Puerto Rico Heineken Jazzfest Turns 25!

It’s that time of year when jazz lovers from every cor­ner of Puer­to Rico, and many oth­er coun­tries, gath­er at the Tito Puente Amphithe­ater, in San Juan, Puer­to Rico to enjoy four con­sec­u­tive days of the best music in the world! And this year it’s going to be even bet­ter, as the fes­ti­val cel­e­brates its 25th anniver­sary bring­ing the best Con­tin­ue reading…

A Drive Through Southeastern Puerto Rico

Many read­ers have com­ment­ed that Puer­to Rico By GPS hard­ly has any cov­er­age of the south­east­ern region of the Island.  Well, there’s a rea­son for that.  The are three major attrac­tions that all tourists ask about when they arrive in Puer­to Rico: the old city, the rain­for­est and the beach­es. The old city —of course— is Old San Juan, a Con­tin­ue reading…

Hacienda La Esperanza in Manatí, Puerto Rico

Back in Feb­ru­ary of 2014 we vis­it­ed “Las Cabezas de San Juan”, a 438 acre nature reserve run by the Puer­to Rico Con­ser­va­tion Trust (Fide­icomiso de Con­ser­vación de Puer­to Rico).  This time my wife and I head­ed west towards the town of Man­atí to vis­it Hacien­da La Esper­an­za, a 2,220 acre prop­er­ty that was once a thriv­ing sug­ar hacien­da. Hacien­da Con­tin­ue reading…

San Sebastian Street Fiestas… An Exercise in Dissonance

It’s almost that time of year, when peo­ple from all parts of the world con­verge in Old San Juan to cel­e­brate “Las Fies­tas De La Calle San Sebas­t­ian”, the largest street fes­ti­val in the world tak­ing place dur­ing the month of Jan­u­ary.  But this time around there’s sta­t­ic in the air.  The orga­niz­ing com­mit­tee is fight­ing the may­oress and the Con­tin­ue reading…

Christmas In Puerto Rico

Har­vey Dee­gan Inter­view Click here to lis­ten to the inter­view! Today I had a unique expe­ri­ence. I spoke about Puer­to Rican Christ­mas tra­di­tions to an audi­ence that’s most­ly on the oth­er side of the plan­et. That’s right, this morn­ing I had the rare oppor­tu­ni­ty to speak with Har­vey Dee­gan, a radio per­son­al­i­ty with Radio 6PR in Perth, West­ern Aus­tralia. This Con­tin­ue reading…

Puerto Rico By GPS Reaches Australia

Yes­ter­day I had the unique plea­sure of speak­ing with Mr. Steve Collins, the host of “Radio Roam­ing”, a 24/7 trav­el talk show from Aus­tralia.  Steve is a sea­soned radio pro­fes­sion­al that pro­motes trav­el to west­ern Aus­tralia, but when he stum­bled onto Puer­to Rico By GPS he was intrigued by our Island’s beau­ty. The edit­ed ver­sion of the inter­view is 35 Con­tin­ue reading…

Paseo Del Morro, A Beautiful Walk In Old San Juan But…

Yes­ter­day morn­ing I went for a walk in Old San Juan with my wife and a friend. I had received a press release from the Nation­al Park Ser­vice announc­ing the inau­gu­ra­tion of the first stretch of the “‘The Paseo Del Mor­ro’, a Nation­al­ly Des­ig­nat­ed Trail, des­ig­nat­ed in 2001 and inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized, which aims to con­nect nat­ur­al, cul­tur­al and his­toric areas Con­tin­ue reading…

A Day At El Yunque National Forest

Last Mon­day was sun­ny and beau­ti­ful. This isn’t to say that the rest of the year isn’t beau­ti­ful in Puer­to Rico, because it most cer­tain­ly is, but last Mon­day was spe­cial. The sun was shin­ing bright, there was­n’t a cloud above and the sky was so blue that it made your eyes hurt. Wow! As many read­ers of Puer­to Rico By Con­tin­ue reading…

New Visitor Information Center in Old San Juan

Last Fri­day I spent some time in Old San Juan.  Just as I arrived I dis­cov­ered the new Vis­i­tor Infor­ma­tion Cen­ter that’s locat­ed right behind the Ale­jan­dro Tapia y Rivera Munic­i­pal The­ater, where the old “Pub­lic Bathing Facil­i­ties” used to be dur­ing the first decades of the 20th Cen­tu­ry. If you’re com­ing from the Cov­adon­ga Munic­i­pal Park­ing just walk west Con­tin­ue reading…

If I Were A Snowbird… Winter In Puerto Rico

It’s that time of year.  Sum­mer is almost over and many Amer­i­cans (espe­cial­ly those liv­ing in the north­ern states) are decid­ing where they’re going to spend the crud­est win­ter months.  They’re called “snow­birds”, because they migrate south dur­ing the win­ter months.  Some have sec­ond homes in Flori­da.  But after a while the amuse­ment parks and golf cours­es all start to Con­tin­ue reading…