San Juan – Puerto Rico

San Cristobel Fortress Garita San Juan
Originally the city of San Juan was called Puerto Rico meaning ‘rich port’ and the entire island was called San Juan. The capital and the islands names were later accidentally switched and have remained that way. The city was a walled city and you can still see the walls that remain today in many of the photos.
This morning our main objective is in sight from the ship. San Cristobal Fortress. On our way we walk through the old San Juan town with narrow cobblestone streets and take in the  gothic architecture of San Jose Church.



Leaving San Juan Harbour



We enjoyed wandering around the fortress and spent a lot of time there. Steven particularly likes the garitas or Spanish sentry boxes that overlook the ocean. Looking out at the ocean from one of these garitas you can easily imagine yourself looking out for those dastardly British warships. San Juan was attacked 5 times in 400 years so this was probably quite a lonely and boring job.
The Spanish must have had the right idea though as the US forces also used this fort as an observation post in the Second World War. Many of our photos were taken from the WWII observation posts built next to the original 500 year old garitas.
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San Juan Peuto Rico
San Juan has a free trolley car  that goes around the old city and main attractions. We took advantage of this service and toured around the city before finding a small coffee shop near the port and settled in enjoying the local coffee and catching up on emails before boarding the ship.
A man with big balls Puerto Rico
Next to the queue to get back on the ship a local beggar was doing quite well. Note the pockets bulging with cash.

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Comments

  1. Great explore. Puerto Rica is looking very beautiful place for vacations. I never visited this place but heard many good things about it. Indeed, you had a great time there.
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