Efrain & Eva met in Puerto Rico. Efrain didn't have any pictures to share because he doesn't have a working camera, but here is what they did in Efrain's words:
I got up by 6:30AM, the usual time I get up and left home around 7:00AM. I arrived around 9:15AM, a little more than two hours later. They (Eva and her husband) were staying in a hotel whose name slips out of my memory now. Iremember it was located at McLeary road. It was funny that I had studied a google map with a satellite photo to help me get around thearea since I don't know it, and I ended up getting lost. By some miracle, I happened to be running through the very McLeary road andsince then it was easy to locate the hotel.
We met at the hotel's small restaurant where Eva and her husband were taking their breakfast. We took the bus to Old San Juan and arrived at the bus terminal in Old San Juan. Then took the trolley. We left the trolley at the front of El Castillo de San Cristobal. It was much fun walking through thoseold tunnels. Since it was Halloween, Eva was joking about ghosts and we were cracking jokes about old ghosts of Spanish soldiers haunting those tunnels. She joked about the ghosts coming to take her husband; since she was Spaniard, they wouldn't do her any harm and since I am Puertorrican, they wouldn't do me any harm either.
We have to notice that the whole fortress was built by the Spaniards. We were there up to around 1:00PM or 1:30PM. We lunched in a restaurant next to Plaza Colon, near San Cristobal Fortress. Its name slips my mind too, sorry. Then we took the trolley and went to El Castillo de San Felipe del Morro.El Morro is one of my favorite places all around Puerto Rico and I can state exactly what is my favorite place in the whole fortress. It is what is called "La Torre del Morro" (The El Morro's Tower). It's as mall place inside the fortress that's the oldest place in the castle.The tower is the very first thing that was built. It's now inside the massiveness of the castle and it's not visible save for its interior.There is no sketch from the building time that gives any indication of it's outer appearance, but I have a good idea of what it should have looked like. La Fortaleza (or El Palacio de Santa Catalina, now the residence of the governor of Puerto Rico) has two towers. I once visited La Fortaleza, and the guide explained to me that the structure was originally just a single plaza surrounded by a wall and one of the towers.
When we enter that tower, it looks just like the tower at El Morro, just that it is very well maintained, with a tiled floor, while the El Morro's one looks deteriorated. A fragment of a projectile is stuck in the ceiling. Just at looking at the tower of La Fortaleza, we can picture how the tower at El Morro should have looked like in thebeginning. They both were built around the same time although the tower at La Fortaleza is a bit older.I think Eva noticed my excitement when I explained that to her. It blows up my mind.
By the end of our visit at El Morro, Eva was visibly very tired. I didn't feel so tired, yet I don't know whether or not I actually looked tired.We returned to the hotel and then I showed the pictures of my childrento Eva. We talked about our sponsored children and about our efforts to raise funds for them. She has a heartbreaking story about how bad a fundraiser went for her. I wouldn't do any justice to that story whether I try to retell it myself, so I won't.
It was past 8:00PM when I left the hotel. Right before leaving, Itried to study my map to find my way back. Unfortunately, the roads were not properly labeled and I ended up getting lost at night in the streets of San Juan (not the old part). After a little while of trying to sort out the streets without success, I gave up trying and decided to follow my instinct. Almost in no time I turn a corner that feltj ust right and I was in route though PR-2 road which I knew it would lead me to the highway. This is not the first time that I have noticed that I have a keen sense of orientation that could save me many headaches whether I decide to fully trust it.
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