San Juan
The Travels of Running Tide
Mick Norman
Sat 4 May 2013 01:24
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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
 Looking towards San Cristobal from El Morro
 El Morro
 El Morro
 Old Town San Juan
 Old Town San Juan
 Old Town San Juan
 Electric Blue Cobble Stones
 Old Town San Juan
 Old Town San Juan
 Old Town San Juan
 Old Town San Juan
 Old Town San Juan
 Old Town San Juan
 Old Town San Juan
 Old San Juan Plaza
 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
 Arecibo Radio Telescope
 Camuy
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