The Tourist Trail (Puerto Rico, Part V)

In addition to hanging around the beach and casinos, we did squeeze some in some of the standard tourist sites as well.

Well, the first one isn't really standard: we took a tour of the US Coast Guard base. The daughter of Pat's parent's friend is stationed on the base right by our hotel so she met us for a tour.

Here is Mary Dwyer with Pat's parents. She was a great host, and it was interesting to get a glimpse into military life.

After our tour of the base, we walked up to Fort San Cristobal to poke around.

It was very pretty and green.

One day, we went to Puerto Rico's premier tourist attraction: The Bacardi Rum Factory.

The grounds were immaculate.

We took a little tram over to the tour.

Outside, we were given two tickets to try daquaries, mojitos, and Cuba libres, Bacardi's three most famous drinks. I drank a lot of mojitos in PR. Done right, they are fantastic.

We hung out for a long time afterwards.

On the way back, there wasn't room for all of us in one taxi so the cabbie just threw a lawn chair in back for me--it was funny.

After everyone else had flown home, Pat and I went to El Morro, the oldest and biggest of the San Juan Forts. It was impressive.



Here it is from afar.

And near.



Here is Pat.

We also went to the San Juan Cathedral. It was stunning.

And Ponce De Leon is buried there!