VIVA PUERTO RICO

The room service knock at 5:45am had Chucky springing from the bed with a leg cramp, fumbling to open the door.  Usually they call 5 minutes in advance to advise that it’s on the way to give you a chance to cover whatever needs covering before opening the door to who knows what. Fortunately for the young lady with the tray in her hand, he had covered...whatevah, saving them both embarrassment, him more than her 

Then it was the dance of the VERY Tiny bathroom, even smaller than Beijing, to perform the morning ritual, and get dressed for what promised to be a scorcher.

The plan was to meet at the gangway but the Tempelshifs and Mark texted that they were already on the dock, so Chucky and DL met them there to wait for Lydia.  Helmut had no desire to wander around Puerto Rico and when Lydia arrived they struck out to find a taxi or tour or sumpin’.

And of course, there he was, dressed in his nifty blue logoed “Puerto Rican Tour Association” T-shirt, offering a guided tour of Old San Juan, the Fortress, the This and the That, all for the low-low sum of $15pp. Such a DEAL!

You know what comes next… no nice SUV to hold 6 for a private tour, of course not.  Mr. Official Blue T-shirt ushered them onto an empty 24 passenger bus and went back to find 18 other innocent and gullible souls.  After realizing that we weren’t gonna wait, he took us off and put us on a nearly full bus which rounded out with a family of 3 and we were off.

Albert, a native of Puerto Rico but raised in the Bronx before returning to be Mr. A-1 tour bus driver, gave us quite a tour.  A Native market where you could buy all sorts of fresh fruits, veggies, cigars, etc., and a mighty fine mojito, with individually crushed mint and lime

Then off to cruise the high rent and low rent and beach side areas, while Albert droned on with this fact and that, stopping at a couple shops for tchotchke acquisitions for this kid and that, and a stop at a great beach overlook for pictures while a native was playing run and catch with a VERY fast mutt.

After visiting the Castillo San Filipe del Moro fortress and cemetery, where Mark just had to ask:

“Do you know how many people are dead here?”

Albert shrugged, to which Mark replied,

“All of Them.”

Drummmmm rolllll, rim shot, Cymbal crash and much eye rolling.

On that note we headed to Old San Juan to drop off those interested in more tchotchke searches, while visiting the Home of the Original Pina Colada, where they had an interesting but small breakfast in a Boars Head outlet, all prepared on a small plancha [ask your Cuban friends what that is].

They did not tour the Castillo for as Albert advised, it is a minimum of 2.5-3 hours, a tariff of $7pp and we had too little time on the island what with anchors up at 2:00PM.  so… now, no Fortress tour, maybe on the next trip this way.

So after breakfast the Great tchotchke trek began again, with a stop in CVS for more Happy Hour snacks – Still nothing from RCCL on that point -  ending by the port where most of the good finds were had.

Once aboard it was off to deck 15 near the bandstand with a pretty good Latin band for more sun, pool splashing and an abundance of Frosty Fruity Concoctions until it was time to freshen up for Happy Hour, with the lovely Alexandra and then Dinner with Rado’s crew.

Which turned out to be another round of Dinner Table Roulette, with some winners, some losers and more apologies by Rado.

Not worth going into, suffice it to say, 7 dinners, 6 loser’s, the details are irrelevant at this point.  Looks like another letter to corporate, this is really embarrassing.

The Tempelshifs and Mark head towards their cabins whileT2, Chucky and DL headed to Bolero for some Latin sounds, Chucky had to get his Salsa on.

Settling with cocktails, Chucky was scoping the room for ladies who may have rhythm while their partners didn’t.  After assessing that not many presently in the club were worth approaching a young couple arrived and immediately got on the floor with some smooth moves, her more than him.  That was his target.

When the band struck up a samba, he sprang into action.  The Guy didn’t speak English but after She translated Chucky’s request, .

“Would you mind if I had a dance with your lady?” .

He consented, noting “Only One”.  No English, hunh!

After 3 steps she asks:

“Where are you from, how long have you been dancing like this, and where did you learn?”

Chucky responded:

“Miami, since I was 5, my Father, .”

And they proceeded to own the floor.

Later he spotted a Chinese lady who just arrived with a group from a previous night who appeared to have taken ballroom lessons in China, from the way they followed all the dance class basic steps.  She was totally surprised when he asked her to Cha Cha [in Chinese no less] and jumped at the chance to try her newly learned skills with someone other than her, by-the-books partner.

Again, they owned the floor.

By then T2 and DL were done watching him show off his dance moves [those who know Chucky know what that that means] and decided to head to their cabins.

Remy Martin followed Chucky to the NOWAT posting spot as DL met her sleep muse and soon he acquiesced and hit Nonny-Nonny Land with her.

Ciao 4 Now

Uncle Chuck & The bored with his dance antics, 

Dragon Lady