traveldiary.stracke.us

On Saturday, we explore the northeast corner of the island and visit the “Seven Seas Beach”. It is a beautiful long, crescent bay with sandy beach and picnic facilities. The locals are dragging in their big coolers, starting up the charcoal grills and filling the air with hunger-inducing aromas. We ask the park ranger about snorkeling beyond the roped-off swimming area. We get his permission, after passing 2 qualifying criteria: are you not drunk and are you good swimmers. We encounter a lot of seagrass, but eventually find a small patch of coral reefs and some tropical fish. It is better than nothing, but Puerto Rico is not really a diving destination.
On our return swim back to shore, I notice a grey Marine Patrol Boat closing in on us.
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It is May 4 and we finally relax. Breakfast is on our balcony at the Rio Grande Paradisus. With the temperature in the 90′s, we spent the rest of the day by the pool. I am reading “Saving Fish from Drowning”, a story about a group of travelers missing in the Burmese jungle. We swim in the enormous, lagoon-style pool and spend this day in paradise, stretching out on King-size Balinese platform lounging beds under palm trees, reading, sleeping and sunning ourselves. This is more like it for a birthday celebration.
At night, we have a nice dinner at the Starfish Restaurant in the Fajardo Inn. A very relaxing day.

It is May 3rd and I am reaching the speed limit(55). At noon, we are checking in at the Hotel Paradisus Gran Melia in Rio Grande. I had booked 3 nights to celebrate my birthday, here in paradise. On the internet, it looked very beautiful and romantic. The resort is huge and a golf cart takes us to our room. The room is very nice, very dark and very musty and moldy smelling. The “Garden View” ground floor room looks into dense bushes. Back to the front desk, where we are told that we have to wait until the afternoon for an upper floor room. We change into bathing suits and go to the pool adjacent to our building. We are told that this is the “Royal Service” pool and that we do not have privileges to jump in and cool off. Next to the advertised beach! Surprise, surprise: nobody is swimming here! The beach is bordering on a very flat, rocky lagoon and I see a bird standing in the water, about 100 yards off the “beach”.
Alright, we are off to the watersports center. They do have a couple of sailing catamarans, but I can not rent them. A captain takes guests for half or full hour tours. Now it is 2 PM and we are hungry for lunch. No problem one would think. The resort has 5 restaurants, one lobby and 2 pool bars! Probably too many choices? Wrong again!
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Gabi and I celebrated my 55th birthday for 5 days.
We started on May 2nd with a dinner in a restaurant at Newark Airport. It was a diner, decorated in the style of the Fifties, playing Rock’n Roll music from the 60′s. Our plane took off before sunset and we had a nice view of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge with Brooklyn and Carsten down there somewhere!
1608 miles and 3 and 1/2 hours later, we landed in San Juan, Puerto Rico and checked in to our freezer.
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