Puerto Rico - Old San Juan

We spent the first part of our trip in San Juan.  We stayed at a little boutique hotel on the beach.  The hotel was not the nicest place we have ever stayed, but it was right on the ocean.  We began and ended our days with walks on the beach.

We decided it was not necessary to rent a car for the first few days and took public transportation (aka the bus) to Old San Juan.  The bus was quite an adventure.  What should have taken 20 min took an hour and a half due to getting stuck behind the Gay Pride Parade.  It was definitely a unique experience, but we were anxious to get to Old San Juan.  Once we were off the parade route, the bus driver turned into a crazy lunatic.  I think I kissed the ground when we got off the bus!

After we arrived in Old San Juan we headed straight to El Morro Fort.  The fort was first constructed in 1539.  

The large lawn leading up to the fort is a popular place for locals to fly kites.  I have never seen so many kites in my life.  It was truly beautiful and I wish the camera could have captured the beauty. 

 This little girl was ADORABLE so, stalker style, I had to take a picture

The top of the fort 

 View from the top

View of the cemetery and the city from the fort.  This is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. 

Enjoying the sea breeze from the top of the fort

 I love this picture - John looks like a curious little kid

 Entrance to the oldest part of the fort - I thought is was totally haunted and would NOT want to be down there after dark

 Playing around with our new camera

Another view of the cemetery

Old San Juan is a popular stop for cruise ships so we hung out by the piers for a while.  We may have had a few drinks before:) 

Although I NEVER eat fast food I agreed to eat at Burger King for dinner, mostly because I was exhausted and it was the closest thing to our hotel.  The cashier at BK seemed to know English so we ordered in English, even though we were totally prepared to order in Spanish.  When we got back to our hotel with the food we realized that her English was apparently not very good - John's order for a Whopper and Fries translated to FIVE Whoppers.  NOBODY should eat five Whoppers - Can you say heart attack? 

 

 Our last stop in San Juan was to JCP.  The stores in PR are completely different from the other JCP stores so I had to see for myself.