The Old Spanish Ruins of Maunabo

This is a follow up to my last post about the Land Crab Festival in Maunabo. I did not get into any background on the town last time so I’ll do it now.

The ruins of Central Matuyas shown here are from a much earlier time than the Roig Mill in Yabucoa or the Central Aguirre ruins near Salinas. They date to Spanish colonial rule. Maunabo was founded in 1779 or 1799 depending on the historian. Before that, it was
considered part of Guayama.  So it’s very old.

Maunabo has a much more ‘laid-back’, rural feel to it.

It’s almost as if time slowed down here. Sure, there are still plenty of cell phones and new cars, but the land looks ‘non-contemporized’, if you get my meaning. Kids on horses are a common site as is the pickup truck stuffed with hay or chickens.

The Lighthouse at Punta Tuna was built by the Spanish in 1892 to support the port of Maunabo. That was 6 years before the US took possession of PR.

The lighthouse and the beach below, are a ‘must-see’.

Hurricanes wreaked destruction here in 1899- Hurricane San Ciriaco and again in 1928 when Hurricane San Felipe came through.

Bear in mind, this was before homes were built from cement blocks and concrete.  Island wide, thousands of people died.

This set of ruins are right along the road so they are easy to access. Back then, all work was done by slaves. Mechanization came later. Think ox drawn carts, narrow gauge railroads and bosses on horses.

Iron and wood from the period is slowly decomposing.

During the early days, the principal crops were coffee (in the hills), tobacco, rice, sugar cane and some produce for local consumption. Tobacco was harvested here until the latter half of the 20th century. Bananas are very common now. This side of the island gets lots of rain so it’s lush here year round.

Which means it is hot and humid most of the year.

These Relics of the Past…

The white stucco- empañatal, has long since fallen off the walls, exposing the brick and stones used for construction. I’ve seen other structures like this where stone was layered with brick. The lighthouse ruins of Guanica and places near Coamo feature this style of architecture. The empañatal was often ‘sculptured’ to resemble large blocks of granite from the outside. They must have looked quite grand back when… gleaming white in the sun.

Now they stand as a rustic testament to a time gone by.

Because of Maunabo’s somewhat remote access, they have developed their own newspaper.

La Esquina- The Corner was established in 1975 as a ‘one sheeter’, but quickly grew to a monthly tabloid and is now distributed to several adjoining communities. Circulation is over 40,000 and they have their own Web site. Nicely done, I might add. So new technology does exist here, it’s just not obvious.

I love this corner of the island…

If you’ve ever daydreamed about ‘island life’ and what it’s like, you can find it right here along the shores of Maunabo. If you have the urge to explore, history and great images are only a stones through away.

Data for this post was collected from the road,  Wikipedia and
the online- Puerto Rico Encyclopedia.