Isla Verde travel guide and vacation resources
This is the place to base yourself if you want ultra-cheap digs and don't mind strip malls, or if you opt for luxury accommodations of the all-inclusive sort that give you no need to leave the premises. Like all the waterfronts in San Juan, the beach is good for sunbathing and swimming, though its location - two blocks from the freeway (Rte 26) and its service roads - leaves something to be desired. Top Reasons to Go to Isla Verde - 1. Getting lost among the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 2. Climbing the battlements of Fuerte San Felipe del Morro, the 16th-century fort that dominates the waterfront. 3. Window shopping along Condado's Avenida Ashford, where you'll find most of the city's designer boutiques. 4. Catching a few rays at Balneario de Carolina, the award-winning beach at the eastern tip of Isla Verde. 5. Dining at one of the other stellar restaurants along the southern end of Calle La Fortaleza, a strip so trendy that locals call it "SoFo." 6. Salsa - Although it's the music most identified with Puerto Rico, salsa did not originate on the island. It was born in New York City, where there was a sizeable Puerto Rican community after World War II. (Puerto Rican-born Tito Puente, who helped popularize salsa, studied percussion at New York's Julliard School of Music.) Salsa blends the swing music that was popular at the time with the Afro-Caribbean rhythms of rumba, mambo, and merengue. The ensemble needed to perform salsa includes a huge array of percussion instruments, including maracas, bongos, and guiros, the gourds that the island's indigenous Taino people once used to mark the beat. Today, more than 50 years after it was first created, salsa remains immensely popular in Puerto Rico and is one of the iconic musical styles of the Caribbean. 7. As you enjoy your pina colada -- a cocktail served in nearly every bar on the island -- lift your glass to Christopher Columbus. Although the explorer didn't invent the fruity cocktail, he did bring sugarcane to the Caribbean on his second voyage in 1493. Although sugarcane is native to Southeast Asia, it was cultivated in Spain at the time, and Columbus thought it would do well in the tropical "New World." Juan Ponce de Leon, the island's first governor, planted vast fields of the stuff. The first sugar mill was opened in 1524, leading to the distillation of what was then called brebaje. Although rum was first exported in 1897, it took a bit longer for it become the massive industry it is today. The Bacardi family, fleeing Cuba, set up shop near San Juan in 1959. Their company's product, lighter-bodied than those produced by most other distilleries, gained favor around the world. Today Puerto Rico produces more than 35 million gallons of rum a year. You might say it's the national drink.
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Isla Verde Vacations site
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