The Ruins of Hacienda La Esperanza

A year ago, I stumbled onto info about Hacienda La Esperanza.

Part of a large archive over on a US Department of Interior FTP server.  The info is open to the public and it is vast.  The old drawings, maps and B&W photos were from their original studies done in the 1970’s and ’80’s of Puerto Rico’s many ruins.

This location had caught my eye because I later discovered it was in the process of being restored and it still is.
I commend the effort and wish they had more funding to go after more sites.

Once you lose a place to the vagaries of time, it’s gone for good.

Living history inspires the soul.  It drives people to do great things.  No, you can’t put a dollar figure on it other than actual cost.  There is little monetary return, but it gives the next generation a grounding in the past.  Something to learn from.  So that we repeat less of the old mistakes.

History is important and should be held tight.

We were there on an absolutely gorgeous Friday to shoot the Commemoration of the 1797 Spanish Harassment of the British Landing in Cangrejos.
A contingent of British had tried to land in Cangrejos to march on to San Juan. That did not work out so well.  Cangrejos is a small natural harbor very similar to the area on the coast of Hacienda La Esperanza in Manati. Today, Cangrejos is a Marina on the coast of what is now Carolina.

The Manati location was an excellent choice to replicate the original Cangrejos battle.

This particular reenactment enlisted the aid of a Polish contingent and a few North Americans from Massachusetts.  There was even a San Juan TV crew here to do a story about it.

I wrote about the reenactment in a previous post.  It’s full of great pictures from the day’s activities.  Because of the remote nature of the site, we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Driving directions to Hacienda La Esperanza can also be found in that post.

The Guided Tour Thing

Scheduled tours in Spanish and English are available with advance registration via the Conservation Trust 0f Puerto Rico Website.  It’s $10 for Adults and $7 for Seniors and Students.

If you join the Trust, you get access to all their activities for 1/2 off.  Not bad, and it helps fund their restorations of historic sites and conservation efforts.

Per the Website- “Follow the historical trajectory of Hacienda La Esperanza Nature Reserve in Manatí, one of Puerto Rico’s most prosperous sugar plantations during the 19th Century, where the main driving force behind sugar production was slavery. During this tour, you will visit the different structures that make up La Esperanza’s Historical Site, including the Sugar Mill and its unique 1861 West Point Foundry steam engine. Facilities for the handicapped are very limited. It is important that visitors are capable of walking by themselves, in the outdoors over uneven terrain, during a period of an hour and a half.”

A word about the Trust’s Website-

As pretty as the website is, I really dislike navigating flashy Javascript driven sites.  Too much show and not enough content.  Navigation is clunky and unintuitive.  The website did perform without ‘hiccups’ from an iPad.  Sweet!

The site is available in both Spanish and English, but most of the activities listed are aimed at locals so only some of the tours are made available in English.

A huge loss for those ‘Eco Tourists’ who would like to explore more of the island and ‘chip-in’ when they could.

This is the same group you register through to visit Hacienda Buena Vista and English is available for it.  We loved that tour!

A little word of warning, if you schedule and then need to cancel you will lose your money so plan accordingly.  We were not sure how the day’s events would unfold so we made no formal reservations.  Especially since we still had to go into Old San Juan for the evening’s reenactment.

On the Grounds of Hacienda La Esperanza

After returning from the skirmish down by the coast, we walked around the grounds shooting the ruins.  There is more to the site than this so I do recommend taking the formal tour if you want the ‘big picture’.

Though I had seen B&W shots of the old steam engine sitting out in the open, I had no idea how big it was.  Sometimes scale is hard to discern.

The grounds are well manicured and most of the jumble of red bricks were sorted and set aside.  You could still see where the oversize boiling pots used to sit over the brick hearths.  They also had quite a collection of those cast-iron pots.

The steam engine was the highlight for me.

The restoration group had done a great job cleaning it up.  It sits on a set of new concrete piers.  A hydraulic motor is attached to it so you can see it go through its cycle.  Pretty cool.  Too bad I missed it.

There was a tour going on and I did hear them fire it up, but I was not close enough to get a shot of it in action.  We will eventually get back for the big tour and demonstration.

The main Hacienda is a large 2 story, gray structure where most of the small displays are located.  There is a 2nd large building (I did not get a shot of) that had the wooden sugar cane crusher on display.  This would have been well before the steam engine showed up.

I’ll save the history lesson and old photos from the past for when we do the formal tour.  I also withheld giving the venue a ‘Skull Rating’ since we still need to do the tour, but at $10 for adults, I think it’s worth it.

We will be back to do that.

Shooting the skirmish  and the grounds of the old sugar mill was one of the best days I’ve had since moving here.  Last, but not least, a special thanks to me First Mate for a few images I missed.  Not sure where they got to.

Larger shots from the day’s events may be seen over on the Scurvy Dog’s FaceBook Page.  Don’t forget to ‘like’ the FB Page if you do like what you see.  ARRG!!