San Juan, Puerto Rico
Welcome to the oldest city on U.S. Territory! In translation the island means "Rich Port." That's no exaggeration! There are amazing cultural, historical, scenic, and natural sights to be seen. Your stop in San Juan may be a morning or afternoon stop on an Eastern Caribbean cruise or even the start or end of your cruise to the Southern Caribbean. Some of the highlights of San Juan include:
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San Cristobal Fortress
My visit to San Juan was brief, an 8am-2pm stop on an Eastern Caribbean cruise in 2010. Rather than choosing a ship excursion we took the independent route. First we walked from our ship over to the San Cristobal Fortress. It was a short, 15 minute, walk once you subtract our wrong turn ;) We spent a couple of hours touring the upper areas of the fort before venturing down below to the cooler regions. The fortress is the largest fortification built in the Americans by the Spaniards. San Cristobal Fortress and El Morro were dedicated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1983 and are both part of the U.S. National Park System.
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El Morro
Leaving the San Cristobal Fortress we walked along Norzagary until we reached El Morro, the Castle of San Felipe. We spent significantly less time here because the sun was getting higher in the sky and the temps were rising, even in November it was a scorcher in Puerto Rico. El Morro was built in the 16th Century (1539) to guard the San Juan Bay but wasn't finished for another 400 years. It was even used in World War II by the United States to track German U-Boats in the Caribbean.
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