PUERTO RICO, DAY 1

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Courtyard Isla Verdes Resort

San Juan, Puerto Rico

80*, 94% rh, brief showers now and then

My flight from Miami was delayed 45 minutes but otherwise uneventful. I have really come to appreciate Southwest Airlines, which I had flown exclusively until this month. I took an Air Tran flight home from DC last week and flew American down here. Southwest has a much better boarding procedure, despite not reserving seats, and they have wider seats with more leg room.

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I touched down at 4:20PM local time and was picked up by a colleague from the company. Willie was born in NYC but spent his childhood living in San Juan. He gave me a nice tour of Old San Juan, which is where the above pictures were taken. The Spanish fortresses were quite impressive, although we just drove by.

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San Juan was founded by Juan Ponce de Leon in 1508. The island is roughly 100 miles by 40 miles and separates the North Atlantic from the Caribbean. It is now a U.S. territory and Americans can travel to and from here just like within the States. Here's an interesting fact I found online:

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Puerto Rico is close to the deepest submarine depression in the North Atlantic Ocean. The Puerto Rico Trench, roughly parallel to the northern coast of the island of Puerto Rico and lying about 75 miles (120 km) to the north. The Puerto Rico Trench is about 1,090 miles (1,750 km) long and 60 miles (100 km) wide. The deepest point in the Atlantic Ocean, the Milwaukee Depth , lies within the Puerto Rico Trench, at a depth of 27,493 feet (8,380 meters) in the western end of the trench, about 100 miles (160 km) northwest of Puerto Rico. The origin of the trench can be traced back to the beginning of the Tertiary period. The Puerto Rico Trench appears to be part of a complex system of sinistral strike-slip faults in the north Caribbean; the trench seems to have been opened continuously for about 70 million years. It is partially filled with sediments. The Caribbean's greatest known depth is Cayman Trench (Bartlett Deep) between Cuba and Jamaica, at approximately 25,216 feet (7,686 meters) below sea level.
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