Caribbean Cruise (February) 2025: Puerto Rico Day 1

Six months after Iceland & Greenland cruise, we were cruising again and this time to the Caribbean Islands. This was a total coincidence because this Caribbean cruise was booked way before we even booked the Iceland and Greenland cruise.

On this cruise, we were cruising with my college roommate and her husband and our travel buddies, a couple we met on another cruise in 2009 and with their two toddlers, both under 5. From the outset, we slated this cruise for relaxation and spending time with friends. Sightseeing played second fiddle.

We all decided to come to San Juan, Puerto Rico one day ahead of the cruise to explore the city a little bit. My college roommate met up with us in Dallas (our connecting flight). We arrived in San Juan around 5 am. We had the whole day to explore.

Once we collected the rental car, we drove out to seek for breakfast, which we thought would be just coffee and pastries. Truth be told, I only eat pastries when I'm on vacation, so I really look forward to this occasion.

After a few miss tries, because the city was experiencing power failure and their coffee machines were down, we found Panaderia Espana, which is a big enough establishment to afford a generator. This is where we met up with our friends with kids too.

Photo taken that evening when we had to visit it again for some dessert.

They have a wide selection of savory breads and sweet pastries and also some lunch items. We ate leisurely and have to take something to go too.

Given the time limitations we had here, I had only two places I wanted to see here - first one is the San Felipe del Morro Castle and the Old Town. Everyone agreed to visit the castle on Day 1. San Felipe del Morro is one of the most iconic fortresses of the Caribbean and a symbol of Puerto Rico. It played a key role in the defense of the island during Spanish colonization and later the American domination, even during the world wars.

The surprising thing for me is that the castle is part of the US National Park Service so imagine while on queue to pay the entrance someone asked if we have an annual national park pass, so I produced mine and got four of us in for free. They were willing to get the other four in free too, but they already paid for the tickets since they were ahead of us in line.

Such a beautiful day, warm and humid and very windy.

Chapel

We didn't stay here too long, the kids needed nap time and we needed to find our AirBnB. We agreed to meet up at the Miramar Food Truck park for dinner.

A heavy downpour accompanied us on the drive to our accommodations. I'm still trying to get use to the sudden heavy rain after a sunny morning. The rain lasted an hour or two.

The food truck park cat

The food truck park was not too big and many of the food trucks were already closed or sold out so the choices were limited. I had to make sure I tried Puerto Rican food in Puerto Rico, because I had really good Puerto Rican food in Florida before.

Stuffed cabbage is another dish that I find very hard to resist.

And so, day one ends.