Day 3 San Juan

The day started off with a walk around the corner to an old Spanish diner for breakfast. It’s called Mallorca and has been around since the forties. I'm pretty sure that the waiters have been there since it opened. It was like going back in time. After a great cup of coffee and a bowl of fruit we walked to several museums. First the Galeria Nacional, then the Museum San Juan. Neither was outstanding, but both were somewhat interesting. We walked around town some more and just took in the atmosphere. We noticed that there were school groups everywhere. Puerto Ricans are very proud of their country and they make sure that children get to know their its history. Old San Juan is a very comfortable city. There are sufficient enough things to do, plenty of good restaurants, extremely pleasant people, and great weather.

For lunch we went up the hill to Aureole on San Sebastian Street where we ate a light lunch consisting of some local appetizers and a small pizza. Once again, the food was good and the service great (and pretty)...a very enjoyable experience. Several hours of wandering the town, including a stop at San Juan Cathedral, brought us back to Lupi’s for an afternoon break at their sidewalk café. After spending quite a bit of time people watching, we noticed that it was easy to identify the tourists from the locals because the tourists were the ones wearing shorts--of course we were too. After Lupi’s, we shopped a bit and headed back to the hotel. We had dinner at La Mallorquina which proclaimed to be the oldest continuously operated restaurant in America. It’s been in operation since 1836. I had a whole grilled red snapper and Sylvia ate an excellent Churrassco steak which is a Spanish styled marinated skirt steak. After dinner we walked the neighborhood and saw that the bars and restaurants were filling up. It was Friday night and the party was on. There were people everywhere and the streets stayed that way until 3 AM. And, no I wasn’t up until three; I just happened to wake up then and looked out the window.

Tomorrow we’re checking out, renting a car, and heading to a small town on the west coast of Puerto Rico called Rincon. We’ve really enjoyed Old San Juan; we’ll probably end up our trip with a few days back here. I had heard San Juan was not a safe place and that there was a lot of crime. We never got that feeling. We walked practically every street in the city and never felt threatened…of course we weren’t out after ten either. I’m sure there are unsafe places in Puerto Rico, but Old San Juan does not appear to be one of them. As I said “we’ll be back”. Like Key West, it’s also nicest when the cruise ships aren’t in port.