San Jaun, Puerto Rico

This is our third and final day in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I've really enjoyed the area. Though I did not get to travel to of the ground I had aspired to cover, I've had a very good time. On the first day, I took a walking tour of the forts here. We walked from Fort San Cristóbal through Old San Juan to Fort El Morro. I took plenty of pictures. I will work on uploading the rest of them, but for now, I have put together a short slideshow of some of my favourite photographs of the area.



Last night, I was lucky to get a spot on a very crowded trip to a bioluminescent lagoon. We kayaked about a mile and a half through a mangrove reserve into the lagoon. Somewhere along the way, we realized that the ripples and drops from our kayaks and paddles were making the water sparkle. It was incredible. Once we got to the bay, we were allowed to jump in. Of course, I did. I brought my underwater camera, too. Hopefully the shots I've taken will come out well. We'll see after South Africa (I'll be using it for Cage Diving).

I wanted to visit the African village, Loiza, but was unable to due to the usual constraints (time and money). I was interested because it's a community that holds on quite tightly to their African roots, like a little piece of Africa, here in Puerto Rico. There is conflict now in Loiza because they want to start putting up condominiums where the Loizans live.

I've learned a good amount about Puerto Rico. To be honest, I would have found visiting Cuba to be more valuable an experience. SAS used to go there, back when Clinton was in office. I love this area, but visiting a US commonwealth isn't exactly exciting in terms of forign travel. However, I do see the educational value in visiting an area that is both part of the US and not.

I have to run back to the ship now. I'm about a mile or two away and we need to be there in a couple of hours, but... I don't want to take my chances in case the line is too long.

We're off to Brazil tonight. I think what I am going to do is write my journal entries on my laptop offline and then upload them all here once I get net access. The ship robs you for internet access. It's very slow, and once you run out of the free 250 minutes they've given you, the cost for internet access is $.40/minute. Egads.



More pictures to come soon!