Greetings from San Juan!!
 

Got here yesterday at 9:30 AM from LA. Took the red-eye with the wife. Went on a Tech Scout from 7AM (3AM LA Time) until 8PM here. Took a few pics, will take more tomorrow. Local Location Manager says about 40% of locals speak English. The rationale to most of them is this is their world where they live, and never see going to the States or otheriwise. ALL the local crew speak English very well, they say they figured out quick that those who speak fluent English are going to get the filming jobs. The 20 or so locals say between features, commercials, infomercials and the TV show here and there, they work about 150 to 200 days/year, at Union wages, so they do OK. I'm here until Sunday then back to LA for a night, then on to Vancouver, BC for two days, then Albequerque for the rest of next week for two more TV Pilots. Glad I bought the wife, we'll have a day or two here with my only expenses being her flight (frequent flier miles) and here meals and what she buys. A great deal if you ask me


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How much?

Just kidding, I was there on a ship a while ago when we still had the Naval Gunnery range nearby, It is a beautiful place. Cheap rum!

Beautiful... Oh and where do I sign to get your job? You get to do some sweet traveling....

"

Funny, yeah, I "brought" the wife. I was here in 72 on shore leave from the USMC when we were bombing the crap out of Viegas for drills/exercise, that wa 38 y/o for you kiddies. SmileWavy

Hola amigo, que tal?

Keep the pictures coming, Hugh. I have customers there that I have never visited - so it is in the cards sooner or later.

Ian

Great trip, sounds like a great couple weeks. I always told GF's my business travel was work and they really wouldnt like to tag along. I think you found the perfect gig.

Have fun, Hugh!

Here's my favorite old-town "San Juan" photo, I took it in Jan. 2005 Somewhere up there by the old fort.


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Jeremy we all thank you for refraining from telling us what you did to that little dog in that pink building to get him up there..... :eek:

You should visit. Its really a nice area, nice people, great weather (but humid and rains often) and no hassles with a so called foreign country and customs.

Was there last year and really enjoyed it.

These are Castillo san Felipe del Morro built by the Spaniards initially in 1495 and added onto over the next 350 plus years, including during WWII by the USA. During WWII, the US fired on German U-Boats from here. It's now a .US National Park.

The "fort" is a system of walls and garrisons that surrounded old San Juan, much of it still exists very cool place. Going to the Bacardi distillary, the rain forest, and an observatory before we leave on Sunday. Will post more pics later.

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The one above is from my hotel room.

Hugh, that looks like the old Caribe Hilton on the lagoon. There's a bridge within a short walk into a downtown district and Viejo San Juan is a good walk in the other direction.

Do they still have the underwater lighting so you can see the pretty blue and yellow fishes off the end of the walkway?

In the first pic, I thought that hotel looked like the old La Concha. Maybe ?? They had a sea shell looking resturant on the ocean.

LOL I read that and thought it was anther post by the two-legged lawsuit from arizona ;)

Flat

Yeah exactly right, its the Caribe Hilton, still has lights at the end of the point where you can see cool fish under the lights at night. I've seen the same eel trolling two nights that I've been here in the exact same spot.

Sammy for you:

Kreeetings furom Sanji Whoan!!!!!

I'll post some more tomorrow, today was kind of long. We plan to go to the rainforest and maybe snorkel diving on the Caribbean Sea side of the Island; what you see is the Atlantic Ocean side; two very different bodies of water not separated by much land.

Hugh;

I was there many times in the past, but my fav was taking Clint down there to shoot Heartbreak Ridge. We actually went to Grenada 2 days after the gunfire stopped, and after a day of scouting, he said there was not a single nice location to shoot. Was all very dingy. He decided to go to San Juan to rethink the shoot, and fell in love with it.

We stayed at the El Rey, and eventually pretty much took it over as the filming ramped up. The Puerto Rican National Guard would land their Huey's on the beach in front of the hotel to ferry all of us to Vieques for the shoot. It was where Clint got his love of helicopters, and he was taking the controls pretty much every run to and fro. He started taking lessons right after that. He and Harrison Ford ran across each other on the ski slopes not long after, and he got Harrison started taking lessons as well.

Did you get to Volkyland, the big VW museum?

Volkyland?
Really! thanks for the tip, it's pouring buckets right now. I mean buckets. I forgot the camera charger, but still have the IPhone so I may be able to load some more pics. Wifey and I had Puerto Rican food a few nights, very good. We went to the Barcardi Distillery which was OK, but $10.95 for a liter of 8 year old is pretty good. We're bringing back some. Bought some very good local cigars.

Didn't get to Volkyland, but did get to the ARECIBO Observatory. The 1000 foot across radiotelescope in the mountians west of San Juan. It was used in the movies Contact and the James Bond movie Golden Eye. Pretty cool place, lots of rain during the day. We leave tomorrow. These are from my IPhone, my regular digital camera died and I forgot the charger. You'd think a Sony digital would charge from the USB download cable, but this model apparently does not.

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Next week, I'm off to Albequerque, NM for another TV Pilot. Anyone there?

The best rum (and I drink it fairly regularly :p ) is Guyanese. El Dorado. Demerara 15 year old defines sipping rum. Although Martinique rum is pretty good too.

And we all know where the best cigars come from. Silly embargo.

Joe: I will make it there sooner or later. I saw a dealer today from Santa Domingo DR. I should visit him too . . . :D

Ian