Spring Break Part 2: Puerto Rico
If you haven't read Part 1 of my spring break adventures, describing my time in Florida, you can read it here before continuing:
https://carystakesnewjersey.blogspot.com/2019/07/spring-break-part-1-florida_11.html
Now comes the really exciting part of my spring break - Puerto Rico! On the evening of Tuesday 12th March we flew off to San Juan. Unfortunately we had a few disasters along the way including missing our train to the airport, arriving at the airport 15 minutes before boarding, not being able to get an Uber directly from San Juan airport, and our hotel having a mix up with our room.
The next morning none of that mattered though as we explored the amazing Old San Juan. We had no particular plan, we just walked down whichever streets caught our eye. Old San Juan is very small anyway so it’s hard to get lost! We discovered windy cobbled streets, fountains, statues, some beautiful views of the turquoise Caribbean sea… it seemed like around every corner was another gorgeous thing to photograph. We even saw a little tribute to Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote it, is Puerto Rican!) as well as lots of stray cats who hid away in whatever shady spots they could find.
After a quick brunch (a delicious smoothie for me and empanadas for Tamara) we headed down to the beach. The first beach we checked out was pretty nice and empty, but it was very rocky and Tamara ended up getting a tiny stone stuck in her toe, so we decided to take a long walk to another beach instead. The walk was lovely as we got some beautiful views of the sea, and there were some really pretty mosaics and street art on the wall across the road from us. This beach was not as pretty, and it was much busier, but definitely a lot less rocky! We actually got a bit chilly here as the sun went in while we were there, so we didn’t stay for too long before heading back.
On the way back, I managed to bash my little toe against a wall, and all the walking meant I got a huge blister on my foot – our bad luck from the day before continued. We soldiered on though, and with a quick visit to the pharmacy and a change of shoes, we continued to explore the island for a couple more hours before bed. We saw some political street art (that we could only understand snippets of since we don't speak Spanish...), the Castillo de San Cristóbal and some somewhat derelict and beaten-up looking buildings along the coast. These were quite a harsh difference from the other bright, clean buildings in the area, and showed how even in the capital city of the island, the devastating effects of 2017's Hurricane Maria were still very much being felt. Buildings were either abandoned and uninhabitable, or recently done up with fresh paint.
(On further research, this neighbourhood in the picture above, that had some of the ruined looking buildings, is apparently where the Despacito music video was filmed! Although it was filmed before the hurricane, it helped turn the poor, rough La Perla neighbourhood into a much more well-off tourist destination. This article about it is really interesting! https://www.hindustantimes.com/travel/tourists-seeking-pop-hit-despacito-flock-to-puerto-rico-s-la-perla/story-4lomHvPIoTvkzuV3R0gJVP.html It seems such a shame that the hurricane hit just after this transformation.)
We spent the next morning at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a historic fort on the corner of the island. This was awesome, as in the US you generally don’t see really old structures like this. I wish I knew more of the history surrounding it, but it was amazing to explore through all the archways and down the flights of uneven stone stairs (coming back up them was not so fun, it was a LOT of stairs…). The views were breath-taking from the lookout points on the fort, as well as on the scenic trail we walked that went around the bottom of the fort. We encountered many more cats, as well as a few lizards and other reptiles. My favourite one was a gorgeous green lizard who sat on a wall in the sunshine looking out to sea.
While at the fort we got another glimpse of life in a hurricane zone, as we got several emergency alerts to our phones and heard an emergency siren; in this case they were just tests, but it was very freaky as it made it so easy to imagine the terror of it being real. So recently people standing where we were standing received actual emergency alerts and heard the eery siren, and their lives were turned upside down. Coming from the UK, where even our extreme weather pales in comparison to most other countries, it was very surreal being in a place where devastating hurricanes are a real threat.
By the time we finished at the fort we were pretty hot and uncomfortable, as we’d been walking around for hours directly in the hot sun. On our way back to the AirBnB we passed a piragua stand (basically Puerto Rican snow cones); I knew I had to get one because not only would it be a perfect way to cool down, but I knew about them from Lin-Manuel Miranda's other musical In The Heights which has a song all about piraguas! I got cherry flavour and it was delicious.
That afternoon we decided to hit the beach again. We went back to our spot on the rocky beach for a while and managed to find a spot that was much smoother so we could enjoy the sea without any danger of more stone-related injuries. After a short while we ventured down the beach towards a ruined structure we had seen from afar the day before. We had to trek over some rocks which was difficult in flip flops, but we made it and it was so worth it! The ruin itself was awesome, but the best part was when we walked past it and found the most gorgeous beach. It was completely empty of people and had the most amazing clear water I’ve ever seen. We wished we’d discovered it earlier as we could’ve spent all day there.
We spent our final evening in Puerto Rico walking down some of the streets we hadn’t got to yet, sitting on the field surrounding the fort while the sun went down, and eating Burger King on the rooftop of our AirBnB. In the morning we got up early and did a little more exploring before our flight, as well as seeing the view from the rooftop in daylight.
The flight home was a little turbulent, but it was great to see the views during the daytime as we had flown in during the evening. We were particularly impressed by how the Bahamas looked from above – I think it looks like a bath bomb!
https://carystakesnewjersey.blogspot.com/2019/07/spring-break-part-1-florida_11.html
Now comes the really exciting part of my spring break - Puerto Rico! On the evening of Tuesday 12th March we flew off to San Juan. Unfortunately we had a few disasters along the way including missing our train to the airport, arriving at the airport 15 minutes before boarding, not being able to get an Uber directly from San Juan airport, and our hotel having a mix up with our room.
The next morning none of that mattered though as we explored the amazing Old San Juan. We had no particular plan, we just walked down whichever streets caught our eye. Old San Juan is very small anyway so it’s hard to get lost! We discovered windy cobbled streets, fountains, statues, some beautiful views of the turquoise Caribbean sea… it seemed like around every corner was another gorgeous thing to photograph. We even saw a little tribute to Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote it, is Puerto Rican!) as well as lots of stray cats who hid away in whatever shady spots they could find.
After a quick brunch (a delicious smoothie for me and empanadas for Tamara) we headed down to the beach. The first beach we checked out was pretty nice and empty, but it was very rocky and Tamara ended up getting a tiny stone stuck in her toe, so we decided to take a long walk to another beach instead. The walk was lovely as we got some beautiful views of the sea, and there were some really pretty mosaics and street art on the wall across the road from us. This beach was not as pretty, and it was much busier, but definitely a lot less rocky! We actually got a bit chilly here as the sun went in while we were there, so we didn’t stay for too long before heading back.
On the way back, I managed to bash my little toe against a wall, and all the walking meant I got a huge blister on my foot – our bad luck from the day before continued. We soldiered on though, and with a quick visit to the pharmacy and a change of shoes, we continued to explore the island for a couple more hours before bed. We saw some political street art (that we could only understand snippets of since we don't speak Spanish...), the Castillo de San Cristóbal and some somewhat derelict and beaten-up looking buildings along the coast. These were quite a harsh difference from the other bright, clean buildings in the area, and showed how even in the capital city of the island, the devastating effects of 2017's Hurricane Maria were still very much being felt. Buildings were either abandoned and uninhabitable, or recently done up with fresh paint.
(On further research, this neighbourhood in the picture above, that had some of the ruined looking buildings, is apparently where the Despacito music video was filmed! Although it was filmed before the hurricane, it helped turn the poor, rough La Perla neighbourhood into a much more well-off tourist destination. This article about it is really interesting! https://www.hindustantimes.com/travel/tourists-seeking-pop-hit-despacito-flock-to-puerto-rico-s-la-perla/story-4lomHvPIoTvkzuV3R0gJVP.html It seems such a shame that the hurricane hit just after this transformation.)
We spent the next morning at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a historic fort on the corner of the island. This was awesome, as in the US you generally don’t see really old structures like this. I wish I knew more of the history surrounding it, but it was amazing to explore through all the archways and down the flights of uneven stone stairs (coming back up them was not so fun, it was a LOT of stairs…). The views were breath-taking from the lookout points on the fort, as well as on the scenic trail we walked that went around the bottom of the fort. We encountered many more cats, as well as a few lizards and other reptiles. My favourite one was a gorgeous green lizard who sat on a wall in the sunshine looking out to sea.
While at the fort we got another glimpse of life in a hurricane zone, as we got several emergency alerts to our phones and heard an emergency siren; in this case they were just tests, but it was very freaky as it made it so easy to imagine the terror of it being real. So recently people standing where we were standing received actual emergency alerts and heard the eery siren, and their lives were turned upside down. Coming from the UK, where even our extreme weather pales in comparison to most other countries, it was very surreal being in a place where devastating hurricanes are a real threat.
By the time we finished at the fort we were pretty hot and uncomfortable, as we’d been walking around for hours directly in the hot sun. On our way back to the AirBnB we passed a piragua stand (basically Puerto Rican snow cones); I knew I had to get one because not only would it be a perfect way to cool down, but I knew about them from Lin-Manuel Miranda's other musical In The Heights which has a song all about piraguas! I got cherry flavour and it was delicious.
That afternoon we decided to hit the beach again. We went back to our spot on the rocky beach for a while and managed to find a spot that was much smoother so we could enjoy the sea without any danger of more stone-related injuries. After a short while we ventured down the beach towards a ruined structure we had seen from afar the day before. We had to trek over some rocks which was difficult in flip flops, but we made it and it was so worth it! The ruin itself was awesome, but the best part was when we walked past it and found the most gorgeous beach. It was completely empty of people and had the most amazing clear water I’ve ever seen. We wished we’d discovered it earlier as we could’ve spent all day there.
The flight home was a little turbulent, but it was great to see the views during the daytime as we had flown in during the evening. We were particularly impressed by how the Bahamas looked from above – I think it looks like a bath bomb!
Like I said at the end of my Florida post, I'm so happy I had the opportunity to go on such an amazing adventure. Puerto Rico's a place that's been on my radar for a while since I started following Lin-Manuel Miranda, and especially since meeting a lot of people in America with Puerto Rican heritage. It was awesome to see it for myself and really get a feel for the Hispanic culture that's such a big influence in the USA. Something I found very interesting was the mix of Spanish and American both in language and culture; me and Tamara had no issue communicating even though we speak English, but we still heard and saw a lot of Spanish. We saw Puerto Rican flags flown alongside American flags. I think this is perhaps a consequence of it being a territory rather than a state - although having a sense of American identity, it felt like it had a much more distinct identity and culture than the individual states do.
Overall this trip, while being a very enjoyable holiday, gave me a much greater awareness of Puerto Rico and the issues it faces. It's somewhere I definitely want to go back to one day, as I only saw a tiny part of it; from what I've been told the rest of the island has a lot more to offer, and I've particularly been recommended by my American/Puerto Rican classmates to check out some of the waterfalls!
Overall this trip, while being a very enjoyable holiday, gave me a much greater awareness of Puerto Rico and the issues it faces. It's somewhere I definitely want to go back to one day, as I only saw a tiny part of it; from what I've been told the rest of the island has a lot more to offer, and I've particularly been recommended by my American/Puerto Rican classmates to check out some of the waterfalls!
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