Who’s feeling good about today? I know I am! yay! Here’s a post about another one of my travels to brighten up your day and give you travel inspiration. After swimming with the dolphins in Dominican Republic, our next stop was to go to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was my first time to go to Puerto Rico, and I heard that it was pretty cool, so I was excited! From the cruise ship, we could see the fort. The weather is CRAZY in these little Caribbean islands! It was raining a when we arrived in San Juan so we went to a CVS/Pharmacy to buy an umbrella then to Starbucks because my parents are addicted to coffee. 😛☕️ Puerto Rico is a US Territory so some shopping malls and restaurants are similar to what you will see in the USA.

We started walking on the cobble stone streets that date allllllll the way back to the 1800s, and I loved all the colonial style buildings!

In 1493, Christopher Columbus saw Puerto Rico on his second voyage. The Spaniards displaced (which really just means they kicked ’em out… not so nice, as it was the natives who were living there first!) the native Taino Indians, and in 1539 the construction of Castillo San Felipe del Morro, “El Morro” started. Construction of the the Castillo San Cristobal was started in 1634. These two forts were the ones we visited, and it’s a half an hour walk between the two major fortifications. (Didn’t feel like it though… I just felt the heat!) SO the real question is… Why would Spain fortify Puerto Rico? WELL, because it was the first major island with water, shelter, and supplies that sailing ships came to, when en route to the Americas from Europe via Africa’s west coast! The massive, complex system of fortifications was built over ten generations for two hundred fifty years. Spain had to protect the gold, silver, gems, spices, and furs from Mexico and Central America that they plundered. They had to protect them from the British, Dutch, French, and Danish attacks. Wealth from the Americas made Spain a world power. Fast forward in 1898 Spanish-American War, Puerto Rico becomes U.S. Territory. Oh, and you gotta remember that these guys that built the fort didn’t have cranes, power drills, or even hard hats! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

There’s a minimal fee to get in, and it is for both forts. So… yay? We walked and walked around the fort admiring the it and it’s history.

Let’s get to the good part, shall we? SO, it was around noon, we were still at the fort, and the rain has stopped. The beautiful blue sky was out. The stone pathways of the fort got very slippery because of all the rain, my dad was wearing flip flops with absolutely ZERO traction… and he slipped walking down the ramp. Good thing we were on our way out when it happened. He ended up in the hospital on the cruise with big scraped on his knee and foot. But we can tease him about this, see, it would be more impressive if he were… say… chasing bad guys on a motorcycle while they made their escape with the stolen jewels, then he crashed his motorcycle chasing them, and got the bandage to prove it… But nooooo, he slipped at an old fort because it rained, and he didn’t wear proper shoes. *me snickering in the background* He was a good sport though, and he had to shave his legs so the bandage will stick.

Oh yeah, and the people at the fort were suuuuuuuuuuuuuper helpful 🙄

My dad: Hi sir! I slipped, and need a bandage to patch this up?

Worker: *looks down at leg* Yeah man, I gotchu. *goes into office* *gets band-aids* Here you go, this is the biggest size we have. The ones are the expired ones that may still have elasticity to ’em. Careful now, they might work. ehehehehehe 😝

The bandages were small and my dad’s wounds were still bleeding. We had to stopped at CVS/Pharmacy again to buy better bandages and eventually he end up at cruise ship’s hospital to clean it and wrapped it properly.

That concludes the third stop of our cruise! I really wish this post was longer, but that’s all we did in Puerto Rico! The Old San Juan was beautiful city to explore. We visited some stores, and my my mom bought a beautiful colorful dress. I hope you learned something new, and you enjoyed reading! Stay safe out there! 😆

Have you been to Puerto Rico? Would you like to visit Puerto Rico? Tell me on the comments below.

The links below are posts about my trips with Holland America Cruise:

Grand Turk

Dominican Republic