By Tom Brown
For our last fling before skiing we chose Puerto Rico and
the Caribe Hilton.
We seem to get to Puerto Rico every 25 years and each time
we do not recognize anything. We have
previously stayed at the Caribe Hilton and didn’t especially recognize it
either due to a major development of the property.
San Juan is similar to the other Spanish rooted cities of
the Caribbean in that it has an old section with Spanish architecture, lots of
statues, parks and memorials. At one level it is beautiful and at another level
it is deteriorating. There might be 50
forts on the water’s edge, mostly 1700s, defending coves and harbors where
enemy ships could potentially land. A
few might have been preserved. There are
large ones and small ones, all of a basic design. Lots of masonry, lower level that is enclosed
where the defenders stayed and an upper, open air level with slits in the walls
where the cannon were. The cannons were
very crude and with limited range. There
were frequent raids and attempts to conquer by enemies of Spain. However the US stayed out of the fray until
the Spanish American War
You may know that Puerto Rico was a Spanish colony and was
taken by the US in the Spanish American War, in the late 1890s. It was initially a territory with an
appointed governor from the US. It
evolved into a self-governing commonwealth in 1952. Puerto Ricans are almost equally divided
between preserving the commonwealth and becoming a state, but the commonwealth
has prevailed. So they have many federal services, including federal courts,
the post office, customs and immigration.
It is somewhat bi-lingual, but mostly Spanish outside the tourist areas.
I explored the nearby portions of the city, mainly the old
parts, by jogging, except the last morning I took a walking tour with my camera. I climbed into a fort, explored some of the
many beaches and viewed the handful of cruise ships in port.
There were beautiful old buildings, well maintained, such as
the US Weather Bureau and the US Navy Radio Station. I observed a lot of public housing for the
poor, some newly constructed and some abandoned due to lack of adequate
security from break-ins. The new
buildings have perimeter walls and
balconies with heavy bars.
The hotel property was very interesting, being situated on a
peninsula so lots of lawns pool areas and protected beaches from the
Atlantic. It had four restaurants:
Italian/Puerto Rican, Japanese, Pool restaurant and a Morton’s Steak house. We did
everything but Morton’s. The food
everywhere in the hotel was very good and we did not go off property.
They had weekend entertainment consisting of a Latin Big
Band on weekend nights.
We did play tennis on some very nice courts.
There were some mechanical items that were not working well,
including the icemaker on our floor, our air conditioner thermostat and the key
card security on one of the elevators.
But the guests and staff were not too concerned. In the name of security there was a room key
check point to enter the beach area.
We relaxed and took things in our stride.
On the way home we noted duty free booze, which is different
considering you do not go through customs.
I am sure we will go back.
