jpalbny

Dorado Beach is crazy expensive. Back in the day it was a Rock Resort, then an upscale Hyatt until they sold it off, maybe 20 uears ago? Our timeshare is a mile or two further out from town at Cerromar Beach. There used to be another huge Hyatt Hotel there but they closed that too, and sold the property. It's been (almost completely) demolished but the plans for that property are seemingly in limbo. As Hyatt timeshare owners we used to have access to both properties and their great restaurants but sadly, no longer. The Dorado Beach property is now a Ritz-Carlton and as you're finding out, it's really pricey.

Thanks everyone. She was almost 22 years old. We adopted her as a 9 month old in June of 2002 so we had a very long time with her. Still we miss her a lot and it's very strange without her around. Yes, after that feast yesterday, I resemble this photo way too much!

Yesterday, continued... We turned inland, and set course for Cascada Gozalandia. A pretty hairy drive! Narrow and twisty forest roads. Lots of breath holding and hoping that nobody was coming the other way. It made the Road to Hana look like a cakewalk. We made it through the worst 10km and then the road opened up a little. Soon we arrived at a large parking lot and walked down a bunch of stairs to the first falls. A spectacular setting! Worth the trouble to get there. Lots of spots for pictures. Oops. A photo bomb from Chris's cell phone! Now we climbed out and back to the pathway. Always fun when it's 90 degrees amd 100% humidity. You could hike upstream to more cascades. Some reviews said not to bother but FOMO won out. There were a few little cascades which were pretty but after another climb the trail ended here. This was definitely worth the effort though we were completely soaked from the heat and humidity. Should have taken a cue from the others and hiked up in our suits. Next time. We rested up for the hike back down. Luckily the direct route back to Dorado was different. Not as narrow, but this time the challenge was some heavy rain storms. No flooding, and the showers were brief, so onward. And better now, than while we were hiking. There was a traffic jam for a mile or two on one of the main routes back towards the coast. We saw that there was a vintage car show. So this car was on the road with us. @Rocchi, this reminds me of the car we saw in Lima! My Dad says this is a 1960 model. We made it back by 4PM and got ready for a late lunch. A Mexican-Caribbean place on the edge of town fit the bill. First a mojito and a margarita to rehydrate. Some croquetas with Jamon Serrano, and cod fritters (Bacalaítos) to start. Chris had garlic shrimp and I had suckling pig. Both dishes were delicious. This very brave Pollo walked right past the restaurant with her chicks. Luckily she couldn't read the menu. We got dessert to go and retreated to our balcony where we enjoyed the evening scenery. Glad we got away this weekend. It's going to make work challenging as we get home after midnight. And we have to start packing since we leave for Helsinki on Friday. Next stop, Silver Wind!

We followed one through in 2013. We were on tiny Silver Explorer and the behemoth was in front of us. The tight clearance in the locks is remarkable. Now with the new locks they have even bigger "Post-Panamax" ships.

Hi from Dorado, Puerto Rico! It may come as a surprise to some of you, but we have a timeshare here that we bought over 20 years ago. We used to come here every year but haven't been back since 2007. We've been exchanging our points for various other trips since then. We had been thinking about coming down for a while to see how the place was doing. Major damage a few years back with the hurricane. The rebuild sounded nice. Suddenly we found ourselves empty nesters after our last cat crossed the rainbow bridge a week ago Friday. So on Sunday we checked availability and found a points exchange for this weekend. I got plane tickets stat, and we came down yesterday. It's a nice resort. The Hyatt Hotel next door closed some years back and is still being demolished but our part of the grounds is beautiful. There just may be a picture of Chris in that shell fountain from way back. She is dressed so it's not a genuine Botticelli, but I like it anyway. We left Albany at 6AM so it was an early wake-up call. But we were in San Juan before 2PM and at the resort around 3. A brief wait and we were checked in. We secured a dinner reservation at our favorite place in town, El Ladrillo. So atmospheric. Glazed terrazzo floors, no wine list (twenty questions about what you like), and amazing food. But weird lighting so the colors are off for the pictures. Chorizo al vino Angus Lascas de Filete al Jerez. Sliced tenderloin in a Sherry wine sauce. The meat was dry-aged and so flavorful! Chuletón de Ternera. A veal rib chop smothered in a sauce of peppers, onions, balsamic, and more Sherry wine. Unbelievably good. No room for dessert. Today we were up with the sun at 6AM but managed to not set out until a little before 9. Our first stop was at a nature reserve for some hiking. Nice and flat! Then we drove by an amazing Columbus statue, but the roadway up to the statue was barricaded shut! So no good pictures. You'll have to come see it in person. From there we stopped off for an adventure, La Cueva del Indio. It's a DIY adventure. No good directions or signage, just wander the coast and don't fall into the cave. Beautiful sea arches. The hiking was over an expanse of sharp volcanic rock, which looked very unforgiving. We crested this arch first... To see more beautiful coastline! The sun was brutal. But the scenery was worth the sweat. This looks like a daredevil jump. No way. We found the cave entrance but it was a bit more than we were interested in. So we enjoyed the view. Off to the next stop at the Aricebo lighthouse. Nice beach here. If we were into that. We'd rather climb rocks! Now we turned inland. There's a waterfall to hike to. Anyone who knows Chris can understand that she would go to almost any extreme to find a waterfall. So we did.

Safe travels rojaan and drron. Until the next one!

So many great posts and pictures to catch up on this morning! You all were busy while I was snoozing. Thanks for sharing.

More like foggy memories I'd gather. M, we'll be flying into SJU on Saturday. Not staying in the Old Town though. But it's definitely worth a long stroll.

And to some that's a negative. 😉

St. Pancras station is indeed beautiful. We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel there a few years ago, before our Eurostar trip. Will have to find some pictures. ETA. A few pix.

I've done it myself a number of times. Have flown to Frankfurt and taken the train to Nuremburg once and to Wurzburg another time. Have flown to CDG then taken the train to Lyon. And once we caught the Eurostar from London to Paris, stayed overnight, then took a flight from CDG to Copenhagen. Especially out of Frankfurt, it was so easy to do this. There are a ton of handy trains right out of the airport. Fewer directly from CDG, IME. A seamless connection from one vendor might make this easier, as I've had to figure out all of my connections on my own for these scenarios, and buy all of the tickets separately. And it would help with the inevitable missed connections. But this can be done now.

Haha. My Audi does this automatically!

I hope Ron and Ann get to try a WC too, but OTOH, I fear that I would not be able to keep up with Ron's "Live From" thread if that were to happen!

One place that I've found consistently OK fares is AMEX. They have an International Airline Program that sells modestly discounted airfares. Think on the order of 10-20% off what you'll find on the airlines' websites. And add in 5x points on airline purchases, which you can then use for $ off future flights. But prices are still eye-watering. I was happy to get ALB-JNB this fall for $7500 PP (one stop in ATL). When it got that "low" I pounced. It had been running $9500 PP on AMEX and $11K PP on DL...

I may not brie sure, deer Mysty, but you should not duck the responsibility which comes with having achieved crossword greatness. I'm just not sure what the sixth clue is but I have all of the rest. I can't think of silly malapropisms using the three longer answers.

I've certainly done this in the BC era.

Ron! Where is the famous pink jacket? Congratulations on another milestone though!

I understood dear M just fine. It's not like she said, "Let's eat Grandma!" or anything else ambiguous...

Good to see you (almost) back on board a SS cruise! It's T-17 days for us but we "launch" in T-15 so getting closer. We'll arrive in Helsinki while you're in Bar Harbor! Have a marvelous time and we look forward to hearing about it.

There is a great New Years cruise that we looked at but we decided to go to Botswana in November instead. I wish we had time for both! The trip before this goes RT from Mauritius. Is that the one you're looking at? I thought this itinerary was better.

Herculaneum is super easy to DIY. (though we did it from Sorrento not Naples). The Circumvesuviana train runs between Naples and Sorrento, making stops at a number of handy places. We took it to Herculaneum and spent a few hours enjoying the site. It cost about E3 each way per person. Can't remember what the site cost but probably not too much. And we stopped at Pompeii too, on the way back, which was fantastic because we went at the end of the day as most of the tours were leaving. So we had it to ourselves in the evening which was amazing and a little spooky too. I just looked and the Circumvesuviana starts from Porta Nolano, which looks to be pretty close to the port where you dock in Naples. Can't tell you much else about Naples since every time we've been there we just take the fast ferry to Capri and wander around there. Once you get out of the towns it's just beautiful.

How fun! We have cruised with FauxNom before (also on Explorer). Pass along our regards!

We must visit. That area looks incredible! Thanks for sharing.

I would definitely work for that! Looks delicious.

Thank you for the list! We have been to quite a few of them on our last visit. I will try to find a few of the others this time!