Friday was another bright, sunny day. First we ate a BIG breakfast at the hotel buffet. We were now rested up and comfortable enough to take a city bus from our hotel, the Intercontinental San Juan, to tour Old San Juan, the part of the city that is over 5oo years old!
The bus ride only cost seventy-five cents, and was an experience! Every seat was taken when we boarded, and it took us almost an hour to go seven miles with stops every block or two along the way. We both stood for half the trip, then a young lady worked it out for me to have a seat when someone exited the bus. The bus cleared out enough for my husband to finally find a seat, too, later.
We exited at the bus terminal and walked to San Cristobal, one of the old forts on the island. On the way we stopped to snap a shot of this statue of Christopher Columbus, or Cristobal Colon, as he is known there.
Then we boarded a trolley to take us to El Moro, an even larger fort on the far western end of the island. One thing we didn’t know when we started out that morning was that this day was the last day of school for all the students in San Juan, so they all took field trips to the forts and other historic places, and we had to follow the school buses through the narrow streets. Finally we got off and walked the rest of the way to El Moro. Hope you can see the students flying their kites on the fort grounds.
We took many more pictures than I can share here of this very interesting fort–one of the four lighthouses,
an old cannon,
and the tracks for the cannons from up above. This day was so full I will have to post the other half next Tuesday. Until then, buenas noches! Good evening!