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.