San Juan, Puerto Rico – January 4

welcoming committee

Weather…23 degrees…downright chilly
comparatively speaking, rain, scattered downpours, bombastic thunderstorms

rainbow over the cemetery

San Juan, Puerto Rico is our 8th and last

so many options

port of call for this 18-day cruise, all of which were new to us. Being that we are in the US everyone on the ship is required to go through what is called a zero-count, face-to-to face immigration. This means that each and every person whether crew or passenger,

rum factory tour

American or foreigner, planning to go ashore or not MUST get off of the ship, go through immigration and WAIT until ALL people have done this and the ship is EMPTY. I’m glad we have a tour this morning and don’t have to find out how long this actually takes.

Originally, our tour was supposed to be at 8:30…

their oldest

early but civilized. Because of this zero-count business the meeting time was changed to 7:00!! Of course, the ship knew we would be going through this type of immigration at the first port into the US…I knew it so of course they knew. Getting up for 7 wasn’t pretty, but no big deal. As it turned out, immigration was a breeze – maybe (or maybe

morning cocktail!

not) because we were one of the very first to be processed. In all of our time entering countries via cruise ships the US and China are the only 2 to require face-to-face, on land immigration…interesting.

this is how he feels about rain

Here we were at approximately 7:30 raring to go to a rum factory! Not so fast…we meet with the group and with the guide who tells us we aren’t scheduled to depart until 8:30…

rum factory

shocker! No big deal, too bad it was raining. If it wasn’t raining, we could wander a bit, but I don’t feel like getting wet this early…that’ll have to wait until later. 

Once we are off, we are on small buses that can negotiate the small streets of old San Juan. The rum factory isn’t open until 9, so we cruise around the streets of old San
Juan while the guide tells stories and points out monuments and places of interest.

viejo San Juan

from the fort to another older fort

viejo San Juan

The Ron del Barrilito rum factory isn’t actually a distillery. They are a very small operation that buys their alcohol and then blends and ages it at the factory. They have 5 rums of varying quality, the highest
quality going for $750…we didn’t buy. We toured the factory, learned a bit of info and had a cocktail. We’ve been to many booze tours and this is by far the ‘fanciest’ included drink. It was basically a bar with an actual bar tender mixing from a menu of 10 cocktails. I expected there to be one rum punch for everyone – this was fantastic. I had a Cigar Fashioned
and Chris had a Mai Tai – both were delicious. These were some of the best cocktails we’ve had on this trip. I’ve been a bit disappointed with the ship cocktails, plentiful no doubt, but too sweet for my tastes. Of course, I could order more specifically, but I’ve just taken on the arduous task of exploring the menu in the hopes of finding one not so sweet. Often, I ‘settle’ on champagne…not bad for settling.

US, Puerto Rico, and Burgundy flags

We tried to do some shopping at the
factory, but their internet wasn’t working for taking payment and they didn’t take cash…oh, well. On the way to the bus (a 1-minute walk) the skys opened and it POURED. Despite sprinting, we were drenched!

If I didn’t know better and I do, because I’ve seen most of these people drinking on the ship, I’d say these were first time drinkers. On the bus people were giggling, laughing and not listening to the guide, it wasn’t a big deal, just weird.

one of the many roosters

The rain stopped as quickly as it started when we were back on the bus of course. I was praying that it would be done for, as our next stop was to San Cristobal fort in Old San Juan, forts aren’t particularly indoors. My prayers weren’t answered, but there was enough shelter that when the rain did come we were ok. We followed the guide around the fort and into the tunnels where he told some stories that were probably tall tales but entertaining, nonetheless.

San Cristobal fort

The rest of the tour was supposed to be wandering Old San Juan, but because of the rain, we headed back to the port. Back at the port the rain had stopped so we went for a wander. We found a place for a pizza and a glass of wine for lunch. During lunch the rain started and stopped and started and stopped – this was the how the day went.

The port was about a 15-minute walk back from where we had lunch and luckily we missed the rain, because…you guessed it, it started again – this time it was torrential. A coffee, a cookie, our balcony, and a thunderstorm capped off our visit to San Juan.

stair mosaics

There are mosaics everywhere in Viejo San Juan. The staircase in the photo is one of the most interesting. There are also chickens and roosters everywhere. There were plenty in BVI also...I find them charming, I wonder if the locals consider them pests

Sadly, there were no Ricky Martin sightings I was so hoping for.