Puerto Rico for the day!
Grandma’s musings:
Feb. 5 (Thurs.)
Place: San Juan, P.R.
Weather: Perfection - Breakfast – Airport Hotel coffee shop – walked around hotel grounds – palm trees, poinsettias, wonderful uninhibited Puerto Ricans, lily ponds in courtyard. Bldg. open to air on one side.
Public bus no. 17 (10 cents) – rode into S.J., through heart of city, passing bungalow-type homes (gay pastel colors, some places quite nice and neat, with profusions of flowers in gardens, others ramshackle and poor). The children here are adorable and seem to be everywhere. The people happy and extremely friendly.
Bus line ends at Plaza de Colon (here monument of Columbus). Sat here to plan walking tour. Decided to go to the boat piers – saw single and 2-masted sail boats, inter-island freight – bananas and beer – ebony-skinned crew. Strolled up steep street to taxi stand, took cab to entrance to Morro Fortress (this is a National Park under Interior Dept). A guided tour was to begin in 45 min., so we used this time to visit St. Juan Bautista and San José churches (both c. 1525). The former well preserved – beautiful altar and bas-reliefs of stages of the cross – The Padre happened along and was very cordial and informative. Back to join tour group. Too late, but talked our way in and had a delightful walk all through by ourselves. Later a beer at Plaza Colon (local lively atmosphere). On city bus back to hotel a P. R. citizen served as self-appointed guide – very helpful. Back at hotel – dinner in Ruisenor Dining Room, checked winter coats, my suit and rubbers. Relaxed for tomorrow's trip.
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My musings:
Puerto Rico!
Weather: “Perfection!” Indeed, the winter months are when the weather is at its finest in Puerto Rico, the temperature generally staying in the low to mid 80s F (27 C) in San Juan in February.
I’m impressed by how much they did during their one-day layover, zipping through San Juan on the city bus, before flying out to Martinique the next day.
A keen observer of life around her, Grandma immediately began taking note of her surroundings, the people (“uninhibited?” this of course in comparison to the people of mostly German/British descent in her social circle in Rochester), the local housing situation and living conditions, the boat piers and the activity there. She and my Grandpa Bowen had unlimited curiosity regarding how people lived, how things worked, how people obtained the goods they consumed – I am certain they discussed this and were intrigued to know more about inter-island freight - what goods were exchanged and how important it was to the regional economy, who owned the boats, where the crew members were from and so forth.
They discovered there was to be a guided tour of Morro Fortress and understandably signed up for it, given that it’s actually quite a spectacular place as I learned from this short video!
Read more of El Morro’s history here, a fortress which was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.
They visited two churches, Catedral de San Juan Bautista and San José, while waiting for the tour to begin and stayed on a bit longer than anticipated because, in typical fashion, they struck up a conversation with the Padre!
They subsequently returned too late to join the tour group but were not to be stopped! As Grandma Bowen put it, they talked their way in so they could visit it anyway on their own.
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This reminds me of when she and my dad came to visit France when I was living there in 1990. Upon consulting our guidebook, we had found an ancient tower and museum to visit in the beautiful city of Sarlat in the Perigord region of France (French here, or English here) but arrived only to find it closed. Coincidence had it that the curator passed by just then and my grandmother struck up a conversation and “talked us in” so that we could have a nice private visit of the museum! Traveling was always better with Grandma!
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It was fortunate that they chose to take the city bus because they got to benefit from the self-appointed local guide who proved to be very helpful. I’m reminded of friend of mine, originally from Puerto Rico who was living in Strasbourg when I was, and he mentioned to me how even nowadays people talk to each other on the bus, it's just what you do. This was so unlike our experience in Strasbourg where people generally avoid eye contact with others when they get on the bus, they sit down and keep to themselves.
I am transported by my grandmother’s reporting on Puerto Rico and can practically feel the warmth of the sun and the sand between my toes. If any of this sounds appealing to you and you’re planning your next trip for the hopefully not too distant future, I would recommend spending some time on this refreshingly beautiful and comprehensive website which covers the history, the people, the festivals, the food, everything you could possibly want to know about PR! Book your stay on the Discover Puerto Rico website, or on Airbnb or booking.com.