A visit to Puerto Rico is not complete unless San Juan, the capital is explored. We hired a car for the day, and headed straight to the old town, about an hour away from the boat. With forts and castles built in the 1500’s, and much of it restored, it was certainly a highlight of our trip. Also, for a capitol city, we have never paid so little for underground parking – $3.00 for the entire DAY.
We started our tour of the town walking up the hill to the San Filipe del Morro Castle.
The open field in front of the castle is called the Field of Fire, as in the 15th and 16th centuries, 2 major battles were fought. The clear field in front of the castle was designed strategically to keep the enemy in the open, where any invader would be in clear sight of the 20 canons and 200 muskets shooting from the castle above. On the day we visited, the skies were blue and a couple of hundred school children played and flew kites in the breeze. It was hard to imagine that bloody battles that occurred so long ago.
After a good couple of hours exploring the amazing castle which was spread over 6 levels, we headed back towards the old town, wandering the cobbled streets in search of a restaurant for lunch.
We managed to sway the boys away from Burger King in preference for more local cuisine, and hit it lucky, getting some very tasty dishes full of local flavours and spices!
Our restaurant
Lots of interesting things to see in the town, another pigeon park, before heading back to the car and on to Petes favourite destination – West Marine.
Sadly we caught peak our traffic on the way home – first in many months, it was quite a shock! Definitely glad we live on the Sunshine Coast with very little commuter traffic around our suburbs!
Mahia 