Today we got up early even though we didn’t need to, and we had breakfast at the fancy dining room. I had some interesting Indian food thing, and Travalon had an omelette. Then we went up to the fancy coffee place. Even in the daylight, the crew Christmas tree I didn’t vote for by accident is beautiful.
We found a secret Zen room in the spa, and the religious sister we had dinner with last night was there too. Soon we could see mountains, and then they announced that we could go out on a secret deck on the fifth floor. It was very hot and sunny, and tons of people were pouring out onto it, so we went back to our state room and had an awesome view of San Juan from our balcony. Here is a fort.
Once we had landed, Travalon and I wandered around, had lunch (I had a delicious but surprisingly sweet turkey sandwich), and then we found a cab to take us to the marina. We took a wild sailboat ride in the bay with a mother and son who hadn’t come on a cruise ship but were staying in town. I tried to practice Spanish with our captain. We saw a beautiful rainbow, or “
arcoiris.”
Then we took the same cab to the
Cathedral of San Juan Bautiso in
Old San Juan, and on the way I bought and mailed postcards to coworkers and Ma Hat. There was supposed to be a concert at six, but it was canceled due to illness. We had amazing
empanadas in a nearby courtyard before returning for
Misa de Buena Noche. It was concelebrated by two bishops and several priests. Communion was a little chaotic, and some tourists took good seats but were apparently just curious, not attending, and I couldn’t really make out what they were saying in either Spanish or English, but it was generally a lovely
Christmas Eve Mass. There is one at Midnight here on the ship, but I’m too exhausted to go again. We may go again in St. Thomas tomorrow. Here’s the church, which is apparently the second oldest in North America. (I have no idea what the first oldest is.)
Here is a picture of the courtyard where we had a pre-Mass snack.
After Mass we walked along the decorated streets of Old San Juan.
We came across this beautiful scene with a
live salsa band and people dancing in the street.
It ended abruptly when the rain came. We got soaked on the way back to the ship, but we found a surprise in our state room.
As we sailed away, I took this photo of the
Carnival Venezia, which has been following us the whole time.
We couldn’t believe how many people showed up for late dining. I had a salad and a sub, since I needed some healthy food, but I did cave and have a
Christmas pavlova.
Almost too pretty to eat, but it was delicious. Now we’re off to the Virgin Islands.
Famous Hat
1 comment:
Merry Christmas Eve from the moose and I.🎄
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