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San Juan, Puerto Rico

In July 2017 we took a Caribbean cruise with Jeri’s family. During this trip we docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico’s capital and largest city. This was just two months before Hurricane Maria devastated the island on September 20, 2017.

Founded by Ponce de Leon in 1508, this colorful city still has some streets paved with the original blue cobblestones from the Spanish Colonial era.

Still prominent in San Juan are the old Spanish forts, Fort San Cristobal and Fort San Felipe de Morro, both part of the San Juan National Historic Site. Parts of the old city are still surrounded by massive walls and several defensive structures.

We were only docked for the day however, during our time in port we walked and toured both forts and much of the old city. Oh, and found time to eat some of the most amazing paella we’ve ever tasted.

Here are some more pictures from our day. We spent most of our time at the two forts since we were interested in all the history. And the views were pretty amazing too. Oh, and if you think we look somewhat tired and soggy it’s because it was about 95 degrees F (35 degrees C) with 100,000% humidity (ok, maybe not that much…but it was stupid hot out there that day).

We’re melting…😩
Walking into one of the forts
The walls surrounding the forts are really thick (this isn’t a tunnel, it is the wall)
Random sighting – tree growing around a utility pole
The old cemetery outside of the Fort entrance
Fort walls were thick AND tall…about 16-20 feet (5 meters) to lower courtyard
Old city wall down by the water
Random sight – this guy ran right by us
Norm the Gnome, our traveling companion, on top of the sign
Inner courtyard of the Fort

In the early 1940s while still an active military base when the United States entered WWII, concrete pillboxes and an underground bunker control center were added to the ancient defenses of the Castillo San Cristóbal. Blends right in, doesn’t it?

Here are some more pictures of the colorful houses around the old city. Despite the hot, muggy and buggy weather, this town was so beautiful that is it still one of our favorites.

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Who does what here? Honestly, it’s really a good collaboration. We both decide where to go and plan the trip together. Once at our destination, Jeri takes most of the pictures and edits them for our website, though Joel has a much longer arm and is better at taking our selfies. Once the pictures are done then Jeri writes the posts and Joel edits them before they go live. Joel is also the IT guy when things go wrong (but what could possible go wrong when a computer is involved?)

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