America*

Monday, February 2/20/2023

Alexander called Puerto Rico “America asterick”, and that is how I thought of it all day today. It didn’t feel like the United States, but they use American money and stamps. We talked to we our guide about whether he thought people wanted to be a state and he said it’s split about into thirds – 1/3 for statehood so they have representation, 1/3 think they should be an independent nation (for one thing they could interact with Cuba – a near neighbor – if they chose), 1/3 for continued territory-ness. Of course, that is not hard data, but just estimates from the area.

We went on the included tour – a walking tour of the old town of San Juan. Our guide, Hector, was terrific and made the tour very enjoyable.

Christopher Columbus came here on the 1492 voyage and called the area San Juan – St. John. The city was called Puerto Rico – rich port. Somewhere along the way, the two switched. We visited the castle – so designated because it has the requisite on-site jail and church. It was reallllly big. It protected the land approach on the islet of San Juan. (Puerto Rico is an archipelago of over 120 islands. The old town of San Juan is on an islet across the bay from the main island of Puerto Rico). There are three forts on the opposite end of the island that protect the water entrance to the bay.

We saw the oldest building on the islet – the castle of the first mayor (which Juan was it?) (the first Juan!) (tee-hee) – built in the 1520s. Hector asked if anyone knew his full name, and gave the hint that we would all recognize it. A few guesses happened, then KEITH got it right (he freely admits to having very little knowledge of history). Juan Ponce de Leon. (There was no prize.)

We shopped our way back to the boat for a couple hours. I got some funky earrings and Keith got a T-shirt with the very stylized Puerto Rican frog symbol. It is not a scary frog. It does not look like a frog.

Back on board we drank a lot of Coke with lunch. They bring you little glasses and even though we carried and drank water while we were out and had two glasses of water right when we got back, we were still thirsty. Meals come with wine or soft drinks and I don’t think most of the old people on this boat drink Coke, so the servers seemed very confused by its consumption. We also ate lots. Because cruise**.

Keith went to the room to do his hypnosis recording and I went up on deck for the sail away. The boat has been rocking ever since we got underway. Maybe you feel the movement of the waves more on a smaller ship. We went to a port talk about tomorrow’s stop and I bounced from one chair to another as I came into the theater. It was very boring (they were reading the excursion choices. We picked excursions months ago) and we left early. There were nice Scrabble boards in one of the lounges and we went back and played a game. I won, but only at the very end. It was quite a close game.

Why were we playing Scrabble, you ask? Well, because there was nothing else to do. They don’t really have activities on this cruise. I had read that Viking sails small ships, so one shouldn’t expect big production shows. So, I was not expecting big shows. Yesterday, the only things that were happening around the ship were a piano player playing classical ditties in the atrium, and a string duet playing classical ditties in the atrium, and a guitar guy playing unknown ditties in the Explorer’s lounge. All well and good. I figured it was embarkation day and people would just be wandering around and eating and sleeping (we just wandered around, ate, and slept). Today, there was the excursion talk and at 6:30 there was a naturalist giving a talk about wildlife we might see. It was very interesting. Other than that, just individuals or duets playing classical music. We sat for a while after lunch and looked at a Royal Caribbean ship docked next to us. I said, “Look at all those windows over there. Do you know what the people in those windows are doing?” Keith said no. I said, “Having fun,” and then we laughed so hard we were crying and we had to scurry away because we this does not seem like a place people laugh hysterically. (When we went back to the theater, the piano lady was playing. As we crossed from one side of the atrium to the other, I was doing an interpretive dance. Unfortunately, I was also walking in front of all the people sitting and listening to her. We had to laugh a lot again, and run away, again.)

We read an advice column last week about a couple with some serious vacation expectation mismatches. The advice giver pointed out that one wanted a relaxing vacation and the other wanted to travel to see and do. We are definitely travelers – we like to see and do. It seems we are now on a vacation. We will indeed see and do some while in port, but onboard we will just sit and relax.

We came past the pool after the animal talk and it was empty and very inviting. Turns out it closes at 8pm, so I had 30 minutes to change and swim. Plenty of time. We had decided that since the pesto lasagna was the only thing in the dining room that wasn’t seafood based (and it would probably have been delicious) we would eat at the buffet again. After swimming, we hurried upstairs to eat before they closed at 9.

I could have had crispy soft shell crab, fish and corn fritters, grilled shrimp, seafood spaghetti, salmon coulibiac, mahi mahi, crab legs, seafood salad, langoustine, prawn, halibut ceviche, beetroot cured salmon, grilled sea bass, oysters Rockefeller, or seafood vol au vent.

I did not.

I had lettuce and Ritz crackers. There was not a single entree that was not seafood based. I’ve gotta admit, that surprised me. I do not like that I do not like seafood, but it is a fact. I could have had shrimp, because shrimp is okay, but I had quite a few yesterday and just couldn’t stomach them today (ship rolling and all). The salad selection was just lettuce and dressing. It was really kind of hilarious. I was very happy when I found the crackers. We had a solid lunch, so it wasn’t like I really even needed dinner.

An interesting thing I noticed today. Three times a buffet room attendant came and asked Keith if he wanted his empty plate cleared away, and then left my empty plate in front of me. Two times at breakfast an attendant said, “Sir, would you like anything to drink?”, then left to get Keith a drink without asking me. Overall, I am failing at dining.

I checked out the open early until really late dining place. The menu is actually even funnier than tonight’s entrees. Reke – shrimp on white bread, Gravlax – cured salmon on dark bread, Roast beef – on rye with tartar sauce (tartar sauce?!), Steak tartare – on rye bread, Beef Carbonade with onion confit (I don’t know what that is), Fish cake on rye bread, Liver pate with bacon and fried mushrooms, and split pea soup.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!