San Juan, Puerto Rico (Part 2)

To the Rhythm of Reggaeton


The Most Solid Flag
Building with a nationalist facade at the top of the neighborhood of La Perla.
Patio freshness
Bold decoration of one of the bars in Ciudad Vieja de San Juan,
Colors of La Perla
Colorful perched townhouse of La Perla and San Juan's old town
rain patio
Patio of the Museu de las Américas soaked by yet another tropical storm at the end of the day.
La Boulevard del Valle
Coconut trees refresh the colorful street of Bulevar del Valle above La Perla.
Pure Puerto Rico
Visitor in bright costume poses with the flag of Puerto Rico in the background.
late afternoon talk
Friends chat at the top of San Juan's Ciudad Vieja.
Colonial Facades
Outlines and colors of one of San Juan's old streets.
Puerto Rico to Double
Flags of Puerto Rico unfurled on one of the old balconies of Ciudad Vieja.
Colonial Street
Old Town Street that reveals the sea of ​​Bahia de San Juan.
La Puerta Mural
Visitors pass the La Porta de San Juan mural.
Rainbow gantry
Passersby cross a rainbow portico from San Juan de Puerto Rico.
at good pace
Motoreta breaks the gaudy alternation of San Juan's facades.
Eccentric counter
Unusual decor for a bar in San Juan's Old Town.
Jibaro Traditional Costumes
Restaurant employees display traditional Puerto Rican costumes.
The narrowest building
Resident passes in front of the famous narrowest building in San Juan de Puerto Rico.
colonial nightfall
Dusk changes the tones of the centuries-old streets of San Juan.
Restless and inventive Puerto Ricans have made San Juan the reggaeton capital of the world. At the preferred beat of the nation, they filled their “Walled City” with other arts, color and life.

Puerto Rico. Reggaeton, its stars and hits.

There is no way to dissociate them. Especially since the turn of the XNUMXst century, they invaded the world. In such a way that, much due to this emerging style, Hispanic music began to threaten the worldwide supremacy of Anglophone music.

Daddy Yankee and his hits “Gasolina” and “Lo que Pasó Pasó”, from 2004, in the same year, “Baila Morena” the answer of Héctor & Tito that we heard for the first time, in Valle Seco, a fishing village close to Puerto Colombia, Venezuelan Caribbean and which, only several years later, we were able to identify.

When it's not reggaeton, other multifaceted rhythms, musicians and artists stand out.

Only in this way do we remember planetary stars like Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Jose Feliciano, Benicio del Toro, Joaquin Phoenix, these are the most famous.

But let's concentrate, for now, on reggaeton.

The Unstoppable Pace Reggaeton Conquered the World

At one point, the new Puerto Rican musical hits conquered the dance floors with an intensity comparable to that of the Latin beats dembow frenetic themes of each theme, all of them popular popularuchos, without great depths, esotericism or aesthetic subtleties.

The lyrics speak of “perrear”, “fuego” and “afuegote” and “flow”. These are expressions that translate, in order, the sexual movement of copulation standing up and wearing clothes, unavoidable, when dancing reggaeton.

The temperature and sexual atmosphere characteristic of discos and clubs that play reggaeton.

Finally, the harmony and flow of the music that explains why so many lyrics include an appeal of “reggaeton lady".

Reggaeton has long reflected the craving for fun and pleasure typical of these semi-Caribbean parts of the world.

Simultaneously, a radical reinvention of musical styles in undisputed Caribbean times, the rumba, the cha-cha-cha, the bolero, the mambo, the guaracha, the Dominican bachata, among many others.

In a cultural sphere strongly influenced by pop, hip-hop, rap and their fusions in the United States, the visual record of artists acquired as much or more importance than that of their hits.

It proved to be still predominant for the swell of its legions of fans and followers.

And for the desired stardom and unbridled wealth that follows.

Today, the even more eccentric and superficial Bad Bunny seems to have replaced Daddy Yankee on the throne of reggaeton. But in January 2017, Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee joined forces on a theme from Fonsi's 2018 album, “Life”.

This theme, "Slowly” clashed and much of the strongly drummed, rhythmic and electronic line with which Yankee made his fame. It slowed down Puerto Rico's energy and passionate cadence into a slow, drawn-out, almost cheesy way of celebrating sex and love, incompatible with any longing for “perreo".

For some reason, Fonsi teamed up with Yankee. The first one realized the commercial potential of the theme, and how much his professional colleague could multiply it.

Unsurprisingly, in three times, “Slowly” became the mega hit of the year.

Faced with deciding what to do with the video, the duo agreed to simplify.

The success "Slowly” and the La Perla neighborhood of San Juan

In celebrating his idolized images and, at the same time, the genuineness and humility of the heart and soul of Puerto Rico: his Vieja San Juan, the second oldest Hispanic colonial city and the most fortified colonial city in the Americas.

In 2016, the two musicians and Miss Universe 2006 Zuleika River Mendoza descended on the waterfront of La Perla, one of the poorest, most colorful and, once, most dangerous neighborhoods in San Juan.

During the filming, the Atlantic unfolds, measured, over the rocky reef that, as a rule, protects the houses from the storms.

Fonsi and the model showed off their careful physiques (the Yankee one, not so much) and seductive looks in the dirty streets of the neighborhood, on the rubble accumulated at the base of the first row of houses.

They lived with the well-off residents, sang and danced in patios, in taverns and the like. Only a few additional scenes were filmed at the famous “La Factoria” bar, situated farther up Calle San Sebastian in the old town.

Four years later, we find ourselves at the gates of that same La Perla neighbourhood. First, we glimpse their houses and alleys from the summit via Bulevar del Valle.

A little later, we can see it in panoramic format from the walls and walkways of Castillo San Felipe del Morro.

Puerto Rico, San Juan, walled city, panoramic

Perspective of San Juan with the La Perla neighborhood between the Magdalena Pazzi Cemetery and the Castillo San Cristobal

At that distance, everything seems normal to us. We see its multicolored houses, stacked one on top of the other on the north slope, still somewhat green on the island of San Juan, between the Magdalena de Pazzi Cemetery and the great Castillo de San Cristóbal.

Even if their chromatic assortment prevailed, La Perla was not the same.

Hurricane Maria: the Catastrophe that Devastated La Perla and Puerto Rico

Tropical storms and hurricanes were lashing the Caribbean long before Christopher Columbus landed. Two of them nearly shortened the admiral's life.

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico. One of the places most exposed to storms and, as such, the most destroyed was the neighborhood of La Perla, facing north and with its houses a few meters above the level of the Atlantic.

Inflated by the storm, the ocean projected massive waves that razed many homes.

When we passed through, most of them were still destroyed and abandoned, now under the pressure of intense real estate speculation.

Despite the effects of the hurricane, La Perla remained an unusual street art gallery, with its facades, roofs, bridges and many other structures painted with different works.

The Flag of Puerto Rico and So Many Other Expressions of Street Art

As an image of what happens all over the territory, some entire fronts display paintings of the flag of Puerto Rico that we saw, by the way, also illustrated in the dry roots of a tree.

Other works tell the history, traditions and socio-political hardships of the island.

A few meters above the neighborhood La Perla, the Bulevar del Valle street has a long section filled with street works.

They are almost all abrasive claims against the corruption that the governors of Puerto Rico found themselves accused of or allusive to the abandonment in which Donald Trump's United States voted the island after the catastrophe of Hurricane Maria.

who arrives from Santo Domingo and from other neighboring islands in the Caribbean, he soon realizes that, in Puerto Rico, the love and commitment placed in art are superior.

Whatever the bar, restaurant or inn in San Juan, it insists on having a decoration, a brand image and a unique atmosphere.

If entrepreneurs lack funds or property, they express themselves at more down-to-earth scales.

We see it in a natural agricultural market, where products are displayed with great elegance, juices and liqueurs have names and flavors out of the box, such as inventive and personalized crafts.

A Long Cultivated Artistic Vocation

A few hundred meters away, one of the monumental motifs and furniture of the nation's creativity stands out from the vast El Morro lawn. School of Plastic Arts and Design, crisp yellow and, at least at first glance, larger than the Capitol of Puerto Rico itself.

The city's emblematic statues adorn the surroundings, such as that of Don Ricardo Alegria, anthropologist, historian and former mayor from San Juan, whose pro-activity left its mark throughout the city, including the foundation of the art school from which Luz Badillo, the author of the statue, graduated.

We explored the near-marine confines of the Castillo San Felipe del Morro when, as happened afternoon after afternoon, from one moment to the next, the sky turned black and discharged a fulminating blast.

We ran up Calle el Morro, looking for shelter in the colonial grid of the Old Town. We took refuge inside the Museo de Las Américas building.

Beneath its arches, on the edge of protection, we come across one of San Juan's unexpected worlds of light and color. The museum is arranged around an open courtyard.

From the three floors filled with ogival, rectangular and round doors, windows and windows, emanates a mystical pink light that invades the patio.

It is reflected in the floor beaten by rain and covered with puddles.

And it is distorted into its own ephemeral Pop Art prodigy. Young people also out there, safe from the rain, feel the enchantment. They leave the arcades for the picture in the courtyard. They indulge in drenched photos and selfies.

In the good fashion of the tropics, as quickly as it appeared, the storm took its course. With night setting in, we wandered around Cidade Vieja.

We appreciated how, little by little, she adjusted to the “fuegote” about to take over her. The bars are smothering and passing the reggaeton themes essential to the “flow".

The first rehearsals still shy of “perreo”, preambles of new dawn in fire in the clubs of the Puerto Rican capital.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

The Highly Walled Puerto Rico of San Juan Bautista

San Juan is the second oldest colonial city in the Americas, after the Dominican neighbor of Santo Domingo. A pioneering emporium and stop over on the route that took gold and silver from the New World to Spain, it was attacked again and again. Its incredible fortifications still protect one of the most lively and prodigious capitals in the Caribbean.
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

The Longest Colonial Elder in the Americas

Santo Domingo is the longest-inhabited colony in the New World. Founded in 1498 by Bartholomew Colombo, the capital of the Dominican Republic preserves intact a true treasure of historical resilience.
Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Home Silver

Puerto Plata resulted from the abandonment of La Isabela, the second attempt at a Hispanic colony in the Americas. Almost half a millennium after Columbus's landing, it inaugurated the nation's inexorable tourist phenomenon. In a lightning passage through the province, we see how the sea, the mountains, the people and the Caribbean sun keep it shining.
Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

The Desired City

Many treasures passed through Cartagena before being handed over to the Spanish Crown - more so than the pirates who tried to plunder them. Today, the walls protect a majestic city always ready to "rumbear".
Miami, USA

A Masterpiece of Urban Rehabilitation

At the turn of the 25st century, the Wynwood neighbourhood remained filled with abandoned factories and warehouses and graffiti. Tony Goldman, a shrewd real estate investor, bought more than XNUMX properties and founded a mural park. Much more than honoring graffiti there, Goldman founded the Wynwood Arts District, the great bastion of creativity in Miami.
Samaná PeninsulaLos Haitises National Park Dominican Republic

From the Samaná Peninsula to the Dominican Haitises

In the northeast corner of the Dominican Republic, where Caribbean nature still triumphs, we face an Atlantic much more vigorous than expected in these parts. There we ride on a communal basis to the famous Limón waterfall, cross the bay of Samaná and penetrate the remote and exuberant “land of the mountains” that encloses it.
Oviedo Lagoon, Dominican Republic

The Dead Sea (nothing) of the Dominican Republic

The hypersalinity of the Laguna de Oviedo fluctuates depending on evaporation and water supplied by rain and the flow coming from the neighboring mountain range of Bahoruco. The natives of the region estimate that, as a rule, it has three times the level of sea salt. There, we discover prolific colonies of flamingos and iguanas, among many other species that make up one of the most exuberant ecosystems on the island of Hispaniola.
Barahona, Dominican Republic

The Bathing Dominican Republic of Barahona

Saturday after Saturday, the southwest corner of the Dominican Republic goes into decompression mode. Little by little, its seductive beaches and lagoons welcome a tide of euphoric people who indulge in a peculiar rumbear amphibian.
Lagoa Oviedo a Bahia de las Águilas, Dominican Republic

In Search of the Immaculate Dominican Beach

Against all odds, one of the most unspoiled Dominican coastlines is also one of the most remote. Discovering the province of Pedernales, we are dazzled by the semi-desert Jaragua National Park and the Caribbean purity of Bahia de las Águilas.
Lake Enriquillo, Dominican Republic

Enriquillo: the Great Lake of the Antilles

Between 300 and 400 km2, situated 44 meters below sea level, Enriquillo is the supreme lake of the Antilles. Regardless of its hypersalinity and the stifling, atrocious temperatures, it's still increasing. Scientists have a hard time explaining why.
Believers greet each other in the Bukhara region.
City
Bukhara, Uzbequistan

Among the Minarets of Old Turkestan

Situated on the ancient Silk Road, Bukhara has developed for at least two thousand years as an essential commercial, cultural and religious hub in Central Asia. It was Buddhist and then Muslim. It was part of the great Arab empire and that of Genghis Khan, the Turko-Mongol kingdoms and the Soviet Union, until it settled in the still young and peculiar Uzbekistan.
Skipper of one of the bangkas at Raymen Beach Resort during a break from sailing
Beach
Islands Guimaras  e  Ave Maria, Philippines

Towards Ave Maria Island, in a Philippines full of Grace

Discovering the Western Visayas archipelago, we set aside a day to travel from Iloilo along the northwest coast of Guimaras. The beach tour along one of the Philippines’ countless pristine coastlines ends on the stunning Ave Maria Island.
Hippopotamus displays tusks, among others
safari
PN Mana Pools, Zimbabwe

The Zambezi at the Top of Zimbabwe

After the rainy season, the dwindling of the great river on the border with Zambia leaves behind a series of lagoons that provide water for the fauna during the dry season. The Mana Pools National Park is the name given to a vast, lush river-lake region that is disputed by countless wild species.
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 5th - Ngawal a BragaNepal

Towards the Nepalese Braga

We spent another morning of glorious weather discovering Ngawal. There is a short journey towards Manang, the main town on the way to the zenith of the Annapurna circuit. We stayed for Braga (Braka). The hamlet would soon prove to be one of its most unforgettable places.
Architecture & Design
Cemeteries

the last address

From the grandiose tombs of Novodevichy, in Moscow, to the boxed Mayan bones of Pomuch, in the Mexican province of Campeche, each people flaunts its own way of life. Even in death.
Era Susi towed by dog, Oulanka, Finland
Aventura
PN Oulanka, Finland

A Slightly Lonesome Wolf

Jukka “Era-Susi” Nordman has created one of the largest packs of sled dogs in the world. He became one of Finland's most iconic characters but remains faithful to his nickname: Wilderness Wolf.
Moa on a beach in Rapa Nui/Easter Island
Ceremonies and Festivities
Easter Island, Chile

The Take-off and Fall of the Bird-Man Cult

Until the XNUMXth century, the natives of Easter Island they carved and worshiped great stone gods. All of a sudden, they started to drop their moai. The veneration of tanatu manu, a half-human, half-sacred leader, decreed after a dramatic competition for an egg.
Kronstadt Russia Autumn, owner of the Bouquet
Cities
Kronstadt, Russia

The Autumn of the Russian Island-City of All Crossroads

Founded by Peter the Great, it became the port and naval base protecting Saint Petersburg and northern Greater Russia. In March 1921, it rebelled against the Bolsheviks it had supported during the October Revolution. In this October we're going through, Kronstadt is once again covered by the same exuberant yellow of uncertainty.
Lunch time
Margilan, Uzbekistan

An Uzbekistan's Breadwinner

In one of the many bakeries in Margilan, worn out by the intense heat of the tandyr oven, the baker Maruf'Jon works half-baked like the distinctive traditional breads sold throughout Uzbekistan
Visitors to Ernest Hemingway's Home, Key West, Florida, United States
Culture
Key West, United States

Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

Effusive as ever, Ernest Hemingway called Key West "the best place I've ever been...". In the tropical depths of the contiguous US, he found evasion and crazy, drunken fun. And the inspiration to write with intensity to match.
Spectator, Melbourne Cricket Ground-Rules footbal, Melbourne, Australia
Sport
Melbourne, Australia

The Football the Australians Rule

Although played since 1841, Australian Football has only conquered part of the big island. Internationalization has never gone beyond paper, held back by competition from rugby and classical football.
Chiang Khong to Luang Prabang, Laos, Through the Mekong Below
Traveling
Chiang Khong - Luang Prabang, Laos

Slow Boat, Down the Mekong River

Laos' beauty and lower cost are good reasons to sail between Chiang Khong and Luang Prabang. But this long descent of the Mekong River can be as exhausting as it is picturesque.
Ethnic
Pentecost Island, Vanuatu

Naghol: Bungee Jumping without Modern Touches

At Pentecost, in their late teens, young people launch themselves from a tower with only lianas tied to their ankles. Bungee cords and harnesses are inappropriate fussiness from initiation to adulthood.
Sunset, Avenue of Baobabs, Madagascar
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio

days like so many others

History
Military

Defenders of Their Homelands

Even in times of peace, we detect military personnel everywhere. On duty, in cities, they fulfill routine missions that require rigor and patience.
Drums and Tattoos
Islands
Tahiti, French Polynesia

Tahiti Beyond the Cliché

Neighbors Bora Bora and Maupiti have superior scenery but Tahiti has long been known as paradise and there is more life on the largest and most populous island of French Polynesia, its ancient cultural heart.
Oulu Finland, Passage of Time
Winter White
Oulu, Finland

Oulu: an Ode to Winter

Located high in the northeast of the Gulf of Bothnia, Oulu is one of Finland's oldest cities and its northern capital. A mere 220km from the Arctic Circle, even in the coldest months it offers a prodigious outdoor life.
View from the top of Mount Vaea and the tomb, Vailima village, Robert Louis Stevenson, Upolu, Samoa
Literature
Upolu, Samoa

Stevenson's Treasure Island

At age 30, the Scottish writer began looking for a place to save him from his cursed body. In Upolu and the Samoans, he found a welcoming refuge to which he gave his heart and soul.
Balestrand townhouse, Norway
Nature
Balestrand, Norway

Balestrand: A Life Among the Fjords

Villages on the slopes of the gorges of Norway are common. Balestrand is at the entrance to three. Its settings stand out in such a way that they have attracted famous painters and continue to seduce intrigued travelers.
Girl plays with leaves on the shore of the Great Lake at Catherine Palace
Autumn
Saint Petersburg, Russia

Golden Days Before the Storm

Aside from the political and military events precipitated by Russia, from mid-September onwards, autumn takes over the country. In previous years, when visiting Saint Petersburg, we witnessed how the cultural and northern capital was covered in a resplendent yellow-orange. A dazzling light that hardly matches the political and military gloom that had spread in the meantime.
Kogi, PN Tayrona, Guardians of the World, Colombia
Natural Parks
PN Tayrona, Colombia

Who Protects the Guardians of the World?

The natives of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta believe that their mission is to save the Cosmos from the “Younger Brothers”, which are us. But the real question seems to be, "Who protects them?"
gaudy courtship
UNESCO World Heritage
Suzdal, Russia

Thousand Years of Old Fashioned Russia

It was a lavish capital when Moscow was just a rural hamlet. Along the way, it lost political relevance but accumulated the largest concentration of churches, monasteries and convents in the country of the tsars. Today, beneath its countless domes, Suzdal is as orthodox as it is monumental.
aggie gray, Samoa, South Pacific, Marlon Brando Fale
Characters
Apia, Western Samoa

The Host of the South Pacific

She sold burguês to GI's in World War II and opened a hotel that hosted Marlon Brando and Gary Cooper. Aggie Gray passed away in 2. Her legacy lives on in the South Pacific.
view mount Teurafaatiu, Maupiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia
Beaches
Maupiti, French Polynesia

A Society on the Margin

In the shadow of neighboring Bora Bora's near-global fame, Maupiti is remote, sparsely inhabited and even less developed. Its inhabitants feel abandoned but those who visit it are grateful for the abandonment.
Passage, Tanna, Vanuatu to the West, Meet the Natives
Religion
Tanna, Vanuatu

From where Vanuatu Conquered the Western World

The TV show “Meet the Native” took Tanna's tribal representatives to visit Britain and the USA Visiting their island, we realized why nothing excited them more than returning home.
Back in the sun. San Francisco Cable Cars, Life Ups and Downs
On Rails
San Francisco, USA

San Francisco Cable Cars: A Life of Highs and Lows

A macabre wagon accident inspired the San Francisco cable car saga. Today, these relics work as a charm operation in the city of fog, but they also have their risks.
In elevator kimono, Osaka, Japan
Society
Osaka, Japan

In the Company of Mayu

Japanese nightlife is a multi-faceted, multi-billion business. In Osaka, an enigmatic couchsurfing hostess welcomes us, somewhere between the geisha and the luxury escort.
Daily life
Arduous Professions

the bread the devil kneaded

Work is essential to most lives. But, certain jobs impose a degree of effort, monotony or danger that only a few chosen ones can measure up to.
Bather rescue in Boucan Canot, Reunion Island
Wildlife
Reunion Island

The Bathing Melodrama of Reunion

Not all tropical coastlines are pleasurable and refreshing retreats. Beaten by violent surf, undermined by treacherous currents and, worse, the scene of the most frequent shark attacks on the face of the Earth, that of the Reunion Island he fails to grant his bathers the peace and delight they crave from him.
The Sounds, Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Fiordland, New Zealand

The Fjords of the Antipodes

A geological quirk made the Fiordland region the rawest and most imposing in New Zealand. Year after year, many thousands of visitors worship the sub-domain slashed between Te Anau and Milford Sound.