QuattroRomeo

This is the shot I meant to post, where you can see the Virgin Islands Coffee sign, across the street.

Bought a few things and headed back! Time for lunch.

I was in search of an ATM. Found a bank about 3 plazas over to the left, and the machine read "temporarily not dispensing cash". Great! Walked all the way back, found an ATM across the street, by the Island Coffee shop. Decent prices on coffee beans and had a free iced coffee with a purchase. ATM worked fine.

Once out of the security gate, there were the usual tours and cabs for hire. Price sign:

This morning we docked early at Havensight in St. Thomas. A Viking ship is in front of us. It's a fair hike from the ship to the shopping area especially in the heat. No ship shuttle that I saw.

Made it to the 9:30 show, comedian Cisco Duran. He was as risque as could be, and mostly funny - I had heard some of his routine on the first leg.

I was tired and hungry when we got back, went to Club Orange. I had the tasty roasted zucchini soup again, and ordered the Beecher's; however, it wasn't very good. There was no crust on it, just a scorched top. So I sent it back and had the CO special, short ribs, instead.

Between the time of day, the window tint and route taken, photos of Christmas lights were negligible. A few people got off the bus to stay in town. We got back about 6:30.

Dark interior photos of the bus:

I did hear the coqui frogs!

The Puerto Rico Favourites tour yesterday was a little irritating. The description needs some beefing up and I will definitely send a review when the time comes. The first part drives to a fort and the guide takes you inside, up some steps (elevator is broken), he gave a little talk inside, then a longish walk through a very dark tunnel, then inside that part he says you have 40 minutes and to meet back at the bus! I had thought it would be a panoramic drive-by. I can walk around just fine but wasn't planning on a fort walk. If you have walking problems, don't do this tour. There were 2 gift shops in the fort. One on the main level, one upstairs. Main is bigger. I saw one suit of 16C armour. If you have been to the Malta armouries, this was a little underwhelming! The bus was a 25 seater- 10 rows of 2 and 5 seats in a row across the back. None of the seats were comfortable and were quite narrow. There was a lot of jockeying for position with the seats after each stop. The windows were large but tinted. Couldn't take pictures on the drive up the misty rainforest hill, too dark. And the drive back in the evening was dark because of the tint. Any time we hit a bump we hit incredibly hard. Not much suspension. The rainforest was beautiful and the best part of it I find is the fresh air and the smell of the forest. We only had 2 stops, 20 minutes each, one had a washroom. No shops or food. Apparently the tour that does only the rainforest has 4 stops and one includes a shop with snacks. None of this is in the descriptions. On the drive out of town, the guide pointed out different buildings and once on the highway it was interesting to see the outskirts of the city and a couple of the next cities. Photos during the drive didn't turn out that well of course.

The ceviche was delicious, as was the shrimp roll, although quite similar with lots of shrimp. Ceviche also had crab. Banana cream pie was tasty- better without the crust..

The MDR had an Express Lunch today, as we approach San Juan.:

Another very rocky night and morning! I feel for the first-time cruisers on board. We get into San Juan at 1 pm are still travelling quite quickly. This leg of the cruise, being a 7 day one, has a generally younger demographic and several families- of course it is close to Christmas as well. Apparently this crowd prefers the Lido to the more traditional sit-down dining rooms, so a restaurant manager told me they have had to shift more waiters to the Lido. I'll be doing a tour this afternoon which includes the El Yunque; haven't done that area before so looking forward to it.

This photo might be clearer

Morimoto Halibut XO Lovely fish, large portion. I liked the sauce, always wanted to try it. Quite umami. Enoki mushrooms, braised leeks, asparagus.

Seafood deviled eggs ( DH said the ones I make are better), and chicken tabbouleh salad.

Are you doing any tour in SanJuan? I'll be on "Puerto Rico's Favourites" tour! I tend to walk a lot around the ship, in an effort to keep the calories down!!