San Juan

The Travels of Running Tide
Mick Norman
Sat 4 May 2013 01:24
 
Still in San Juan and doing the tourist thing today. I would say that the two forts of San Cristabal and El Morro are some of the best coastal forts I have ever seen. Their architecture and location on the Atlantic coastline of San Juan are stunning. Old Town San Juan is also hard to beat. Narrow streets, electric blue cobble stones and superb terraces of residential homes some with a tantalising glimpses of the sea. Interestingly, the Brits never got there hands on the two forts . They have remained in Spanish hands throughout their 250 years except now the Americans have a foot in the door.
 
As we have travelled through the Caribbean the nature of the islands has changed. From Grenada to Anguilla the culture was Afro Caribbean except for the French Islands were there was a special blend of French and Afro Caribbean but all with a pounding Reggae beat. Through the Virgin Islands we could have been anywhere in the World where you find sun, sand, condos and expensive marinas. As I mentioned before beautiful but soulless. Puerto Rico surprisingly has no Afro Caribbean presence that we saw, the theme is Spanish but with a strong American presence. Very friendly people and a great place to be but don’t expect a cheap holiday.
 
Parts of San Juan are traffic hell with highways and choked roads. Get dropped off at the wrong bus stop as we didand finding a pedestrian route back to the marina is near impossible without risking life and limb and a ticket for jay walking.
 
From San Cristabal Fort Looking West to El Morro
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Looking towards San Cristobal from El Morro
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El Morro
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El Morro
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Old Town San Juan
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Old Town San Juan
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Old Town San Juan
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Electric Blue Cobble Stones
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Old Town San Juan
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Old Town San Juan
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Old Town San Juan
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Old Town San Juan
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Old Town San Juan
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Old Town San Juan
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Old Town San Juan
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Old San Juan Plaza
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On our final day in PR Norm and I headed off to see the largest radio telescope in the World at Aricebo about 2 hour drive from San Juan.
Aricebo Radio Telescope. The 20 acre dish appeared in the James Bond movie Golden Eye. The telescope can output 2 megawatt pulses of radio waves to enable the study of the atmosphere and remote planets/stars, etc. The telescope is located in the heart of the karst country. A strange area of limestones hillocks therefore it was logical to head off to look at some limestone caves in the Parque De Las Cavernas Del Rio Camuy. The largest cave system in the World and lots of walking amongst stalagmites and stalactites.
 
Arecibo Radio Telescope
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Arecibo Radio Telescope
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Camuy
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