Vacation & Travel: Exploring History in San Juan, Puerto Rico (Part 2, Pictures)
One of the congress buildings in San Juan. During our tour of San Juan, Puerto Rico we stopped by this beautiful congress buildings.
Ceiling inside the political building, amazing art work. They had beautiful marble and artwork inside the senate building. It was really neat to see the art and read about the history of San Juan.
In their Senate building looking down into foyer at their Articles of Constitution The circular item in the middle of the foyer is San Juan’s “Articles of Constitution”. You can actually read the documents and sign the signatures.
Exploring Fort San Cristobal We had a blast exploring the Fort. The Fort had many amazing views of the city and a lot of neat history regarding the city of San Juan.
Following Dad through one for the long tunnels in the Fort. The fort had a maze of tunnels you could walk through. If you look to the right you can see a glow of a light. When the fort was built they used candles in those sections to help light the tunnels for the soldiers to see, (thankfully they use traditional lighting these days). I wouldn’t want to be in one of the tunnels when all the lights went out!
A large courtyard inside the fort. Inside the fort they had a couple large courtyard areas. You could stand in the middle of the courtyard and see people touring the fort in about every direction. I could only imagine what it looked like if the fort was buzzing with soldiers during it’s active days.
An upper section where they placed cannons to defend the fort. The fort was built approximately 150 feet up from sea level. On the upper sections of the fort the walls were huge! Most of the places we above your head but when you looked out where the cannons were located you could see a great distance and get more of perspective of how high you truly were.
Looking out of one of the cannon notches to the city of San Juan. It was amazing looking out the various cannon portals and seeing the city as well as ocean around the fort. In some ways it is hard to believe at one time that there were cannons sitting in these notches.
Gazing out at the beach and city around the fort. We are looking out of a “window” in the fort at the city and beach below. If you look in the upper left hand corner of the picture you will see a piece of the fort sticking up with two horizontal slits in it, that is similar to the “window” we are taking the picture through.
In the background of the picture you can see another piece of the fort. The fort is very long with houses and businesses along the outer walls of the fort. There is area between the larger pieces of the fort are longer and narrower which follow the coast line of San Juan.
As we were walking through the fort we found a friend on the grassy area. A large iguana (at least I think that is what it was) was stretched out on the grass right next to us.
We had a lot of fun in a few hours exploring San Juan, Puerto Rico. My personal favorite was touring the fort and learning snip-its of history about it. I am thankful for the opportunity to not only spend time exploring other parts of the world on our trip but also spending extra time with family.
A Vacation To Remember series is a reflection on our recent trip and ways we relaxed. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
Vacation & Travel: Exploring History in San Juan, Puerto Rico
Picture taken from inside Fort San Cristobal A few months ago my husband and I along with several extended family members had the opportunity to take a vacation and we flew into San Juan, Puerto Rico. (I know, I am a few months behind and trying to catch up on all the fun activities, trips, and events that have been going on this year. Bare with me I hope to get there eventually). The day we flew into San Juan we weren’t able to explore but we were able to see the city on the way back threw. After several days of fun cruising on the Royal Caribbean’s, Serenade of the Seas we had the a few hours to explore San Juan, Puerto Rico.
We were able to see both the Old and New San Juan. During our time in San Juan we were able to see and explore several historic landmarks such as the San Jose Church, the Governor’s Mansion, the Cristo Chapel, El Convento Hotel, visit the Condado section of New San Juan and we took a quick tour of Fort San Cristobal.
Jake and I thoroughly enjoyed walking through Fort San Cristobal. It would have been awesome to take a guided tour through the fort to learn about all the history behind it but since time was limited we soaked in all the information we could as we toured the Fort with our group. Fort San Cristobal is a large fortress on the island of San Juan that was built by the Spanish starting in the mid 1600’s but not complete until late 1700’s. The purpose of the fort was to protect San Juan from attacks. Fort San Cristobal was approximately 27 acres and stretched along the edge of the city. This fort was one of the biggest built in America by the Spanish. The fort was built to not only protect the city from attack on sea but from attack by land as well. I was impressed with the number of tunnels within the fort. One of the oldest pieces of the fort is the “Garita del Diablo” (the Devil’s Sentry Box) because sentinels would disappear from this post over the sea. The first shots of the Spanish – American War between Puerto Rico and a US Navy ship were fired by the cannons on top of Fort San Cristobal in 1898.
It was wonderful learning about all the history in San Juan while we were touring the city. One of the neat parts about going on a cruise is we had a chance to visit a variety of different islands and learn about their history. We were simply amazed and grateful for the time to soak in all the history in these islands. San Juan was very fascinating, and like many of the other islands we visited, it would have been nice to stay a few days to learn more of the history and experience the culture.
The island of Puerto Rico is approximately 100 miles long and 35 miles wide with almost 4 million people. It is nicknamed the “Island of Enchantment,” and has a modern multicultural society which has been influenced by the Spanish, African, Native American Tainos and United States.
Facts about the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico:
- Land Area: 47.5 square miles
- Water Area: 75.4 square miles
- Population: 420,326
- Density: 2,110 per square kilometer
- Housing Units: 182,101
- Per Capita Income: $12,437
Another interesting fact of Puerto Rico – “While Puerto Rico is the oldest city under U.S. jurisdiction, most people consider St. Augustine, Florida the oldest city in the continental.” Informational facts received from To Puerto Rico
I will be posting more pictures in a few days explaining and showing more about our adventures in San Juan. It was a wonderful trip through the city filled with neat history. The piece that made it more enjoyable is that we spent with with extended family. What a blessing it is to have a chance to explore areas with family.
A Vacation To Remember series is a reflection on our recent trip and ways we relaxed. Life is short and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to build memories with family and explore of of the most amazing places during our time away. Explore with a good attitude, look for fun and it will be an awesome trip jammed packed with positive memories. It is refreshing having some time away from the regular routine. Make it a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet new people and learn. You just might see or try something new that takes your breath away!
