Old San Juan and San Se Festival
Our ship docked looking directly at Old San Juan, which was the perfect location for what we had planned. We set out to stroll through Old San Juan starting with the historic Castillo San Cristóbal, which has forts on either end of old town. We also wanted to walk by the historic old cemetery and make sure to stop for an empanada where appropriate.
We were surprised to see that the Festival of San Sebastian - San Se to the locals - was going on during our stay in San Juan. The festival lasts for four days, and we witnessed day number four. The festival goers did not appear to have lost any steam by day four, but I suppose we didn’t see them on day one for comparison. The celebration is meant to celebrate the life of Saint Sebastian and raise money for the Catholic Church. There were multiple stages with live music, dozens of food carts, and thousands of parading people.
With all the local food around, we were salivating. First we ate an arepa con queso, which is like two sweet corn cakes with cheese in the middle. Next we ate something that looked like fried plantains but we were surprised to find that it was a ball of meat wrapped in plantains then deep fried. Next up were some bbq chicken skewers and plantain chips. We then came across some mystery fried items and I asked the man what was in the fried balls? He said, “Jamón, pollo, queso. Es gordon blue.” I realized it’s like bite sized chicken cordon bleu and he must just be saying cordon as gordon. Then I looked at the menu, and sure enough it said “Gordon Blue.” After the fried smorgasbord we walked about 21,000 steps around town to burn off some grease. There were tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans walking through the streets and another 2500 MSC cruise goers packed into Old San Juan that day. It was extremely crowed, but the San Cristóbal Fortress was open for free because of the festival.
The currents of the Atlantic Ocean coming from Europe going towards the Caribbean leads ships to the area surrounding Puerto Rico. This is why the island was a strategic location for centuries as Europeans sailed to the Caribbean and tried to gain strongholds in the New World. It was essentially the gate into the Caribbean and was sought after by the Spanish and English among other nations. The Spanish held on to the territory for the longest, and they built this fortress in the late 1700’s to keep out foreign invaders who attempted to steal it from them. It has been an active military base up through the 1940s when additions were made during WWII to scout for incoming submarines. In the 1960s it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site and US National Historic Site.
There are two different forts you can tour on both ends of Old San Juan. El Morro, the older of the two, protected the town from invaders from the sea. San Crisóbal on the east side was built to protect the town from invaders from the land. They used to be connected by a long wall but it has since been torn down to make room for neighborhoods. In the forts you can wander through the living quarters, sentry boxes, and see where they fired cannons at oncoming ships. It’s a pretty cool museum if you’re into the military, maritime history, or architecture, and if offers some beautiful views of San Juan and the sea. I was excited to get some drone footage of the area, but due to the fact that the San Cristóbal/El Morro sites are maintained by the U.S. National Park service I was not able to fly my drone, which is legally registered with the FAA. When the drone switches on it picks up its GPS location, and there are certain areas where it will physically not allow me to fly it. I was pretty bummed not to be able to take it up yet again, but I’ve had some success with it since then. Stay tuned for some drone videos coming soon, just not of San Juan.
Old San Juan had been pretty well restored and freshly painted with its signature bright colors since the hurricane. There was no visible damage in the parts of town we walked through, but I imagine in more rural parts there is still a lot of damage.
We had an excellent day wandering around the old city and enjoyed the added surprise of a local festival. It was one of the destinations that exceeded Ashley’s expectations since it was her first time there, and I enjoyed it as much as the first time I visited. We would love to go back and explore more of Puerto Rico. Until next time, hasta luego!