Trip to Puerto Rico, Part One: San Juan - May 2011

We took a short vacation to Puerto Rico.  These are pictures of that. 


All of Old San Juan is surrounded by city walls.  U2 was nowhere to be found.


The walk around the wall was quite nice. 


Chelsea agreed.


A turret within a turret.  That's some next level horseshit right there. 






It would be an understatement to say I did a lot of sweating on this trip. 


Overly dramatic statues, part 1. 


Overly dramatic statues, part 2. 


Most of the old town was paved in these awesome blue cobblestones.  I'm sure there was a story for why they were blue, but
I'll be damned if I know it. 


Quite stylish on their part to match their houses to their flowering bushes. 


During our walk we randomly stumbled on what appeared to be a cat sanctuary.  All these skinny (but healthy), very friendly cats
were everywhere.




If you stopped down they would swarm you for a scritching. 


Very sweet and cute. 


My favorite. 


Loved the contrast between the green field and the sky.


And when I tried to get Chelsea to pose for a photo on it, I got nothing but attitude. 


Fort San Felipe del Morro, one of the two old forts in old San Juan. 




Great doors all over the fort. 




A view from the fort across the bay.  On the left side there was a smaller fort used to create crossfire on any ships trying to enter
the bay, and on the right side...


...a leper colony!  So metal.  I wanted to go over and look at it, but we didn't have time. 


The lighthouse that was added a couple hundred years after the fort was built.  Still a working lighthouse. 






The sea-side outer walls of the fort. 


But Chelsea didn't give a shit, she had phone calls to make and twitters to twat (actually, she was probably on instagr.am).


The old cemetary just outside of the walls.  One of my favorite pictures of the trip. 


The town is full of colorful buildings. 


And some decaying ones too.






In the middle of the La Perla slum just outside the city walls, you have Carmelo Anthony Court, a way nicer court than anything
I have to play on here.  Apparently Carmelo's dad is Puerto Rican.


On the other end of old town, you have the other (newer) fort - Castillo San Cristobal. 






This fort was built with dungeons and underground tunnels to allow troops to quickly move from one part of the fort to another. 


Also, the fort had an awesome giant iguana just chilling in it.  Seeing this guy just hanging out was easily one of my highlights
of the trip.  Simple pleasures.


A view from one of the WWII bunkers back towards La Perla and Fort San Felipe del Morro.


Clearly, Chelsea's superior looking-out-of-the-bunker skills would have clearly made her a fine WWII soldier. 


One of the nice tree-lined streets in old town. 




Street cats everywhere.  Very friendly and clearly taken care of. 






Lots of awesome tile work all around too.






Unlike most of the colonial-style buildings that made up old town, there were also a few really amazing art deco structures that
caught my eye.  This one was my favorite. 


We randomly ended up in some park that was dedicated to pigeons.  They'd even built cubbyholes into the wall for them. 


We weren't there long but I was constantly on guard for being shat upon. 


Fiinally, took a few night photos walking around old town. 






We're off to the jungle next.