A Day as a Tourist in Old San Juan:

Sunday, March 16, 2014

A Day as a Tourist at Old San Juan: 

El Morro, San Juan: 

     The Old San Juan is the oldest city in Puerto Rico and the second oldest in New World. It has also been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1983. Every time I visit the Old San Juan I discover something fascinating and magnificent of it.

       For many tourist, who come for the first time, visiting Puerto Rico on cruise ships cannot leave without visiting and knowing the historical places of Old San Juan. One of the most impressive part in this place is El Morro Fort. El Morro Fort, also known as Fort San Felipe del Morro, is one of the more popular tourist destinations in Puerto Rico, receiving more than 2 million visitors annually. 

      Today, I started the morning off early with a walk through the streets of Old San Juan. There I spend my time visiting many historical places, and taking pictures and videos of it. One of my favorite attractions was to visit the Spanish forts in the earlier part of the day. I decided to start my tour at the Castillo San Felipe del Morro, a defensive fort built in 1539, because it is one of the two historic fortresses in San Juan that is surrounded by large grass fields and where tourists and locals enjoy the large open spaces with picnics, food carts, flying kites, people watching, or even an impromptu ballgame. The whole fortification and the surrounding grounds are encircle by the historical protective city walls well known as La Muralla. However, the walls on the southern and western side is the Paseo del Morro, which one can see a walking trail, lined with street lamps, with an extraordinary views of San Juan Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. 

     Then I went to explore on my own the other fortress, which is known as the Castillo San Cristóbal that is located at the opposite end of town. Built in 1664, this fort at one point it covered 27 acres of land and was constructed to protect San Juan from land attack. San Cristobal Fort,like El Morro, has several levels and offers a grand views of the San Juan coast and the city of Old San Juan. 

       San Juan demands a walking tour in order to know the city. As I saw different types of houses and shops adorn the blue glazed cobbled streets. I really had fun touring Old San Juan.

     

    

http://www.discoveringpuertorico.com/2010/04/san-cristobal-fort-old-san-juan/

analysis: A Room with a View

Monday, March 10, 2014

          Travel, tourist, and identity are three of the most important themes presented in the movie A Room with a View. The movie allow me to perceive and visualize clearly how is presented in each characters the idea of being tourist and a traveler. The story begins in Florence, Italy, where a young English middle-class woman, Lucy Honeychurch is vacationing with her cousin Charlotte Barlett, at an Italian pension for British guests. While mourning the poor views outside their windows, Lucy and Charlotte are interrupted by a visitor, an old man by the name of Emerson. This man suggests them a room swap. He and his son George are both in chambers that offer splendid views of Florence. Honeychurch and Barlett are presented with the chance to become tourists and view things differently in Florence, Italy. They are surrounded with a new and diverse culture and new form of life that is unlike than the one they are used to back at there homeland.The open and beauty of the Italian environment allow Lucy to commence a new life and discover her love. 

       In the movie it is shown that Lucy has a life with more liberty. This is shown throughout Lucy’s stay in Florence, Italy. She is unfamiliar with the peculiar surrounding and all of the culture that engulfs her. In one part of the movie, Italy is describe as: "Passionate, vibrant, violent place". This emphasizes that this new place is influential for the tourist, especially in Lucy, because of all the new conception surrounding her. It causes her conscious of the chance of this distinct kind of life that she can determine what she wants to execute. Another example of Italy showing Lucy a more open life is when she arrived at the hotel, she was promised a room with a view, but instead they gave to her and her cousin a room that did not have a view, and they became angry demonstrating her anxiousness for a new ambiance. For instance Charlotte says: "This is not at all what we were led to expect" and then Lucy says: "The rooms the Signora promised us in her letter would have looked over the Arno". This illustrates that this women become anguish by the fact that they did not get a room with a view and this consequently sustain the concept that they were excited to get release of her old home and experience a new life and a country. On the other hand, this movie could be clearly compare to Jamaica Kincaid's story. The point of view that Italian had toward the tourist is comparable to the perspective that Kincaid showed toward the tourists visiting Antigua. 

       The three quotes that are told by the characters in the movie A Room with a View are: 1.) "This is not at all what we were led to expect"- Charlotte Bartlett. 2.) "A young girl, transfigured by Italy! And why shouldn't she be transfigured? It happened to the Goths!" - Eleanor Lavish. 3.) " I mean, Italians are so kind, so lovable, and yet at the same time so violent".