1/16/24: Puerto Rico's San Juan Old Town

It's been about eight months since I wrote my last post and I had planned to write many others about our travels to Alaska last spring and Hawaii last fall. However, a lot of health stuff has happened in the interim. As some may recall, I broke my left femur in a freak accident at the end of September 2022, in northern Guatemala when we'd just begun what was to have been a seven-week trip to Central America. Thanks to a great medical evacuation plan, we returned via medical jet to a hospital in Denver, Colorado a few days after I had emergency surgery in Flores, Guatemala. Fast forward to last summer when I needed a deep bone biopsy in June followed by limb restoration surgery in July because some of the Guatemala hardware had broken months earlier. As luck would have it, the surgeon inadvertently caused another fracture while removing all that hardware!

Steven and I were hoping I'd be on the mend and heading toward a full recovery but that was delayed by needing oxygen at night, finding out I had sleep apnea which entails wearing a mouthguard also at night, and, more critically, a diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia just a couple of weeks before this current Caribbean trip. That scared the you-know-what out of both of us until we met with the oncologist who said no treatment was necessary at this point which was about the best news ever. The new cancer news, (I was diagnosed with Stage 3 non-hodgkins lymphoma back in June 1981 just after meeting Steven in Mexico), might explain why the surgeon told me the leg wasn't healing as he and we had hoped in December and again last month. I'm likely facing more surgery but until then, we're on the road as nothing much keeps me/us "down on the farm." If that weren't all enough, Steven, too, has been dealing with severe back issues that severely limit his mobility at times. Even with all that, we were in Chicago two weeks ago, are in Phoenix, Arizona for all of March, and heading to Asia for seven weeks beginning at the end of April. Medical stuff can wait until after that, right! 

With all that medical drama consuming our lives to some extent, a January escape to Puerto Rico and then a cruise through the Lesser Antilles sounded idyllic even though we'd never considered ourselves cruisers. We were extremely lucky that our flight left Denver on January 15th after spending a long time on the de-icing platform as a huge number of flights had been canceled. What a perfect time to escape our snowy hometown for almost two weeks in the Caribbean!

Facing our San Juan apartment's parking lot was this enchanting mural. We only realized once we began exploring more of Puerto Rico's capital city that it was choc-a-block full of murals.

En route to San Juan's Old Town the next morning, we passed several historic monuments.

The territory's Holocaust Memorial:

The Plaza of Lions honored educators.

Our stroll through Old Town began at a statue that honored the contributions made by immigrants in New America in the Plaza del Immigrante.

The cobbled square had some impressive art deco and neoclassical buildings.

Meandering along the Paseo de la Princesa promenade took us past the first of many Christmas decorations even though Christmas was well over by then, in our minds at least. 

The ancient city wall or La Muralla:

Midway along the brick-lined walkway was the Fuente Raices monument and fountains which honored Puerto Rico's indigenous, African, and Spanish peoples.

Around the bend was a much better view of La Muralla and breathtaking harbor views.

Imagine being a dignitary arriving from Spain from the 1500s through the 1800s via San Juan Gate, named after St. John the Baptist. It was one of five gates that tightly controlled access to and from the city and the last remaining gate. Documents, money, and people carrying out the Crown's will in the colony passed through these doors.

Once through the gate was a tiny square, Plazuela de la Rogativa, where a contemporary statue brought to mind the torch-lit procession that foiled an English invasion in 1797. While laying siege to the city, they mistook the flaming torches of a rogativa or religious procession for Spanish reinforcements and beat a hasty retreat. 

The charming streets in the Old Town were lined with exquisitely restored, pastel-painted colonial mansions, some housing galleries, cafes, and small shops.

In the heart of the historic Old Town was the 17th-century Hotel El Convento whose mahogany beamed ceilings, striking black-and-white tiled floors, and conquistador-era furnishings recalled its earlier days as a convent. It was a far cry from associating the island with sipping pina coladas on the beach!

It seemed fitting that the highest point in the Old Town was held by Puerto Rico's Catholic shrine, Catedral de San Juan Bautista. It began as a thatched-roof wooden structure in the 1520s. After being destroyed by a hurricane, it was rebuilt two decades later.

Behind this marble tomb were the remains of Juan Ponce de Leon, the Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the first official European expedition to Puerto Rico in 1508.  

Many of the streets had tiles with pictures on them to announce their names - a throwback to when some residents were illiterate and could only 'read' the location by the illustration.

The mostly pedestrian-only cobbled streets were a joy for tourists like us not wanting to worry about dodging cars and just popping across tiny lanes with nary a concern.

I, more so than Steven, was intrigued to visit Museo La Casa del Libro, as it was supposed to have had nearly 400 books that had been printed before the 15th century and was one of the larger collections in the Western Hemisphere. It also owned two royal decrees issued by King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella in 1497, the same year Columbus reached Puerto Rico. Unfortunately, the location on Calle Cristo was just temporary until the restoration to the permanent building was completed.

The lovely tilework on the stairs reminded me of our time admiring equally stunning work in Portugal and Brazil. 

As just one employee was working in the library cum bookstore, he was initially a little reluctant to show me the back room so I could take a peek at the ancient printing presses. He stated they were still in working order!

A few steps on was the Capilla del Cristo, a former convent that, according to legend, was built to prevent those on horseback from racing down Calle Cristo and plunging over its steep cliff! We couldn't see through the wrought-iron gates well enough to admire two religious paintings by Puerto Rico's famous painter, Jose Campeche.

Across from the old chapel was Parque de las Palomas which was filled with its namesake pigeons much to the delight of parents with young children.

While taking a breather, even we enjoyed seeing the pigeons flit back and forth into the holes cut into the park's stone wall.

If you're a fan of pina coladas, you'd have smiled, too, seeing where the famous drink was first concocted 60 years ago.

I can't begin to recount all the places in the world I've taken pictures of Steven sitting on a bench next to some sculpture. What a cute post that would be if only I could find the photos! This one was taken in Plaza de Armas, the Old Town's original main square where the military drills were conducted.

Unfortunately for us fountain lovers, the square's fountain and its 19th-century statues were almost completely covered up still with a massive Christmas tree. 

Facing the square was the attractive City Hall.

It wasn't until we took another stroll through the square that I noticed Steven's 'bench companion' was Catalino "Tite" Curet Alonso, a Puerto Rican composer of over 2,000 salsa songs known as the Soul of the Caribbean.

The second oldest church in the Western Hemisphere was Iglesia de San Jose, a simple Spanish Gothic church built under the direction of Dominican friars in 1532. Ponce de Leon was buried there for almost three hundred years until being moved to the cathedral in 1909.

Plaza del Quinto Centenario was built in 1992 to commemorate  Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas over 500 years earlier. The 40-foot-tall El Tótem Telúrico in the center of the plaza symbolized the origin of the New World. 

Yup, more Christmas decorations adorned lamposts!

Below Old Town and facing the Atlantic Ocean was La Perla, a San Juan neighborhood that has yet to see its best days.

In the distance was Castillo San Cristobal, a fortress constructed between 1634 and 1783 to protect the city from eastern attack by land. The largest Spanish fortification in the New World, San Cristobal was known during the 17th and 18th centuries as the 'Gibraltar of the West Indies.'

The 27-acre fortress is a National Historic Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In the eastern part of the Old Town were Plaza Colón and a monument to Columbus which commemorated the four hundred years since the Spaniards’ arrival.

I couldn't help but think of our almost-four-year-old granddaughter, Max as we walked past this mammoth seahorse on the way back to our apartment as I'd recently knitted her a seahorse although mine was a mite bit smaller!

The territory's flag was in evidence everywhere.

More of the city's amusing murals drew our admiration.

Our walking tour of San Juan's Old Town greatly exceeded our expectations. I was caught off guard, quite frankly, at how picturesque and charming the colonial buildings and the plazas were. It's no surprise that American news reports had focused on the extreme weather challenges the island had faced but I don't recall any remarking how San Juan's Old Town was so pristine and downright pretty. We looked forward to our next few days exploring more of the island and seeing whether our initial impressions would be nearly as positive.

Next post: Driving southeast of San Juan to El Yunque National Forest.