Puerto Rico

Due to popular demand, I'm writing in this blog.
I'm staying at the
Guest House Old San Juan for Friday and Saturday night.
I'm in a windowless room that's hotter than a hot foot on a sidewalk in Phoenix in midsummer. But it's "charming" and it's half as cheap as any other place here in San Juan Viejo (Old San Juan). This place is an old fort dating back to its founding by Ponce De Leon, who eventually went off and got himself fatally wounded looking for the Fountain of Youth in Florida.

Sid didn't make it here last night. He was stuck in Orlando, and Ryan, being the Universal Point of Contact, generously relayed the message to me, otherwise I would've waited at the San Juan Airport forever.

It was weird driving around last night. First of all, I had quite an adventure finding the mythical "Ace Rent a Car". No one at the airport had heard of it. I found it on the web `cause it was about $50 cheaper than the cheapest legit' companies (which was Budget, by the way). I eventually did find it and was cruising highways in my Daewoo or whatever, and it struck me that the lettering and style of all the road signs was just like California, but was all in Spanish. I guess that's what'll happen if Mexico takes back California. Anyway, once you know that oeste means West, you're doing okay.

Old San Juan is a perfect little Spanish colonial village. It was beautiful to walk around the narrow cobblestone roads and see the pastel color homes and businesses. I had plenty of practice using my Spanish to ask for desayuno (breakfast) and directions.

It charmingly rains every other half-hour, a brief and intense Caribbean rain. Not sure what Sid and I will do today and tonight. Maybe go to the beach and then pub crawl. I would go to a nightclub but you really have to dress up in hip Latin fashion: cocktail dresses for ladies and slacks with sportcoats and ties (yikes!) for men. I thought Latin meant laid-back, and so that's what I'll be looking for.

By the way, if you're in dire need of getting ahold of me starting tomorrow, I'll be in Ponce for the conference and Sid and I'll be at the
Hotel Melia. As I figured, my T-Mobile phone doesn't work here. But seems Verizon does. Go figure!

Buenos diaz!