New Port of Call

El Morro Fort as we Arrived

I have been to many parts of the world but never before to Puerto Rico.  I was delighted that the Silver Spirit’s next port was San Juan, Puerto Rico.  We docked right at the entrance to Old San Juan the historic earliest settlement, founded by Ponce DeLeon.

Since San Juan is a U.S. port, U.S. Customs took an extra hour to clear the ship.  Customs inspectors had found some violations last summer on SilverSea’s Silver Shadow in Alaska and they have been giving all SilverSea ships especially thorough inspections, delaying permission to go ashore and holding up departures ever since.  As Michael says in his blog, ‘they never forgive and they never forget.” As we planned to make our own walking tour of Old San Juan, the delay in gong ashore was only a minor annoyance.  I felt sorry for the tour staff who had to get many passengers on various tours around San Juan and the rest of the island. They handled it brilliantly.

Michael and I had a wonderful time.  We walked along the Old San Juan city walls, through sleepy streets and across some beautiful parkland to the El Moro fort. I had my new camera and took many photos of the streets, walls fort and anything else that looked interesting.  After an extensive exploration of the fort, we walked to a second fort, San Cristobal, at the other end of Old San Juan.  At San Cristobal, we met a group from Silver Spirit taking the escorted walking tour and exchanged greetings.  We continued into the fort and they went the way we had come.  I later looked up their itinerary and discovered that Michael and I saw about twice as much as they saw.

Having explored two forts and walked several miles on cobbled streets we were hot, tired and ready to return to Silver Spirit for a somewhat late lunch.  After lunch, we returned to explore the streets nearer the pier, take more pictures and buy some supplies at a CVS. It was great to be in U.S. territory.  Not only were there familiar stores that use U.S. money, our phones worked on standard rates and we were able to get our e-mail.   

E-mail aboard Silver Spirit was at best iffy.  Something was wrong with their internal Wi-Fi system and connection to the Internet dropped in and out constantly.  The 50 cent per minute counter, however, worked perfectly even if there was NO Internet.  Michael was able to straighten out the billing even though it took until the end of the voyage.

Our already somewhat delayed 5:00 pm departure was delayed even longer.  Michael and I could see the Captain and bridge crew from our veranda.  The captain didn’t look particularly disturbed. Usually if something does not go to plan he paces up and back scowling. He seemed calm.  Eventually we spotted two people running down the pier, dragging luggage behind them.  We had been waiting for someone to join the ship.

The next day Michael met Helen Harrison in the lobby.  She was once the travel desk manager on the Song of Flower, the first ship on which Michael had cruised.  Now she is a SilverSea manager of tour operations.  She was the one for whom the Captain had held the ship. Her flight from Ft Lauderdale to San Juan had been delayed.  She had been convinced that she would miss the sailing but was able to call the Captain and tell him where she was and how late she would be.  The captain decided to wait for her.

We were glad that she was able to join Silver Spirit.  We had a long lunch with her a few days later and I heard her and Michael tell stories about that first Song of Flower Voyage.  They both remembered it it great detail.  The Song of Flower was a very special ship.

San Juan turned out to be one of the most photogenic stops on our voyage and provided Michael the unexpected pleasure of meeting another old friend. As we departed San Juan I took some spectacular pictures of the sunset.