San Juan- The British have landed

A Reenactment of the 1797 Attack on San Juan by the Brits

The US National Parks Service that runs El Morro and Fort San Cristóbal staged quite a show. El Morro is the perfect venue for a reenactment. Something I wish they did more often. I’m surprised it’s not something they do on a regular basis.

The crowd loves this kind of stuff… kids go home and tell their friends about how awesome it was. Then those kids pester their parents to go see Puerto Rico instead of the Grand Canyon. I know El Morro is a huge ‘crowd-draw’ in its own right, but how do you differentiate yourself from all the other old Spanish forts spread across the Caribbean?

And where are the Pirates? Arrggg!!!

This event was scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We hit it on Friday since we needed to run back by Jayuya on Saturday, the weather was supposed to go bad by Sunday. It did. As we like to do, we drove to the ferry terminal in Cataño where the parking is better, then ride the ferry into Old San Juan.

What I did not know is, the terminal and some of the parking area is now torn up for major reconstruction.

That’s a great thing, make no mistake about it. But we paid $4 to park on the street out front. The guy managing it was still there when we came back. Also a good thing. This is the same terminal you pass through to do the Bacardi Tour, if you take the ferry from Old San Juan. It’s good to see it is being renovated.

We pulled into Old San Juan at 11AM.

The reenactment was not until 2:30PM so we took a different route up to El Morro. The weather was perfect.. only a few clouds. The temp and humidity were very comfortable.

We stopped in at Don Q’s display room and tourist shop directly across from the ferry terminal. It is easy to miss.. I had meant to visit it on my 1st trip to PR. It was a brief stop, but worth checking out. It’s closed on Thursdays.

There is no tour, you simply wander around checking out the static displays so its nothing like visiting Bacardi in Cataño.

Don Q is the most popular rum in Puerto Rico since the distillery was founded here by the Seralles family of Ponce. The tour of the Seralles Mansion and Museum is a must see, if you make it to Ponce. If you had not picked up on it yet, ‘Don Q’ is short for Don Quixote. A theme made popular by Seralles marketing as in their ‘Qba Libre’ campaign.

Going west up the street, on the corner of the same building is the Puerto Rican Tourism Company office. From there, you can score a very nice, well illustrated color map of Old San Juan and a current issue of QP ¡Que Pasa!, their official guide. Its a slick, full color piece typical of any convention and visitors guide. Very high quality… they will mail you one if you request it. It took 7 weeks for me to get mine in Alaska.. the week before I was to leave on my trip. A bit late to use for planning purposes.

Their Website is a slick, Flash driven thing hammering you to book your trip through them, the moment you step through the door. They also maintain another site- Travel and Sports with real content and less hard sell.

Since I do not want to bog this post down with a negative vibe, I will treat my issues with the Puerto Rican Tourism office and its Travel and Sports site another time.

With our map in hand, we proceeded west down La Princesa Promenade.. a wide immaculate boulevard. This took us past a beautiful sculpture, Monument de la Herencia de las Américas. It was locked behind a huge chained metal gate. I managed to score a few shots with a long lens through the bars.

As always, cops patrol the Old San Juan district on a regular basis. I never feel like I’m at risk when I’m here.

Further west up the street, we came across the offices of the Puerto Rico Tourism Co. The building also has a rather nice, dedicated art museum. Originally a prison, it was renovated for its current use in 1987 taking two years to complete. The high ceilings with exposed wooden beams are beautifully done.

The Museum was free so we stopped in

The work on display is by Samuel Lind of Loíza. In a word, it was ‘stunning’. The range and style of this artist is magnificent.

This collection is a must see.

I cannot do justice to what I saw. The sculpture and paintings are truly inspirational. There was a very nice color handout in Spanish and English about the artist and he has his own Website (also Flash driven and loud).

As we headed back out, a video crew was filming the Exec. Director of the PR Tourism Company, Mr. Mario González-Lafuente. While I was busy shooting them shooting him, a 2nd crew came up and asked if they could get shots of me shooting the fountain at the end of the boulevard.

Did you get all of that?

He said it was for a piece to air on Univision PR, Channel 11 for the 6PM News. We managed to catch the story later at 10PM.

He asked if I knew the local rules as they relate to ‘Commercial Photography in Public Places’ so I rattled off what I knew. He acknowledged I had it right. In the end, they used about two seconds of me photographing tourists and such.

The story was regarding the fact that San Juan is considering restricting photography of public works of art.

At least that is what we got from the news story. It sounds absurd. I have no clue as to how they would enforce that. I have never been harrassed by cops while shooting, but members of the San Juan Photo Club have.

I’ll be looking into this and reporting what I find, I promise.

The water fountain sculpture at the end of the boulevard is huge. I helped two sets of tourists get shots of themselves while standing in front of it. Too cool. The fountain, ‘Fuente Raíces’ is another gorgeous piece of public art.

Directly across the bay, you can see the 2 new windmills Bacardi put up on their campus. With a pair of binoculars or a long lens, you can just make out the name ‘Bacardi’ on the main building. Wish I had one of those on our property.. well, at least a small wind generator.

We took the walkway down by the water, over to the massive gate simply known as the ‘San Juan Gate’. This takes you back up to the blue cobble stone streets and on to El Morro. The walkway continues on around the outside wall of El Morro, but there is no place to go up once you get to the end. I did it before and it was a lot of walking. Before you head through the gate, there is a very nice wooden dock that gives you a great view of the fort wall and Gate. I plan to come back to this spot for something special I have in mind.

On the rise above the gate is another small park with statue dedicated to the ‘Loyal and Noble City of San Juan’, commemorating the last 450 years (dated 1971).

We saw a lot of kids on field trips this time…

marching here and there in their colorful t-shirts. Many had come to fly kites. The grounds of El Morro is perfect for flying kites. There is always a strong wind here… kite parts were everywhere. I noticed them on our last trip.

On the Grounds of El Morro

We made it up to El Morro about 1PM. The guys in classic uniform were just starting to set-up. A small encampment of canvas tents was arranged on the slope opposite the field exercises.

I had read that they would be firing a live black powder cannon so you know why I came.

She was a beauty.

I’m no expert, but this replica was very nicely executed. The carriage was typical of a deck gun used on ships from the 18th century. Since this was only a rehearsal for Saturday and Sunday, they were only going to fire it once. Though black powder weapons are very controlled here in Puerto Rico, they are common in Alaska and some guys hunt with them. The percussion cap models are very accurate. I never had the opportunity to shoot one. They are not all that expensive either.. several companies sell kits so you can assemble your own BP rifle or pistol and finish the stock however you like.

Had I stayed in Alaska, I was planning on getting one. OK.. I digress.

BTW- My flintlock pistol is a theatrical prop I scored on-line. It will not shoot anything. Its cast from pot-metal. My cutlass is plastic.. I picked it up at a garage sale for 10 cents.

A Very Short History Lesson

The battle being reenacted took place in April of 1797.

General Ralph Abercromby of the British Royal Navy lead the effort. It was the 3rd and last attempt by the Brits to wrest Puerto Rico from Spain.
It was over in 17 days. 15 years later, the British attack the US capital in what is known as the War of 1812. We all know how that ended.

101 years after this attempt, the US invades Puerto Rico, but instead of a frontal attack on San Juan, they land on the south side of the island where they met light resistance and the locals cheered them on.

The war with Spain ended before they ever marched on San Juan.

A Little Break

Since I knew we were still a couple hours from them formally discharging the cannon, we rode the trolley back down to Stop 3 where there are several places selling food and drink. Purely by random, we chose Colmado Bar Moreno to take a break. It is next door to Starbucks. They have outdoor seating with large umbrellas for cover. It was nice.

I wanted to sample something new so me First Mate suggested I try ‘Arañitas’. The literal translation is ‘little spiders’, but they more resembled a bird’s nest. Arañitas are made from shredded yuca (a root) and then fried in small clumps.

They remind me of coarse shredded potatoes, very delicious.

Very mild and served with a little bit of mayo and catsup mixed together (very popular in PR) as a dipping sauce. The waiter was very professional and polite, shuffling between the bar and where we were. Though this was finger-food, no napkins were offered, nor did I ask for any. The dish was very light tasting considering it was fried. Most Tasty. Cost was $7 for the munchies and $4 for my bottle of Medalla… typical San Juan prices. I would have given 5 skulls for the experience, but no napkins cost them one. I would come back, that’s for sure.

When we we finished, we walked back to trolley stop #3 and rode it back to El Morro.

This took us down by the docks before winding back up the hill to the fort. We passed the Puerto Rico Capitol Building along the way where I managed to score a few good shots on the move… always a risky proposition.

Worth mentioning again- Though I did not see the closed, air-conditioned trolley this time, the open trolley with two cars makes its run all the way up to the main gate at El Morro. The air-conditioned one stops at the edge of the grounds only, then turns around. It takes about 40 minutes for them to make a round trip.

Let the War Begin

Now back at El Morro, the cannon crew was going through mock drills. The balance of the re-enactors were engaged in drills of their own. Some with live fire demonstrations. I love the ‘crack’ that comes from firing a black powder gun. Its very different from the discharge of a modern weapon. Most of the re-enactors are from the mainland and flew over for the event bringing their own gear.

The Park Ranger in charge of the 3 day event was Mr. Herman Montes, a very busy man indeed. He seemed to have everything well in hand. Safety being his main concern, his men were deployed throughout the crowd. He obviously takes his job quite seriously. Mr. Montes should be commended for the job he did. The two new wooden wagons on display were hand built from scratch by a crew of rangers. They looked very solid, very authentic.

Kaboom!

The big moment came with the firing of the cannon.

I did not get the muzzle flash I had hoped for.. maybe next time. BUT it was extra cool. When they tipped her off, the concussion thumped me in my chest. Just like I expected.

I really want one of these for my back yard. Not practical I know. BUT what fun!

The cannon used in today’s activities was flown over from the mainland. This was the 1st real working cannon I’ve seen since I got here.

It was a great day to be in San Juan, but the sky was starting to gray over and we had been in the sun too long at this point. We caught the trolley down to the docks for the ferry ride back to Cataño about 4PM. Unfortunately we got stuck in Friday afternoon traffic. 4 and 5 lanes moving at a snail’s pace. It took a hour to cross town before things finally smoothed out.

Five Skulls Rating Graphic