Ohai! Have we waited too long between Disney posts? Yeah, I agree. Sorry about that. We’ve been crazy busy lately and we also took a mini vaca for Labor Day up to D.C. to visit Kara’s bestie. No worries, many blog posts to come from that trip including Georgetown Cupcakes…..but for now, let’s get back to the Caribbean.
The day after St. Thomas, we pulled into San Juan, Puerto Rico. We were actually the first ship to roll in. So it was a pretty cool to see the town of Old San Juan so still and calm. We didn’t really know what to expect from Old San Juan. Nobody ever really talked about it or hyped it up to us. So, imagine our surprise when we discovered San Juan to be ripe with beauty, color, culture, history, and oh so many sights to see!
For a brief history, Old San Juan is where we dock and it is the oldest settlement in Puerto Rico. The whole city is actually surrounded by a wall ranging from 18-25 ft thick and up to 150 ft high in places. You can walk the majority of the city in a day, it’s not very big. I mapped out our walking route on Google to give you an idea of where we went. Overall, I think it was about 3 miles. There are two forts, both of which we explored and will save for another blog. Obviously, this city was home to a few battles in it’s day and I’m sure there are many a tale to hear, and we stopped for lunch at a fantastic local dive (again, another blog).
You can’t see A because it’s in the same location as I (the dock). But follow the letters and you can see the route we took.
First thing’s first, how about some pictures of pulling into port? Okay? Okay.
There’s some sort of serene stillness of a seaside city this early in the morning. Quiet, calm, cool. This is where you can have a cup of coffee and just sit quietly on your balcony. Watch the city get bigger as you get closer, the only chaos being the dock workers shuffling around to prepare for your port.
After hopping off the boat, we took a long scenic route up to point E (the first fort). Along the way we stopped to admire the beauty and color of this historic city
We stopped at a plaza (point C) that was overflowing with birds before rounding the corner and making our way to the Roman Catholic church (point D) Cathedral of San Juan Bautista
As with most old churches, it was beautiful. Also insanely hot. They had fans wired up everywhere inside to at least “try” to help cool it off. Ancient building = no central heat/air.
After the church, we wandered off unknowingly towards the outer walls of the city. Without a doubt the coolest thing about Old San Juan are the city walls. Just soooooo neat. 
The red gate (below) served as the main entrance to the city
Lots more of Old San Juan to come! Stay tuned!
Next up for Disney: The historic forts of Old San Juan
Those city walls make me think there should be archers or something perched up there, on watch.