On this gorgeous Saturday (no rain, finally) we took coastal highway 165 into San Juan from Dorado, a beautiful drive along the waterfront without any traffic whatsoever. We first explored a little stretch of land called “Isla de Cabras” (Goats Island) which is a tiny island strategically located at the entrance of San Juan Bay. Its historically significant position is evidenced by a fortification called “El Cañuelo” which is not accessible to visitors. The island was even used as a leper colony in the late 1800s. From there we drove back past the main power station and the Bacardi Rum factory to the Ferry Terminal in Cataño where we took a ferry across the bay into Old San Juan. I rediscovered many of the places I had already visited earlier, including the fortress San Felipe del Morro and the adjacent San Juan Cemetery. I was enchanted by the narrow, cobble-stoned streets with their brightly coloured stuccoed houses. In the courtyard of the historic building “El Cuartel de Ballaja” I came across a major festival for guitarists who play the local “cuarto” guitar, and two teenage boys played a little Spanish song for me on this unique instrument. I even caught images of a local wedding right in front of the Cathedral of San Juan. At dusk the Christmas lights on the Plaza de Armas and along the Calle Fortaleza came to life. As the sun was going down I positioned myself on the Plaza de la Rogativa to catch the sunset and then walked through the Puerta de San Juan for a …

Video Rating: 4 / 5

Our last few hours in Puerto Rico had arrived. We left Dorado and took coastal Highway 165 again for a pleasant stress-free drive into San Juan. We had just about two hours before we had to return our vehicle at the airport and decided to visit another couple of areas in San Juan that we had not seen before. We drove through an area called “El Condado” which is a busy ocean-front community with many high-rise hotels, somewhat reminiscent of Fort Lauderdale or Miami Beach. We then drove further east to another San Juan district called “Isla Verde”, a beachfront suburb that also features many condominiums and some highrise hotels. After returning our rental car we were ready to check in our luggage when the US Airways representative informed us that our flight to Philadelphia was cancelled due to the winter storm that had been blanketing the northeastern US and Canada. Fortunately he found a flight to Charlotte, NC, that would connect us with our destination of Buffalo after all. We had to race to the plane as everybody was already boarding. We finally arrived at about 10:30 pm in Buffalo, and not surprisingly were greeted by a continuing snowfall. Our car was buried under several inches of snow and after finally finding a gas station in Buffalo we crossed the border into Ontario at midnight. Having arrived at 2 am in our driveway in Toronto, we couldn’t even get our vehicle into our driveway because the snow was so deep.