On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Steve from Mendocino
The visual delights of old San Juan are undeniable. The area dates back to Ponce de Leon’s original settlement in the 16th century. There are restaurants, shops, festive architecture, and plants and flowers everywhere. These images pretty much capture what I liked best about Puerto Rico.
John Revolta
Very cool.
Laura Too
Lovely, thanks!
E.
Always wanted to go there. Thanks!
cope
These are wonderful photos and I find that the lack of captions somehow enhances their merit, maybe analogous to photographs hanging in a gallery. Sometimes, maybe we don’t need to know what the beautiful old building is made of. Thank you.
JanieM
Geometry and color — all these images make me want to just gaze at them for a while, but the second-to-last shot is off the charts. Geometry, wood, and blue — what could be better!
Also, maybe it’s partly what cope mentioned, the lack of captions, but I think it’s also the lack of people, and the fact that these are reproductions of pictures shot with film (yes?) — but the whole set has the feel of a past moment frozen and preserved…. Of course, all pictures are that, in a literal way, but a lot of images make me feel as if I’m there, in the living breathing present. Whereas these — no. You can’t get there from here.
JanieM
@JanieM:
And this is its own kind of magic, in case that wasn’t clear.
Steve from Mendocino
@JanieM: Film, yes, but they’ve all been manipulated to give that effect. Had I been able to take these with a modern digital rig, I would have been less inclined to manipulate them in an “artistic” way, but the high contrast with Kodachrome and carelessness with my technique meant I needed to hide some sins.
Freemark
Spent 3 months in PR working and a week in Old San Juan. Literally everywhere you go in Old Town pretty much looks like these pics. One thing that I noticed was the cobblestone cats that hung out there. Even found a book about them in a shop. Cobblestone Cats – Puerto Rico: The Cats of Old San Juan .
I absolutely loved the week I spent there. Actually more than a week because I rented an apt above a shop on the governor’s street. On what was supposed to be my last day there was a taxi drivers strike and the street was closed by taxis protesting at the governor’s mansion. So had to stay another day. Darn. Southwest actually allowed me to reschedule at no charge.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
Lovely place!
When I visited a few years ago, I stopped outside a particularly beautiful old house. While I stood there admiring the fenced-in courtyard, out from a catdoor ventured a glossy plump cat that was obviously someone’s pet. The place looked deserted and the cat meowed at me as if it expected to be fed, so I’m guessing the owners were away and a catfeeder stopped by.
Of course, I was a tourist and not the catfeeder, but my furry host didn’t know this, so after meowing and whining didn’t work, the cat evidently thought, I’ll try the belly roll, that always works, and the next thing I know this pet cat was showing off his furry white belly… very cute. I hope the catfeeder came by soon, but I didn’t stay to check.