SAN JUAN, P.R.—Greetings from San Juan, named by Christopher Columbus after St. John the Baptist. As a Knight of Columbus, I felt at home in the capital of the “Rich Port,” the translation of Puerto Rico.
After I got over my surprise at the January heat and humidity (Puerto Rico is much further south than I had previously appreciated), I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Condado, a neighborhood on the shore, as I jogged my way to Viejo San Juan, “Old San Juan.”
There, I admired the row houses’ colorful façades and marveled that such narrow, cobbled streets could exist in the New World, so far from Europe. I stopped in for a latte at Don Ruiz Coffee, a small shop inside the Museo de las Americas courtyard. After assessing my post-workout condition, I elected to make my latte iced.
I walked through the narrow streets to the Catedral Basilica Menor de San Juan Bautista, where I prayed in adoration and noticed the remains of St. Pius, an early Christian martyr whose body was shipped to Puerto Rico in 1862 at the behest of Bishop Mariano Rodríguez de Olmedo.
Afterward, I walked up to el Castillo San Felipe del Morro, the castle at San Juan’s northwestern-most point. It seems a strategic place for a fortress, but I can’t imagine being a royal with a coastal castle and my only beach access be down a sheer cliff.
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