Day 3: San Juan, Puerto Rico
The 2005 Caribbean Cruise
Day 3: San Juan, Puerto Rico
Tuesday, 20 Sept 05: Today was the first decent weather we had seen since
we left Port Canaveral. We weren't going to get to San Juan until 1600, so we
still had a good amount of time on ship today. After got up and got ready,
we headed to breakfast and the out on the deck to get a little sun before we got
to San Juan. I have been golfing and working in the yard all summer and my
arms and legs had some color to them. My chest and back, however, hadn't
seen sunlight near as often as my extremities. After Heather and I set up
our chairs near the front of the ship, she offered some sun block. Me,
being the MAN I am, didn't figure I needed it and I politely declined. Any
of you that have ever been down near the equator know this fact: The sun is closer
there than any other part of the earth. I think it has 275,000 times the
strength down there as it does in Georgia. :) After about 15 minutes of
laying on my back, Heather could already see the color change in my chest.
I decided to roll over (to keep from burning) and get some sun on my back.
I laid there for about 10 minutes and noticed I was feeling to well on my back
either. I told her I might need to get up and put on my shirt. I
did, but as I found out later that night, I put on my shirt 25 minutes too late.
Meaning: I was an idiot for taking it off at all without sunscreen. From
that point on, this view was
known as "Sunburn Alley."
1600: We stopped in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We disembarked and
headed to "Old San Juan." We walked all around town and into all the
"touristy" stores. Heather bought an old beat-up looking straw
cowboy-looking hat. It looked very cute on her. From that point on
in the trip, almost every picture of her includes that hat. We stopped at
the "Senor Frogs"
merchandise store and bought a couple things. We, honestly, had never heard of
the restaurant, but everyone had been talking about it, so we stopped in.
The restaurant, itself, was PACKED!!! We decided not to even try to get in
there, but the shop was cool and we have a couple of Senor Frog things for
ourselves. After shopping, we started walking around the town looking for
things. We found an old fort and decided to go check it out.
Unfortunately, they were closing in 15 minutes, so we didn't go in. That
was the problem with getting to San Juan so late. Most of the things closed at
6:00 pm, so we only had a couple hours to check that stuff out and we found them
too late. Of course, the stop was still better than going to Nassau, from
what we heard from our passengers that had been to both. After we took a
few pictures at the fort, we headed to Square to "people watch." After a
little while of this, the "seedy" population started to come out for the night,
so we decided we ought to head back to the ship and watch San Juan come alive
with lights as the sun went down from the top deck. We did just that and
it was gorgeous to watch the island light up. After that, we headed in to
clean up and then went to the show the ship put on. For the first time
ever in one of those shows, I wasn't very impressed by it. It was a bunch
of musical numbers from musicals of the past called "Front Row." Not only
did I not know ANY of them, Heather only knew a couple. That didn't make
for a very enjoyable show for either of us. After the show, I wasn't
feeling very well, so we headed back to the room. That's when I noticed
how BURNED I had gotten. It was awful.
I had on a hat and sunglasses, so, from my eye sockets up, I was still white.
From my cheeks down to my waist and from my tanned area on my ankles to the the
tops of my feet were DEEP RED. I knew I was
in trouble for the rest of the week. Heather put ALOE lotion all over me
and then I was in such pain, I actually just passed out from the burn. I
kept waking up during the night because when I would roll over, it would pull
some tight area and just send a rush of pain through me. It was awful.
And, completely my own fault. I knew I'd make it, but I also knew it was going to be a
rough few days. We left San Juan a little after midnight headed to St.
Thomas.