In the morning, we drove into San Juan for a walking tour of Old San Juan. Unfortunately, it was raining. However, the guide assured us that the tour wouldn't start until the rain stopped. So we waited. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long.
Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures. Here are the ones I did take, in no particular order:
Here's a statue of Ponce de Leon, who founded the city of San Juan in 1508. Actually, he called it Caparra; it was renamed to Ciudad de Puerto Rico de San Juan Bautista (city of the rich port of Saint John the Baptist) in 1521. He was also the first Governor of Puerto Rico - and the 3rd, and 7th.
Incidentally, although everybody knows that Ponce de Leon was searching for the Fountain of Youth, according to Wikipedia, modern historians have determined that that's a myth. Another illusion shattered...
As in any Latin American country, there are lots of cathedrals in Puerto Rico. We've already seen two of them in this trip log; here's a third. Actually, it's a not a cathedral, but a parroquia, or parish church - Parroquia San Francisco de Asís, better known to us Yanks as St. Francis of Assisi.
St Francis church
St Francis
The tour guide pointed out something that I had already noticed - many buildings in Puerto Rico are painted with bright colors. I took several pictures, some in San Juan and some in Ponce:
But my pictures don't really show the colors to their best advantage. Here's a picture I found on the Internet:
One of the last places we visited was Casa Blanca ("white house"), the home of Ponce de Leon and his descendants until the mid-18th century. It's now a museum. We didn't go inside, but we did go into the gardens:
I was interested to notice a banyan tree in the garden. Banyan trees put out branches that descend to the ground and take root, and become additional trunks. A mature banyan tree can have a dozen or more trunks and spread out over a wide area. To show you what I mean, here's a picture of a banyan tree that we saw on a trip to Maui:
A little out of focus, but it gives you the idea - all of those trunks are part of a single tree.
The point of all this rambling is that I saw - and took a picture of - a root in the process of descending:
It's a couple of feet above the ground now, but come back in a few years (decades? I don't know how fast they grow), and it will have reached the ground and taken root, and become a new trunk. Ain't nature fascinating?
In the course of walking around Old San Juan, we saw many cats. The guide told us that these cats are mostly descended from cats introduced to the island by the Spanish settlers to control the population of rats and other vermin. Today, these free roaming cats are taken care of by charitable organizations such as Save A Gato.
Water for the cats
After the tour, we went and had lunch at a Spanish restaurant (yeah, I know... not local), after which I went looking for a place to indulge my favorite obsession. Whenever I go on vacation (as you know if you've read any of my previous trip logs), I like to bring back music from where I've been. I looked on Google Maps and found a record store, but when I got to where it was... it wasn't. I asked someone who told me it went out of business some time ago. I asked where I might go to shop for CD's and he said "Walmart."
In retrospect, I should have known. Record stores pretty much don't exist any more - CD's are out, and streaming is in. But I'm still old fashioned enough to want to buy CD's, so I went to Walmart. I ended up buying two CD's, anthology albums by two Puerto Rican salsa artists, Willie Colón and Gilberto Santa Rosa. Of course, not being familiar with the genre, I had no way of knowing how good or representative these two gentleman really are, but their write-ups on Wikipedia and Allmusic looked promising. Later, my friend Guillermo validated my choices, so I felt better.
Back at the resort, having had a rather large lunch, we looked for something light for dinner. I found a little cafe on Google Maps, but again, when I got to where it was... it wasn't. So I ended up getting us a couple of hamburgers from a food truck. (Don't say it.)
And that was it for the trip. In the morning we got up, packed up, checked out, drove to the airport and caught our flight home.
And now, Terry would like to add a few comments of her own. Take it away, Terry!
There are so many things about Puerto Rico that are unforgettable. These include the sounds of the nights: the many sounds of unfamiliar insects and,of course, the famous coquí. It was mentioned that coquís have been transported to other places, but in all except for very few, they refuse to sing. Like many, they miss their native land too much.
Also, we can't forget the tastes of the seafood, the plantains, and the jugo de parcha, passion fruit juice, with which Ashley fell in love and ordered at every opportunity. (Grinnell interjects: So did I!)
I must also add that we get tired of local food in other places as well, in spite of our enjoyment of it. In England, in 1983, we went to a cocktail bar and had pizza on our last night as well.
The friendliness of the people, and the kindness and hospitality of Carlos's relatives will not be forgotten. The joy of sharing the trip with good friends, and especially with someone who knows Puerto Rico, was an added bonus. Thanks for coming, Carlos and Ashley.
One evening after one of our excursions, we had the chance to speak to Mirta, Carlos's mom. It was almost as good as having her there, but not quite. I wish you could have been there with us, Mirta, and I look forward to meeting you soon!
I was not at my best during this trip, having very recently lost my dear father, and due to other physical issues. Despite these setbacks, the trip was very enjoyable, and I would definitely go back.