10 Things To Do In Puerto Rico While The US Government Is Closed

So you already booked a trip to Puer­to Rico —or you just arrived— and the forts in Old San Juan are closed?  You thought about vis­it­ing El Yunque Nation­al Rain­for­est but, guess what?  That’s closed too.

Now you have an entire day at your dis­pos­al (if you arrived on a cruise ship) or sev­er­al, if you arrived by plane.  Noth­ing to do?  Don’t despair.

Bac­ar­di Rum Distillery

Puer­to Rico has dozens of places to see, things to do and oppor­tu­ni­ties to have fun.  You just have to know about them.  So I’ve put togeth­er a list for you.

Four are per­fect for peo­ple who arrive on cruise ships.  Did you know that the aver­age tourist that arrives by ship spends only around eight hours in Puer­to Rico?  That’s a tragedy.  So, with so lit­tle time to spend you can’t spend it all driving.

First on our list is the Bac­ar­di Rum Dis­tillery.  It’s right across the bay.  You can catch a guid­ed tour right on the peer.  Once there, you’ll get to see the facil­i­ties, learn how rum is made and taste some of their most famous liquors.

If you’re a beach lover you can vis­it Car­oli­na Beach.  Did you know that this beach is ranked among the best in the world?  That’s right!  It’s a Blue Flag Beach.  That means that it meets, and in many cas­es sur­pass­es, the high­est stan­dards of clean­li­ness and qual­i­ty.  Oh, and did I men­tion that it’s absolute­ly gor­geous?  That’s right!  It’s gor­geous and it’s free! The only thing you’ll pay is for park­ing. And the fluffy white sand and emer­ald-blue water will leave you breathless.

Car­oli­na Beach

If archi­tec­ture is your thing, then you’re in for a treat in Old San Juan.  The “Bal­la­já Mil­i­tary Baracks” were the last and largest mil­i­tary struc­ture built by the Spaniards in the New World.

Bal­la­já Mil­i­tary Baracks

The build­ing is in tip top shape and it hous­es two excel­lent muse­ums: the “Museo de Las Améri­c­as” (Muse­um of the Améri­c­as), which has an out­stand­ing col­lec­tion of Caribbean and Euro­pean art, and the “Pablo Casals Muse­um”, which is tem­porar­i­ly there.  Of course, Pablo Casals was the world famous Cata­lan cel­list who was instru­men­tal (no pun intend­ed) in cre­at­ing the Puer­to Rican Con­ser­va­to­ry of Music and the Puer­to Rico Sym­pho­ny Orchestra.

Casa Blan­ca

Oth­er inter­est­ing build­ings in Old San Juan include “La Casa Blan­ca” (The White House) which was built for Juan Ponce De Leon, although he nev­er actu­al­ly lived there; the Domini­can Con­vent or “Con­ven­to de Los Domini­cos”, a 16th Cen­tu­ry build­ing right next to Quin­cen­ten­ni­al Square; and the “Cen­ter for Advanced Stud­ies on Puer­to Rico and the Caribbean”, a 19th cen­tu­ry struc­ture which was the first post sec­ondary learn­ing cen­ter on the Island.

A lit­tle fur­ther down Cristo Street from the Cen­ter for Advanced Stud­ies on Puer­to Rico and the Caribbean is “San Juan Cathe­dral”.  As cathe­drals go it’s nowhere as pompous as the ones you’ll find in Spain, but it’s the old­est church in Puer­to Rico and pos­si­bly in the New World.

San Juan Cathedral

San Juan Cathe­dral is also a rare exam­ple of medieval con­struc­tion in the new world.  The remains of Span­ish con­quis­ta­dor, and Puer­to Rico’s first gov­er­nor “Juan Ponce de Leon” are buried there in a beau­ti­ful mar­ble crypt.

Final­ly, at the very end of Cristo Street is “La Capil­la De Cristo”, a tiny lit­tle chapel built at the very end of the pave­ment.  And right next to the chapel is “El Par­que De Las Palo­mas” (Pid­geon’s Park) where you can rest after a day’s worth of walk­ing and sip a deli­cious “piragua”.

“Piraguas” are local style snow cones cov­ered in fruit syrup.  They are very pop­u­lar among the locals and they will give you that “sug­ar buzz” that’ll get you through the rest of the day.  Stay away if you’re a diabetic!

Next, I would nor­mal­ly sug­gest the San Juan Botan­i­cal Gar­dens.  But I went there yes­ter­day and the con­di­tions are dis­mal.  Instead, I’ll sug­gest the “Jardín Botáni­co y Cul­tur­al William Miran­da Marín” (William Miran­da Marín Botan­i­cal Gar­den and Cul­tur­al Cen­ter) in the near­by town of Caguas.  The place is beau­ti­ful, well-kept, chock full of things to see and do, and just an hour away from Old San Juan.  We are yet to cov­er this attrac­tion for Puer­to Rico by GPS but you can find more infor­ma­tion on their web­site site.  Sad­ly, the site is only in Span­ish. Sorry.

If you’re feel­ing a lit­tle bit more adven­tur­ous, maybe you’d like to vis­it a restored sug­ar plan­ta­tion.  That’s right.  For sev­er­al cen­turies sug­ar was one of Puer­to Rico’s most impor­tant export prod­ucts.  And Hacien­da La Esper­an­za, in the town of Man­atí, was one of the largest sug­ar plan­ta­tions on the Island.

Today, the place is owned by the Puer­to Rico Con­ser­va­tion Trust and there are dai­ly tours to edu­cate the pub­lic about this for­got­ten part of Puer­to Rico’s his­to­ry.  For more infor­ma­tion call 787–722-5882.

A lit­tle fur­ther to the west, in the town of Areci­bo, is the “Areci­bo Radio-Tele­scope Obser­va­to­ry”.  This 1,000-foot dish is the largest in the world and it has been the back­drop for many block­buster Hol­ly­wood movies like Jody Fos­ter’s “Con­tact” and Pierce Bros­man­’s James Bond megahit “Gold­en Eye”.

But this place is no Hol­ly­wood prop or facade.  This is a real, hon­est-to-good­ness, work­ing sci­en­tif­ic facil­i­ty ded­i­cat­ed to the fields of astron­o­my, atmos­pher­ic inves­ti­ga­tion and plan­e­tary explo­ration.  It’s fun­ny but their site (http://www.naic.edu/) does­n’t list any tele­phone num­bers, so you’ll just have to drop by.  The coor­di­nates are on the map at the bot­tom of this post.

Camuy Riv­er Caverns

About 20 min­utes south of the Areci­bo Radio-Tele­scope Obser­va­to­ry, on road 129, are the “Camuy Riv­er Cav­erns”.  This place is amaz­ing.  You can fit a 17-sto­ry build­ing inside the tallest of these caves.

The entire sys­tem has been carved through­out the ages by the roar­ing waters of the Camuy Riv­er, the third largest under­ground riv­er in the world.  There are dai­ly excur­sions, with trained per­son­nel, that will guide you through your entire visit.

The place is safe, well kept and absolute­ly aston­ish­ing.  For infor­ma­tion call (787) 898‑3100.

And if you’re real­ly into cav­ing, and you would like to see some­thing real­ly awe­some, take a small detour to “Cue­va Ven­tana”.  I dis­cov­ered this cave by acci­dent.  But the place is unlike any oth­er.  It’s wild, it’s pret­ty much undis­turbed, and it’s DANGEROUS.

Cue­va La Ven­tana (Win­dow Cave)

You are on your own when you vis­it Cue­va Ven­tana.  The fall is sev­er­al hun­dred feet high if you go too close to the edge and there are parts where it’s so dark that you won’t see your hands in front of your face.  Oh, and let me also throw in that the floor is uneven.  So make sure to bring a flash­light and watch your step.

But the view… my God, it’s all worth it. Check out the coor­di­nates on the map below.

Puer­to Rico Muse­um of Art

And final­ly, if art is your thing, then there are two excel­lent muse­ums that you can vis­it.  First is the “Puer­to Rico Muse­um of Art”, locat­ed at the cor­ner of De Diego Street and Bal­do­ri­o­ty Ave, about 10 min­utes away from Old San Juan.

There you will find paint­ings, reli­gious art and wood­carv­ings from the 17th, 18th and 19th cen­turies, as well as recent art from the 20th cen­tu­ry.  It also has a beau­ti­ful sculp­ture gar­den with foun­tains, ponds, path­ways and rest areas.  For infor­ma­tion call 787–977-6277.

And last, but cer­tain­ly not least, is the Ponce Muse­um of Art, locat­ed on our south­ern coast, in the town of Ponce.  The Ponce Muse­um of Art is a won­der­ful, world renowned, and recent­ly restored muse­um found­ed by gov­er­nor Luis A. Fer­ré in 1965.

The build­ing itself is a work of art.  It was designed by renowned Amer­i­can archi­tect Edward Durell Stone and was award­ed the Nation­al Archi­tec­ture Award from the Amer­i­can Insti­tute of Archi­tects (AIA) in 1967.

The muse­um has a large and var­ied col­lec­tion that includes exquis­ite Euro­pean art as well as paint­ings by renowned Puer­to Rican Artists.  It also presents itin­er­at­ing exhibits from impor­tant muse­ums from all around the world.

The town of Ponce is about an hour and a half away from Old San Juan but, if you are an art lover, this is the one place that you don’t want to miss.  For infor­ma­tion call 787–840-1510.

Get Directions

From 

To 

Add Waypoint 

For  Driving Walking Transit Bicycling

show options  hide options 

Avoid Tolls  Avoid Highways  Avoid Ferries 

Print directions  Reset directions 

Fetch­ing directions.…..

Reset direc­tions
Print direc­tions

And there they are… ten places to explore even if the fed­er­al gov­ern­ment is closed.  Of course, Puer­to Rico has much, much more, and most of it is right here on Puer­to Rico by GPS.  And we’re adding more and more every week.  So join the fun.  Click on the right hand ban­ner above, where it says: “Join The Fun”, and we’ll let you know every time we add new information.

Enjoy Puer­to Rico,

©2013,Orlando Mer­gal, MA
____________________

Bilin­gual Con­tent Cre­ator, Blog­ger, Pod­cast­er,
Author, Pho­tog­ra­ph­er and New Media Expert
Tel. 787–750-0000, Mobile 787–306-1590