As soon as Diego confirmed that he would have a week’s vacation, we began the search for our destination. He ordered a place where he could rest. Most of the cities we considered would have hours of hiking, museums and attractions. It just wasn’t what he had in mind and no problem for me.
Always wanted to travel aboard a cruise and of course, meet other beautiful beaches and Diego could not wait to make his second trip sailing (he had already gone with his family, there in 1998).
After many researches among the possibilities (and there are so many!!), we opted for Carnival, leaving San Juan, Puerto Rico. The decisive points in the choice were, in addition to the values and dates, the itinerary include fewer days on the high seas and more days on the beach, the ship reviews and the prices of air tickets to the place of departure. Most travel sites like travelocity.ca, expedia.ca and the like, have a cruises tab, where you can search by destination, dates and more.
Difficult now and find the best way to count and show all the many photos we took. I’m going to follow in the order that the trip really was, to make it easier.
It was 7 days on board and 2 more that we stayed in San Juan, to know the place. Our first flight, Ottawa/Newark, was a little late, but we made it to the final stretch and the longest 3.5-hour Newark/San Juan. It was very interesting to enter the States as Canadians, the american border officer (immigration is still done in Ottawa) was super humorous and even gave tips and jokes about us with a child on a cruise. Either we got lucky or it was the passport that really made a difference. Who knows?
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Vooandoooooo….
Last trip that our daughter can travel on her lap (up to 2 years) – next she will have a seat just for her and will pay passage (bad part of the story)… |
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| hey clouds down there! |
We arrived in the early hours of the day of departure from the ship, so we had almost all afternoon to get to know a little of the old area of San Juan.
San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico, is an embedded territory of the United States, so Brazilians need an American visa to get in there (in our case we don’t need it, because now we’re Canadians too!!! iupiii!). The city was founded by Spanish settlers in 1521, being the second oldest capital founded by Europeans throughout America (the first is Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic).
Many are the historic buildings in San Juan (located in the old area of the city), among them the former forts San Felipe del Morro and San Cristóbal, and La Fortaleza, the oldest executive mansion still in use in the Americas (today it is the official residence of the governor of Puerto Rico).
Today the city has just over 395,000 inhabitants and more than 2.4 million in the metropolitan area. We heard direct Spanish, but you could see that many people are bilingual, English and Spanish, especially in hotels, restaurants and shops, where we had no problem tascando direct English (right after a buenos! of course, we try to be educated ).
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| View of the hotel where we stayed on the way |
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| Row houses |
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| On the left – Capilla del Cristo and on the right La Fortaleza – in the background in blue and white |
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| Alice and the pigeons in the Parque de las Palomas |
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| Park of las Palomas |
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| Fountain at the beginning of Paseo de La Princesa – Raíces Fountain |
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| We were able to go to the ship on foot… Blz.. taxi economy, has the advantage of traveling with “little” luggage 🙂 |
Now, it is noted that the staff here does not know how to make post with little photo right. A lot more is coming. See post II here –
Old San Juan | Puerto Rico | Part II
Beijooos, New Year
