Plans, Punctuality, and a Cancelled Snorkel
Well… this one was a little sad. Due to the weather, our snorkeling trip was cancelled. Of course, being us, we were there a full hour early and didn’t think to check our phones until the “mandatory 10 minutes before” tour time—at which point we discovered the cancellation notice sitting patiently in our inboxes, judging us.
We regrouped and headed back toward the Hyatt.
Casa Bacardi, Hurricanes, and Hand Sanitizer
On the way back “home,” we found ourselves talking about Casa Bacardi and what happened there during Hurricane Maria. While much of Puerto Rico was devastated in 2017, Bacardi’s facilities—built to withstand exactly that kind of storm—came through remarkably intact. The distillery shut down briefly, became a staging and support site for relief efforts, and was back producing rum far sooner than many expected.
As our guide had mentioned earlier, Bacardi did something similar during COVID: converting part of its operations to produce hand sanitizer, much of it donated locally for hospitals, first responders, and essential services. Rum, resilience, and when necessary, sanitizer. It felt oddly comforting to think about that kind of adaptability while the sky was doing its best to convince us not to snorkel.
Rebooking, Re-Routing, and Google Maps Shenanigans
GetYourGuide being what it is, we were offered a full refund or the option to rebook. We chose to rebook for 2:00 on Friday, after our Old San Juan history and tapas tour (including making mofongo). We’re also going to keep an eye on GetYourGuide for after tomorrow’s rum tour and bring our swimsuits along—if conditions improve and we’re feeling it, we might slide the snorkel over to then. We really do want to go.
A few additional field notes: Google Maps kind of… sucks here. We’re starting to wonder if the street names were last updated on the app pre-Maria. (We really are.) Perhaps all the signs blew down, and the local response was, “HEY! It’s our time to rename everything!” Google has repeatedly instructed us to exit at “Salida,” which—oh so helpfully—means exit. When you’re facing one of Puerto Rico’s many, many cloverleafs, this essentially translates to: choose your own adventure. We choose correctly about 80% of the time, which feels like a win.
Another peculiarity, especially on the JFK Highway (Juan F. Kennedy, thank you very much), is that the lane markings just… disappear. You’re cruising along on a busy three-lane road and suddenly there are no lines. None. We try to remain faithful to “the lane that was formerly a lane,” but it doesn’t appear that everyone shares this belief system.
Día de Descanso Dos
We did have our standard morning rainstorm, but so far so good. It’s about noon now. Sharon has headed down to the pool—or the beach, depending on where she can secure a couple of loungers. I figured I’d catch this up and then join her.
Which means it appears to be Lounge Day, #2 for us.
Or, as we now choose to call it: Día de Descanso, Dos.
And really—never a bad thing.
