My travels have taken me to Puerto Rico 3 times; once in 1989 not long after Hurricane Hugo and then again twice in late 2003. Puerto Rico is - in my humble opinion - "La Isla Bonita" or "The Beautiful Island." Lush, green & tropical full of old world architecture, culture and cuisine.
Right now I'm scanning all my prints of my PR visits into digital format for posting. For now, I'm storing them on here as a backup copy. Eventually, I will trim this gallery down to just a "Highlights" gallery of the more striking pics, etc.
PR is a US commonwealth, but Spanish is the language & heritage of the island. Interesting how even in San Juan, many people you meet are not fluent in English, so a working knowledge of Spanish is handy.
No visit to PR is complete without visiting Fort (Castillo) Felipe El Morro at the mouth of San Juan harbor. What a historical/architectural treasure! This stone fort was built in 1539 before laser levels, diamond-tipped saw blades, water cutters or any other "precision" tools. Granted, it's seen some TLC particularly of late under the US Park Service, but still it's in awesome shape; it's only threat being the erosion of the shoreline out from underneath it. Very picturesque, historical, etc & well worth a visit. The uniform pictures you see in this gallery are of the various occupying armies of El Morro.
Just outside the castle walls of El Morro lies Old San Juan. Again, this is a very picturesque historical/architectural/cultural area & worth a visit. Many cantinas offering good food & drink abound in the area and the crown of the area is the beautiful San Juan Cathedral.
You'll notice some pictures of wrought iron gates, fences, window barriers etc in this gallery. The unfortunately high crime rate in San Juan is behind all these security devices - even on balconies several stories above the street! It's quite ornamental looking and some places even have spikes or razors installed atop the highest "bar" to discourage climbers. My first visit to PR was a business trip & I was fortunate to visit the homes of local islanders for dinner etc. On these visits, I noticed that the hallways to the bedrooms often had wrought iron gates to close off that section of the house. I was given some interesting reasons behind why those doors exist.
Puerto Rico - la isla bonita - is a great place to visit! I hope to return again someday for yet another visit.
Right now I'm scanning all my prints of my PR visits into digital format for posting. For now, I'm storing them on here as a backup copy. Eventually, I will trim this gallery down to just a "Highlights" gallery of the more striking pics, etc.
PR is a US commonwealth, but Spanish is the language & heritage of the island. Interesting how even in San Juan, many people you meet are not fluent in English, so a working knowledge of Spanish is handy.
No visit to PR is complete without visiting Fort (Castillo) Felipe El Morro at the mouth of San Juan harbor. What a historical/architectural treasure! This stone fort was built in 1539 before laser levels, diamond-tipped saw blades, water cutters or any other "precision" tools. Granted, it's seen some TLC particularly of late under the US Park Service, but still it's in awesome shape; it's only threat being the erosion of the shoreline out from underneath it. Very picturesque, historical, etc & well worth a visit. The uniform pictures you see in this gallery are of the various occupying armies of El Morro.
Just outside the castle walls of El Morro lies Old San Juan. Again, this is a very picturesque historical/architectural/cultural area & worth a visit. Many cantinas offering good food & drink abound in the area and the crown of the area is the beautiful San Juan Cathedral.
You'll notice some pictures of wrought iron gates, fences, window barriers etc in this gallery. The unfortunately high crime rate in San Juan is behind all these security devices - even on balconies several stories above the street! It's quite ornamental looking and some places even have spikes or razors installed atop the highest "bar" to discourage climbers. My first visit to PR was a business trip & I was fortunate to visit the homes of local islanders for dinner etc. On these visits, I noticed that the hallways to the bedrooms often had wrought iron gates to close off that section of the house. I was given some interesting reasons behind why those doors exist.
Puerto Rico - la isla bonita - is a great place to visit! I hope to return again someday for yet another visit.
Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the US. PR's flag is very close to the flag of nearby Cuba but yet has components of Old Glory.
Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the US. PR's flag is very close to the flag of nearby Cuba but yet has components of Old Glory.
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