(Note: If you know where my gallery is, I have uploaded photos.)
The interesting part of my trip to Puerto Rico started at our layover in Florida with a space shuttle launch that we could see out of the plane window, and continued from there. It was a clear day and I had never seen water like that from a plane before. It was all kinds of colors–turquoise, cerulean, pale green–and kept washing up on little islands, like so:
When we landed, I saw a stray dog and her puppy hopping along by the side of the runway. Truly, Puerto Rico lives up to its cheesy moniker “island of enchantment.” It’s beautiful, the people are great, and there’s lots to do. I was not at all disappointed, even though it rained the first couple of days.
We stayed in Old San Juan. It is the original city that was built off a Spanish fort that sits on the top of the island. The old town reminded me of a cross between New Orleans and Italy, only with brighter colors. In fact, Puerto Rico is the only place where I have seen colors combined that way and not look silly. Houses can be purple and green or peach and navy blue and just blend in with the background, which was a mess of brightly colored plants and a turquoise sea.
(Street scene of Old San Juan)
Plus, the bricks on the street were blue!
We stayed at El Convento in Old San Juan, a former convent that has been converted to a hotel. I was going to write a rave review about the hotel except that at the end of the trip we discovered they are the type of place that adds $80/night in taxes, parking, and “gratuity” onto your bill. So I have mixed feelings about the hotel. It was a charming place and in the end it was worth the extra $80 a night, but I was angry that they were not more upfront about the fees and thought they were a bit scammy.
(For the record, El Convento was the only place to do anything like that. Puerto Rico is an expensive place–there are no $.25 jugs of rum like in Hunter S. Thompson’s novel The Rum Diaries–but there’s no apparent fleecing of the tourists either. People seem upfront and generally honest.)
Anyway, El Convento is a lovely place to stay. It’s a Spanish-style building with a giant Nassau tree growing in the center courtyard, so at night you can hear birds singing and see fruit bats flying around. There’s charming balconies, a tiny pool and hot tub, complimentary wine and cheese tastings every night, and a couple of decent restaurants. Our room had a balcony with a view of the ocean and a red Spanish tiles floor. Oh heck, here’s a picture:
(Kyle in our hotel room)
Despite the fees, I’m glad I stayed away from a soulless resort. While we weren’t right on the beach and didn’t have a giant pool, I later went to one of those resorts and was creeped out by how they keep you in a bubble and disconnected from where you’re staying. To me, the point of travel is to see what a place is like, not to sit by a pool and get a sunburn, but hey, to each his own…
The first day, we explored Old San Juan. Everyone there speaks good English and the people we met were super friendly–and not in a false way either. I like places where people are open and friendly, so I liked seeing Puerto Ricans singing to themselves as they walked along or standing in a big group talking.
Some of the kids were super loud. They would shout and scream as they walk along the street in their Catholic-school uniforms. The loudest group we saw were these kids playing in a fountain near the fort. They reminded me of when birds get together and start chattering in a tree, the way they get so boisterous in their excitement and joy of simply being birds in a tree. That’s what kids were like as they shouted VERY LOUDLY while playing in the fountain.
And then, the fountain went off and the kids started shouting, “La Vida! La Vida!” until the water went on again. I got the sense this went on all the time.
In the afternoon, we went to the fort (coming soon!).
