Forting Puerto Rico

Happy birthday, Maureen!

Today, Professor MacLeon (haha) is a whopping 29 years old. What better way to celebrate than spending your birthday in a foreign port, drinking pina coladas and spending time with TWO of your best friends?

Maureen’s friend, DJ, was vacationing in Puerto Rico while we stopped there for a few hours today. We were only docked from 7am-1:30pm, which is our shortest port stop on the entire trip. DJ’s an interesting character, one that you need an acquired taste to appreciate. Maureen told me before meeting him, “I know you won’t like him. I didn’t like him at first, and it took me awhile to like him. He’s neurotic, but he’s a good guy.” Even knowing this, I was stunned at the guy. But anyway… before we met up with DJ, Maureen and I got to wander around Old San Juan and check out the wall encompassing the city. The old buildings were mainly restored, the cobblestone roads were rough, and holy hills, Batman. My legs HURT after walking around (plus, we clocked in at over 10 miles of walking that day). We stopped at a little townie restaurant for Puerto Rician coffee (which is stronger and a better blend than most US blends) and fresh pastries. After figuring out how to order the pastries (at the counter, not with the waiter) and if we needed to tip (yes), we left to meet up with DJ.

We met DJ at one of Puerto Rico’s forts to go “forting”- a new verb that DJ’s fiancée coined earlier that week. We wandered around, overlooking the Caribbean, playing in dark tunnels leading to dungeons and had an all-around good time.

After the fort, DJ dragged us across town to the bar that allegedly created the pina colada called NAME. We learned that 1) Bacardi rum, while made in Puerto Rico, is crap rum and is used to “mop the floors” around town, 2) Pina colada’s should not have ice added to the mix, and 3) the rum is added first, then the mix- and you MUST stir before drinking or you will fall off of your barstool. We each had 2 drinks and set off to find souvenirs for the trip home. We picked up a few post cards, walked through an artist’s market, and headed back to the ship.

Once on board, Maureen had to prep for her final speech on the ship. I got to swim and lie out in the sun a little more, read some trashy novels and just enjoy some quiet time. I met Maureen at her speech on the Hatian revolution, and we relaxed some more on the pool deck after the speech.

The waves were *rocking* hard on our way out of Puerto Rico’s port. The staff on the ship said that this particular channel (Puerto Rico to Haiti) is always rough, but this was rougher than usual. It was so rough, in fact, that the main pool had to be shut down, as 3 feet of water swooshed out of the pool (there was only 2 feet of water left in the pool before they closed it). I got into the solarium pool and was promptly taken from one end of the pool to the other. I ran into walls. Dancing that night on the ship was extremely tough. Drinks were sloshing around a bit- we felt everything move.

We went to The Quest, an on-board game show being held after dinner. It was hysterical- each team (audience split up) had 4 captains, and the captains had to collect “stuff” from the team members to win points. Such as… bring 4 bras clasped together to the stage. Bring a set of fake teeth up. A man in a woman’s shirt had to go up front. It was a riot.

After the game show, we went dancing for a bit. Originally, there was supposed to be a “White Night” party in the Solarium, but it was relocated to the lower dance floor due to the weather and boat-rocking. We went for a bit, did The Wobble, and had a good time.  

Fanny packs: minimal. 7 was the official count. Sad- they must not be popular in Puerto Rico.