Monday, June 11, 2018

Old San Juan

San Juan, Puerto Rico
January 4, 2018

One of the places I wanted to visit in Puerto Rico was a bust thanks to guards blocking it, so I really wanted to visit a cemetery in San Juan. We were on a schedule, so I was bummed when I thought we weren't going to make it. In the morning we met my co-workers aunt at iHop. My friends kept telling me I was going to have to drive to the city, and I started getting major anxiety and had my first panic attack in years. The traffic in San Juan is absolutely crazy. After we ate breakfast I gave up on San Juan partially because we had to be somewhere else that evening and partially because I didn't want to drive there. Luckily all my friends had a different idea and even offered to drive.
Puerto Rico is the fifth country I've visited during the Christmas season, and I always love seeing how other countries decorate. It's also kind of strange to see Christmas trees when its 90 degrees out, especially since we left almost 0 digits back home.
San Juan is so beautiful, and my favorite thing to do in new cities is just walk around and admire the architecture. We really had no set plan in San Juan besides the cemetery (which will come in a later post), so we just walked around. It was so hot but totally worth walking in. I'm a sucker for colorful buildings and San Juan did not disappoint.
We met a very nice ice cream man who they all bought ice cream from. Yeny and Julio really wanted to take photos with him, so I ended up having a boat load on my camera when we left. Don't worry, though, I scaled the number down to just a few. We also saw a huge iguana while we were walking back. Julio and Abby ran over to get a photo near it, but none of those photos came out. I need to work on my photography.
Before we left we walked through a park with vendors selling handmade goods. The man below made us all bracelets. His jewelry was beautiful, and I bought my sister a pair of earrings. The earrings accidentally got thrown out. Oh well.

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Puerto Rican Street Art

Calle Norzagaray, San Juan, Puerto Rico
As you know, I love street art, but political street art holds a special place in my heart. There is nothing more inspirational than someone using art to advance their cause. This entire wall is looking out over the ocean, and if you walked from Castillo de San Cristóbal to Cementerio Santa María Magdalena de Pazzi then you are sure to walk right by it. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything about the meaning behind these murals or even who painted them. If you happen to know anything about them let me know because I'd love to update this post!
I was going to post these pictures in with my whole San Juan post, but I just have too many photos (spoiler: colorful buildings) for that post. While I was photographing the wall an artist was walking down the street and Yeny stopped to talk to her. I took her photo because her piece was amazing. My only regret was that I didn't get her name. I try to support local artists when I travel thanks to my cousin who mentioned her and her husband do this whenever they travel.
What do you think of the murals?
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