Saturday

Bacardi fruit bat trade mark

Welcome Center

Laura and I had been looking forward to visiting the Arecibo Observatory to day but it wasn't to be. The internet gremlins foiled the attempt and made it too bad for us as it was the only day we could go. The good thing is now we have  reason to return to this wonderful country and city.

Instead we went to the Bacardi distillery and had a tour of the historic recreations of the original distillery in Santiago Cuba then a tour of the gift store and  couple of mixed drinks at the bar. I entertained getting a bottle of there private reserve  with its own serial number and certificate of authenticity but at almost $90 I gave it a pass. All was interesting but all you saw was the recreation and the gift shop.
 

We later went for a walk in to the old town and poked around  some local shops, but we really didn't really see any thing of interest. The rest of the afternoon was at the pool enjoying the sun and hot tub.

About 6:00 we asked the concierge for a good local place to eat. His suggestion was the Punta de Vista just a block down the street.in front of dock 4.  what a good choice!!  Not only was the food great, little single serving mofungo's with shrimp and an argentinian skirt steak wrap, but we were at happy hour so the Heinekin's were only $1 each.  Located at a T intersection, the presence of a stop sign, prominently displayed with a street light above it, meant nothing.  Apparently, as we were told by the restaurant's owner, Mike, everyone has the right of way.  Coming up to the T, no one except tourists and the faint of heart would stop, many times two lanes would merge off the stem of the T onto the straight thru street turning left with little or no use of turn signals.  Typically anyone making a u-turn back up the  stem of the T would stop at the sign , turn on their left turn signal and u-turn.  All of this on an "Old" San Juan street where only a smart car can actually turn, all others requiring some reversing, often in concert with the vehicles tailgating into the u-turn.  We learned  the u-turn was necessary as the police station was located at the last intersection and left turns there were prohibited!  Even on the main straight through of the T, u-turns were frequent.  As we were sitting across the road from the cruise ship dock, there were any number of cruisers who would walk diagonally across the intersection without any fear, and luckily no accidents.  It was like watching an improv of ballet being performed in buses, taxi's vans, and all types of cars.  No doubt the phrase "everyone has the right of way", will become part of our memory.