Old San Juan is a jewel in the midst of the island’s contemporary, urbanized capital. It’s sidestreets are colorful, with narrow roadways, some paved in blue bricks and lined with tall brightly colored buildings. Old San Juan was protected from maurading pirates and invading armies by a series of fortress-like walls,which are now considered a UN World Heritage Site. Castillo de San Cristóbal is a portion of these defenses that protected the main land entrance to the city of San Juan. San Juan’s fortified walls feature numerous guerites (or sentry boxes, called “garitas” by the locals). These guerites, with their domed roofs, have long been emblimatic of Puerto Rico and San Juan.

I have always wanted to tour this site, and we were able to squeeze in a quick visit before we had to head out to the nearby airport to catch our flight. I definitely enjoyed my brief stay, and managed to capture a few photos of the impressively thick coral walls and the emblimatic “guerites” with the ocean and city in the background. The light was bright late morning sun, but at least the skies were clear and graced with some adorning clouds. The use of a polarizer and HDR software during processing helped tremendously to bring out the shadow detail and colors in this harsh light. Visit the Old San Juan gallery to see more info and photos of this amazing site!

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