The Old City

On Thursday, we took the bus from Isla Verde (for all of 75 cents) to Old San Juan and walked a good amount around the historic and narrow cobblestoned streets, which always offer up fantastic snapshots.

We walked from the bottom of the city up the hill to where the ancient Iglesia San José is located. Bombarded during the invasion in 1898, the church has been under renovations for a long time and I was glad to see that they have restarted offering Mass on Saturdays. When I lived in Puerto Rico, a long time ago, I used to love to drive to the Old City and attend Mass here.

We also got fantastic views of the ancient cemetery, where my father's ashes now rest, and of El Morro, the old Spanish fort that is now federal property.

What never ceases to amaze and delight me when I'm here is that Puerto Rican celeste blue that nothing can imitate or approach.

My husband walked through the city and took some great pictures, including one of the Abraham Lincoln School, which includes a statue of that U.S. President, built in 1926. That's one of the ways U.S. colonialism has worked here, by teaching Puerto Rican children to admire American presidents rather than their own artists or poets or leaders.

We always stop at La Bombonera, the old café where they serve the best mallorcas on the island. My mom mentioned that it might close, as so many other places have over the past few years in a declining economy (the adage is that when the U.S. catches cold, Puerto Rico gets pneumonia and the U.S. has been dealing with pneumonia so imagine where Puerto Rico stands), so we figured we should make a point of eating there just in case.