San Juan and Home

The drive to San Juan through the mountains was beautiful but tortuous. High in the rain forest, we found a restaurant perched on a peak with stunning views. We ate lunch, then wound our way down the northern slopes.

We needed to return the car and were trying to decided exactly how to manage everything. Our initial idea was to book a room in a nearby budget hotel, get up at 4 a.m., return the car, then catch the plane. I then suggested that we return the car, stay in the airport hotel, and have a slightly more leisurely morning (if more expensive night). WW agreed. So, we had to return the car.

Easier said than done. We followed the 4-years-out-of-date map Leaseway had given us. We found ourselves mired in darkest San Juanurbia. We asked directions. Things got worse. We asked more directions. Finally, WW took matters into his own hands and just drove where he thought it would be. He has an admirable sense of whereness. He is constantly doing things like this. I am staring at a map that clearly says “go right” and he opts for left and gets there. Very irritating. Needless to say, he found it minutes later. And a lucky thing too. When he told them he’d thought of returning the car next morning, they said they weren’t open at 4 a.m. Phew.

A nice Leaseway man drove us back to the airport where we booked in for the night. The next day we had a reasonably early (6:30 a.m.) start, but it wasn’t any 4 a.m. Thanks be.

Our plane arrived a little bit early in Newark and we saw an earlier flight to Montreal had been delayed. We ran over to the gate and managed to get on. Instead of arriving home at 6 p.m., we were off the plane at 12:30 p.m.

We stayed home until April 30, when we flew back to San Juan.