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…

Old San Juan At Dusk

Last Mon­day was a sun­ny day. There was­n’t a cloud in the sky, which is rare for the month of August in Puer­to Rico. Typ­i­cal­ly the sum­mer months in Puer­to Rico are char­ac­ter­ized by over­cast skies, usu­al­ly not due to rain clouds but to the Sahara dust that cov­ers the Island for weeks at a time. Con­se­quent­ly, when I’ve been asked Con­tin­ue reading…

Museum Of Transportation, Guaynabo, Puerto Rico

Now here’s a place that you’d nev­er expect to find on a small island like Puer­to Rico.  The Muse­um of Trans­porta­tion, in the munic­i­pal­i­ty of Guayn­abo, is noth­ing short of a jaw drop­per. And it’s new!  The muse­um opened its doors on Decem­ber 1, 2013 and it has become an instant sen­sa­tion among car afi­ciona­dos of all ages and the Con­tin­ue reading…

Museum Of The Americas, A Rare Gem In Old San Juan, PR

Most peo­ple that vis­it Puer­to Rico come here because of a hand­ful of rea­sons. Some come because of the beach­es.  Oth­ers come because of the Span­ish forts in Old San Juan.  Still oth­ers come because of the mar­velous Puer­to Rican cui­sine and the trop­i­cal cli­mate. But very few come because of our muse­ums. Well, let me tell you.  That’s a Con­tin­ue reading…