El Capitolio, the capitol building of Puerto Rico, greets you as
you drive into Old San Juan. It’s a century-old neoclassical structure with a
commanding dome situated on a hilltop overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Bob
decided it was time to take a tour inside!
For Puerto Ricans, El Capitolio de Puerto Rico stands as a
powerful symbol of self-government. This video is packed with history, info,
and photos, as well as a tour of the many fascinating monuments near the
capitol building.
Once you’ve shipped your car to Puerto Rico – or bought it
on the island – it’s time to register it!
The process is a lot more complicated than in the States,
particularly if you don’t speak the language. But Bob will walk you through the
multi-step process you need to go through – within 30 days – to make sure your
car is legal. Good luck!
Info: Cesco
Bob recently scored a private tour inside La Fortaleza, the Puerto
Rico Governor’s Mansion, which is located in a prominent spot at the edge of
Old San Juan, with dazzling views of the Bay of San Juan. The oldest Executive
Mansion in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere, La Fortaleza is the main
residence and the office of the Governor of Puerto Rico.
The name means “The Fortress,” an apt title because La Fortaleza,
along with the later fortifications of Castillo San Felipe del Morro, Castillo
San Cristóbal, and San Juan de la Cruz (El Cañuelo), along with a large portion
of the original San Juan City Wall, was built to protect the city and the bay.
La Fortaleza was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1960. It’s also a
UNESCO World Heritage site. Read all about its history and importance here.
Enjoy the tour!
If you are thinking of shipping your car to Puerto Rico,
watch this video. Bob takes you step-by-step through the whole process,
including cost, insurance, taxes, timeline, logistics, choosing a shipping
company, and picking up your car at the Port of San Juan.
You might decide not to ship your car!
Info
Map to Penn Terminal, Eddystone (Philadelphia)
Map to Crowley Maritime Puerto Rico
We continue wandering around Old San Juan on Day 2 of our walking tour of this beautifully preserved 500-year-old settlement. (Part 2 of 2.)
Old San Juan
Map to Old San Juan
Map to Dona Fela Parking Garage
Map to Barrachina
Visit the Old San Juan Playlist on YouTube to see our
other videos.
No trip to Puerto Rico is complete without at least a
day in Old San Juan, a mélange of Old World elegance and vibrant 21st-century
Caribbean culture. It’s so interesting, we had to create two videos!
San Juan was built for walking, so we’ll start out by heading to
our favorite parking garage, Dona Fela, so you don’t waste an hour looking for
a place to put your car. Then we’ll visit the cruise ship port and explore the
narrow streets, nooks and crannies of beautifully preserved Viejo San Juan,
which just celebrated 500 years.
There is so much to see and do, for every age and stage: explore
history, culture, shopping, eating, drinking, praying, gallery hopping, even flying
kites!
Check back in a couple of days for the second half of our video.
Maritime Museum (Museo del Mar)
Book Museum (La Casa del Libro)
Map to Dona Fela Parking Garage
Visit Messy Suitcase’s Old San Juan Playlist to see our other videos.
Even ordering a drink was an adventure at the Barrilito Rum
Factory in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In this video, we will watch how it’s done as
the bartender creates three drinks for us … with panache! He was a true artiste
and the drinks were amazing. We actually went to Hacienda Santa Ana for a
tasting tour of Ron de Barrilito, but found the bartender’s artistry equally
fascinating, and wanted to share it.
Map
The tour itself was very crowded and not as comprehensive as we expected for such a sprawling factory, but the drinks were great! Interestingly, Bob did this tour in 1994 and it was dirt cheap, maybe $5. How times have changed! Rum tours are now big business, and an obvious revenue stream from tourism. But if you’re on a Puerto Rican vacation, why not? Experiencing rum is an important part of experiencing the local culture. Bacardi offers a number of different tours, ranging in price from $40 to $200.
Normally, to get there, you take a ferry across the water from the ferry terminal in Old San Juan – an awesome experience in its own right! – then grab a quick Uber to the factory in Catano. We went on a Puerto Rican holiday when no ferries were running, and had to drive.
Learn more and buy tour tickets at the Casa Bacardi website.
Balneario Carolina and Terraplen La Posita
de Piñones are among the most popular local beaches for people living
in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Here’s why.
Balneario Carolina is a lovely public
beach and a local favorite just east of Isla Verde in San Juan, Puerto Rico. You
pay $5 for parking, and in return have a clean white-sand beach with minimal
waves, as well as clean bathrooms, showers and food stands. Is there anything
better than enjoying a mojito from your beach chair while you watch the waves? The beach has attractions for every age and stage, with
watersports, a Beach Volleyball court, and a small water park for the kids.
At the far end, a stage is sometimes set up for major concert events.
For an even calmer and distinctly Puerto
Rican experience, head a little farther east to & Terraplen La Posita de Piñones. You’ll park (for free) on the road or in one of several
small parking lots, and there are no facilities. However, there is a beach
chair vendor and several little eateries to buy your Puerto Rican frituras
(various fried foods). This is a great beach for families because a reef
protects the shoreline from waves, so small children can play in the shallow
water without causing their parents worry.
Balneario Carolina – https://www.discoverpuertorico.com/profile/balneario-de-carolina/7704
Terraplen La Posita de Piñones -- https://www.discoverpuertorico.com/profile/playa-la-posita/8954
Balneario Carolina - https://goo.gl/maps/vzuMf9c3Yigeg4BS6
Terraplen La Posita de Piñones -- https://goo.gl/maps/cCuq2eiRJjDwW4AK8
Let's take a quick tour of Isla Verde, a beachfront high-rise neighborhood on the eastern end of San Juan, Puerto Rico, that offers a wealth of amenities and options for upscale travelers and residents.
Isla Verde is a resort strip of San Juan known for its
beautiful urban beaches. This neighborhood offers a plethora of dining and
lodging options for upscale travelers to the Enchanted Island, as well as for
well-to-do homeowners with deep pockets. Its popular white-sand beach backs up
to high-rise hotels and condos, with shade trees and many dining and drinking
options.
Most travel articles describe Isla Verde’s exquisite urban
beach in the heart of the city, but we thought we’d show you the other side of
the neighborhood: the avenue that offers all the amenities you need to enjoy
your time on the eastern end of San Juan, Puerto Rico. Enjoy our mini-tour!
We took a tour of Hacienda Muñoz in San Lorenzo, a half an hour up the mountains from San Juan. Its coffee has won the Best Coffee People’s Choice Award at the Puerto Rico Coffee and Chocolate Expo for three years running. Is it really that good?
The tour focused on the coffee-growing industry and its history, as well as the methods used to grow, process, and roasting coffee. The detail was sometimes excruciating, as we stood on the hillside in the hot sun listening to our impassioned guide go one and on and on.
While small, it’s a much larger operation than Hacienda Iluminada, the small hacienda we toured last fall which focused its tour on sustainable practices and integration into the forest. Here, we saw neat rows of coffee plants planted in full sun. In addition to its coffee fields, Hacienda Muñoz operates a small café, where we enjoyed fresh turkey sandwiches on baguettes, and a larger restaurant.
Lisa bought a bag of medium-roast coffee, and it was indeed exemplary.
The cost for the tour was $20, or $10 for kids and those over 60. It included a tasting.
While trying to enter Ocean Lab Brewing Company from the
beach at Carolina, Puerto Rico, we were stopped by a burly security guard. He
told us we couldn’t walk through this private club named Vivo, and pointed us
around the building to the street side to enter the restaurant from the parking
lot with the rest of the lowly non-members.
Well, exc-u-u-u-u-se me! (Fellow Boomers will recognize that
reference.)
Our table on the third-floor balcony at Ocean Lab gave us a
bird’s eye view of the Vivo Beach Club, so we googled it. It calls itself “the
hottest private beach club in town.” You can join, or pay $40 for a day pass.
This video shows you what you get.
After lunch, Bob tried to sneak through the club again to
get out to the beach. Despite putting on his very best
I-belong-here-don’t-mess-with-me act, he was stopped by the alert security
guards and rerouted to the pedestrian exit. Foiled again!
As Messy
Suitcase makes the rounds of rum distilleries across Puerto Rico, we discovered
a new boutique one in Old San Juan and decided to pay a visit. Scryer Rum Barrelhouse
& Rooftop is a small-batch, pot-distilled sipping rum distillery in a gorgeous
historic building.
“Sipping” is
industry-speak for expensive
– the good stuff you drink on its own, as opposed to the cheap stuff you pour
into a cocktail.
Scryer was
founded by a couple of buddies shortly before the pandemic. Garrett, who led
our tour, started his alcohol education in whiskey and brought that expertise
to rum distilling. But while the partners have created a delicious sipping rum,
a lovely bar and a delightful rooftop, they have a lot to learn about running a
good tour! They missed out on a lot of opportunities. Find out why in this
video.
(Sorry in
advance for the loud music in the background – they conduct the tour right next
to the noisy bar.)
Info: https://scryerrum.com/
Museo de San Juan: No Video
Allowed
It was hard to find the Museo de San
Juan, and once we got it in, they made making this video even harder: No photos
or videos!
Fine. We enjoyed the air
conditioning on a hot day.
But it was free, and worth 20
minutes of your time, if you're near El Morro and can find your way in.
There were some silver religious
artifacts in one room, and old maps and historical photos and art in the second
gallery.
That's it.
Sunburned after too many beach days in Puerto Rico? Need a
break from the relentless sun? Head indoors for an afternoon in the
air-conditioned Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (Museum of Art of Puerto Rico)!
This museum is a beautiful, modern facility with 24
exhibition galleries wandering through 130,000 square feet on four floors. The
mostly contemporary pieces are distributed between a historic building in the
west wing, the former municipal hospital, and an addition in the east wing.
The Puerto Rican art to be found inside is astonishing. All
the pieces are labeled and interpreted in both Spanish and English. The
sculpture garden behind, in the middle of an urban neighborhood of theatres,
restaurants, and office buildings, is also a sublime discovery. Don’t miss it!
When you’re done strolling through this cultural wonder in
the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan, relax for an hour with an artisanal
cocktail at Chimera rooftop bar, half a block away.
Museum - https://www.mapr.org/es
Chimera - https://chimera-rooftop.business.site/
Chimera – https://goo.gl/maps/EgeQ7k1T6hPSVNAe7
The Condado area of San Juan has a lot to offer, for both the mostly-professional crowd who lives here, and the tourists who come to Puerto Rico and stay in one of the many hotels facing the Atlantic Ocean. Let's take a stroll through the neighborhood! Map: https://goo.gl/maps/Fy847dSUadoAbVnB8
The website vangoghpuertorico.com describes it this way: In
an imaginative and immersive presentation created for our unique times by
world-renowned audiovisual designers, Beyond Van Gogh uses cutting-edge
projection technology to create an engaging journey into the world of Van Gogh.
But it really can’t be described. It must be experienced,
sitting in the middle of the huge installation, letting the texture of Van
Gogh’s thoughts, sketches, brush strokes, ideas, conflicts, joy and pain flow
through your mind and body, around your feet, across the walls and, over your
head.
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