Puerto Rico - Day 6

Day six I went to Ponce which is on the south side of Puerto Rico. The first stop was the history museum. Unfortunately, the exhibits were in Spanish and our guide was a low talker (at least he was when he was speaking in English) so I didn't learn very much about the history of Ponce. There was some interesting things to look at and some pretty stained glass that was original to the house the museum is in.

Then we went to the Ponce Cathedral. Like all cathedrals that I have been in, it is very beautiful. The statues on the roof are there because they would not fit inside.

From the cathedral we went to Parque de Bombas. A museum dedicated to firefighters. There are also a street of houses that were given to firefighters. I didn't get a picture of them, but you can see a picture of one of them here.

We then took a trolley tour of the city. The tour went by a ceiba tree (the national tree of Puerto Rico) that is 700 years old. It also went to the Ponce Sports Hall of Fame, Ponce Music Museum and statues of local heroes. Every time a local hero was talked about the people on the trolley would burst into applause. Honestly, I could have done without the trolley tour.

After the trolley ride we went to Serrallés Castle. This is the house, not a castle, of a family the owns a rum distillery. It was a very pretty house and gardens with a wonderful view.

After the house, we went to dinner at a restaurant that I never knew the name of. It wasn't that great. Then we went back to San Juan.

Ponce is a dryer city then San Juan. As a matter of fact the south side of the whole island is dryer than the north side of the island. The mountain in the middle of the island keep the rain from coming to the south side. When we were going down, the north side of the mountain was green and lush. We went over a mountain, everything change to brown and dry. It was very different.