our fancy. But it’s a lovely way to spend an hour or so wandering around the boulevard.
We check out the food trucks down by the water, but we’re hot and we want to sit somewhere with A/C and alcohol, which makes it perfect when we stumble upon Casita de Rones – House of Rums. Ok, so we don’t care about the rums, but it is open, there is blessed A/C and the bartender is great. We’re in! 11:30 be damned, we’re having wine (an excellent Sauv Blanc served in a margherita glass) and local beer – first was some light lager we can’t remember, the second though was Madalla light, which is the bartender’s favorite and ends up being ours as well!
After hanging out in the cool air a bit, and chatting up the the bartender about all the dried fruit they have (which they dry right there at the bar in a dehydrator and use in their special rum cocktails), he gave us some dried pineapple to try – which was awesome, and then we ended up ordering the fried Mahi bites (again, a bartender favorite) and the Tripleta sandwich for lunch. We had seen a bunch of food carts/trucks with Tripleta, but didn’t know what they were. Turns out it is a delectable sandwich (or wrap) filled with chicken, pulled pork and ham. Absolutely yummy.
After another round of drinks, the owner starts chatting with us and asking about our meal. We tell him, truthfully, we loved it – especially the Tripleta – which starts a riff on the bartender. They just changed the sandwich today to be in a bun, because traditionally it is in a wrap, but it is “too hard to handle.” the bartender doesn’t like the bun, he wants it back in the wrap. Sorry –we’re weighing in on the bun!
We’ve finally had enough fun, and venture back out in the heat and humidity for the hotel. We thought about stopping at the cute little bar in the alley by the Pigeon park (I’ll get to that later), but the skies are threatening and we don’t want to get caught in a deluge, so we go directly to the hotel. Where, of course, our room is still not ready. But we’re cool, we’re dry (it has started to pour) and we have wifi. We’re all set.
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