Catching Up: Photos from Puerto Rico

Mike is off to work today, and I am taking a few minutes to share our weekend fun.

We are staying in Old San Juan, at Hotel El Convento.

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El Convento was constructed in 1646, through a petition made by King Philip IV of Spain. The convent was closed by the Archbishop of San Juan in 1903. It reopened as a hotel in 1963, and has undergone many restorations since that time. It is unique because you walk into the core of the hotel to a large open-air courtyard. The rooms on each floor surround the courtyard with huge walkways. There is a small table in the walkway for each room. The view of the courtyard is beautiful. There are numerous sitting areas, both facing the courtyard and facing Old San Juan. The nightly manager's reception (with complimentary wine, alcoholic beverages, and nice selction of cheese) takes place on the 3rd floor terrace. The pool and hot tub on the 5th floor overlook the city and harbor. Last night the Adventure of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) left port at 9:15 pm. It was quite a site to see it leave. It was also funny to see all the passengers' flashes go off as they took pictures of the city.

We explored some of Old San Juan on Saturday when we arrived. The city is surrounded by the "city wall", a fortification that remains from Colonial days. There are many beautiful plazas as well as some very nice outlet stores (I will be revisting the Coach store over the next few days). A few of the photos we took are below. You should be able to click on any of them to go directly to Photobucket for a full description.

We took a trip to Culebra yesterday so that we could enjoy some of the commonwealth's most beautiful beaches.

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We had two options for reaching the island, located off the east coast of the main island. We could drive a little over 90 minutes to Fajardo, then take a ferry to the island. That would have required renting a car for the day, so that it could sit in a parking lot. Or, we could fly from San Juan to Culebra; that would take 25 minutes. We opted to fly so that we could enjoy more of our day.

We arrived an hour before our 8:30 am flight. Two large cruise ships were in port yesterday morning: Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas, and Princess Cruise Lines Caribbean Princess. Their size was daunting, especially compared to the 8 passenger plane we would take to the island. The ride was trouble-free and very fun.

We rented a Jeep Wrangler for our day on the island so that we could explore as many places as possible. We got a neat one that was hard top with removable panels. It was very nice and fun to drive around. We started out by driving into the only town on the island, Dewey. We stopped in at Pandeli bakery and had a couple of Cubanos (a pressed sandwich with turkey, pork, pastrami, pickles, and mustard) to give us energy. Then we headed out to Zoni Beach. Zoni is a nesting area for a variety of sea turtles. We saw several areas staked off where turtles laid their eggs and covered them with sand. The beach was beautiful and remote. The water as warm as bath water -- so lovely. We spent a long time in the water there, to attempt to escape the 98 degree heat. We left after about 2 hours in search for Playa del Carlos Rosario. We parked in the lot for Flamenco beach (the most famous in Culebra and world-renowned) and took the 20 minute hike over the mountain. We must have over-shot it, because we ended up at Tamarindo Grande Beach instead. We enjoyed the shade of a palm tree and more swimming for another couple of hours. Finally, we ended our beach exporation with an hour at Flamenco beach. It was the prettiest of the three, though the most crowded. We would definitely return to Zoni again, and would like to find Carlos Rosario.

We arrived back at El Convento at 6:30 pm sunburned to the gills, but happy and relaxed. We had a great adventure! Some photos from our day are below. Again, you should be able to click on any one for a more detailed description.

Today I am off to a beach in the Condado area. I will take the public bus for $0.75 and spend a few hours. Then I will be back to explore more of Old San Juan.

Smiles!