lgbTravel: A day in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

By Mark McNease Note: Apologies to the fine people of Grand Turk. Frank and I only spent 90 minutes off ship there, in the Cruise Center where they have shops, the beach front and a pool. I can’t do the place justice considering how little we did there so I’ll just say thanks for the memories (and the photos I accidentally “delete all”-ed).

I was most excited about visiting Puerto Rico on this cruise and I wasn’t disappointed. Maybe it’s because there’s such a large Puerto Rican population in New York City. Maybe it’s because it’s a U.S. protectorate – Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens, even though they’re not a state. And maybe it’s because I’ve just been aware of Puerto Rico for so long, at least since I moved to New York eighteen years ago. It’s one of those places I wanted to visit if I ever got the chance, and this was my chance. We took a walking tour of Old San Juan. The entire time was spent on San Juan, which, like Manhattan, is an island. San Juan is the oldest city in the United States, and the second oldest (after Santo Domingo) in all of the Americas. Trade winds blew ships here from Europe, coupled with ocean currents. It was also the first island with water, shelter and supplies that sailing ships came to from Europe via Afica’s west coast, which is why Spain fortified Puerto Rico in the first place. Built over 10 generations (250 years), the complex system of fortifications was necessary to protect what the Europeans knew was great wealth. Gold, silver, gems, spices, furs. The New World represented riches beyond the imagination. It was also already inhabited, which is a long sad story for another day. Needless to say the Europeans won. Over half our walking tour was spent at El Morro fort, one of the two massive forts on the island. Construction on the fort began in 1539. Our tour guide, a lovely woman who was patient with this cruise crowd, gave us a detailed history lesson as we walked around and through this massive, hurricane-proof structure. The views were breathtaking, and for someone who loves history, from the ancient to the Civil War, this was a real treat. We next walked through the streets of Old San Juan. We saw where Ponce de Leon was buried one of three times. We saw the beautiful cobbled streets made from bricks that had been used as ballast on the sailing ships that came here. We also saw a lot of cats. They’re protected here. Not exactly sacred, but considered guardians of the island, and their population has exploded the last few years. The tour ended and Frank and I did some shopping, and finally headed back to a tapas restaurant we’d seen earlier on the tour. It was fabulous, and the waitress, who’s lived here for eight years, was from upper Manhattan! A really nice woman who gave us a quick history of the restaurant, which used to be the mayor’s office and a prison. I wondered at the tunnel structure we were eating in. She told us that in the basement was a tunnel that ran all the way to El Morro. The food was great, the people fabulous, the tour a delight (minus the serious sunburn I have on my face today). I know we could only see a small slice of Puerto Rico, but it left me wanting more.]]>