Our Final Day in San Juan: Catholic Mass

We started off the morning by walking into Viejo San Juan to Catedral Basílica Menor de San Juan Bautista for an 11:00 mass. It has been pretty warm in the mornings but this morning was especially sunny and it was a beautiful walk outside. Mass began at 11:15. Some of us had experienced a Catholic mass before, while for others, it was the first time. I didn’t understand the majority of the service because the echo from the speakers made it pretty difficult to hear, but between all of the standing and sitting I did remember hearing the words “the Lord calls us not to be princes and kings but to be shepherds” which I kept in my thoughts throughout the day, even after the mass had finished. It made me wonder how we could live out this call throughout the rest of our SST experience. We left the church around 1:00, smelling of incense, and ventured back into the sunny San Juan afternoon.

After mass, many of us split up for our own adventures on our last day in San Juan. I went with a group to get limberes which really hit the spot after sitting in a warm church for an hour and a half. Then, we had lunch at a sandwich shop called El Mesón before getting ready to meet up with the rest of the group at the beach. We met some Puerto Ricans on the beach and some members of our group even had a fun time meeting their dogs! After the beach, many of us had burgers for dinner at a local burger joint recommended to us by Raquel that’s been in San Juan since the 60s. Then, we headed back to La Ferretería to do some laundry and pack up to say goodbye to San Juan.

This wasn’t a day full of group activities, but it was a nice day for us to be outside, enjoy each other’s company, and soak in the last bits of San Juan before beginning our trip to Adjuntas tomorrow morning.

by Maddie Bollinger