Caribbean Cruise Part 4 - San Juan, Puerto Rico

We are now on day 7 of our Caribbean cruise. The longest cruise we have ever taken was seven days, so we are usually packing up now. But instead, we are heading out on one of our most interesting port days. It feels like we still have lots to see and do! We were blessed with another blue-sky day when we docked in Puerto Rico.

It was a short walk into the city of San Juan, with its multi-colored houses and narrow sloping streets to explore.

We are armed with maps we printed at home, and a long list of places we intend to visit today. 

Our walk takes us along the coast to the red gate that marks the entrance to historic San Juan, that is surrounded by the old city walls.

This section is patrolled by the resident cats that keep rodents at bay.

Lest you think these feral cats are starving, we watched as a local resident sprinkled cat food in generous piles for them. All the cats hanging out in the historic center seemed very healthy and happy.

It's a great place to walk along the coast with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and those old city walls on the other.

The city walls feature many ramparts. While they look ornamental, they really served as lookouts and protected places to take aim at anyone approaching the city from the water.

We walked by many statues and plazas on our walk beside the water. Unlike some of the other islands we visited, Puerta Rico feels clean and safe.

We loved the sunshine and the beautiful blue skies that make for nice photographs. But we have to say that it was very warm in Puerto Rico in March.

We slipped into the Casa Blanca Gardens for a little shade. While the casa (house) was closed on Monday, the gardens were open and free.

The bananas were almost ripe in this tropical location.

The next item on our list was the Castillo San Felipe del Morro. Admission would normally be $10. But we are in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico and this is a national historic site. So our national park pass got us in for free.

Situated on the point of land that juts into the ocean, the lookout towers now look out over a beautiful view and the Atlantic Ocean far below.

We entered through the grand gates that were built in the 1700s.

Our stairs count went way up as we explored all five of the layers of this castle fort.

Just to show how tall the fort walls are, you can see how tiny Denisa looks in the court yard below.

We obviously took too many pictures and spent more time than we planned at Castillo San Felipe del Morro. The views show that we have wandered into another of God's wonders!

Our next stop in San  Juan was the historic cemetery not far from the fort. Because we are so close to the sea, the graves are above ground here at Cementerio Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis. While it may look like we are in the cemetery, that wall that separates us is about 15 feet tall.

We had planned to continue through the cemetery to other points on our list. But because of that wall, we had to walk all the way back around the fort to continue. We will say that it makes for a very picturesque walk with that tall ancient walls towering over us and the blue water beside us. We hate to complain, but this detour will add another mile or more to our already lengthy walk, and it was getting hot out here.

Denisa is wearing a cooling towel around her neck to help with that heat. But the sunshine has dried it AND her out. Being the gentleman that he is, Mark balanced out on the rocks to re-soak the towel with sea water to keep her cool.

The only ones enjoying the heat today were the resident iguanas.

They are obviously used to the tourists at the fort, and didn't seem to mind when we took a group picture with Mark.

We walked through the historical part of San Juan. These streets were built before automobiles, and it takes a very good driver to parallel park and drive on these narrow avenues.

The roads are paved in these unusual blue bricks that we've never seen anywhere else.

We stopped in at Cathedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista, and might have paused longer than usual because it was cool inside.

Then we walked through Plaza Colon where Christopher Columbus is literally raised up on a pedestal.

Then we walked back to the coast, for our second national historic site at the Castillo San Cristobal. Again, we used our national park pass for free admission.

Denisa is glad to have her wet cooling towel, because it is hot up here on this rock fort wall. We found they had a national park film describing the role of the forts in the history of Puerto Rico. We can't give a detailed report of the riveting historical film because it was cool and dark inside the theater and it was a good time for a nap. Far behind her you can see the point of land and the Castillo Morro that we visited earlier.

In the other direction we can see our ship in the dock. We are so close, but we have more walking to do before we return to the air-conditioned comfort there. 

We are fans of visiting U.S. state capitol buildings, so don't we have to visit a U.S. territory capitol building?

It looks very much like some of the capitols we have visited on the mainland. But directly in front of this one is a white-sand beach.

They offer tours of the building, but you have to make a reservation. We didn't know when and if this stop was going to work out in our day. So we just showed up and hoped for the best. We got the best. A past senator was in the foyer, and he took us under his wing and talked the security guard to allow us to enter with him.

Then he took us into the parliament, where they were in a relaxed session.

He explained that many of the official documents of the territory are on display under the dome. He also told us that Puerto Rico would sure like to be the 51st state of the United States.

We didn't have much time for our capitol tour, but we did get a picture of the lovely capitol dome.

While we have visited most of the 50 state capitols, we had never before visited a capitolio.

Behind the capitol building we found the "walkway of the presidents." Puerto Rico honors with a statue each of the presidents that have honored them with a visit.

By the time we walked to the dock, we had tallied up 10.8 miles in Puerto Rico. While we never got out of the city, we feel that we experienced the rich history and some of the best sites. It didn't cost us any money, and we got some good exercise. It was a good day in San Juan!