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A JOURNAL
THIS BLOG IS AN ONLINE JOURNAL OF MY EXPERIENCES PAST AND PRESENT IN THE FORM OF WORDS, MUSIC, PHOTOS AND ART
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January 19, 2007 In San Juan, Puerto Rico It's been awhile since I've been to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I arrived here from Miami at around 10:30 in the evening. Was met by a Princess representative, and now am billeted in the Radisson Hotel in the Condado section of the city. San Juan seems to have changed. For starters, there is free broadband in my room. Instead of reaching for the TV remote, here I am pecking away at my laptop to answer e-mails and whatnot. Back then I had a Mac Plus, and no internet. Now I have a Powerbook that can do much anything short of launch a missile into outer space. Tomorrow I will be joining the Crown Princess ( hopefully in the downtown berth) to play in the orchestra. The weather is in the balmy 80's, quite a contrast from the chilly 50's of San Diego (not to mention those ice- and snow-bound cities in the Northeast). San Juan always reminds me of the old walled city of Manila. Everything here in San Juan--from the old ramparts to the houses with overhanging balconies and cobblestones and plazas --form an idea of the Manila that was, and is no more. Except for the surviving walls and a few odd reconstructed buildings and churches here and there, the Manila that used to be called the "Paris" and "Pearl" of the Orient is no more. Anyway, after Cartagena, San Juan is my next favorite Spanish colonial city in the Caribbean.
Many years ago, an Italian musician and I went to the big mall here, the Plaza Americas. His eye popped out at the sight of the pretty Puertorriquenas there. I had my hands full trying to restrain him because he was going after every girl asking her to marry him! Fortunately their boyfriends were not with them. Several years later, having just landed in from Europe on one of the Costa ships, I went to have coffee in a cafe under some banyan trees in the sea-walk near the port. Several passengers passed by and waved to me. A Scottish group, couples who own B&B's back in Scotland, came up to me and one of the men slyly came up to me and said:"By the way, I noticed that there are many beautiful girls here". It was like a revelation to him and to the others, and a fact that I've known all along. The Filipinos loved Dayanara Torres, who was married to Mark Anthony, who is now married to another Puerto Riquena, JLo something. There is very little that sets apart the cultures of the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
Posted by manniep at January 19, 2007 6:54:20pm
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A JOURNAL: Archives for January 2007
