Greater San Juan Metroplex, Old San Juan

El Capitolio de Puerto Rico, Palace of Laws

I’ve wanted to visit the Capitol building since my first trip to PR in 2009. We have driven L. Muñoz Rivera Avenue, past the Capitol many times… if you take the trolley from the docks to El Morro, you can’t miss it. It is a very grand and beautiful structure.

Last week, I was contacted by the Tourism Promoter for the Office of Legislative Services, Ms. Keisha Sosa. She asked if I would be interested in a tour of the Capitol Building so we jumped at the chance.

The one hour tour was free!

We made plans for an afternoon tour so we could do lunch in Old San Juan, first. I hate going into San Juan for business or shopping without hitting ‘Old Town’. More about that and running into the Governor at the end of the post.

The Tour-

We are still in the ‘Low Season’ so we had the Capitol building almost entirely to ourselves. They often host bus loads of schoolchildren and cruise ship tourists so this was much more relaxed. Tours are available in both Spanish and English. Our tour guide, Mr. Jerry Pablos spoke perfect English. Not only that, but he was extremely knowledgeable. He fielded our questions without hesitation. He could recite dates, names and places like he had been there. [Read more…] about El Capitolio de Puerto Rico, Palace of Laws

A Leisurely Ramble Through Old San Juan

Hindsight is always ’50/50′

A while back, I went into Old San Juan to do a little black and white photography on film. I spent the morning with a friend, Fanny, from the SJ Photo MeetUp group.

I got exactly one roll out of my 35mm Olympus OM 4 before it died. It employs an electronic shutter so no batteries, no go.

I should have brought an OM-1 as backup since it works, with or with out batteries.
Next time.

With no spare batteries for the OM-4, I switched back to shooting digital.

Fanny was shooting with a plastic Holga 120 rollfilm camera that does not use a built-in light-meter. You simply aim and shoot. The photo-lab does the rest.
I love these things and was slightly envious of hers.

They put the ‘fun’ back into photography. Lomography actually makes a large variety of interesting, but cheap film cameras. They also come in a bunch of fun colors.

There’s a huge photo community devoted to these somewhat off color, retro looking analogue images. I like it.

I still have the roll of black and white Plus-X from the day.

At some point I’ll send it in for processing. That said, here are four ‘toned’ digital images from our shoot. Click any image to see them larger. [Read more…] about A Leisurely Ramble Through Old San Juan

Zipping Through the Jungle of Guaynabo, PR

As mentioned in me previous post, we had family visiting from the mainland and took in Canopy Tour’s Zip-line traverse on the grounds of the ‘Parque Forestal La Marquesa’ in Guaynabo. This is a very nice park and worth a visit even if you don’t do the Zip-line thing.

Note that this is a very funky 11 minutes 30 seconds of pure fun.

Since I had not done this before, I was not sure on how to rig for it. What’s more, I had not done any prep for my new Sony HDR-AS10 ‘ActionCam’ so I shot this from my Sony NEX-7, instead. I had never used the NEX-7 for video either, but at least I was familiar with the camera. To add insult to injury, I could not hold the camera in my hands since you need both hands free to steady yourself when running down the Zip-line.

This meant I had to strap the camera to my waist via another camera strap at the very last minute.

This accounts for much of the video being shot at a silly angle with a waist level view, but I think it adds to the ‘crude’ look of the finished product.

I used a Sigma AF 10-20mm zoom at the 10mm focal length and set focus to infinity. I forgot the masking tape I usually use to lock the lens down so it kept creeping off the mark requiring me to reset often.

Also worth mentioning, once we got into the shadow side of the mountain, it became relatively dark. Because I had strapped the camera to my waist, I could not see to reset the ISO to 400 or 800 to deal with the reduction in available light.

I ordered the headband clip for the little HDR-AS10 so I’ll be better prepared, next time. With this, I could strap it to my arm for a better perspective.

Please know that my remark about mosquitos was regarding Alaska and NOT Puerto Rico. We have mosquitos here, but nothing like Alaska in the summer.

The background score ‘Ritmo de Amor’ was courtesy of Los Macuanos and was downloaded from the Free Music Archive. A great music resource.

My only complaint is that there was a fair amount of walking to get down to the first launch platform and then at the end, we had to trudge uphill to get back to the original staging area. I cut a lot of video from this part of the trek. I was beat by the time we stepped off the last Zip-line, but then I’m out of shape and that’s due to my ankle condition.

Both paths could use some ‘dressing’, but there were good ropes or railing to hang onto so it was not too bad. Sturdy walking shoes or boots would be a good idea.

Forget the flip-flops.

Cost was typical for this kind of venue. Reservations are a good idea because they are very busy on the weekends or holidays. We were there on a Thursday afternoon so traffic was light. Allow plenty of time for this if you are in a large group.

The Canopy Tour’s Website has more specifics and you can get your tickets online too. I score a small commission for the sale, but it does not affect the ticket price.

In the end, It still rates 5 Skulls on me Scurvy Blog.. ARRG!

A special thanx goes out to Manuel and his crew, we felt very safe the entire time. Would I do it again? HECK YEA!!! It was awesome!

Forest Park, Birds and Butterflies of Guaynabo

Formally known as ‘Parque Forestal La Marquesa’, we were recently there, twice in the last 2 weeks. The first pass was with our Photo MeetUp Group to tour the grounds and then the second time was with family visiting from the mainland to do the Zip-line thing.

That’s right.

I finally got to do a Zip-line run through the jungle canopy. More about that, a little later in.

The Forest Park is a relatively new venue, funded and operated by Guaynabo City. So new, it is not featured on Guaynabo’s Official Spanish language website or on Wikipedia’s listing for Guaynabo City. Nor does it show up on GoogleMaps.

Most of Guaynabo sets in the valley below, but part of it extends into the mountains to the south. [Read more…] about Forest Park, Birds and Butterflies of Guaynabo

Plaza del Mercado of Santurce and a Park

A few weeks back, we went into San Juan to check out the Coffee and Chocolate Expo. This was not an all day affair so we planned to check out a couple more places in Santurce and stop by the Asian grocery store on
Ashford Avenue.

The goal was to visit a small park along the way and then go on over to the Plaza del Mercado in the heart of Santurce.

After the Expo, we got back on Highway 1 going towards Old San Juan, then took the loop to the left that brings you around to Ashford Avenue (heading east over a short causeway). We covered this area extensively in the post about San Juan’s Gay Pride Parade. The Asian grocery store is located here. They were out of fresh Lychee… no big deal. After that stop, we headed on down Ashford which eventually splits and becomes Magdalena Avenue. At this point, Ashford Ave. becomes one way heading the other direction. About 3 blocks down Magdalena is Plaza Antonia Quinones.

Plaza Antonia Quinones

A small, quaint park with lots of charm.

As can be seen in the shots, there is a formal stage used for local events. There are also a couple of statues, a small area for children to play, lots of old shade trees and plenty of benches.

There was almost no one here, but literally no parking either.

The park is situated in an area with lots of apartment complexes so I’m not that surprised about parking. I parked in a bus lane long enough to get some shots and me First Mate stayed with the car in case she had to move it. [Read more…] about Plaza del Mercado of Santurce and a Park