San Juan, April 2018 (Part 2 - Old San Juan)
Audrey and I decided to rent a car for a few days during our trip so we could adventure a little farther than public transportation would allow.
We woke up early on Friday morning to go pick up our rental. We took an Uber to where Google Maps said the rental company was located. We immediately found out that they moved to to a new location about a year ago so we took another Uber to the right place.
We got our car around 11 and decided to use our newfound mobility to drive to Old San Juan, the oldest section of the city.
One of Audrey's professors is a native Puerto Rican and had a myriad of suggestions for places we had to see. One of these recommendations was to eat at "El Jibarito," a popular and famous restaurant in Old San Juan.
My review of El Jibarito is short: I've had better.
After lunch we wanted to walk around Old San Juan to see as much of it as possible. During the Spanish occupation of the island, a large wall was erected to protect the original settlement from foreign invaders. A section of the wall runs parallel to Calle Norzagaray and many local artists have taken it upon themselves to decorate it.
"Welcome to the Oldest Colony" is proudly written on one of the sections of wall. It is a testament to the resentment held by many Puerto Ricans against the unfair treatment of the island's residents by the federal government of the United States.
Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States, was acquired when Spanish ceded control of the island after the Spanish-American war at the end of the 19th century.
Since then, Puerto Rico has been little more than a glorified colony of the United States. It is hard to argue against this point considering the numerous times that the Puerto Rican people have demanded independence only to be silenced by the US mainland.
In 1914, the Puerto Rican House of Delegates unanimously voted in favor of independence but this was rejected by the federal government as "unconstitutional."
A few years later in 1917, the federal government passed the Jones Act which forced American citizenship on all Puerto Ricans born on or after April 25, 1898 despite the House of Delegates once again voting unanimously against it.
To this day, despite the fact that the people of Puerto Rico are naturalized American citizens, they have no representation in the federal legislature, and residents of the island are not able to vote in nationwide elections including those for president.
With independence seemingly not an option, the Puerto Rican people have held referendums vying for full statehood as a means to at least get some representation in the federal legislature. Unfortunately, Washington has viewed these referendums as purely symbolic and have been wholly ignored.
The streets of Old San Juan are lined with beautiful, brightly colored buildings, street vendors, and a fresh ocean breeze.
At the tip of Old San Juan is El Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a fort built by the original Spanish colonists in the 16th century.
The fort was almost under consistent use as a military installment. Since it's completion, the fort has defended San Juan from the English, the Dutch, and the United States during the Spanish-American War.
In 1961, the United States finally retired it and declared the fort and the area around it a national park. The site has also been declared a cultural UNESCO World Heritage site, deeming it as an important landmark to the collective interests of humanity.
There is a $7 per person entry fee to go into the fort, which is a fairly reasonable price since your entry helps pay for the fort's upkeep and it gives you one of the most beautiful views of San Juan.
Panoramic shot of the Bay of San Juan from San Felipe del Morro
