Thursday we did not rise bright and early, due to the extremely long slumber that felt oh, so good. That meant that we could just start with lunch for our first meal, and a fine lunch it was. We did not have to walk far to find a wonderful café serving some Puerto Rican classics. Tami had a wonderfully garlicky chicken dish with plantains, and Mike had a shredded pork stew. Both dishes were excellent.

Just around the corner from the restaurant, Castillo San Cristobal guards the walls of San Juan and overlooks the Atlantic all the way to Europe. We visited the fort last time but it was a definite must-see again. It is overseen by the National Parks Service, and is a fascinating place to visit. The original fort was built by the Spanish back in the 1500’s and they kept adding on over the years and those pesky British kept trying to take it away. It’s pretty darn sturdy and fortified and it held its own. Until the annoying Americans went for it during the Spanish American war, however, and we’ve had it ever since (and added on some bits during WWII). It’s a very cool old fort with an amazing view and we spent a lot of time there. The other main fort of the island is El Morro, and is a short walk away along the city walls. We headed up that way but the sun and heat zapped our energy for another fort and we decided to save that for another day.

Looking out from Castillo San Cristobal

Flags over Castillo San Cristobal – would love to find one with the red X to take home!

Instead we decided to take it easy with some shaded shopping instead. Mike splurged on a shirt featuring his all-time favorite airplane, a Pan Am Clipper flying boat (Mike’s always been an airplane nerd, having grown up in a Boeing family). We also had a big order of our favorite hot sauce, known in our house simply as “yellow sauce”, shipped back to Seattle. We discovered the Spicy Caribbee company the first time we were in San Juan and now can’t cook without them.

Lots of colors

Street scene

Perpetual pigeon feeding area

Finally, we headed back to one of our favorite restaurants from the last trip for an outdoor dinner in the cooling breezes of San Juan. Sangria just seems like the thing to drink here – it is refreshing, everyone has it, and it doesn’t put you on your lips the way a pitcher of mojitos would. Needless to say we had some there too. Dinner was again mostly tapas (the cheese and ham croquettes and the fish fritters were especially good) followed by a wonderful seafood paella. Once again we retired to our room with bulging stomachs.

Paella – delish!