Boulevade of Dreams & The Great Wall

Old San Juan is a very walkable region. It feels like it's a lot bigger than it is, with its jam-packed buildings and winding, hilly streets. It's easy to feel lost but if you keep walking you'll eventually end up back in the same place as you started.

The people that settled here over the years created a beautifully structured city without a place left untouched by a plaza, a park or a monument. There was always something to see and admire in Old San Juan. Yet it gets really hot during the day and after a morning of walking you become thoroughly drained  and really feel like you need a siesta! Although that's not a custom in Puerto Rico it really should be adopted; Spain definitely has a point there. So while you could really see all there is to see in a day, or day and a half, I'm glad we had 3 days to spread out our sightseeing with some relaxed afternoons of hanging out at a bar or coffee shop, or taking that much needed siesta. 

The city wall, scene here at the entrance to Paseo de la Princesa, is

One of my favourite morning walks was along the southern side of the Muralla (wall), which we came across by accident with no plan set out. We started off heading down towards the ferry terminal where we found this cute little yellow neoclassical building called La Casita (The Little House - of course) in a plaza called La Dársena . It overlooks San Juan Bay and was originally built for the Department of Agriculture and Commerce in 1937. Across the street is the Tourist info centre (which has recently moved from La Casita) where we picked up some maps.

We also found a tiny coffee shop here at the ferry Terminal (Pier 2, Café Cola'o), which to our greatest surprise made a REAL cappuccino! We hadn't had one of those since we left Australia. It wasn't the best cappucino but it was still a cappuccino none-the-less, and that makes a world of difference. So by this stage, we were really liking San Juan, and Puerto Rico, immensely. But it was only getting started.

Not far from here is the beginning of a long section of the remaining wall, La Muralla. This defensive wall was built around the city starting in the early 1500′s to keep the city secure from invaders that regularly tried to steal this Spanish jewel. It was constantly being extended and heightened over the years as needed until it was finally completed in 1782. It's huge, almost 20 feet thick in places and up to 60 feet high at it's tallest. It is made of solid sandstone blocks held together with mortar, limestone, sand and water. The Garitas, or sentry boxes, are famous features of the wall, and it's forts, have become the official symbol of San Juan

We followed it west into the most beautiful tree-lined pedestrian walkway, called Paseo de la Princesa. It has a very European-esque feel with antique street lamps and a canopy of trees, which was a much-needed haven from the sun that was already beginning to intensify. We stopped at one of the many benches to take it all in. We also noted that it advertised itself as a free wifi hotspot. Nice.

"Originally created in 1853, the Paseo has been recently restored to its 19th century splendor. This broad brick boardwalk, enjoyed in the Spanish Colonial era by members of the gentry, now leads its visitors through a pleasant palm-lined paseo and sculptural showcase..."  (Eye Tour)

There were a few hidden gems along the way, a mysterious but attractive monument hidden beside the wall behind a locked fence, and a stylish restaurant, Cafe La Princesa, tucked al fresco between the trees and the wall. It made me wish we had money to spend on treats like this; I could just picture myself relaxing here with a glass of wine at one of those tables hidden amongst the vines, but alas, it looked a little out of our price-range. However that was all forgotten when we came out of the passageway and saw before us an even more magnificent sight; in front of us was the striking Raices Fountain.

ABOVE: the superb composition of the Raices Fountain framed by the
 trees and lamp posts on either side and the shimmering bay behind.

LEFT: the monument tucked by the fence that I couldn't and still
can't identify, but look how pretty it is.





This really is a magnificent fountain and the perfect ending for the paseo de la princesa by the edge of the bay. It has at its centre a bronze sculpture which symbolises the islands mixed cultural roots (Raices Fountain: 'raices' meaning 'roots' in Spanish). It's actually a very recent statue, completed in 1992 for the commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the New World , and depicts the Amerindian, African and Spanish origins of Puerto Rico as human figures "represented as a ship being steered out into the open sea with leaping dolphins leading the way to a bright 21st century future". (PuertoRico.Com)

The stately grey and white building on the corner here is called La Princesa and for centuries housed the city jail, one of the most feared  in the Caribbean. Built in 1837 it held up to 200 prisoners at it's peak. Though it's been restored it seems like it must have been one of the prettiest jails ever, with a lovely inner courtyard. It now houses the Puerto Rico Tourism Company headquarters which confusingly didn't include a tourism information centre. Besides a small gallery exhibition that we wandered through it didn't have much else going on but if anything providing a refreshing departure from the oppressing heat outside it's doors. Seemingly, in San Juan everywhere has super cold air-conditioning which is not a bad thing at all. We didn't realise you could get a quick tour of some of the old cells that were kept in their original condition, obviously you have to ask specifically.

From here, steps lead down to a narrow path that continues around the waterfront at the edge of the wall. This first part is enclosed by shady trees and it's a lovely spot to take a moment and look out across the bay to the hills on the other side of the harbour and the cute little boats bobbing on the water. Continuing further along out of the trees I got the shock of my life when a HUGE Iguana almost landed right on top of my head! I don't even think I've seen an iguana before in person, and here was one making it's delivery from the sky! Actually, a workman was sweeping the top of the wall and had just swept this Iguana right off the side - not stopping to think there might be people down below! I didn't know what was going on at first, I heard this massive splat and turned to see this stunned scaley green ugly thing about 2 ft from me. That could've been bad. Word of warning - don't walk close to the edge of the wall, you don't know what might fall on you!

The Culprit

My shock subsiding, we reached the bright red frame of La Puerta de San Juan - The San Gate. The wall, being the defense of the city, obviously had to have gates controlling the coming and going of people in and out of the city.  Three of the walls five (perhaps six, depending on what you read) gates lead into the city, and out of these this is the only one that remains today. It's probable there was always some kind of entrance here from the beginning but the present gate was built in 1635. This heavy wooden door, framed by a red painted buttress was for centuries the official entrance for notables who came to the city by boat and for all goods from trading ships. The doors were closed at sundown to cut off access to the city and protect the city from invaders. As you go through you get a sense of just how thick the wall is and that its not a 'gate' in the conventional sense of the word, but more like an antechamber between the big bad world outside the wall and the sanctum inside. We had now officially entered the gates of the Old San Juan.

Old San Juan - A Graceful Old Lady

This has to be one of the most charming Old Towns I've ever been to.

I won't say "the best" because I know there's a lot of competition for that title. For starters, Stockholm's Gamla Stan is a great one, Prague also is enchanting. But it's been a long time since I've been to Stockholm and time being a fickle thing, has blurred it in my memory. And Prague? Beautiful, yes, but for me, she's a bit too exuberant; too many architectural styles competing for attention crammed together. It's also not so well maintained. Madrid, the capital of the colonial homeland, didn't hold a candle to Old San Juan either, though that's more of what I had expected when I went there. And sure, there's plenty of other old towns I haven't been to yet, but something about this old town has just me won over.

It's the profusion of colour abounding in Old San Juan that initially sucks you in, and the clean-cut architecture. The buildings aren't particularly intricate, but their simple design and bold colours are striking. There are a handful of lavish buildings that are majestic and tastefully done. Other than that, only now and then is there a hint of ornateness in the window trim or the balcony to set it off. Most buildings are only 2 or 3 stories high but they still seem to loom above you. Matched with the opaque blue cobblestone streets, winding down the steep hilly slopes in a mirage of colour it produces an Alice-in-Wonderland type awe. You turn a corner expecting to find the hide of the white rabbit dashing around the next corner.

Of course the magic of this city lies also in it's deep history. It's some 460 years old and is the second oldest European city in the Americas. It still contains a large portion of the wall that once surrounded the entire city.  It's 7-square-block area has evolved into a charming residential and commercial district including more than 400 carefully restored 16th- and 17th-century Spanish colonial buildings which are accented by parks, plazas, churches and 2 forts at either end of the city. A wise visionary back in the 1940s cautioned the government against modernising the district. The preservation of these buildings and laws requiring new buildings to incorporate the same architectural elements has allowed this city to flourish into the 21st Century. It was declared a world heritage site in 1983.

(Left: The cobblestones are adoquine, a blue stone cast from furnace slag; they were brought over as ballast on Spanish ships and time and moisture have lent them their characteristic colour)
WelcomeToPuertoRico.Org

Old San Juan was built at the far west end of a small, narrow island in the bay of San Juan, commanding the entrance to the harbour. It wasn't till the end of the 19th century that the city even expanded outside it's walls, when the east side of the wall was removed to incorporate Puerta de Tierra, the rest of this tiny island (now housing most of Puerto Rico's government institutions, including the Capitol and Supreme Court). The metropolis of San Juan is now a large gritty sprawl like any urban city with a large low socio-economic demographic and roughly half the island's population living in this area.


The grey building closest on the left has the garden

  

We had the good fortune of staying right in the middle of Old San Juan with a couchsurfer named Ali who is now also a good friend. He had a cute, tiny aparment on the top floor (3rd floor). It had high ceilings, and proportionate-sized doors and windows. Wooden doors containing levered shutters opened up to slight balconies, and even the main door had the same type doors with no glass or gauze, just straight out to the elements. It made for a nice cross-breeze but was trouble when it rained hard! Directly opposite us across the street,the top floor contained just the facade of the building below, and through hollow windows you could see plants growing and strings of vines folding out down the edge of the window panes. It looked fantastical. But actually it was really a mid-city vegetable garden; a kind of coop garden for kids to grow their own vegetables. Wow, I thought, what a progressive idea in an age-old city.

We felt remarkably safe in this city - though admittedly it was the tourist area - but we wanted to find out what the locals had to say. Our constant questions of "is San Juan safe" were always met with a mention of La Perla, the slum area on the rocky north coast of the city wall. Ali, our couchsurfing host and a native Puerto Rican said that this area developed during a time when the workers, slaves and non-white servants lived outside the city walls. They would be let in to work during the day and thrown out in the evening, and there, by the side of the wall, their settlement grew. It is still an ad-hoc village housing the outcasts of society, now synonomous with drug trafficking and crime. It is the only place that is off-limits in San Juan, and the rumour is that not even Police will go in.

Arguably one might say we didn't see the real San Juan, and no, we probably didn't really. We hardly ventured outside the walls except to arrive and leave! Yet we saw the San Juan of yesterday, the one that tells it's story and captures it's essence, the San Juan that lingers in peoples memories. We also had some unique experiences thanks to our host, Ali, who among other things, introduced us to some local haunts, and those I will tell you about in the next post.

Aerial view of La Perla (from Wikipedia)

Bienvenido a Puerto Rico: The Island of Enchantment

It's a name most people have heard of but not one that many know much about. Where is it? What's the language? What's it's history and culture? What's the landscape like? Is it safe? These are things people have asked me about Puerto Rico, (when they're not confusing it with Costa Rica), and while the first couple of questions I could answer straight away, the others were a lot more difficulty to define accurately. So it was time to brush up.

The more I read the more I learned what a busy island it really is and has been. It's not just some isolated, remote, backward country, floating somewhere in the Caribbean. It's civilised yet poor, though not as poor as it's central american and Carribean neighbours. Like Miami, the Bahamas and Mexico, it's shores have been compromised by blatant commercialism and truck-loads of tourists. It has a very vibrant history and has played a signifacant role in the history of the Carribean, especially during the Spanish - American wars. It has a melting pot of cultural influences from a confluence of neighbouring and far off lands (including Spanish, Amer-indian, African, and North American). Not just an island, it is an archipelago that inlcudes the main island of PR and a series of smaller islands, including Vieques, where we'll be stationed.

San Juan

Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico in 1493 and named the island San Juan de Bautista. In 1508 his lieutenant Juan Ponce de Leon took control of the island and became the first governor. In 1521, Ponce de Leon laid the foundations of the capital city of San Juan, one of the very first towns built in the Americas.

Throughout the colonial period, the Dutch, the French, and the British made multiple attempts to take control of Puerto Rico, but were ultimately unsuccessful. Puerto Rico plays a strategic role as the gateway to the Carribean, the Spanish set up forts here to protect it's colonies in this area; if you took Puerto Rico you took possession of the Caribbean. Under Spanish rule (which lasted over 400 years) the indigenous population (called Tainos) was forced into slavery and nearly wiped out due to European infectious diseases and brutal force. Finally, the Spanish were defeated in 1898 by the Americans in the Spanish-American War and relinquished control of Puerto Rico, as well as the Phillipines and Guam. The Americans wanted to secure naval bases in strategic locations and had much interest in the Caribbean. The US still retains Guam and PR as territories but the Phillipines gained independence after World War II.

The Puerto Ricans hailed the coming of the Americans, thinking they would free them from the Spanish and pave the way for Independence. Alas, 113 years later and no one knows where the country stands. It is presently an unincorporated territory of the US and whilst the culture remains anchored to the spanish custom, Puerto Ricans are US citizens (though they can not vote in US elections) and US Congress legislates many aspects of Puerto Rican life.

So what now? Will it become independent? Or will it become the 51st State? These are questions Puerto Ricans want answered; they feel as if they are sitting in limbo and opinion seems divided. There are some strong Nationalists who feel cheated by the Americans, and there are those that understand the benefits that being part of America can do for the country - which no doubt, has allowed it to be one of the wealthiest of the Central American/Caribbean nations.

The narrow coastal plain rises into green (low) hills and mountains central and south. A few small rivers and lakes dot the landscape. The climate is usually hot and humid, with some lower temperatures found in the higher elevations. Like most Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico is subject to an occasional hurricane warning (May - October)...Compared to other islands in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico has a high standard of living with a vibrant industrialized economy. (World Atlas)

Puerto Rico has some interesting gems outside the splendour of the colonial cities. The island is mostly mountainous with the main range, the Cadiello Central Range, dividing the island between the  north and south coastal regions. The only tropical rainforest that the US can lay claim to is in El Yunque National forest on the East side, and the karst region in the north contains the third-largest cave system in the world. Of course, there's miles of beaches as well and the surrounding reefs are a diver's paradise. Like many other Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico is the crest of an extinct submarine volcano. Beyond the vibrant shallow waters surrounding the island, about 45 mi (72 km) north, lies the Puerto Rico Trench, at over 28,000 feet (8,500 meters) one of the world's deepest chasms. Uh-oh.

 Interesting Facts:

• the world famous drink, the Piña Colada was invented in a house on Fortaleza Street in Old San Juan
• San Juan is the largest home-based cruise port in the world
• there are more Puerto Ricans living in the rest of the United States than in the island of Puerto Rico itself?
• travel within the United States includes Puerto Rico, and no U.S. passport is necessary
• Puerto Rico uses the American Dollar
• the Plaza Las Americas mall in San Juan is the most profitable mall per square foot in the world (woohoo!)
• Puerto Rico has never had a civil war
• the Common Coquí, or Coquí, a frog native to Puerto Rico, is a very important aspect of Puerto Rican culture and it has become an unofficial territorial symbol of Puerto Rico

Island Hopping

So here we go, off on our next big adventure! We will soon be heading to Puerto Rico, a lovely little dot in the Carribean Sea. To get there we will go via Hawaii.

There seems to be a theme here: New Zealand, Hawaii, Puerto Rico...

We're jumping from island to island across the globe, each time getting a bit warmer and a bit more relaxed - hopefully. Soon, we will be thoroughly on island time.

First stop: Hawaii, 4th April. We'll spend about a week there. We've been to Hawaii before, just Oahu. It works out cheaper to fly through a Hawaii and well, you've gotta do what you've gotta do. This time we're going to go to the Big Island, aka Hawaii, to see something different. We're also going to stop in Seattle (Bellingham actually) with our great friends Tom and Amy who we met couchsurfing, before landing in Alabama. Eventually we'll make it to Puerto Rico in time to start our house-sitting gig but not before checking out romantic San Juan, the capital.

So that's the rough guide so far.