Ciudad de Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico · Old San Juan · Cruise Port / Container Port
Foreign LandOld San Juan: Nice!
A morning tour, a quiet Saturday harbor, and a port city whose scale was larger than the number of ships visible from the quay.
Arrival
Took a Tour of Old San Juan
Nice.
The city did not need a complicated opening line. Color, stone, sea air, and the geometry of a working harbor did the work.
The first impression was immediate. The larger story belonged to the port.
Roll Video
Old San Juan in Motion
The Port
A Harbor Larger Than the Frame
The original source described the Port of San Juan as one of the busiest seaports in the West and among the world’s leading ports for container movement.
It also described San Juan as the world’s largest home-based cruise port, with more than a dozen ships based there, and as second only to Miami in cruise volume.
I did not see many ships that day.
Maybe because it was Saturday.
The absence of visible traffic did not make the harbor small. It only made the observer early, late, or looking in the wrong direction.
The Port Equation
Quiet Quay + Hidden Scale + Working Harbor = A Larger Story
November 7, 2009
Morning in San Juan
November 7, 2009
The City Before the Crowd
Companion Stories
Continue Through the Caribbean Archive
The Eastern Caribbean widens the map and turns the route south toward another river of stories.
Open StoryA stranger Puerto Rico field note where the island’s atmosphere becomes part mystery, part memory.
Open StoryA return postcard from San Juan—part invitation, part evidence that the city stays with you.
Open Story