It's been a busy day. Yesterday I mentioned to Gordon that I felt up to walking in to Fort Santiago if he and his wife were still interested. This morning he called to say they were and that Larry wanted to go along.

So there we were in the early afternoon fitting all four of us into my pickup. I have an extended cab Ranger with two little jump seats in the back. I was the only one who could drive because I was the only one who could get us on to the base. With the exception of Gordon's wife none of us are under 6' tall. It made for crowded conditions.

Fort Santiago was one of the original four Spanish forts that guarded the harbor. After the USA took the island from Spain the fort was torn down and a gun platform was erected on the spot. After WWII the platform was only used for saluting guns and now even those are gone.

The path in to the old fort starts out as a nice wide track but ends in a wall of jungle. There is a tiny trail that winds up hill between the trees. After a while we found a clearing but not a clearing such as I am used to in the Northern Woods. Here was an open area but the edge of the jungle was a solid mass of green with small pink flowers. Those who have seen kudzu in the southern states of the USA know what a wall of vegetation looks like. The clearing looked as though someone had draped a sheet of green and pink over it. The green underfoot was the same as the green on the sides that grew up and over the edge above us and out of sight beyond.

The path led through this and plunged into the green wall. The heat was stifling and the air was still. We climbed, accumulating sticky seeds and cobwebs. Finally we came to the edge of the cliff but there was no platform and no ruins. We worked our way back down the trail and spotted another trail running n to the left. At the end of that one we found what we were looking for. It was overgrown and surrounded by jungle but there was an old safety rail and once you stepped up to the rail a fresh breeeze hit your face and cooled the sweat on your head.

We had a terrific view of the harbor. Below us a sport boat was coming in trailing a white wake behind. A grey Navy security boat rolled out to meet it but didn't interfere. There was a container ship moored out there and the whole coast of the island ran off to the north beyond it. The sun was bright and the sea was that lovely darkest of blues.

As we walked back to the truck we strolled more slowly and the other three discussed the different trees and plants that surrounded us. We saw plenty of papaya, males and females. There was pseudo rattan, nonos, and even some ifit trees. Larry and Vickie discussed the medicinal quality of some of the plants we saw and when we reached the truck I noticed Larry was munching on a piece of fruit he'd picked off one of the trees.

Once we'd all scrunched back into the truck we drove up on to the abandoned runway. Larry was sure he remembered where there was an old wrecked airplane from WWII so we went looking for it. We finally found tthe sign at the head of the trail in to where the plane was. There was a warning that the trail was rough and long and that walkers should consider their experience and fitness before trying it. Since Gordon was only wearing sandals and Larry said the trail was rough limestone we decided to leave that adventure for another day.

This has been a good day.