The forts, OSJ, and Cafe Manolin - recent visit

We just returned from a stop in San Juan on the Carnival Freedom. We will be staying in the Condado area in October pre-cruise and will be with friends borrowing his dad's car while we're there. Since it was our first time there, we wanted to see the city.

We got off the ship, stopped at a Starbucks for WiFi (we had a very difficult time getting our Verizon phones set up correctly in SJ), and then walked up to Castillo San Cristobal. Cost was $5 each for both forts. After Cristobal, we waited about 10 minutes for the next HOHO trolley, and it took us all the way up the long driveway to the entrance of del Morro. Lots of really cool places to explore for the physically fit on a hot day. I saw a lot of people wearing Old Navy-style flip-flops and couldn't imagine how they did all that walking and climbing in them. I had on my Teva sandals and did just fine with those. If you've never been, be prepared for a lot of steps and uphill/downhill slopes. We covered a lot of ground just in the forts alone.

For lunch, I got a text from a friend recommending Cafe Manolin. We stopped for lunch. The place was packed, but we were able to grab two seats at the first bar area. Beside us were two border control officers and a local who told us his father had been eating there since the '60s. We could tell there were a lot of local employees stopping there to have lunch by themselves or with co-workers, so we knew the food must be good. The hubs had the Churrasco steak, and I had shrimp mofongo. Both dishes were absolutely delicious.

I got a text from another friend who recommended finding one of the street vendors pushing a cart with 3 different flavors of ice cream (not really ice cream but that's the best way I know how to describe it - maybe more like a sherbet?). It's $2 for a cup, and I followed my friend's advice and tried the parcha flavor, passion fruit. Very good and refreshing. We came across two other vendors like the first one while walking the streets.

Finally, we had stopped in the infamous CVS to scope out the wine selection for our October trip. I'll be asking our friends to take us to either a wine shop or a grocery store at the least for our cruise wine. I don't want to fly down with wine, so fingers crossed we have better luck at a better store.

Since we'll have a car on the next trip and will be with friends who are from there, we're hoping to do a lot more exploring:)

Sorry you had trouble with your phones... we have always had great service there since they are treated just like you are in the states. I have never understood how people walk in flip flops for longer than 10 minutes lol. My wife will walk all day in them :eek::confused::) That ice cream they sell on the streets is good huh...? We had some back in Dec 2012 and it was delicious and refreshing. Thanks for the report about café Manolin we will have to try it in Jan when we are there again.