about 230 on tuesday march 18th we caught sight of san juan...
a city, i'll forever have fond memories of... as soon as i got off the ship and turned on my cell phone, i got an email from Lieutenant Caldwell saying that i'd gotten accepted for officer candidate school and that by the end of this year, i'll be at sea aboard a us navy ship... san juan was spanish until the spanish american war, when we took puerto rico along with cuba, the philippines, and guam... so, san juan is an old spanish colonial city, and it has some of the best preserved fortifications in the Caribbean. the mor
ro castle at the
mouth of the entrance to the harbour is imposing, situated on a bluff overlooking the entrance to the bay... with a shore battery on the other side of the entrance. the british never captured san juan. they took havanna during the 7 years war, but never conq
uered
san juan. there is a cemetery near el morro that has all the tombs above ground like at new orleans, it over looks the water. i was pretty ambitious with my time in san juan, or ship's port visit was only 6 hours, we arrived about 3, and left about 9... it was good though, i walked all the way around the city, by the city walls and then explored inside the city looking for a mailbox to mail some postcards
i h
ad written... and taken pictures... including a few cool ones at night... alot of the buildings have been renovated and are brightly coloured. the city is charming at night lots of narrow alleyways lit up... this particular alleyway reminded me of lisbon, and then, on my way back to the ship, thoroughly exhausted from walking around the town for 5 hours i snapped this picture of the costa
fortuna moored alongside the quayside.
a city, i'll forever have fond memories of... as soon as i got off the ship and turned on my cell phone, i got an email from Lieutenant Caldwell saying that i'd gotten accepted for officer candidate school and that by the end of this year, i'll be at sea aboard a us navy ship... san juan was spanish until the spanish american war, when we took puerto rico along with cuba, the philippines, and guam... so, san juan is an old spanish colonial city, and it has some of the best preserved fortifications in the Caribbean. the mor
ro castle at the 
mouth of the entrance to the harbour is imposing, situated on a bluff overlooking the entrance to the bay... with a shore battery on the other side of the entrance. the british never captured san juan. they took havanna during the 7 years war, but never conq
uered
san juan. there is a cemetery near el morro that has all the tombs above ground like at new orleans, it over looks the water. i was pretty ambitious with my time in san juan, or ship's port visit was only 6 hours, we arrived about 3, and left about 9... it was good though, i walked all the way around the city, by the city walls and then explored inside the city looking for a mailbox to mail some postcards
i h
ad written... and taken pictures... including a few cool ones at night... alot of the buildings have been renovated and are brightly coloured. the city is charming at night lots of narrow alleyways lit up... this particular alleyway reminded me of lisbon, and then, on my way back to the ship, thoroughly exhausted from walking around the town for 5 hours i snapped this picture of the costa fortuna moored alongside the quayside.
