PR Ramblins….
As I emerged from the bus and was blinded by the noon Puerto Rican sun, I had one thought cross my mind…”WOW! I’m a really lucky guy!” I could have easily been in New York with it’s cold weather and grey skies, but I was standing near a pier in Old San Juan looking at one of Carnival’s massive cruise ships and the sun basking down on me. Life could be worse.
I flipped open my LP (Lonely Planet) and turned immediately to the page with the Old San Juan Walking tour and made my way to my first destination, La Casita. La Casita is a yellow building for tourists to get information. I usually wouldn’t care much for this type of building but I was in desperate need of a car because I didn’t have any plans past my first two days in PR and needed a car to really have a good time. I inquired about prices and different shops with one of the women working at the Tourist desk in La Casita, and she called a few places but no one had a car available for the week, except for this one place - El Rento Cheapo Caros For Americanos- and they had a car for a reasonable price. I thanked the woman for her help and headed towards the rental shop, where I was told that I may be able to have a car by Monday, but no guarantees. The price of the car was extremely reasonable, around $40 for the day, but the woman sounded extremely uncertain, but I left with high hopes and continued my walking tour of Old San Juan.
I headed down Paseo de la Princesa to check out its market stands, but there wasn’t much open for some reason so I made my way to the end of the “Paseo” towards the Raices fountain. The fountain was a “typical” fountain. It had flowing/shooting water and horses and beautiful women and strong men. Every fountain has this assortment plus some fish hidden somewhere, but it was still really nice looking. I then realized that I had somehow already messed up my walking tour and backtracked back down Princesa and checked out La Aduana (the Customs House - a really large pink building) and El Arsenal - a large building located alongside La Princesa.
I turned the corner past the fountain and immediately fell in love with what I was seeing - unfortunately it wasn’t a woman. It was a walking path along the Bahia de San Juan - a body of water - and I oddly felt as if I were walking along a similar looking footpath in Brooklyn which I discovered this September, however, Manhattan wasn’t across the water…but the Bacardi factory was! I tried to find a museum but got hopelessly lost and ended up near the Catedral de San Juan - a cathedral that I was supposed to pass much further in my walk. I wasn’t sure if I had become rusty with my walks or if San Juan was a complicated walking city, but I usually didn’t have this many problems during my walks.
I backtracked…again…and passed the plazuela de la Rogativa, a sculpture placed in the center of this garden plaza…very nice. I walked up a brick street and passed the Casa Rosa - Pink House- which was a war relic but now looked like a child’s playpen with ladders, swings, toy cars and plenty of other children’s accessories. Strange transformation.
The next section of my walk through Old San Juan was by far my favorite. I entered a large grassy field where I saw handfuls of people scattered over 20 acres or so and the the large and intimidating fort - El Morro - in the not too far distance. I actually felt as if I could’ve been in the UK walking barefoot through the fields with the water surrounding me on my left and right. I wanted to lay in the grass and stop thinking about everything and anything on my mind, but I had a lot to still see, but I spent an hour walking the grounds and opted not to pay the admission fee to see El Morro since I wasn’t interested in the museum they had placed in the castle. If they were giving live demonstrations on what they did with the inmates I’d pay plenty of money for that…but not another museum.
I saw some couples walking around, talking and doing what couples do and thought that they must be having a good time and decided not to bother any of them to ask them to take my picture. I left Campo del Morro (the field) and headed towards some larger buildings opposite the El Morro - the Escuela de Artes Plasticas (an insane asylum) and Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena which was unfortunately closed on Sunday but is supposed to have exhibits and gardens. I dodged skateboarders in the Parque de Beneficencia - a small park - and walked around La Casa Blanca (the White House) which was nothing like it’s American namesake. There was a garden and some buildings, but they were closed.
I passed La Plaza de San Jose which had Iglesia de San Jose (a church) and a convent before taking a longer walk down Norzagaray - San Juan’s slum street. Some guy walked up to me and handed me a flyer for his restaurant down the street guaranteeing me the “best deal” in Old San Juan, as I nodded to him and continued my stroll towards San Juan’s second fort - Fuerte San Cristobal. I also had to pay for this fort, but opted not to because I thought I saw everything it had to offer from the ticket entrance and headed towards a completely different section of the city.
Plaza de Colon was decked out in Christmas decorations and was bustling with tourists/residents walking along Calle San Francisco and Tetuan. On these two streets you could find any restaurant you could possibly desire and an assortment of gifts. I looked into a few restaurants LP suggested before deciding on Tio Danny’s. I ordered some steak dish that had three sides and was very impressed with the size of the plate. I paid around $15 for my meal (with tip) and left satiated and pleased. I was getting a little tired by this time and took a longer time eating my meal than usual, but I had been walking in humid weather for a few hours and needed a little break.
Although I had passed the majority of the sights on the walk, I still walked for another hour or two checking out another glitzy Plaza - Plaza de Armas - the Catedral de San Juan and the Parque de las Palomas before heading back to the bus station. I saw the A5 bus leaving when I got to the station and desperately waved my hand for it to stop in hopes of not having to wait a few hours to get back to the hotel - and for some reason, the driver stopped and I got in a relaxed on my ride home.
I was greeted by my family with mixed reviews since I had been gone most of the day and hadn’t spent it with them, nor had I called anyone during my walk. They had already eaten dinner so I munched on some left overs and hoped that I’d be able to figure out what I was going to do the next day in PR. The first day was solid - I got the beach and a run in, walked around Old San Juan - but I thought that once I got into my traveling stride, the days would become even more exciting.
Tags: Puerto Rico, Travel
