Mojotos in Puerto Rico (Sunday)

Since this was our final day in Puerto Rico, we got an early start with a great breakfast overlooking the pool. The city seems to still be on party mode from New Year's, as this weekend marked the begnning of a 3-day celebration of Three King's Day (Tuesday), and the hotel bar was packed last night, so we were among the few people awake at 8:30a.m.

After breakfast we took a stroll down to the beach, through the plaza/park next door and checked out the promenade that extends out into the water along the beach. Evidently, the promenade is unsafe during high tide (witnessed the waves breaking heavily over the top), so it was closed. What a view!

After coaxing Scott and Gayle into getting up, we decided to spend the morning exploring old San Juan. We popped into a few souvenier places, window shopped at the jewelry stores, and took lots of pictures. All the streets are old brick, almost cobblestone; most buildings are painted in pastel colors, a lot like Bermuda. Those families who weren't at church were gathered in the plazas, still fully decorated for Christmas, several with holiday music playing. We explored the city wall and learned more about the history of San Juan.

Since this isn't Scott and Gayle's first visit to San Juan OR tour of old San Juan, we promised to end the outing at the Hard Rock Cafe --- mojitos and Medalla for all!!

After the cab ride back to the hotel, we changed into bathing suits and hit the beach to spend the afternoon watching the waves and drinking mojitos. Not much to tell, as the rest of the day went like this: sun, mojito, pool, hot tub, mojito, ocean, sun, mojito, repeat.

After another quick change, we headed back to old San Juan to the Cafe Puerto Rico, a restaurant recommended by our bartender, Jeannice. The same streets that had been practically devoid of vehicles just hours before were now jammed with cars --- it took over half an hour for what had been a 10-minute drive earlier in the day. Finally our very young cabbie, who spoke about 3 words of English, managed to get us to understand that the restaurant would be a 2-minute walk if we wanted to get out (much quicker than he could have driven in the bumper-to-bumper traffic) and would be across from the Plaza Colon "a la derecha". While I was trying to remember which was "derecha" and which was "izquierda", he pulled up at the next corner, jumped out, and said "directo", pointing up the street. Evidently $3 was a hefty tip, because he left the cab sitting in traffic and walked us up another block and pointed the restaurant out. No wonder the traffic was so heavy --- how many cabbies had abandoned their vehicles to escort their fares???

The restaurant turned out to be very small, but heavy on the native patrons and probably the best meal we have had since we arrived. Who knew plantains could be served sweet OR salty and taste absolutely different each way? Scott ordered the island specialty --- Puerto Rican pork chops, which turned out to be Baby Back Ribs (confusion on the server's part, but they were still good). The shrimp with Puerto Rican sauce (a la Criolla) had a definite Creole connection --- everything was so good there was no room for dessert.

Back to the hotel, where Scott talked us into one last mojito and visit to the casino. Gayle had gone up to pack, so Dana and I followed Scott to the craps table. And even though I have no idea how the game works, evidently I threw the dice well, because both Dana and Scott made some money. I borrowed a $20 bill from Dana and headed off to find a quarter slot machine to play. It took me forever (I have to "get a vibe" from the machine, it has to be a certain kind, I don't like playing around other people) but I settled on one way in the back, sat down and played my twenty. I won a couple of small jackpots, but soon ran out. The only other cash I had was a $100 bill from Dana's cash-out the prior night, so I decided to play another 20, then quit. That didn't last long, either, because on my third pull, I won $350 ---- IN QUARTERS!!!

Dana and Scott walked around the corner about 3 seconds after I hit my win. I guess Dana will never give me a bad time for playing the slots again!!!

We all cashed out as winners and literally danced out of the casino!!

Tomorrow morning we board a plane for a half-hour flight to St. Thomas, where we meet Captain Allan and the boat.