Postcards From Carol

Friday, November 09, 2007

Sunday in Puerto Rico

Sunday was our big day. We got up early to take a bus tour to San Juan to see the Bacadi distillery, the Fort San Cristobal, and shop downtown.

Bright sunrise to the east . . .

Lovely rainbow to the west.

Our Bacardi tour guide standing beside the bat fountain. This tour is free by the way.

These are the tree murals in the foyer. The tell the story of Christopher Columbus discovering PR, the Spaniards bring sugar cane, and the pirates bringing rum. I think that's what it was.

The bar inside the Bacardi visitors center.

Us.

The front of the cisitors center.

The actual distillery building.

The Bat Pavillion shaped like an in-flight bat.

Views from the bus window.

The Fort San Cristobal

View from the fort

Which way out?

This way?

Or that?

More views from the fort.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Saturday we slept a little later than I intended to. I think we got up at 8:00, went to breakfast, then back , aaaaaallllll the way back to the room to put on our swim suits and then aaaaaaallll the way back to the pool where we spent the better part of the day.

I stopped in the grass on my way to the pool to take a picture of these two lovely creatures. When I was satisfied I had taken the perfect shot I looked down at my flip flopped feet and they were covered with ants! Yikes! I flicked them all off and not one bit me. Definitely not Alabama ants!

The whole resort was this lovely.
I just can't take enough pictures of sand, ocean, and palm trees.

The water was so shallow one could walk all the way
out to where you see the breakers in this picture.

More wildlife at the pool.

Beds at the pool. Now tell me, is mostly naked bodies, free alcohol,
and beds all in the same venue a good idea? Just FYI, there were beds
in the bar too and they had sheers around them.

The lagoon pool. It was awesome. Didn't get over five foot deep but there were
shallow areas and the areas where you see the columns are Jacuzzi. The in the water
lounges were made of concrete and there for hard as rocks. We skipped them this year.

This was my favorite tree. I think it appears in about
a dozen of my pictures both close up and from afar.

My tree again.

The back side of the bungalows.

Awesome sunset!

Tiny little critters!

Really tiny critters!

They are trickier than they look after a few Mojitos. Mojito, my new favorite Spanish word.

Storm a brewin'.

Decorations for the banquet Saturday night.

Puerto Rico!

Last Weekend hubby and I joined five other Decatur Aramark couples and about 200 other Aramarkers from around the states in Rio Grande, Puerto Rico. A little town about forty minutes from the San Juan airport.

We left Huntsville for Atlanta at about 8:00. No wait, we were scheduled to leave Huntsville for Atlanta at about 8:00 but Atlanta delayed our departure for about 30 minutes because of congestion there. We deplaned at 8:40 (Atlanta time) for a connection flight that was to leave at 8:54 on the other side of the airport and had already made the final boarding calls. I still have blisters from running down moving sidewalks and up and down escalators. Whooo. Get's the blood pumping. Of course we make it to our flight in the niche of time and have to sit in our seat 30 minutes because our luggage isn't as light on it's feet as this 200 pound woman and her old man.

Then it was three hours and eleven minutes to San Juan and what a bumpy trip that was. the dinging of the seat belt warning lights was constant. The sudden dips were tough on the bladders of those of us that didn't have time to use the bathroom at the airport. But that's the fun of it all, right? I love to fly.

Out of the plane and onto the bus for the ride to Gran Melia Resort and Villas. Last year it was called Paradisus. This year it changed from an all inclusive resort to pay for everything. The rooms start at $400, the breakfast was $21 each and they tried to charge us for dinner Sunday night $118! Holy shishkamooshka! I had them refigure. They cam back with a ticket for $0. Cocktails were $12. WOW! I'd have starved to death if we hadn't gotten the all inclusive deal.

We checked in and had a few drinks at the welcome party then I looked at our room number, 712. That means that we were in bungalow seven. I looked on the map and found Bungalow seven to be the absolute farthest building from the main lobby! The little signs said .48 miles! We got our exercise.

There was live entertainment every evening here at the bar

and every afternoon at the lagoon pool.

A Flamenco guitarist from Barcelona (if I remember correctly) named Juan Carlos performed with several dancers Friday night. They were quite a site. Wish my pictures had turned out a little better. It was so dark in there.