Visiting old
San Juan, Puerto Rico/Carlos Pueblo
After 1898,
U.S. has taken away many Spanish islands colony in both
the Atlantic
and Pacific Ocean, Puerto Rico is one of them. Our ship
landed on
the shore of the harbor of San Juan, the capital city, along
with 5 other
huge ocean liners. It is very interesting to find out that
a chain of
islands spread from the north east of Venezuela to the
southern tip
of Florida to form the eastern Caribbean which is a popular
cruise
destination for the market. There is a long history of the European
Naval power
struggle during that time of the industrial revolution, the
Industrial power
nations such as England, French, Holland, etc., have
Established their
colony until today. Old San Juan was the fort built by
the Spanish
to defend the islands from foreign invasion. I went to visit
two military
castles, Castillo San Cristobal and Castillo San Felipe del Morro,
el Morro.
I have been
accustomed to walk along on my visit to a new town. It was an up
hill road
toward the first San Cristobal passing through some beautiful building
of the city.
There are berry trees along the highway similar to coffee yet not
coffee berry
with the color of grapes. The Castle is on the edge or cliff of the shore
with a tall
iron fence. Outside of the castle is a huge green field and I was expecting
to meet a
young couple who desired to fly kite on that day. I didn’t find them and
learned later
that the kite was broken when was in use. I wondered around the field
feeling the
windy sea wind blowing and huge sea wave pounding on the shoe, what an
experience.
I continued to
walk toward to the other end of the green field by passing a run down
residential area
of the old San Juan. It was very different from what I had passed by of
the modern
San Juan. This is more like a slum and ghetto area of San Juan. I understand
the economic
crisis of Puerto Rico; however, I don’t know how can the Puerto Rican to
get out of
it. El Morro is on the other end of the shore with several battery remaining
inside a national
historical heritage site. The museum maintains the old cannon ball on
the platform
on the side of the cannon. Spanish was really serious in the defense business
while U.S.
Army did maintain some kind of military business until turning over to the
National
park. I
still selected to walk back to the ship through the old San Juan.
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