GEORGE AND GRACIE

January 16, 2019

After breakfast we headed out across old San Juan, walking up by Fort San Cristobal and then on to Fortaleza El Morro, the major defensive fort on Puerto Rico from colonial times.  The sky was a brilliant blue (Irving Berlin would have approved) with a few puffy clouds, waves were gently rolling up onto the shore, and a nice breeze was blowing. 

On our way into El Morro, we stopped and talked to a park ranger who told us a way to leave the fort to pass the area where San Juan’s cats congregate.  He said the cat population has doubled because people going back to the states have abandoned them – and we saw some beautiful cats which if the Crew From 2042 had been with us might have gained a new home.

Today was the start of a festival celebrating San Sebastian (Saint Sebastian).  There are dozens of venues set up all over the city where there will be musical performances and local foods.  At every intersection there was at least one law enforcement officer and sometimes two or three.  The celebration will go on for several days, and because of the congestion we sailed away early.  It would have been nice to had an overnight visit to have enjoyed it.

We walked into the fort through the main gate, and went directly to the gift shop, and we are glad we did.  One of the ladies in the shop could have been quoting Montgomery Scott from Star Trek IV – “Thar be whales here!”  She invited us to go behind the counter and through a doorway to a deck where we watched whales breaching.  Humpback?  People?  There were at least two, possibly three.  I sent a video to a young reader of this blog with the same caption as the title of this blog, and said reader wanted to know how I knew the names of the whales.  Said reader’s parents need to play “The Voyage Home” more frequently for said reader.

It was great!  I’ve never seen whales in the wild, and Bonnie has never seen so much activity.  We must have watched for 15 minutes as they played.  There was a small boat following them, and we think the whales got tired of the boat and swam away from the fort.  We’ve seen a lot of God’s beauty on this cruise, but George and Gracie take top prize!

Before we walked into the fort we saw a large iguana, probably 3 feet from nose to tip of  the tail, and saw two as we left the fort.  Iguana are a problem on Puerto Rico.  They are one of those creatures that were brought here and abandoned and they have no natural enemies.  I read that there are more iguana than there are human beings on the island.  A company has developed a processing plant whereby they process them and send them to Southeast Asia.  They taste like chicken.

I had a talk today at 5 p.m.  All aboard was at 2:30 and I wondered how many people would come after a day ashore, but it was a good crowd for the second offering of “Are We There Yet?”  Two more talks, one each on the last two sea days.  Tomorrow is our last port, Grand Turk Island, and we are just going to wander around.

Tonight at supper we were seated in a different part of the dining room with wait staff we haven’t had before.  When you are escorted to your table, they waiters receive a slip of paper with your names on it.  Our waiter tonight was evidently not familiar with our names because I was Mr. Bonnie, and Mom was Ma’am Melvin.  We thought it was funny, and never corrected him.  The corn fritter appetizers with pineapple coconut salsa was the highlight of a good meal.

Well, we are tired.  My cruise buddy will pass on writing tonight.  She walked 6 miles today and she is pooped.








Oh, only Michael offered birthday greetings for Bonnie today.  Way to go, Mike!

TTFN