I haven’t really traveled much outside of the U.S. I had been to some of the U.S. territories before but it was at such a young age that I couldn’t remember much of it. So last summer when our coaches said that we would be going to Puerto Rico for Christmas I was so excited to get this opportunity to play basketball there and visit so of their beautiful historic sites.
When we left Colorado we were all decked out in sweats long sleeves and some of us even had beanies on. Once we arrived we would soon regret our attire as the humidity hit us like a freight train. We soon just had sweat dripping from the top of our nose all the way to our toes. We arrived pretty late around 1 am, so we didn’t really know what to expect from the city life. Once we got to the hotel room and I stepped out on the balcony and saw the waves gently crash against the rocks, I could feel the ocean breezy tingling my skin giving me goosebumps. I couldn’t wait to see, hear, and feel the place the next day.
The first three days that we were in San Juan we didn’t go outside of the hotel much due to us having two basketball games but while we didn’t do a lot of sightseeing during those three days, I experienced so of the best seafood ever! There was a little food court area that opened up so that you could see the ocean and they had every type of cuisine that you could possibly think of. Puerto Rican, Italian, American, Mexican, and the seafood-oh my gosh it was the best seafood ever. I got the crab cake which was the perfect amount of crispy on the outside and soft and creamy on the inside and the calamari and it was so perfectly made and the chef told me he had just caught the crab that morning which made it taste even better.
Once we finished our games we were free to tour around San Juan and our first stop was Old San Juan a historical site with beautiful restaurants, little boutiques, and high-end fashion factories. What made this little hopping area so unique from anywhere that I had ever been was the gorgeous architecture of the building and the colors-oh the colors, were so beautiful! None of the buildings were the same colors and they were such bold and bright beautiful colors. While looking at the beautiful building and boutiques we found the cutest little restaurant. I had the absolute best-iced latte that I have ever had in my whole life! Starbuck has absolutely nothing on this latte and the steak sandwich that I had was the savory sandwich I’ve ever had.
After a couple of hours of touring the magnificent streets of Old San Juan, we headed back to the hotel to later get to experience some of the nightlife of Puerto Getting to see some amazing live music that is traditional to Puerto Rico giving us the perfect end to our Puerto Rican adventure of sun and fun in the middle of winter.
