Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, Is The Place To Be Galleries And Cafes Are Popping Up Left And Right As The Folks Flock To The Latest Trendy Locale

What the Spanish colonists of centuries ago would make of it is anybody’s guess. Probably it would rattle the foundations of El Morro, a fort whose walls rise 140 feet above the sea.

But suddenly, incontrovertibly, Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, is hip, happening.

Trendy.

“Yuppies are moving in,” says my friend Elaine Vasquez. Rents are climbing, she says, and longtime residents who can’t afford to stay are moving out.

No wonder Puerto Rican trendies live, work and play here. San Juan’s atmospheric old quarter enchants.

Walk the narrow, cobbled streets past balconied houses, shady parks and plazas, romantic street lamps, centuries-old fortifications hard by the sea.

Then know that every hall, wall and colorful street corner in this sevensquare-block National Historic District is protected. Treasured history and architecture abound in Old San Juan.

More galleries and boutiques are popping up. Restaurants and bars, too. Gucci, Polo and other designer shops along Calle del Cristo are hung with balconies, lit by lanterns - and plastered with credit card symbols.

Shopping Cristo, Fortaleza and San Francisco streets is popular with cruise passengers. Old San Juan is a major departure point for Caribbean cruises.

Most shoppers on Cristo don’t realize they’re steps from the San Juan Cathedral where Juan Ponce de Leon is buried. Or a stone’s throw from a hotel that started as a convent for Carmelite nuns.

Old San Juan is a walk-through history book. Approach the city as history does, along Paseo de la Princesa, a handsomely restored promenade with its kiosks, street lamps and park benches. The Paseo edges along outside the thick city walls and faces San Juan Bay.

Now enter Old San Juan at San Juan Gate, one of six heavy wooden doors in the wall which for centuries swung shut at sundown to keep invaders out.

Now you are following the footsteps of the Spaniards as they entered the city going to the cathedral.

Once inside the old walls, the best advice is to get lost. Have no plan. Walk aimlessly. Go wherever each colorful house, each narrow lane leads you.

There are the forts, El Morro and San Cristobal, with their thick ramparts (from the top of which are the best panoramas of Old San Juan).

There are the churches and the cathedral. Also the more interesting San Jose Church (1523) whose walls fascinatingly reflect the different eras of its construction (check out the catacombs of buried priests and de Leon’s coat of arms hanging above the altar).

There are the plazas. San Juan’s City Hall (1879) fronts on pretty Plaza de Armas with its lamp posts, statues, a fountain and benches for resting your feet.

The end of Cristo is closed to traffic. So you can take a table right on the street, in the sun. Snack on ice cream, then go examine a book museum, a small chapel and, beside the capilla (chapel), a park full of so many pigeons it is called Parque de las Palomas - Pigeon Park.

Before visions of that fountain of youth stirred in his head, Ponce de Leon was the first governor here. For a respite from the din of the city, stroll the gardens of Casa Blanca, the villa that five generations of de Leon’s family called home. Casa Blanca is a worthy museum of 16th- and 17th-Century family life.

Nearby in a restored cultural center is the Museum of the Americas, showing pottery, basketry, clothing, instruments, toys, masks and more from Argentina to Alaska.

Lastly, a totem commemorating 500 years of the discovery of the Americas anchors Plaza del Quinto Centenario, dropping to the old wall.

Maybe you’ll like this fountain plaza. Probably you’ll hate it, convinced that the totem makes a great sundial and that the fountain isn’t much for looks but is great to run through on a hot day.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: If you go Getting there: Northwest has nonstop flights to San Juan. U.S. citizens do not need a passport to enter Puerto Rico. Getting around: Wear good walking shoes for the smooth, sometimes slippery cobbles of Old San Juan. The foot-weary can always catch the free trams that flit about Old San Juan (look for the yellow signs marked Parada). For a fun diversion you can take a ferryboat across San Juan Bay and transfer to the Bacardi Rum Plant for free tours and tastings (30, noon4, Monday-Saturday.) Taxis: Go for taxis with meters THAT ARE TURNED ON. I had to hassle with cabbies who insisted on quoting flat rates between Old San Juan and the beach and resort area. Local calls: Still 10 cents. Language: Spanish and English are the official languages. Try to master a few Spanish words and phrases. Shopping: Prices are fixed, with the exception of jewelry stores (jewelers don’t like St. Thomas getting all the action). On Calle de la Fortalezo, where you can hit everything from T-shirt shops to gallery art at Botello, make a rewarding visit to Puerto Rican Arts and Crafts, loaded with handmade Puerto Rican treasures at reasonable prices. Museums: Most are free, open 9-5 daily. Day trips: Within easy reach of the capital are rewarding discoveries. Just 35 miles east lies El Yunque, a tropical rain forest of waterfalls, wild orchids, giant ferns and sierra palms. West of San Juan near Arecibo is the Rio Camuy Cave Park, carved eons ago by an underground river and filled with canyons, caverns and sinkholes sometimes several hundred feet deep. There are other options: the beautiful colonial city of Ponce, the beaches of unspoiled Culebra Island, palm-shaded Luquillo Beach, golf luxury at Dorado and Cerromar resorts, sun and fun at Palmas del Mar. Puerto Rico maintains a network of charming, government-run inns called paradores blending history and all the modern amenities. Rates range from $38-$96 a night, double occupancy. Many are within easy driving distance of Puerto Rico on a well-maintained highway system. For more: Puerto Rico Tourism Co. (800) 223-6530.