The Puerto Rico Heineken Jazzfest 2016 In Pictures

It all end­ed last night. The 26th edi­tion of the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zfest came to a close yes­ter­day evening with three excit­ing acts and the “doc­tori­fi­ca­tion” of one of Puer­to Rico’s most pro­lif­ic artists doc­tor Ray San­tos. Ray San­tos is bet­ter known for his arrange­ments for music greats like Mario Bauzá, Machi­to, Tito Rodríguez and Tito Puente, but he is also Con­tin­ue reading…

12 Shows, 4 Days And A Whole Lotta Jazz!!!

The 26th edi­tion of the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zFest will take place from Thurs­day, March 17 to Sun­day, March 20, at the Tito Puente Amphithe­ater in San Juan. This year, the fes­ti­val will have a var­ied musi­cal offer­ing, includ­ing the intro­duc­tion of HEINEKEN THE LAB, an exper­i­men­tal pro­pos­al that will com­bine jazz with oth­er musi­cal gen­res on the first night (Thurs­day). Con­tin­ue reading…

Ray Santos To Be Honored At PR Heineken Jazzfest 2016

Jazz is in the air in sun­ny Puer­to Rico! Why? Because the 26th edi­tion of the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zfest is just six weeks away at the Tito Puente Amphithe­ater in San Juan. When? From March 17 thru the 20th. Accord­ing to Luis Álvarez, Vice Pres­i­dent of the Liquors Divi­sion at Mén­dez & Co., the orga­ni­za­tion spon­sor­ing and orga­niz­ing the Con­tin­ue reading…

Old San Juan Is For Walking

I’ll nev­er under­stand how there are peo­ple who jump in their cars and waste hours dri­ving around Old San Juan.  That’s the idiot’s way to see the Old City!  But there does­n’t seem to be a short­age of those.  Just vis­it Old San Juan any Sun­day after­noon and you’ll see the long line of cars going from Fort San Cristo­bal Con­tin­ue reading…

A Day At The Arecibo Radio-Telescope

NOTE: THIS DISH NO LONGER EXISTSTHE IMAGE THAT YOU SEE BELOW IS OF WHAT IT ONCE WAS. When you vis­it a trop­i­cal island like Puer­to Rico there are things that you expect and things that you don’t. You can expect beau­ti­ful beach­es, lush veg­e­ta­tion, old Span­ish cities, won­der­ful food and pleas­ing peo­ple. But what you prob­a­bly won’t expect is a Con­tin­ue reading…

Puerto Rico Heineken Jazzfest 2015 in Pictures

On Wednes­day, March 18th I wrote about the upcom­ing 25th Anniver­sary of the Puer­to Rico Heineken Jaz­zfest.  So rather than bore you with all the details of who played when, or how good they were (because they were all out­stand­ing), I thought it would be bet­ter just to show you.  After four days of per­fect weath­er I end­ed up with Con­tin­ue reading…

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…