Beginnings...

In order to save about $600 on round-trip air fares for our trio, my wife, daughter and I started our trip to Puerto Rico by driving almost an hour to Killeen, Texas (near the huge Fort Hood military base).  We were surprised that this facility was much larger than the Waco airport, but still boarded a small prop plane to be shuttled to Houston for the main event.  What became a recurring theme for the close ties between the US and Puerto Rico, we were astonished that of the twenty-two folks on this commuter flight, ten continued on to San Juan!  In addition to our party of three, there was a family of four, a couple and a single woman whom we recognized.

Having traveled to the Caribbean several times from the East Coast, we were surprised that the flight time was four hours…but it slowly dawned upon us that Houston is a bit further west, lol.  An important footnote is that Puerto Rico exists on Atlantic Standard Time, an hour ahead of EST --- but since they don’t have daylight savings, it was only an hour change for us on CDT during the summer.  So with the hour loss it was Saturday night before we touched down and hailed a cab to deliver us to the nearby Holiday Inn for the night.

Of course we scanned the baggage claim area in search of a number for our hotel to score a free shuttle, but learned that because of the taxi union, these were not permitted!  So please forget about free shuttle service if you head to Puerto Rico.  Worse yet, the taxi’s charge per person and hit you up for each piece of luggage!  Although our lodging was only a mile away, it was a $12.50 cab fare to reach our destination.

We were only staging here to catch a flight the next day, but we hit the bar to get a bedtime snack and toast being on vacation.  We ordered a virgin pina colada for our daughter, and it was the best one she would have…the calamari appetizer Kim & I ordered was fantastic!!!  Although our room was cramped and a bit grubby (with wonderfully tacky light fixtures, lol), the arrival celebration made up for it.