Only For One Night, San Juan

January 15, 2011

I ended up being able to book a flight to head home from San Juan, Puerto Rico. The ship was stopping for gas, and two other people were getting off as well. Priscilla and John are an older couple that live in Rhode Island. John had fell on ice a couple of days before the trip but decided to go anyway. Come to find out, he needs surgery and has to return to the U.S. for that reason. While waiting for customs, we had a long convo. Priscilla actually had previously served as a dean on SAS and John used to work at Brown University before retiring. Priscilla and John were nice enough to pay for the cab far.

Once I said goodnight to them both, I walked around San Juan some, looking for some authentic Puerto Rican food. I found a place called Yerba Buena where I ordered Churrusco (steak) y arroz con beans. The food was good but I was afraid to drink the water, so I didn’t. I then found a bar that appeared to be American influenced. And had a couple of drunk. The people at the bar must have thought that  I was a native because they spoke to me in Spanish as I answered with “no entiendo”, even though I understood some of what they were saying. I was surprised myself because some of the people were my complexion or darker, and looked black but spoke Spanish. Right now I’m on the plane waiting to take off towards Atlanta. The people in Puerto Rico seem nice, and I definitely will have to come back soon for longer than one night.