Sunday, December 31, 2006

Happy New Year. Puerto Rico Sun wishes you peace, love, good health, prosperity, happiness and ... in the new year.

Felicidades.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

PUERTO RICO'S CAPITAL

Vital Old San Juan

Leslie Jones

Contributing Writer

The aromas of tostones (fried plantains) and asopao (a traditional chicken-and-rice soup) drift out of local eateries.

Visitors pause in front of colourful storefront displays, and a sea of pedestrians and cars moves past. Narrow cobblestone streets beckon in each direction I turn, while the sounds of salsa resonate from a nearby plaza, enticing me to move a little closer.

My longtime friend Lori and I are on the first port of call of a week-long Caribbean cruise. It's a crystal-clear Sunday afternoon in the old town district of San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The city of San Juan is made up of three distinct areas: Old San Juan, the beach and resort area and outlying communities. Old San Juan, founded in 1508, is the second-oldest city in the Americas.

An infectious energy fills the air as the sounds of the park rotunda's steel drums intensify. Children play nearby as adults gather to visit. Passing tourists stop to listen, snap a few photos and dance awhile.

Music is almost as vital to Puerto Ricans as the air they breathe.

For more, go to http://www.nsnews.com/issues06/w122406/125106/travel.html.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Three Kings rule in Puerto Rico

MARY ELLEN BOTTER
The Dallas Morning News

JUANA DIAZ, Puerto Rico -- It's Bethlehem in the New World. The Three Kings seem to be everywhere in Puerto Rico. In art stores. Souvenir shops. On the wall of a bakery. Among gamers in San Juan's Pool Palace. Beside expensive watches in a jeweler's display.

They even have their own museum in this small city five miles northeast of Ponce in southern Puerto Rico.

That isn't to say Christmas itself is trumped by the island's love of the Wise Men reputed to have visited the baby Jesus in the manger. Puerto Ricans are wild about that holiday, celebrating it with joyous abandon, decorating homes, plazas and buildings as early as the beginning of November, and reveling in family gatherings and Christmas Eve church services. Festivities stretch through the second week of January.

For more, go to www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061224/Lives01/612240481