Trolley Stop 24 and Old San Juan Revisited

El Morro and Old Town from an Open Trolley…

This Post and Video is related to a quick trip into San Juan for family visiting from the ‘mainland’, back before the San Blas Marathon.
Because parking is sooo ridiculous in Old San Juan, we started with the Bacardi tour in Cataño and then parked at the ferry terminal for the ride across the bay into old town. The run out to the nearby Bacardi facility is worth the ride, but I’ve been there several times now so I don’t need to do it again anytime soon. At the end of the movie presentation, I was polite and kept my mouth shut when they asked for questions.

I have two –
Where do they get the sugar (or molasses) to make their rum and –
why did they relocate their world corporate headquarters to the Bahamas? BTW – I already gave the Bacardi Tour a 5 Skulls rating in my previous post about Old San Juan, just so ya know.

Once we hit Pier 2,
we walked around the old cobblestone streets and slowly made our way to ‘El Morro’. There are lots of concession stands down by the docks where the cruise ships come in selling all the standard tourist type stuff. On my first trip,
I walked around the outside wall of the fort, but never made it inside.
It was too hot and way too much walking for this old dog. All of that was covered very thoroughly in my first Post about Old San Juan.

We were there on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon, hoping the crowds would be at a minimum. We were mistaken. When I was here back in late August and early September, I pretty much had the place to myself… not now. Come to Puerto Rico during the winter months and it will be crowded.

The Castillo San Felipe del Morro National Historical Site

Known simply as ‘El Morro’ by the locals. There was a small cover charge to go inside, but its worth it. The price includes a nifty black & white self-guided walking-tour (in English and Spanish). Fort construction began in 1539 after the Spanish abandoned their first site at Caparra. It took another 250 years before it got to what it looks like now. The second fort just up the road, San Cristobal was built to protect the city. I have yet to visit it, though you can see us run past it in the video. There were several small organized tours going on at the time we were there. One group showed up on a bunch of Segways! I bet that was a lot of fun. I took my time shooting the inside of the fort. The late afternoon sun made all the textures pop out. There was a good breeze up on top where the fortified lighthouse is along with a nice view of the surrounding area.

Stop 24 Gets a Better Seat

We retreated from the fort along the route of the trolley shuttles. Its free to ride, if you can get on one. By walking down a ways to Stop 24, we were able to score a seat. This meant we were heading back to El Morro, but who cares, we were off our feet now. The open trolley we were on runs all the way up to the gate at El Morro, but the closed, air conditioned one does not. Something else you can see in the video: They both make the run from El Morro through Old San Juan, all the way down to the docks. We are only talking a half dozen blocks, but its all up and down hill. Not too bad if you are in shape and have good shoes. They badly need more than the 2 trolleys I saw.

A Video Ride Back to the Docks

We made our way back to Pier 2 for the ferry ride back to Cataño. It was full of folks getting off work and local families heading home for the day. From there, we drove back to Coamo.

About the video: It was shot with my VadoHD, hand held out the side of the trolley. The old cobblestone streets made it a very bumpy ride so some of it suffers from the ‘jitters’. Sorry about that.

The video’s background music is courtesy of The Free Music Archive which has made my work fun! I appreciate these guys!