Travels in the 2nd half

One of the best ways to see how people live in a place that you are visiting is to get out of the tourist center and visit some of the smaller towns and cities. It is one of my favorite things to do when I travel. On a recent trip to Puerto Rico I took a day and traveled twenty miles south of San Juan to Caguas. The city of Caguas, founded in 1775, sits at the entrance of the Cordillera Central , the mountain range that crosses the entire length of Puerto Rico, as you travel south from San Juan. During the late 1700’s British and Dutch privateers raided San Juan on several occasions, and many colonialists fled to the mountains inland for protection. In 1874 Caguas was designated as a city, and its position on main road between San Juan and Ponce made it a major stop and trading point for travelers, farmers and businessmen moving goods between the north and south coasts. The Jardin Botánico y Cultural de Caguas William Miranda Marín is a lovely place to explore...

Elyunque.com There is a lot that can be written about the culture wars between San Juan and Ponce in Puerto Rico. And I will describe some of that in another post. There is another cultural outpost that gets very little attention, especially by tourists and travelers. That is the town of Loiza. ( see map ) Loiza is one of two historically afro-puertorican townships in the general San Juan area. Loiza is famous for its traditional music, artisans and burin style of cooking. It is about 15 miles east of Isla Verde. Vejigante masks – Taller Ayala Among Loiza’s most famous artisans are the Taller Ayala (Rte. 187, Km 6.6, Loíza, 00772) – producers of traditional vejigante mask . The vejigante tradition goes back to the defeat of the Moors in Spain by St. James. They originally represented demons and were included in processions on St. James’ saint day to scare parishioners back to church.   In Puerto Rico this celebration became infused with African and T...