Ponce

Ponce Fire Station

This is the third fire station built as this location but it is now a museum.  The first two burned down.  The current fire station is very modern and at a safer location.  Directly behind the fire station you can see the cathedral.

Ponce, Puerto Rico is not, as I first thought, named for Ponce de Leon the Spanish Conquistador, at least not directly.  Ponce is in fact named for his grandson, also called Ponce de Leon.  Leon is Spanish for lion so the mascot of the city is a lion.  The main Plaza has a famous Fountain of the Lions that has been there quite some time but they have done that one better with something they call the Parade of Lions.  A collection of fiberglass lions was turned over to a number of artists and they decorated them, each in their own fashion.  I found 15 of them in the plaza.  Some of them are attractive, some not so much.

An interesting tree spotted near the place where we went to started our bio bay excursion.  Can anyone identify it for me?

This was our transportation from the Island Adventures headquarters to Mosquito Bay.  It can go remarkably fast over unpaved roads.  Persons with back problems are recommended to the front of the bus.  

I had read that it was impossible to photograph the bio luminescent glow so I didn't take my camera.  Turns out that with the proper equipment and a steady hand it can be done.  My camera probably would have captured some sort of image once I set it up properly.  Maybe next time.  Ricky was our guide for the tour and I am pleased to say he was quite knowledgeable.  So many of these type of guides will just make up some sort of BS when they really don't understand.  I was also impressed with my ability to remember the term mitosis when he posed that question.

This has got to be the best transportation deal in Puerto Rico.  Nine people, round trip to Vieques for $10.  It turns out that anyone over 65 rides for one dollar each way and over 75 rides for free.  So two dollars round trip for 5 of us and four of our group went for free. What a deal.

After El Junque we went to our hotel in Fajardo, The Fajardo Inn.  This was simply a place to stay as we waited on the next morning departure of the ferry to Vieques, an island off the coast of Puerto Rico where we were to visit the bio-lumenecent bay.  However, it turned out to be a pretty nice place ...

I was in the room upstairs and had a small kitchen and a balcony.  Never did figure out why I had such a fancy room.  No Wi-fi in the room however, only worked in the lobby.

El Junque National Forest is in an area of Puerto Rico that was first exploited by the Spanish for it's lumber and gold.  Later, the Spanish recognized it's value as a natural area and set it aside as a nature preserve.  They began the process of restoring it to a more natural state and that process continues today in the care of the US National Forest service.  It is also a laboratory on the care of a rain forest and research there has been shared and has helped preserve rain forest around the world.  An interesting tidbit a picked up from the orientation movie, there are more plant species in this US national forest that in all the other US national forests combined.

This is another of those places that is hard to document with just one picture from inside.  Because the forest climbs the slopes of several mountains, I chose a picture looking over a great vista that sweeps down to the Atlantic Ocean.

Puerto Rico was the Gateway to the Caribbean.  The country that controlled that small island could control all the riches of Mexico, Central and South America.  Everything that Spain sent to their American colonies went to Puerto Rico first.  Everything they sent back, including many fortunes in gold passed through Puerto Rico.  This island had to be defended at all cost so it's most prominent pieces of architecture are gigantic fortresses.  It's hard to get the scope of a fortress when you are inside but even from there they were impressive.  And since they all face the sea it's hard to get a shot from far away.  El Morro Fortress, not the largest but perhaps the most impressive, is also designed to be defended from an infantry invasion from behind.  The beautiful lawn in the included picture was actually a military feature that forced invading troops to cross a long open field as they approached.  It was actually a killing field, belying it's beauty today.

San Juan has some very interesting public art ...

I had not ridden in an airplane since June of 2001.  That was of course before 9/11 as well as the airline meltdown and TSA.  I was expecting an unpleasant experience and my expectations we more than met.  I have spent some addtional money to try to make the return trip more pleasant, extra legroom, an aisle seat and checking a second bag.  Perhaps that will help.

My ride arrived

We talked so much on the trip to SA I didn't get to try out an on the go entry.

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Now trying out Blogsy.

There seem to be a lot more features on this one. If they both work pretty easily I may have to switch back and forth for a while. Another picture?

Okay, that was a little more difficult. I had to get out of Blogsy, take the picture with the iPad camera, then go back to select the picture in Blogsy. It let me use the original rectangular format however. That suggests that I could edit a picture in the camera roll, say crop it to be really wide, and use it that way rather than everything square.
My ride to San Antonio arrives in about an hour or so, guess I better finish getting ready.


Okay, something weird happened.  When I posted this Blogsy entry, it went in with a date of 5/19/12. Don't know why and don't know how to fix it.  If you see this post with the proper date then I learned how to fix it.

Yep, fixed it but don't know why it happened.  When my ride arrives, I'll take a picture and then try creating and posting an entry as we drive to SA.

Posted with Blogsy

Trying out BlogPress

Bear with me while I experiment with a couple of iPad apps for blogging. This one is BlogPress and this is my first attempt with it. Can I add a photo?




It appears I can but it seems to be limited to a square format. Now to publish.

- Wanderin' Bill

Location:Augusta Dr,Wimberley,United States

Explanation

For years, along with many other friends, I have travelled in Mexico with Stanley or Dr. B as we know him.  There are just too many bad things happening in Mexico now so we have been looking for alternative places to travel.  For a couple of summers there were trips to the US Southwest and perhaps there will be more of those in the future.  This winter however we are doing something that seems so natural I don't know why it took so long to come up.  Many years ago, in the early 50's, Stanley and his wife did missionary work in Puerto Rico.  They were there long enough for two sons to be born.  Now he is leading a group of friends back for a visit.  We will see many of the sights of Puerto Rico and visit the small town where he lived 60 years ago as well.  I'm starting this blog on my computer and will keep it up that way when I can but hope to use my iPad as well to do a little on-the-spot reporting.  The iPad app is new to me so not sure how easy it will be to use.