Friday, December 29, 2017

New Years 2018 – Day 2

We got up late and Barb go ready while Ed went to the gym.   We did get a complimentary breakfast at a Courtyard, so we walked about ½ block of a local restaurant and had a good breakfast for little money.

Then we took the local bus for 35 cents each to the main area of Old San Juan.   An Uber was going to be $6 and a taxi $9.  Then bus got us there in 10 minutes!

We then spent the morning walking around Old San Juan shopping at stores we had been to before and seeing how the town survived the hurricane.  Basically, the small local stores who did not have enough money saved up before the storm have closed, remodeled and it their places were brand new shops and a lot were high end shops – totally different from what was there before.  Lots of building still empty but the town looked pretty good with a lot of new paint.

Barb bought some shoes, a skirt and several items so it was a fun day.  We also ate at the famous restaurant that has Mallorca’s, which is a sweet bread with cheese, ham and toasted then topped with powdered sugar!!!  Just fun to eat and not very expensive.

Late in the afternoon we took the bus back to the hotel and dropped off our packages.  Then we walked to the hotel with the biggest casino on the island, the Sheraton at the convention center.  Wow – what a neat hotel with an amazing infinity pool on the 4th floor.  As this is now a Marriott property, this is where we will stay if we ever come back to San Juan.  Ed played in the casino and started with a bank of $60 and we walked out 15 minutes later with $125.  A good start on gambling for the cruise!!

As it was getting late, we took an Uber car back to the hotel get ready for the evening.
We took an Uber car to La Placita, the #1 entertainment area in San Juan which is at the site of a market and is only open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.  

We have visited the market there a number of years ago, but had never been there at night when they close the market, open the bars and restaurants and bring out the music and everyone dances.  It was really, really a lot of fun.

We met Jeff and Vera there and ate dinner at a local restaurant surrounding the entertainment area.
We got to La Placida at 7:30pm and made reservations at 3 different places with all 3 having a waiting time of about an hour.  At about 8:30pm we finally found Jeff and Vera.  They had tried to call us, but we were not getting a signal, so we didn’t know they were there – but it all worked out.

The place was jammed with people.   We have never been to a place this busy with this many people outside in the streets surrounding the market all with a drink in their hand!!

Every one of the 17 – 20 restaurants had a waiting list also.  Jeff said the place made Bourbon Street look like the Vatican!!

We ate at a wonderful neat restaurant that specialized in fish.  We shared a number of appetizers and the main course was a 2-pound Red Snapper that we shared.   We ate from 8:30pm to 11:30pm and when we left the restaurant, the place was even busier!! 

To get a Uber car, we had to walk about 1/3 of a mile to a place without people and cars.  The Uber car arrived quickly, and we were back at the hotel right at midnight – a wonderful day and a great evening.

We have taken 3 Uber cars today for a total cost of $17.50 and two bus rides for a total of $1.40 and had three wonderful meals at true Puerto Rico restaurants. 


Night for tonight and tomorrow we board the ship.

Barb likes to look into open windows

Lunch - Ed's Mallorca

Buying another Christmas oarnament

Barb's purchases for today

No comments:

Blog Archive

Contributors