October 29, 2012 Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

October 29, 2012

We had quite an experience getting to our first hotel in San Juan.  The all-night flight was quick and uneventful, not even any turbulence from Hurricane Sandy.  We arrived in Charlotte, North Carolina, and had 3.5 hours to kill before our flight to Puerto Rico.  We were tired, but happy to be in sunshine and excited to complete our trip and really rest.

We boarded our plane and it taxied out to sit on the tarmac for over 90 minutes.  It was warm inside and we were very hungry as we hadn't eaten anything since a small dinner the night before.   The problem was not with our plane, thank goodness.  It seems that both Jacksonville and Atlanta centers had lost radar, probably because of Sandy.  After about an hour, they finally allowed domestic flights to leave, but international flights south were delayed an additional 30 minutes.

This flight was a bit bumpy, but Sandy was still out to sea and hovering off North Carolina and Virginia.  

It was close to 90 degrees upon arrival in San Juan and we were anxious to get to our hotel and sleep.  We waited in a long line for a taxi only to find that the taxi drivers had gone on strike an hour before.  It seems that they work for a certain tourist agency that didn't like how the drivers were dressed or how clean their cars were.  The company started charging $100 for each offense and the drivers struck.  We finally found a taxi upstairs in the terminal.  It had another couple in it, but they agreed to share the car with us as few were available.  Our driver said that his father owned five cars and the sons could drive them as taxis, as long as they paid their father $40/day for the use of the car.  The driver said that all taxis were owned privately, but belonged to this group which gave out the fines.  He wasn't worried, though, because he always dressed appropriately and kept the car clean.  It sounded to us like he was a scab.   

The photo above is the street where Hotel Milano is located in Viejo San Juan.  The room was $145/night and very basic.  There weren't any windows, just two glass blocks high up on one wall.  At least we had good air conditioning, and the staff was friendly.  While we felt closed in, we were too tired to care.  After a walk in the area and dinner, we stayed in and watched Sandy on CNN, marveling at all the destruction.  7.5 million homes are without power and at least 16 people have died in the U.S.  Wow!