My parents arrived in Old San Juan late at night, and we had a morning walking tour of both castles. We met with our tour guide, Uncle J and we were the only to sign up, so we got a private tour. He told us a lot of facts about the history of the castles. My mom took better notes, and I just went off vibes. Check out my parents blog at rtwstreets.com for more thorough and complete facts.

Here’s what I learned, and remembered, from the tours. There are two castles, El Morro and San Cristobal. They are called castles rather than forts because they were built under the order of the king. We toured San Cristobal first. There were more cannons in San Cristobal and it was larger, and most of the gun power was stored in El Morro. They were connected by a large wall that protected the coast and had about a 15 minute walk between them. The castles were built to look larger than they were and to look very intimidating and impenetrable to approaching ships. The best offense is a strong defense. The Spanish defended from invasions by the British, Dutch, and pirates.

We walked through a tunnel that was set up to be lit with dynamite if they needed to explode the tunnel. On the outside of the tunnel was a field, “the killing field” that typically lead to surrender, so the tunnel never needed to be exploded.

Here you can see the different layers of the fortress.

The castles had a lot of cannons. The ball on the back of the cannon shows the size of the cannonball that the cannon needed.

The castles are now US National Parks. We were shown by the lead masonry archivist how they restore the castle with the original materials. They study the makeup of the specific walls and the layers, and replicate it. He showed us limestone, sandstone, and other rocks that where used to create and also repair the castle.

It rained a lot at the beginning of the tour, and then it was very sunny, typical for Puerto Rican weather. I thought it would be windy, so I didn’t bring a hat. Most of the tour I was squinting with only 1 eye open.

Here we are up against one of the walls of the castle. It is huge.

The castles fly 3 flags: the USA flag, the Puerto Rican flag, the “Cross of Burgundy” flag, which is a Spanish military flag from the 16th to 18th century.

If you look closely, you can see my mom and dad!

Sunset walking tour

We went on two walking tours in the same day. This one was in the Old Town and focused more on the history of Puerto Rico as a whole.

The Tainos are indigenous to Puerto Rico. The Taino name for Puerto Rico is Boricua, and also is a name that people from Puerto Rico use to describe themselves, as a nod to their island’s original name, compared to calling themselves Puerto Rican. Next time I come back to Puerto Rico, I would like to learn more about the Taino culture.

The explorers “discovered” Puerto Rico, thanks to the trade winds that guided their ships right to San Juan. Christopher Columbus found Puerto Rico on his second voyage to the Americas, although he didn’t know that he was in America. The beaches and rivers were covered in gold. Later even more silver than gold was found in Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico means “rich port” in Spanish.

The buildings in old town are all painted different colors, and the blue bricks in the street are unique to Old San Juan.

Here’s sunset.

We went to dinner at an authentic Puerto Rican place recommended by our tour guide. This is the moment my dad found out that our tour tomorrow morning of El Yunque (the rainforest) would begin at 6:45am the next day. He was not eager to wake up that early and was unable to fully enjoy his dinner.

Buenas noches. (Goodnight.)