Sunday Morning in East Old San Juan

Off the beaten path.. just like I like it.

We hooked up with the San Juan Photo & Social Club for a stroll through a part of Old San Juan most folks never see. East Old San Juan is home to the Sixto Escobar Stadium, the Parque Muñoz Rivera, (Old) San Juan Beach and the Escambron surf lookout.

It was a beautiful morning, not too hot or humid.

We started at the Surf Lookout featured in the pano shot. The view from there is strictly long telephoto. The surfers have to paddle out past the rocky shore to surf so they never make it in very close. The small public beach (with public facilities) to the right of the surfers was crowded with locals out working on their tans or playing in the water. Looked like fun to me.

We headed over to the Luis Muñoz Rivera Park where as luck would have it, a weekend Artesano fair with live entertainment was going on.  The pavilion reminded me of something you might see at a state fair.. a few large formal structures with some temporary vendors’ booths set-up along a long reflecting pool.  It was several times bigger than the Artesano Fair in Barranquitas. As usual, I saw several vendors from previous shows. Many were featuring hand-crafted items for Christmas. Colorful Three Kings figurines were extremely popular. As were colorful masks, Pilones (wooden mortar & pestles), t-shirts, jewelry, musical instruments, wooden toys and hand-made traditional furniture.

A band with trovadores (traditional singers) was performing ‘Musica Tipica’. They sounded great!

A very festive mood, even for 10AM.

After that, the photo group took a stroll down the outside of the park before crossing the street in search of old ruins and graffiti. The broad sidewalk/walkway featured colorful mosaics of flowers, palms and trees. This was an older park, but well cared for. Cleanup crews and cops were everywhere.

I’ve mentioned before, how much Puerto Ricans love Christmas. It has to be the most important holiday on the island. Finding a Christmas tree lot a block off the cruise ship docks seemed almost funny. Especially considering it was in the low 80’s.  We also found a plastic Santa figurine, stuffed in a metal fence post, out front of a tenement complex keeping vigil. Most appropriate.

The graffiti in Old San Juan is something that caught my eye, my very first bus ride. I had hoped to eventually get back to shoot it. This work is every bit as creative and unique as any I’ve seen anywhere else. I could do a whole show, based on just what we saw on Sunday. It was gorgeous.  The bus route corridor that connects Old San Juan with the rest of Metro San Juan is littered with graffiti. We spent some time shooting it and the immediate buildings on each side.

At several points along our walk, I found loose coconuts on the ground, sprouting new plants. I really wanted to take them home.

A word of warning- I was glad we were in a small group and would have been less inclined to take off on my own to go shoot this stuff as it really is off the main tourist area. At one of the abandoned structures, some guy told us to ‘get-lost’ in Spanish.  I doubt he would have done anything, but this is home for some unfortunate souls. So we let him be and went on our way.

At this point, we started working our way back to our ride near the Luis Muñoz Rivera Park via Valdes and San Agustin streets, then on to Avenue Juan Ponce De Leon.  There were a pair of beautiful churches we paused at for shots. A couple of us ventured inside the 2nd one. The stained glass windows were 100 years old… absolutely vivid! I shot from a monopod with a medium telephoto for those images.

We all wanted to grab a bite to eat so we stopped at a very crowded “El Hamburguer”. Yea, I spelled it right. They are located on Avenue Muñzo Rivera which skirts the shoreline and is just up from the park. Easy to miss.. look for the crowded car lot out front.  We found a table big enough to seat us all and ordered. About the time we thought it was taking too long, a gal showed up with all our food. The ‘hambuerguers’ were almost shaped like meatballs covered in melted cheese. We were also served a plate of trimmings to make up what ever we wanted. I did not see any Mayo, but I did not ask for any either. They were well done and most tasty. At less than $3.00, the burguers were a deal. My Diet-Coke was a perfect complement. Typical of most local shops, there was no air conditioning, but the place really didn’t need it. Plenty of fans kept the air moving.

After our break, we headed back to the park where we said our goodbyes and split up. Me first mate and I ran over to the public beach for a few more shots. It was about 3PM now so it was quite warm. We packed up the car and headed home, after that.

The end of
a great day.

[Note: Shot back on December 12th, this post was suppose to follow the site update and move to a new server. That’s been postponed ’till later next week so I wanted to get this out before the month ends.]