After lunch we met at the portico of the main building to catch a school van to drop us off in El Viejo San Juan (Old San Juan) for a walking tour of the city, to be followed by a tour of the Barcardi rum distillery in Catano just across the bay.
El Viejo San Juan has been described as being one of the most historic places in the Caribbean. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and the San Juan Bay to the south.
We stopped at Alcadia (City Hall) and began our walking tour of the city. We were met by a guide from the tourist center. In addition, Dr. Ignacio also accompanied us to provide additonal background and commentary. On the first floor of Alcadia is a tourist information center. The second floor houses a small art gallery that displays some very impressive paintings and chandeliers.
Ignacio told us that there is an incentive for people who wish to invest in restoring the old buildings to their original condition. It is very expensive, in that it must be an exact replica of the pre-existing building, but there are tax incentives for doing so. I believe he said you did not have to pay taxes for seven years on a renovated property.
El Viejo San Juan is definitely a walking tour. The city is filled with old style Spanish/Mediterranean architecture and multicolored light pastel painted exteriors on most of the small buildings. The sidewalks are only wide enough to accomodate about one person. If two people are coming at each other from opposite directions, one, or both of you are going to have to make some kind of adjustment to get by. Don't try walking in the street, because they are not very wide either. Probably because of that, there appeared to be quite a bit of one-way streets in old San Juan.
We passed several plazas, one featuring a relocated Ponce de Leon. Adjacent to him is the Pablo Casals Museum. We walked many blocks and in our travels we saw, but were really not surprised to see such mainland staples such as McDonalds, Wendys, Coach, Dooney & Bourke, Marshalls, and even Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream shop.
Our walk eventually took us to the immense walls that at one time surrounded the entire city. From a distance we could see El Morro and its surrounding church and cemetery. We did not get to enter the structure itself.
We then headed to Casa Blanca (the White House). This immense structure was originally built for Ponce de Leon. It is surrounded with lush tropical flora spread across several gardens. We noticed several large trucks with quite a bit of electical wiring equipment. We later found out that Johnny Depp is filming a movie about the rum trade here.
At 4pm we headed for the harbor to catch a 20 minute ferry across San Juan Bay to Catano for the last daily tour of the Bacardi distillery.
Barcadi is also known as the "Cathedral of Rum." It is the largest facility of its kind in the world. It was a 90 minute tour showing the history of rum making and its economic impact on this region of the world. It shows how the Castro takeover in Cuba led to the moving of rum production into Puerto Rico. The whole subject of sugar cane, molassas, rum production, marketing, sales and the economic consequences of this industry would be a good research topic for a paper or presentation.
Ferry ride from El Viejo San Juan to Catano (Bacardi Tour)
This would be an interesting topic to research,and tie into the slave trade.
ReplyDeleteOn our walking tour of Old San Juan, I thought it was so interesting to see the newly restored and painted buildings. However, I was so suprised when I looked into the building and saw nothing but crumbling walls and overgrown foliage.
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