Puerto Rico!

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Puerto Rico

San Juan, Puerto Rico was an awesome first stop. I didn’t expect to find the city so much fun and so full of activities! The day before I went Natalie and I planned out some activities that we thought would be really fun. Most of which didn’t happen. Ha. But it was still a great way to get organized.

The morning we got to San Juan I woke up at 5 45 and met up with Kate and a friend Rachele to watch the sun rise over the city, it was beautiful and there were a ton of kids on the dock.

Customs was a breeze and a group of us headed off the boat early to find a restaurant/bar to enjoy an early lunch. We all got off the ship, in the beating sun and walked toward this famous fortress called El Morro. It’s funny because you see SAS kids everywhere you go. We ran into a ton of kids and eventually found a wonderful lunch spot called Café Amapola right on the water. Our group took over the balcony and ate a delicious lunch (I had shrimp and pineapple which was so so good and I tried the local Junca (sp?) or potato dish.) Of course we had to try the mojitos which I thought was very tasty. After that we headed through Old San Juan and found another group of kids. We just hung out and chatted for an hour or so and then I got a group together and we went to a cockfight!

We took a cab to Isla Verde, 15 minutes out of San Juan, to this hilarious Cockfight Arena. This place was ridiculous! Girls got in free, and I’m convinced the only women were waitresses or SAS girls. There were about 20 of us and we took over a section of the circular stadium to enjoy the festivities. Cockfights are so intense because they don’t last very long and they end in death. The cock’s have little spears taped to their feet and just pluck at each other. It was pretty sad actually. Ryan and I decided to make a few bets (poor decision, sorry dad) and we just had a blast shouting at our own little fighters. Kate and I made friends with two boys currently in the Coast Guard who were also at the cockfight which turned out to a be a really good thing (more later). After the fight we came back to the ship because we were a little worn out and took power naps.

We all got up around 8 and headed out to meet the Coast Guard boys for dinner. Ryan and Kevin have both been in San Juan for about a year and they knew all the best places to go. Kevin took us to his favorite restaurant where we ate amazing steak, paelle and, of course, sangria. Kevin actually paid for all 12 of us, which was kind of ridiculous. We then went to the boys favorite salsa club because we all really wanted to dance. So we went to NuYo Rican, a great hole in the wall dance club. We danced for probably 2 hours! I think Ped was a little bored, haha, but he was a trooper. It’s been really cool to get together with Andie, Ped and Julia (all friends from High School).

After NuYo Rican we went to Calle San Sebastian which I heard before leaving was THE street for bars and that was no joke. Every building was a bar all the way down the street. We met up with something like 500 SAS kids and all had a blast dancing and meeting people. Also, randomly, some Puerto Ricans had bongo drums and were playing in the middle of the street, so it became a big block party with SASers and young Puerto Ricans crowding the streets.

I woke up around 10 am and slowly got together Matt, Zach and Ryan. We met up with Natalie and a bunch of girls who were at Ocean Park, a really nice looking beach about 20 minutes away. The drive was crazy because our taxi driver, like every other taxi driver in P.R. was a nutcase! He was blasting reggaetone and talking on TWO cell phones while weaving in and out of traffic at very high speeds. It was hilarious and frightening at the same time. After arriving safely we hung out on the beach for a couple hours. The coast guards met us and we all went swimming in the ocean, which was rough, but a lot of fun.

Natalie and I left with the girls to shower and get ourselves put together. Then Nat and I roamed through the streets of Old San Juan for probably 4 hours. It was great because she’s such an easy person to travel with. We walked all over the different districts and just explored what makes up Old San Juan. We also found a Walgreens and Grocery Store which was a great way to get some essentials for the ship. We also found an awesome little artisan fair with live music and custom booths. We spoke with the local artists, musicians and jewelry makers which was really awesome. Then we made our way back to the boat where we met up with Ryan, Zach, and Matt. Then the five of us and a few other friends got together and went to Calle San Sebastian (the street with all the bars). We ended up just walking into one which was really cool and played pool and sat out on the balcony. We met up with a ton of other SASers simply by seeing them from the balcony and waving them up.

The last day consisted of an independent hike that Natalie and I set up through recommendations from two other girls on the ship. We planned a guided tour through the El Yunque National Rain Forest Park. It was a lot fun because, for only $40, we were taken the park, which is beautiful, and then led on a guided tour of where to hike, where to stop at the waterfall, and where to get scenic photos. It was also cool because we did the trip with a bunch of Wisconsin and Berkeley kids and they were all fun.

We left the park and headed straight to that Starbucks so we could plan renting a villa in Mauritius for 3 days. We’ve heard from a ton of people that it’s the thing to do, so I did some research and I think I found an awesome one on the Flic En Flac beach. We’ll see how it goes. It’s great that I’ve kind of already got a group because they’re all really fun and easy going and make planning things and traveling really enjoyable.

After the internet fest at starbucks we all headed back to the ship and made it on board just in time to head out of San Juan. It was an early night since I barely slept the whole time in PR.

So now we’re off to Brazil and I’ve officially had all of my courses. I’m dropping one because the teacher was dreadful but the other two were really very cool (I left out Global Studies, which everyone takes). I’m going to have A LOT of work to do, but I’ll learn a lot and am excited because the material is interesting and pretty relevant! Only downside, I have 500 pages due in three days. For just one class. So ya. I’ll be busy with that. However, I’ll probably do it in a bathing suit, tanning in the hot sun.

That’s all for me at the moment. As you can tell, if you got through this whole thing, Puerto Rico was a blast! I can’t wait for Brazil. We get into Salvador on the last night of Carnival so we’ll have to jump right into the celebration. Then I have a planned trip to Rio which should be really cool.

Keep sending e-mails!! : )

Peace,
E