Tourist for a Day at Old San Juan, Puerto Rico

Castillo San Felipe del Morro
Old San Juan, PR

     "I live where you vacation" is a popular saying among Puertoricans. If you're not a local, you're trip to the island would begin by stepping out of the airport. For me, however, my day as a tourist in my own hometown began by stepping outside my house and hitching a 20 minute car ride to Old San Juan.                  

Castillo San Felipe del Morro
Old San Juan, PR

       Old San Juan is known as “la ciudad amurallada” (“The fortified city” in Spanish). Why? Because back in the 1500’s when Spain occupied Puerto Rico, the city was completely surrounded by walls to protect it from both water and land attacks since it was one of the most prominent harbors in the Caribbean. Because of this, one of Old San Juan’s most popular attractions are the stone walls that surround the city. Castillo San Felipe del Morro is the most popular fort in the city. Right in front of it, there’s a huge open—and I might add very windy—grassland where people gather to fly their kites. If you forget your kite or find out that you have no space in your luggage for it, don’t worry; there are locals in the adjacent areas that sell kites. The walk from the street to the entrance of the fort is long and windy. My 94 pound body could barely walk a straight line as it was pushed to the side by heavy gusts of wind. Once I reached the entrance of El Morro, I walked down the steps located at the left and encountered six circular openings (half where completely open; half where closed-off by bars) under the bridge that leads up to the gates of the fort. What sort of things happened here 500 or so years ago? What were these openings used for? To store things? To keep prisoners? Are three missing their bars? The questions this part of El Morro arises makes it and incredibly interesting part to experience; the best part is it’s free of charge. If I hadn't been wearing my tourist hat, I wouldn't have bothered to ask these questions. I realized I took El Morro for granted. I had visited it, and I knew about its history so, for me, it was just there; another building that was part of the history I've learned over and over again since Kindergarden. 

El Totem
Old San Juan, PR

         Right in front of El Morro is a totem (Totem Telúrico, as properly named in Spanish). As I approached it, in its plaza kids splashed in the water spurts that came from the ground, and I sat on the steps of the stairs that led up to the totem. I could feel the warmness of the sun burning my skin mixed wonderfully with refreshing and, at times, cold wind. It'd been raining on the car ride over and my mind had immediately thought "My day as a tourist is ruined". I had completely forgotten how wonderfully bipolar Puerto Rico's climate can be: rainy one second, sunny the next. On a regular day, I'd be incredibly annoyed by this. For once, however, the hat I was wearing for the day made me see this as a blessing; I could now trust it'd be sunny in Old San Juan.   

Catedral de San Juan Bautista
(English: Cathedral of San Juan Bautista)
Old San Juan, PR

I got up and made my way to the city’s interior down Calle del Cristo passing the famous Calle de San Sebastían—the street host to a celebration that takes place every year in January and is similar to Mardi Gras in New Orleans. As you go down Calle del Cristo you encounter San Juan’s cathedral, Catedral de San Juan Bautista (in English: Cathedral of San Juan Bautista), to your left. I had never entered inside it and, if I had, I could not remember it. On the outside it has a simple and plain architecture, and it doesn’t seem big, but when you step into it, it’s a whole new world. It’s a wide space with a very long aisle leading to a big altar. The ceiling is spectacularly painted with intricate and beautiful designs, but there’s a point where the beauty mingles with the old. Parts of the ceiling next to well painted parts are torn exposing the red stone out of which the cathedral is made of. The decaying parts of the church that collide with well-maintained ones express the city’s essence: the old vs. the new. 

One of Old San Juan's picturesque streets

       Old San Juan is a city of quaint and historic character. If you try hard enough and you’re into that sort of thing, as you walk its narrow, colorfully painted building lined, and cobblestone streets, you can transport yourself back to the 1500’s when enemy ships threatened the shores. Now, this is how I truly spent my day as a tourist: picturing myself within the city's history and rediscovering it.