Old San Juan

We left Miami on Saturday, January 24 on a warm sunny late afternoon. Sunday was a day at sea. No ports of call, no where to go. It was the perfect way to detoxify and relax. It was hot and sunny with few clouds but a nice breeze. The hundreds of lounge chairs on the decks were occupied by 9AM and stayed that way till evening as all of us basked in sun and warmth. We sailed on through the night and into Monday. Our first port of call was in Puerto Rico (...and EVERY time I heard that name, immediately my mind took off with "...my heart's devotion. Let it sink back in the ocean!", having listened to West Side Story once or twice.) We docked at 5PM and were free to wander, with warnings to be back on board by midnight or start swimming.
Neither Jim nor I had ever visited this country set in the Caribbean Sea. We trolled around old San Juan, where the streets were still cobblestone and very hilly. It rained off and on as we walked, so we would duck in under an overhanging porch to wait out the shower. All along each street there were colorfully painted entrances to private residences, some very nice and some tattered. We walked by Castillo de San Cristóbal, a Spanish fort built by the Spaniards in the 18th century to protect against land based attacks on the city of San Juan. We were told that after dark every night, thousands of feral cats, who live in the fort, come out and sit on the rocks surrounding it. Had we not been back on the ship when we were told of this, we probably would have stayed to watch their eyes glow in the night. We popped into a small local pub for a light dinner, where the menu was in Spanish and the food was great. (No Whopper at the local Burger King for us, although I do admit to being slightly hesitant at first. I don't think the place was FDA inspected, but did turn out to be clean and was filled with both locals and tourists the whole time we were there.)
As darkness fell, we walked back to the ship for a good night's sleep and plans for adventure the next day at St. Thomas.