Summer Adventures 2: Puerto Rico

We did one other thing during this summer of adventure. In July, Elysa and I celebrated our 3^rd Anniversary! And we decided to celebrate in style with a trip to Puerto Rico. We highly recommend it and think that we have figured out the perfect itinerary. We think there are four things you can/should do when in Puerto Rico (not including the famous and highly popular tour of the Bacardi Rum Distillery): Old San Juan, the beach, snorkeling off of Isla Culebra and/or Isla Mona, and El Yunqué (the tropical rain forest).

Old San Juan is absolutely romantic and is a taste of Europe right here in the United States. You can thank the Monroe Doctrine, Yellow Journalism and false naval intelligence on the location of the Spanish Fleet in 1898 for Puerto Rico (I guess the US has quite the history of acting on false military intelligence, huh? What did you expect… this IS a blog after all!). It was discovered during Columbus’ second voyage and instantly recognized as one of the most strategic islands of the Caribbean. One of Columbus’ crew named the island Puerto Rico (Rich Port); the guy’s name was Ponce de Leon (Yep, that Ponce de Leon: the conquistador that is fabled to have searched for the fountain of youth). Columbus, not to be out done, named the site of the future town: San Juan de Batista.

The town is located on a thin strip of cliffs that separate the large bay from the ocean and overlooks the thin channel of water connecting the two. At that point of land the Spanish built the oldest European fort in the New World: El Morro. Construction began in 1539 and was almost the perfect defensive position. The fort, which guarded the bay and thus the key to the island, only fell twice during its almost 500 years of active history: Once to the English in 1598 (The victory lasted for only six weeks as the English troops fell ill with Dysentery and abandoned the fort.) and once to the US in 1898, who believed that the Spanish Navy lay anchored in the bay (It wasn’t, it was in Havana). The US Navy bombarded the fort for four and a half hours, only to find that the garrison inside had been completely ignored by the Spanish military and was being forced to fight the US with artillery so old that some of it was older than the United States itself. The garrison quickly surrendered and the US Navy sped off to Cuba to try it’s luck there (Interesting thought by the way- Had the Spanish Navy been at port in San Juan at the time, the US military wouldn’t have had a reason to go to Cuba, thus preventing a guy named Theodore Roosevelt, a member of the US Calvary, the chance to charge up San Juan Hill (in Cuba) with his Rough Riders, and return home to the US to be elected Governor of New York later that year, a road that would lead him to the White House in just three more years.).

The fort itself is marvelous. At some points, the walls stand some 20 feet thick and rise some 100 feet in the air. It is a pretty impressive piece of work considering it was built an ocean away from any civilization at the time (But remember, there is nothing you can’t do with vision, determination and an endless supply of expendable labor). Make sure you spend an hour or so at the fort when you are in San Juan. It is very cool and provides some magnificent views of the city, the island, and the ocean.

The fort guards the city of Old San Juan and is the starting point for the walls that encompass the entire town. You can actually walk the perimeter of these walls as they are now something of a public park/greenbelt that surrounds the ancient city. Inside you’ll find a charming city of colorful buildings that line narrow streets and quaint plazas.

The place to stay in Old San Juan is El Convento Hotel. It is just a few blocks from El Morro and near the heart of Old San Juan. El Convento (Spanish for The Convento) was built in the 1600s as an old Carmelite convent (The first in the New World). You might have to splurge a bit, but the ambiance is worth every penny (at least in the off season!). It is classic Spanish architecture: a yellow stucco with white trim exterior and arched hallways, tiled floors, heavy wooden doors fill the interior. The halls lead to small terraced patios and verandas allowing you to enjoy the tropical evening breeze. Truly Romantic.

Staying at El Convento also affords you a great location in Old San Juan where you can go through the stores (from high end to curios), restaurants, and see the other sites of the New World's second oldest European settlement. Restaurants of all spectrums can be found from the ritzy Italian restaurant Il Perugino to an authentic tapas bar, El Picoteo, to the hometown pastry shop and café: La Bombonera. We ate at all three. Il Perigino is a nice atmosphere, but ostenatiously overpriced for the food and ambiance. El Picoteo was my first tapas bar experience and I really enjoyed it. Very different and fun. We recommend this place. For breakfast, definitely choose La Bombonera. It is a few blocks walk but worth the trip. The pasteries fill the store front window and are different everyday. A particular favorite was this flakey pastrey with gooey guava and powdered sugar. And the cutest old man (who speaks Boriquen more than Spanish) serves them up to you in a little box that you can take back to the hotel. That may have been our favorite place of all!

Two other little benefits of staying at El Convento are worth mentioning. First, they have an agreement with the Marriott beach resort which allows you full access to the Marriott facilities. We spend the day reading, napping, and playing at the beach which is semi-private. While not the best beach it is SAFE, which can be a major concern in Puerto Rico. It was nice to lay under the palm trees in padded hammocks and just relax. Sorry we don't have pictures as they are still on the cheap disposable camera we took to the beach.

The other benefit is that El Convento has a large fitness room complete with shower and will let you use it after you have checked out. So you can book that later flight, play most of the day and still be clean and refreshed before taking that long plane flight home.

While we were there, we had hoped to get in a little snorkeling, but unfortunately the weather was not cooperative (until the day we flew out). You can take a small airplane to an island northeast of Puerto Rico called Isla Culebra. Until recently, the US Navy used the island for live ordinance bombing practice. Needless to say, it wasn't really developed into a tourist destination. But in 2000, pressure from Puerto Rice finally convinced the US Navy to cease operations there, opening up one of the last undeveloped and untouched islands of the Caribbean. Spend a day between Flamenco Beach and its nearby companion Playa Carlos Rosario. Flamenco is for swimming and playing in the sand while Playa C.R. is for the snorkeler. It sports a mile-long reef and is said to look like the Caribbean did hundreds of years ago.

The other thing we weren't able to do (because you need to rent a car) is to go visit El Yunqué, the tropical rain forest. It is famous for the Coquí: colorful, tiny tree frogs whose call sounds like ko-KEE (hence the name). Since we didn't go, we can't say much more than you can find from Frommer's or Fodor's except that our friends, Brian and Norma Roberts, spent a few days in the rain forest and loved it. We saw some of the pictures and wished we had gone.

All in all, it was a great trip. We had a lot of fun and we are glad we did it!