Puerto Rico Part 2 | 10 Year Anniversary | Travel Photography | Film Photographer

Y’all ready for part two? This is a much longer post cause I have a lot more photos to share. I’m starting the post off with a delicious cup of joe. We kind of stumbled upon this amazing cafe but there’s a little back story to it. Towards the end of our travel flight, a man named Sebastian, having to switch seats last minute, ended up being our new flight companion. We made small talk and took some recommendations of best cafes in Old San Juan. Sebastian couldn’t remember the name of the coffeeshop that was ‘the best in town’ and when we left the airport all I could do was hope we’d stumble upon it somehow. And what’ll ya know— we did. 

Caficultura sits atop the central steps located in Old San Juan. They really do have the best coffee, just like Sebastian said. I had the Caficoco which is the local’s favorite. Their breakfast is the real deal too. Everything was good! Vu and I ended up having breakfast there twice! And on the next day we ran into Sebastian. Sebastian is actually from Atlanta and was traveling for business. I’m not sure if I’ll run into Sebastian back in Atlanta but if I do, I’ll thank him AGAIN for recommending Caficultura. 

After our bellies were full and our satisfaction of morning fuel was met, we walked over to Castillo San Cristóbal. I got a little carried away seeing the iguana (very carried away). And hey look at Vu, a photo op taken from Pinterest! Everyone gets this shot right? I had to!

From Fort San Cristóbal I grabbed a somewhat full shot of colorful Old San Juan. Most people take this photo from the other fort (El Morro) and since I wasn’t sure if we were going to visit El Morro, I clicked away. This is my favorite shot of the entire trip and it was on Agfa Vista 200 (my favorite travel film, next to Ektar).

Our next excursion was Casa Blanca Museum. You know me, lover of old homes and walls that can talk. Casa Blanca was the home of Juan Ponce de Leon and is now a public museum. The museum doesn’t offer a guided tour but you can walk around by yourself and still get a good bit of information on it’s history. Touring the home also cooled us down and gave us some of the most spectacular views of San Juan. After cooling off we walked the beautiful gardens and there I took in the beautiful scenery of the blue waters. 

We made our wall along the city wall down to Paseo del Morro. And like a romantic movie scene, rain came down on us and we took shelter under a tree. I looked over at Vu and said, “This is the part where you kiss me” and instead I leaned over and a gave him a quick endearing kiss. We sat under the tree for a good minute and a white street cat joined us. He sat right next to us, mimicked our stare into the grey clouds and I wondered if he was wishing the rain would go away too. We didn’t have to wait too long cause as soon as I started talking to the cat, the rain let up and he went about his way, as did we.

We ended our day activity at San Juan Bautista Cathedral. But since the city isn’t that big, we passed by again the next day lol. I’m pretty sure we walked the same streets multiple times. This was a definite must see though. It’s a beautiful cathedral and we even took a minute to sit in silence, immersed in our own thoughts. Then I looked at Vu and said, ‘let’s pray!’

Once again, I’m saying, the city really isn’t that big y’all. After the cathedral we walked back to our AirBnB and took a much needed nap. Even though we didn’t walk that much, travel still wears you out. Being in a new place, it still wears you out. I enjoyed our slow-paced, mindful tourism day. Is that a thing? Being a mindful tourist? Doing the things tourists do but at a much slower-paced. It was quite a lovely day, even with the bit of rain and getting to enjoy my short minute of being a hopeless romantic with Vu.