Old San Juan For Tired & Lazy Birders

I’m going to preface this with the fact that we had the right to be tired and lazy since we got maybe 2 hours of sleep the night before due to late Liat and an early morning start to see Puerto Rican Amazon parrots.

IMG_8386So by the time we left Rio Abajo we were starving and stopped at the first shopping centre we found for the food court and also to try to find a prepaid SIM card that would work in the mainland USA as well.  This mall did the trick and we ended up hanging around until T-24 to do online check-in for Southwest and got A46 and A48 boarding positions.

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We were fading fast and decided just to drive around the old town and see as much of the fort and local area as possible from the car.  So fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride with us!  Don’t mind that I got lost until spotting a sign for old San Juan!DSCN4428 DSCN4430 DSCN4431

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The old town has some lovely old Spanish style buildings.DSCN4439 DSCN4441 DSCN4443 DSCN4444 DSCN4445 DSCN4446

The traffic was pretty bad and everyone was jockeying for parking so we had to circle around Castillo San Felipe del Morro a few times with angry motorists honking behind us.  I was trying to shoot photos out the window as much as possible.DSCN4448 DSCN4449 DSCN4450 DSCN4451 DSCN4452 DSCN4453 DSCN4455 DSCN4457 DSCN4458 DSCN4460 DSCN4462

I got closer on the second try.DSCN4470

Where did these people park?DSCN4464 DSCN4465 DSCN4466 DSCN4467

One last try.DSCN4468 DSCN4469

Cute trolley.DSCN4471 DSCN4472 DSCN4473 DSCN4474 DSCN4475

 

OK I give up, let’s just drive around the shopping area.  It was pretty crowded, might have been a cruise ship in town.  Maybe that’s how those people got there, shuttles from the ships.DSCN4479 DSCN4481 DSCN4482

The shopping area was pretty cool – cobblestone streets, interesting artwork and colourful buildings.DSCN4483 DSCN4487 DSCN4488 DSCN4489 DSCN4490 DSCN4491 DSCN4492 DSCN4493 DSCN4494 DSCN4498 DSCN4499

I do love a pina colada!DSCN4500 DSCN4503 DSCN4504 DSCN4505Wait, parrots have their own club?  We would have stopped in if we could find parking. DSCN4506 DSCN4507 DSCN4508 DSCN4509 DSCN4510 DSCN4511 DSCN4512

So that’s it, by this time we realized we were not going to find parking and were exhausted so time to go to the Intercontinental and relax!