Saint Augustine, Calle Florida, USA

Back to the Beginnings of Hispanic Florida


The Bridge of Lions
Bridge view
Casa Mónica, the House of Shadows
The Front of the Castle
Under the Ice Wind
Make-believe Commander
The Castle of San Marco
By Drawbridge
The Distillery
Palm Tree Bastion
Shadows to Defense
The cathedral
The Portico
Ponce Indica
The Flagler College
On the Windy High
The Flagler II College
The Confederate Manif
Tropical Time Tower
The Tropical Weather
The dissemination of tourist attractions of questionable taste becomes superficial if we take into account the historical depth in question. This is the longest inhabited city in the contiguous US. Ever since Spanish explorers founded it in 1565, St. Augustine resists almost anything.

North Florida welcomes us with a weather that is at odds with the one that attracts so many North American retirees to have homes there and spend their winters there.

A powerful cold front invades the south subtropical United States. It chills it with a frigid wind that shakes the sea offshore, the Salt Run channel and the sea and river branches shared between the Atlantic and the Matanzas River.

It catches us by surprise and without matching clothes. We react with plans to stay hyperactive. From walking as much as possible, to discovering the city and its surroundings.

We quickly realized its enigmatic character, a mix between a grand historical legacy, an enchanting universe and a perennial Christmas fantasy.

We chose to enter St. Augustine, on foot, crossing its majestic drawbridge of the Lions.

As we do so, the wind lashes across the Matanzas' teal waters.

Generates surface turbulence that resembles rapids.

Above, flocks of brown pelicans are tormented by the force of the gusts that make the precise dives that keep them fed unfeasible.

We reached the middle of the bridge. A red traffic light, reinforced by an audible warning, prevents us from continuing.

The middle of the bridge rises to accommodate two fishing boats with tall masts. A gadelhudo cyclist is trapped in the same wait.

He dismounts from the bicycle and admires the passage of the trawlers.

The boats add up to the sides of the Tolomato River and the bar because that entire inland river system leaks into the ocean. The bridge goes down again.

Its top point gives us an approaching glimpse of old Saint Augustine.

On the tallest building in the city, former Treasury building and former Wells Fargo bank, now Treasury on the Plaza – cataloged by the Americans as a Mediterranean Revival style – and which serves as a screen for most of the houses.

Several towers flank it, some with conical roofs.

This unusual horizon takes the city back to somewhere between reality and fable.

The more we go through it, the more strange it is.

We arrive at the western end, where the bridge adjusts to the sea level to which St. Augustine.

Ponce de León, Pedro Menéndez de Aviléz and the Spanish Conquistadors of Florida

Nearby, a whole circle tropicalized by leafy palm trees and a projected statue of him pay homage to Juan Ponce de León, the Spanish conqueror.

Even if his pioneering spirit remains controversial, de León is considered the leader of the first expedition to the Florida region.

We approach the base of the almost skyscraper Treasury on the Plaza and a flag stars n' stripes that the wind keeps it rigid.

The imposing barrier of the building encourages us to head north, towards the historic district of the city.

St. Augustine was founded in 1565 by Pedro Menéndez de Aviléz. later appointed by King Philip II, Captain of the Fleet of the Indies.

By that time, the North American Atlantic coast was disputed between Spaniards, French and, soon, British and Dutch.

The Florida territory, in particular, was the subject of frequent battles with the French, apart from usual rivals, Huguenots and Lutherans whom the Spaniards considered despicable heretics.

French attacks from the neighboring Fort Caroline (built on the banks of the St. Johns River) and British privateers became a risk that Menéndez de Aviléz's successors were determined to avoid.

The Greed of Colonial Rivals and the Construction of Fort San Marcos

Accordingly, 107 years after its founding, Francisco de La Guerra, Menéndez de Aviléz's successor, decreed the reinforcement of its defense and the construction of the fortress we were about to encounter.

A little more than a meter above the flow of the Matanzas, a battery of cannons of increasing sizes precedes a hedge of palm trees, under one of the turrets of the castle of São Marcos.

The military engineer Ignacio Daza made it quadrangular, each edge with its prominent bastion, surrounded by a moat that only a drawbridge allows us to cross.

We went up to the fort's adarve.

From its top, we detect the curious anachronism of one of the US Rangers responsible for the National Monument, talking to an extra military commander from the colonial era.

When the time for the ensuing performance arrived, the creak leaves the table they shared. Add yourself to the castle corridors.

Sheltered from the cold with historical accuracy, the commander opens an explanatory speech that takes us and a few other spectators back to the time of the colonization of the Americas.

When the actor ends the performance, we take a peek at the last corners of the castle.

After that we moved to the newer and more contemporary area of ​​St. Augustine.

In the centuries following the completion of the Castle of São Marcos, the enemies found themselves in trouble to take it.

Often, frustrated, they favored the destruction of the city around them.

The British, in particular, who held most of what is now the United States to the north, including Georgia, were keen to leave it ablaze.

Saint Augustine and its Unusual Colonial Shuttle

In such a way that, in 1763, after two centuries as the capital of Spanish Florida, the Spaniards ended up giving in and passing it on to British rule.

After another twenty years, as a result of a military agreement, they returned it to its origins.

It was the year 1819, when the Spaniards ceded Florida to the newly emancipated USA. Saint Augustine was the capital of the state of Florida for just three years.

In 1824, the capital moved to Tallahassee.

The city lost its political prominence. She conquered several other attributes that keep her in stardom.

On the Wrong Side of the American Civil War

In 1840, St. Augustine had about 56.000 inhabitants, half of whom were slaves of African origin. On the scene of the American Civil War, Florida rejected the Union.

Aligned with slavery, it joined the Confederacy. At the end of the conflict, the Union took over the city.

Many of its landlords and slaves fled. St. Augustine saw already obvious social and economic predicaments aggravated.

Until he entered the providential Flagler Age.

Enter Saint Augustine and Henry Flagler Scene

We began to find out who Henry Flagler was at the door of the homonymous and magnanimous college. There we come across a small demonstration around the statue that honors him.

A group of men and women from the neo-Confederate movement, evokes HK Edgerton, an African-American, of the main defenders that the Confederates were not and are not racist and that, according to his words “there was a feeling of family that united the whites and blacks under slavery...

“A great love between the African who served in the lands of the South and his Master”.

Edgerton further argues that "slavery provided an institution of learning for blacks".

The question in question leaves us astonished.

As if that weren't enough, one of the protesters is African-American. He wears a Confederate uniform. He holds a Confederate flag.

The Rejuvenation of Saint Augustine

From the top of his pedestal, with his hand in his trouser pocket, a bronze Flagler looks down on everything.

Flagler – along with Rockefeler – was one of the co-founders of Standard Oil Company, an undertaking that made him a multimillionaire.

Now, in the winter of 1883, the tycoon visited St. Augustine, was enchanted by the city.

He planned to equip it with everything it needed to function as a winter shelter for wealthy Americans, eager to escape the cold.

Gradually, he connected it to the north and, later, to Palm Beach and Miami, via rail lines bundled into the Florida East Coast Railway.

Soon, he had two of his biggest hotels built in the city, the Ponce de León and the Alcazar, in Hispanic Revival and Moorish styles.

Your investment paid off in full. Americans on their way to south florida beaches started making a stopover in St. Augustine. Many have become accustomed to vacationing in the city.

Over time, the elegant Hotel Ponce de León lost its place in the increasingly competitive and modernized hotel market.

In 1968, the authorities transformed it into the college that we explore on a guided tour.

Two of its privileged young students lead a group of onlookers through the establishment's mystical, sometimes surreal nooks and crannies, hall after hall, from the library to the dining room, in an unusual domain of hocus pocus Worthy of Harry Potter and company.

Around it, other buildings erected by Flagler, or purchased and converted by him – the Mónica, the Lightner Museum and, separately, the Cathedral Basilica.

All illuminated by a myriad of tiny lights, they reinforce St. Augustine.

Its grid of centuries-old streets is full of flags, banners and signs that, more than confirming its antiquity, impose the souvenirs, trinkets and snacks that renew the vigorous local economy.

They inhabit the supposedly oldest house in the village, large dolls in bonnets.

A pirate museum brings together the history of Caribbean piracy.

Rum, craft beer and chocolate tastings are promoted.

The alligator park appears side by side with the Lighthouse and the Maritime Museum. The old St. Augustine dazzles anyone who discovers her.

As long as you don't arrive in search of immaculate genuineness.

Miami, Florida, USA

The Gateway to Latin America

Not only is the privileged location, between a lush ocean and the green of the Everglades, with the vast Caribbean just to the south. It is tropical, climate and cultural comfort and exemplary urban modernity. Increasingly in Spanish, in a Latin American context.
Everglades National Park, Florida, USA

Florida's Great Weedy River

Anyone who flies over the south of the 27th state is amazed by the green, smooth and soggy vastness that contrasts with the surrounding oceanic tones. This unique U.S. marsh-prairie ecosystem is home to a prolific fauna dominated by 200 of Florida's 1.25 million alligators.
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Little Havana of the Nonconformists

Over the decades and until today, thousands of Cubans have crossed the Florida Straits in search of the land of freedom and opportunity. With the US a mere 145 km away, many have gone no further. His Little Havana in Miami is today the most emblematic neighborhood of the Cuban diaspora.
Miami beach, USA

The Beach of All Vanities

Few coasts concentrate, at the same time, so much heat and displays of fame, wealth and glory. Located in the extreme southeast of the USA, Miami Beach is accessible via six bridges that connect it to the rest of Florida. It is meager for the number of souls who desire it.
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.
Kennedy Space Center, Calle Florida, United States

The Launch Pad of the American Space Program

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Florida Keys, USA

The Caribbean Stepping Stone of the USA

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Hemingway's Caribbean Playground

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San Juan, Puerto Rico (Part 2)

To the Rhythm of Reggaeton

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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

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tombstone, USA

Tombstone: the City Too Hard to Die

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Grand Canyon, USA

Journey through the Abysmal North America

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Mount Denali, Alaska

The Sacred Ceiling of North America

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Juneau, Alaska

The Little Capital of Greater Alaska

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Monument Valley, USA

Indians or Cowboys?

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Talkeetna, Alaska

Talkeetna's Alaska-Style Life

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Las Vegas, USA

Where sin is always forgiven

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Navajo nation, USA

The Navajo Nation Lands

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Death Valley, USA

The Hottest Place Resurrection

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Residents walk along the trail that runs through plantations above the UP4
City
Gurué, Mozambique, Part 1

Through the Mozambican Lands of Tea

The Portuguese founded Gurué in the 1930th century and, from XNUMX onwards, flooded it with camellia sinensis the foothills of the Namuli Mountains. Later, they renamed it Vila Junqueiro, in honor of its main promoter. With the independence of Mozambique and the civil war, the town regressed. It continues to stand out for the lush green imposing mountains and teak landscapes.
Host Wezi points out something in the distance
Beach
Cobue; Nkwichi Lodge, Mozambique

The Hidden Mozambique of the Creaking Sands

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A campfire lights up and warms the night, next to Reilly's Rock Hilltop Lodge,
safari
Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary, eSwatini

The Fire That Revived eSwatini's Wildlife

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Faithful light candles, Milarepa Grotto temple, Annapurna Circuit, Nepal
Annapurna (circuit)
Annapurna Circuit: 9th Manang to Milarepa Cave, Nepal

A Walk between Acclimatization and Pilgrimage

In full Annapurna Circuit, we finally arrived in Manang (3519m). we still need acclimatize to the higher stretches that followed, we inaugurated an equally spiritual journey to a Nepalese cave of Milarepa (4000m), the refuge of a siddha (sage) and Buddhist saint.
Engravings, Karnak Temple, Luxor, Egypt
Architecture & Design
luxor, Egypt

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The small lighthouse at Kallur, highlighted in the capricious northern relief of the island of Kalsoy.
Aventura
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A Lighthouse at the End of the Faroese World

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Indigenous Crowned
Ceremonies and Festivities
Pueblos del Sur, Venezuela

Behind the Venezuela Andes. Fiesta Time.

In 1619, the authorities of Mérida dictated the settlement of the surrounding territory. The order resulted in 19 remote villages that we found dedicated to commemorations with caretos and local pauliteiros.
Key West Wall, Florida Keys, United States
Cities
Key West, USA

The Tropical Wild West of the USA

We've come to the end of the Overseas Highway and the ultimate stronghold of propagandism Florida Keys. The continental United States here they surrender to a dazzling turquoise emerald marine vastness. And to a southern reverie fueled by a kind of Caribbean spell.
Obese resident of Tupola Tapaau, a small island in Western Samoa.
Lunch time
Tonga, Western Samoa, Polynesia

XXL Pacific

For centuries, the natives of the Polynesian islands subsisted on land and sea. Until the intrusion of colonial powers and the subsequent introduction of fatty pieces of meat, fast food and sugary drinks have spawned a plague of diabetes and obesity. Today, while much of Tonga's national GDP, Western Samoa and neighbors is wasted on these “western poisons”, fishermen barely manage to sell their fish.
Culture
Jok​ülsárlón Lagoon, Iceland

The Chant and the Ice

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Bungee jumping, Queenstown, New Zealand
Sport
Queenstown, New Zealand

Queenstown, the Queen of Extreme Sports

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travel western australia, surfspotting
Traveling
Perth to Albany, Australia

Across the Far West of Australia

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Tatooine on Earth
Ethnic
Matmata Tataouine:  Tunisia

Star Wars Earth Base

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sunlight photography, sun, lights
Got2Globe Photo Portfolio
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One Sun, So Many Lights

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Madu River: owner of a Fish SPA, with feet inside the doctor fish pond
History
Madu River and Lagoon, Sri Lanka

Along the Course of the Sinhala Buddhism

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Geothermal, Iceland Heat, Ice Land, Geothermal, Blue Lagoon
Islands
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The Geothermal Coziness of the Ice Island

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St. Trinity Church, Kazbegi, Georgia, Caucasus
Winter White
Kazbegi, Georgia

God in the Caucasus Heights

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Kukenam reward
Literature
Mount Roraima, Venezuela

Time Travel to the Lost World of Mount Roraima

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Sunset at Flat Lake, Louisiana
Nature
Atchafalaya Basin, Louisiana, USA  

The Great Swamp of the Deep South

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Sheki, Autumn in the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Autumn Homes
Autumn
Sheki, Azerbaijan

autumn in the caucasus

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Chã das Caldeiras to Mosteiros, Fogo Island, Cape Verde
Natural Parks
Chã das Caldeiras a Mosteiros, Fogo Island, Cape Verde

Chã das Caldeiras to Mosteiros: descent through the Ends of Fogo

With the Cape Verde summit conquered, we sleep and recover in Chã das Caldeiras, in communion with some of the lives at the mercy of the volcano. The next morning, we started the return to the capital São Filipe, 11 km down the road to Mosteiros.
Guardian, Stalin Museum, Gori, Georgia
UNESCO World Heritage
Upplistsikhe e Gori, Georgia

From the Cradle of Georgia to Stalin's Childhood

In the discovery of the Caucasus, we explore Uplistsikhe, a troglodyte city that preceded Georgia. And just 10km away, in Gori, we find the place of the troubled childhood of Joseb Jughashvili, who would become the most famous and tyrant of Soviet leaders.
now from above ladder, sorcerer of new zealand, Christchurch, new zealand
Characters
Christchurch, New Zealand

New Zealand's Cursed Wizard

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Mahé Ilhas das Seychelles, friends of the beach
Beaches
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The Big Island of the Small Seychelles

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orthodox procession
Religion
Suzdal, Russia

Centuries of Devotion to a Devoted Monk

Euthymius was a fourteenth-century Russian ascetic who gave himself body and soul to God. His faith inspired Suzdal's religiosity. The city's believers worship him as the saint he has become.
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

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Society
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.
Visitors at Talisay Ruins, Negros Island, Philippines
Daily life
Talisay City, Philippines

Monument to a Luso-Philippine Love

At the end of the 11th century, Mariano Lacson, a Filipino farmer, and Maria Braga, a Portuguese woman from Macau, fell in love and got married. During the pregnancy of what would be her 2th child, Maria succumbed to a fall. Destroyed, Mariano built a mansion in his honor. In the midst of World War II, the mansion was set on fire, but the elegant ruins that endured perpetuate their tragic relationship.
Crocodiles, Queensland Tropical Australia Wild
Wildlife
Cairns to Cape Tribulation, Australia

Tropical Queensland: An Australia Too Wild

Cyclones and floods are just the meteorological expression of Queensland's tropical harshness. When it's not the weather, it's the deadly fauna of the region that keeps its inhabitants on their toes.
Passengers, scenic flights-Southern Alps, New Zealand
Scenic Flights
Aoraki / Mount Cook, New Zealand

The Aeronautical Conquest of the Southern Alps

In 1955, pilot Harry Wigley created a system for taking off and landing on asphalt or snow. Since then, his company has unveiled, from the air, some of the greatest scenery in Oceania.