Cruise continues

A great big THANK YOU to Cynthia for the wonderful canopy platter we received when we first boarded. We had the choice of time we could eat it, so as we had already filled our tummies on the first day, we set the delivery time for Tuesday. Wednesday, we were in St. Thomas and guess what, yes spent the day at Megan’s Bay beach. A beautiful arch of sand dotted with mansions up in the mountains protecting surrounding this cove. After returning to the ship, we enjoyed from our balcony the numerous yatchs, including one pulling in and parking next to our ship which we suspected were mafia. We tried not to be obvious with our telephoto lens trying to get a better look onto the ship. Today, Thursday, March 4th, 2010, we continue our cruise into San Juan, Puerto Rico. We arrived early, about 7am and departed shortly after 3pm. We were simply going to walk around the port before going back on ship to spend a leisurely day, but as we stepped outside the port boundaries, we were bombarded by enthusiastic taxi drivers and tour guides eagerly awaiting to serve our every need. One tour guide approached us, after we ignored every other one and we finally gave in to him, despite how unprepared we were, no water, only ONE camera (to share), and some cash. However, it turned out very well as he toured a group of us for $10 each around the old city and we were able to see quite a bit, such as the parliament building with its bronze statues of famous people such as JFK and Ford. An open market with an array of fresh fruits and vegetables and hot sauce made fresh on the premises. We went to a square near an elementary school where we saw a large group of young students, in their uniform, preparing for their own outing. In that square were another series of bronze statues of women in some kind of action, interesting how every status was bear breasted, not sure why but it sure put a smile and a giggle on the students faces, our as well. These statues were meticulously designed where every curve, wrinkle, eyelash, teeth were clearly visible. We then passed several beaches with breaking surf and palm trees and numerous people sunning. We stopped at the old castle ruins with its cemetery and a few minutes later, a funeral procession proceeded down a sunken road which entered below the cemetery grounds. The tour ended downtown where we were able to take more pictures of the narrow cobblestone roads, colourful buildings and black iron balconies, very much like the French Quarters in New Orleans. It was a very hot humid day and as we made our way back we met up with that group of students we saw previously. They were in line to get seeds to feed the pigeons. It was hilarious watching thousands of pigeons flutter and land on the many screaming children, some with excitement and some in terror in this courtyard which was part of the ruins which overlooked the bay where the ship was parked. We made our way back to the ship where we enjoyed relaxing on deck in the sun with a cool drink and of course tanned some more.