Page 95 - quebec
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ornate iron balconies, from the happily
painted apartment doors to the round-
ed-arch windows. Even graffitti scrawled
on walls and telephone wires haphazardly
stretching across the sky look more like
quaint touches than they do blots on the
city.
Thankfully, there were plenty of tree-shad-
ed plazas with benches to accommodate
us when we got a little tired from walking
uphill. Of course, we couldn’t resist the
flavored shaved ice (piraguas) sold by the
street vendor before exploring some more
— this time, downhill toward the water, to
Castillo San Felipe del Morro.
This centuries-old, stone-walled fort, filled
with tunnels and staircases, was named
in honor of King Philip II of Spain, and
guards the entrance to San Juan Bay. Ste-
ven Spielberg deemed it the perfect setting
to represent a fort in Sierra Leone in the
film Amistad. El Morro, as it is commonly
known, also has plenty of perfect settings
for tourist photo opportunities (although I
don’t recommend staying too long to snap
your pics in one of the peek-hole towers as
the “eau de urine” smell is overpowering).
The day we self-toured the fort, bus loads
of carefree school children were trying their
hand at kite flying. We got an extra treat
as we watched colorful kites in dragon, di-
amond and box shapes dance their way
across the sky above the expansive grassy
slope in front of the fort’s entrance.
Since we planned to leave the next day for
Ponce, I thought this would be my one op-
portunity to dig up perfect gifts for my son
and daughter (my husband, I knew, would
love the sailing regatta t-shirt I planned to
purchase in Humacao). Although shopping
is not my favorite thing to do, I managed to
make my way through Calle Fortaleza, Calle
San Francisco and Calle del Cristo, the ma-
jor streets for buy, buy, buying.
I slogged through handicrafts galore —
papier-mâché fruit wasn’t going to work,
handmade ceramics might break, artists
renderings were too big — and finally saw
a handmade straw purse that my daughter
would appreciate and, ideal for my son, a
custom papier-mâché carnival mask of a ve-
jigante, a mischevious character who wards
off evil spirits at Puerto Rico’s carnival
parades. I scrounged around long enough
(okay, so maybe I don’t hate shopping as
much as I think I do) to make a great gift
discovery for my co-workers — tiny match-
boxes with meticulous renderings of Old
San Juan street scenes. Ta-dah!
Wine Dine & Travel Summer 2014 95

