Arrival + Day 1 in Puerto Rico.

Hello hive family,

This is a continuation of my previous post about our journey to Puerto Rico for our ENACTUS global competition.

As I stated in my previous post, we arrived at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in San Juan at around 3:30am.
We were very exhausted so after we picked our bags we were off to get a taxi to our place of residence.

Fortunately for us there were a lot of taxis around so we managed to get two of them to convey us to the place.
We packed our bags in the cars and we were already on our way to the said location.

Half way into the journey we got lost. The taxi drivers were a bit confused about the location so they had to check google maps for confirmation.

After they were sure of the place they told us it wasn’t safe around there at this time of the day.
So upon deliberations we decided to go back to the airport and look for another place to stay.

Back at the airport the taxi drivers decided to charge 40 dollars each making 80 dollars . 80 dollars for a trip that brought us back to our starting point. No way.

After bargaining for a while we finally settled on 60 dollars. We gave them the money and they were off.
We went back inside the airport and found a spot to sit. It was a closed restaurant under renovation in the airport. There were a few people around so we also made ourselves comfortable.

We then started to look for other options. We went online to search for available hostels or hostels around.
After about an hour we settled on one. I don’t really remember the name but it was a bit far from the airport.

Again , we got two taxis to take us there.
When we arrived the lady in charge told us they only had one room available and that room had also been booked.
We were fucked.

At this juncture, we all didn’t know what to do. Our phones were low and we didn’t have internet connection also.
What to do now?

We couldn’t order an Uber so we pulled our bags and went in search of another hotel.
We walked for about 30 minutes with our bags and before we knew it it was raining.

We were in the middle of nowhere and we had nowhere to go so we kept on walking in the rain until we came to another hotel called Hyatt house.

We went in and we were told the hotel was fully booked.
At the moment I knew I couldn’t go any further so I told my team mates I was exhausted.

The guys in the team decided to go in search of a place while we the ladies wait for them at Hyatt house. That was a cool deal.

After waiting for over an hour they finally came with good news with ‘buts’.
The buts could wait for now we told them.

All we wanted was to get a place , have a good bath , some food to eat and good sleep. We didn’t care about any other thing.
We got two taxis , thanked the lady at the reception and head out.

The journey was about 15 minutes ride. The ride was quiet as everyone was exhausted.
The taxis came to as stop infront of a restaurant.
This got me asking myself,” is this the place?”
Well, I needed to calm down.

So after we took our bags and paid the drivers we were led to a green door which didn’t seem to me like a hotel or something but I had to tag along.

Inside we were welcomed by a lady who I later found out was called Lydia.
She was very calm.
She helped us get our bags upstairs and we came to another door . She opened the door and there it was! A not so big but beautiful living room.

She led us in and told us this place was a hostel and we were to check in at 11 am. It was 9am by then.
The placed looked clean and cozy. We made ourselves comfortable as other sat on the couch while others also sat on the carpet on the floor.

Some of my team mates slept off while the others were busy with their phones.
Our supervisor went to the reception with Lydia to pay for our accommodation.

I forgot to mention we had a supervisor. He is the programs manager for the Enactus Ghana country office and he was to guide us on our trip.
After he was done with payment he joined us in the hall.

At 11:00am Lydia came to us and told us we could check in now but they didn’t have separate rooms for boys and girls so we all will have to be in one dorm with other people.
We didn’t have a problem with that.

She then read the hostel rules with us, showed us our individual beds and also took us around the hostel.
The place was small but comfortable and beautiful.
The name of the hostel is Santrucia hostel.

I was very happy we go that place because I didn’t want to be homeless in someone’s land lol.

We settled down and headed out later to get some food.
We didn’t know around so we asked the people we met along the street . It seems there were not a lot of food joints around so we were directed to one burger king around. It was about 15 minutes walk.

We got there within few minutes and placed our orders. Most of us opted for burger with fries and a cup of Pepsi.

After eating we headed back home.
At home, we all went straight to bed cos we needed some sleep.
I woke up at around 6:00pm to pray and I couldn’t sleep anymore.

Two of my team mates were up and they said they were having dance lessons on the terrace with some dancers so they dragged me along.