Puerto Rico

I have always thought of Puerto Rico as a great vacation spot- a fun and relaxing getaway. When looking at the itinerary of this trip before I left I overlooked the possibilities of Puerto Rico. I have been to Puerto Rico a couple times before and each time I have gone I've had a good time, but did not feel immersed in a different culture or a new society. I didn't think this time would be much different.

We arrived in San Juan on Saturday morning at 8am. As I waited for my ID number to be called to be cleared from customs, I felt anxious to get off the ship and step on ground for the first time in three days. After my friends and I were all finally cleared we left the port and took a 20 minute walk down to Old San Juan where we visited all of the old forts that were built to keep trespassers out of the island hundreds of years ago. We hiked up the fort's cobblestone steps and took tons of pictures of the historical site. One of my new friends, Rudy, is originally from Puerto Rico (although he was raised in and now lives in Boston), so he knew how to get around and where to go which was nice because without him we probably would have gotten lost a couple times. He took us into the town of San Juan where we ate lunch at a Puerto Rican restaurant and shopped for a while. Some girls went into the famous Coach outlet store but I chose to stay away from the “American-ness” of that and instead went into a small souvenir shop where I made the decision to collect a snow-globe, a piece of art, and a CD from each country I visit though out this voyage. After a long day of walking and touring the city, my friends and I came back to the ship where we had dinner and relaxed for the night.

The next day we got up at 10am to go on a Canopy Tour in the rainforest. We took a 20 minute bus ride to the rainforest where we met up with our tour guides and were strapped into harnesses, ropes, and carabineers. We hiked up a hill then got to our first zipline. Everyone was really nervous at first, but I of course got right up there and was one of the first people to go. I have to admit I was a little scared at first, but after the first zipline held up while I flew through the forest I knew I would be fine for the rest of the tour. We swung from tree to tree and made a full circle when we ended up back at the beginning about an hour and a half later. The zip lines ranged from about 20 feet off the ground to 70 feet which was pretty awesome. After the Canopy tour we headed back to to ship where we got our computers to go find an internet café.

I was proud of myself for not going online for an entire week (I think the facebook addiction is slowly going away). It was nice to get a couple emails from people back at home. Although it made me a little homesick it was great to hear that everyone is doing well (keep sending them hint hint). After we got back from the internet café we showered and got ready to go out that night. My friends and I walked around San Juan and found some cool places to hang out for a couple hours, but after such a long day of ziplining through the forest and walking around the town we headed back to the ship fairly early.

On Monday we all slept in and after eating breakfast on the ship decided to take a taxi to the beach. We sunbathed on the beach, played in the ocean and ate ice cream all afternoon until we had to leave to get back on the ship. We got back to the ship around 6pm and watched the sunset over the city of San Juan while waiting to take off. The ship left the port at 11pm last night and we started our 7 day trip down to Salvador, Brazil.

Overall, Puerto Rico was so much more than I expected. I felt immersed in the culture and think that I experienced three of the island's most important things- Old San Juan, the rainforest, and of course, the fun and relaxing beach.