Tagged With "Viejo San Juan"
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Washington State’s Long Beach Peninsula
For most travelers, the southwestern corner of Washington state is easy to bypass. It lies well over an hour’s drive from the busy I-5 Interstate Freeway. The broad mouth of the Columbia River limits access from the Oregon...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, February 25, 2015. St. Augustine, Florida
St. Augustine is celebrating its 450 th birthday in 2015 and everyone’s invited! It was in 1565 that Pedro Menendez of Aviles proclaimed the land for Spain. The first Catholic mass was held at what is now the Mission de Nombre de Dios by...
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Left Bank of the Tiber
I’d looked online for an apartment for my week in Rome, until I was sick of the thought of going. At some point I came across a recommendation for a women’s hostel in Trastevere (Tras TAY veree), on what I came to think of as...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, February 8, 2015: Toledo and Madrid
My first solo trip was to Madrid and Toledo in Spain. I had been travelling for years, but always in a group. This time I was on my own, and a little petrified. I shouldn't have been as Madrid is easy to get around and the...
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Tahquitz Canyon, Palm Springs
It's a great time of year to be visiting the desert regions of the Southwestern USA. The weather is warm and pleasant, the wildflowers are starting to bloom, and the oppressive heat of summer is a distant...
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A Home for Caribbean Artists: The Puerto Rico Museum of Art, San Juan
Sometimes, at home or traveling, you miss an obvious place to visit, just because it’s nearby and you can fit it in “any time.” On our last day in Puerto Rico, we finally got to visit the museum around the corner and a few blocks...
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San Juan's El Morro: Layers of Stone, Layers of History (Where Gumbo Was, #84)
El Morro, the giant fortification that's guarded San Juan Harbor for nearly 500 years, is the sight we saw before we saw it. Its image is everywhere when you do online research for a trip to Puerto Rico; its "garitas"—small domed...
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El Yunque: A visit to the rain forest
When we began planning a trip to Puerto Rico, and planning to include our 14-year-old granddaughter, we sent her some of the material we were gathering and asked her what her priorities were. She, and we, both had El Yunque right near the top of the...
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Six Reasons Why Lisbon Made Me Nostalgic for San Francisco
A feeling of déjà vu washed over me when we landed in Lisbon and set out on foot to explore the city for the first time. As the days passed, I finally figured out what it was. Lisbon totally reminded me of San Francisco...
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San Juan: Two Markets, Old and New
As Gumbo readers know by now, a lot of us who write these pieces are suckers for markets, large and small, wherever we go. If an army travels on its stomach, an army of bloggers stocks up at the public market. So, on our recent trip to Puerto...
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'New' Alitalia sees new routes, livery and profits by 2017
Italy's Alitalia, long among the weakest of the European "flag" airlines (it's been within days of shutdown repeatedly) has announced a "reboot" that will mix some cost-cutting with some major change and expansion fueled by funds from Abu Dhabi-based...
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San Juan, Puerto Rico: Outside the Walls
Because Puerto Rico was the first freshwater island for 16th-century travelers from Spain, and because it guards the entrance to the Caribbean, its Spanish masters went out of their way to defend it, not only with the huge fortifications at the...
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NYC-LAX for $32—-is it possible?
Jet Blue is doing some amazing promotions these days, including limited numbers of seats at ridiculous prices if you can grab them. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Saturdays through Feb. 21; other destinations include San Francisco, Austin TX, Fort...
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Old San Juan: Beautiful...and not all old
San Juan, Puerto Rico is a city of contrasts, of modern skyscrapers, crowded residential areas of different eras, resort hotels and casinos along Condado, and much more...but the image that usually comes to mind is really that of Old San Juan, the...
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Delta upgrades West Coast shuttle with more seats, amenities
Delta's West Coast shuttle that links Los Angeles to San Francisco—Silicon Beach to Silicon Valley—is getting an upgrade with larger planes on most of its flights. Eight of the daily 15 flights will now be on Boeing 717s, with more seats,...
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Road Trip, Day 1: City of Ten Thousand Buddhas and The Skunk
Gateway to the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas March 9, 2015 In the late ‘80s, I lived in L.A. for a couple of years. My S.O. knew lots of cool L.A. stuff. One of those was something he’d read that...
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World's best airport? You have to leave home to find it!
Skytrax has released its ratings of the world's top airports, and the line-up at the very top has no representatives from North or South America. Six of the top 10 were in Asia, and the rest in Europe. Topping the list again is Singapore's Changi...
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PortMoresby's Birthday Road Trip
March 25, '15: Day 1: City of 10,000 Buddhas and The Skunk April 1, '15: Day 2: Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden April 4, '15: Sea Gull Inn April 8, '15: More Day 2: Point...
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A Road Trip Gallery: Fort Mason Community Garden & the Man in Pink
March 12, 2015 I discovered the community garden on this visit to Fort Mason, having missed it the first time I stayed at the hostel. I walked in, looking around for possible subjects, and didn’t notice the thin man in a...
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Road Trip, Day 4: Fort Mason, San Francisco
March 12, 2015 I drove south through Sonoma and Marin Counties, past the houseboats on the bay at Sausalito, across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco, and arrived earlier than the hostel’s official 3:00 check-in...
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Who Is Puerto Rico's Artisanal Ice Cream King?
That's a tough question...and can only really be decided by tasting and tasting and tasting and...well, we couldn't spend all our time at it, could we? So, intrigued in advance by tales of great ice cream and unusual flavors, we identified...
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Road Trip, Day 5: My Birthday in Chinatown
March 13, 2015 I was born in San Francisco and it was the only place I wanted to be on this ending-in-zero birthday. More specifically, in Chinatown, like China, but better in some ways. I’ve loved it for as long...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, May 9, 2015: All-You-Can-Eat Dim Sum
March 13, 2015 Dim sum is one of the all-time fun and delicious meals, in principle, and, one would think, just about anywhere in San Francisco’s Chinatown that offers it would be good enough for the average gweilo woman. ...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, May 16, 2015: Coffee & Dessert in North Beach
March 13, 2015 Getting organized to spend the day in San Francisco, I skipped coffee in the morning in favor of a mug of tea I made for myself in the kitchen of the hostel at Fort Mason . I spent much of the day with my pal, Deb,...
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Enjoying the Wonderful Sites in Zacatecas, Mexico
Millions of tourists visit Mexico every year, mostly in the winter as people like to get away from the freezing temperatures and snow in the north. Almost all of these people visit the tourist cities of Cancun, Acapulco, Cabo San Lucas,...
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Road Trip, Day 3: A Sunny Day in Sonoma
March 11, 2015 The drive down California Highway 1, along the Mendocino and Sonoma County coast, was a bit of a bust. It started to rain as I arrived at Point Arena and Fort Ross was closed, it turned out, on weekdays, so I...
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Coast-to-coast road trip...without a driver
Well, sort of without a driver. Delphi Automotive had a driver on board its highly-automated Audi S5, but only to a) satisfy local laws, and b) help out a bit less than 1% of the time as the Audi SQ5 which was chosen for its looks. Delphi added the...
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National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta (Where Gumbo Was #109)
Exterior Albert Vecerka-Esto & The Freelon Group-HOK We had some good guesses for this week's Where in the World is TravelGumbo, but believe it or not, no one offered the correct guess. The National Center for Civil and Human Rights opened on Monday, June 23rd 2014 in Pemberton Place, adjacent to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola. This area is in Downtown Atlanta, just north of Centennial Olympic Park. The Center links the American Civil Rights...
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Florida warned: take action against future flooding
17th c. Castillo de San Marcos, guarding America's oldest city, may be endangered by rising waters. With all the jokes about earthquakes in California creating ocean-front lots in Nevada, it's easy to forget that things are changing in numbers...
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She believes she can fly...no ticket needed!
Marilyn Hartman seems to have a need to fly, and no intention of bothering with mundane issues such as tickets or security. The 63-year-old California woman has a long history as a serial stowaway, and a number of arrests while trying. Considering how...
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Gold Country, California: The Nevada County Narrow Gauge Railroad Museum
I thought this series about Gold Country was done. But I realize now that may not be true for some time. About 6 months ago, wanting to replace the wood stove in my house that was installed when the house was built in 1978, I called...
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Luxury Centurion Airport Lounge to Open in Miami - June, 2015
Photo from Centurion Lounge Dallas /Fort Worth American Express is set to open their latest Centurion Airport Lounge in Miami in June. It will be a ring shaped 8,000-square-foot space with tarmac...
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A Day in Caguas
Caguas is a late-comer by some standards; San Juan, 30 miles away, was already 250 years old when Caguas was settled by Spain—and yet it proudly calls itself “La Ciudad Criolla” and “El Corazon de Borinquen,” the Creole...
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Big Changes Coming to United Airport Lounges
Photo from United Airlines :United Club Bar- London Heathrow Lounge This coming year ,United will build two new lounges in Atlanta and San...
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Florida: Unexpected Destination for Wine
Think wine, and you think Europe...or the Napa Valley...or...Florida? Not a thought that occurs to too many, but as the Miami Herald points out, Florida has a long and thriving history of wine production, although mostly fruitier, sweeter wines...
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Route 66 - Pasadena to Needles
Last summer I had the opportunity to do something I had always wanted to do - drive a significant portion of Route 66. Having spent 4 days in LA, I started a drive to Albuquerque to meet up with The Amazing Ms. D. Instead of rushing down the...
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Historic Route 66 (pt 2) - Needles CA to Flagstaff AZ
Leaving Needles CA, I drove a route that is a MUST DRIVE if you are the kind of person that loves road trips. The main portion of my day was spent on the longest continuous stretch of the original Route 66 that is still in place - From Topock AZ to...
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Jerez Cathedral and Neighbors: Where Gumbo Was (#75)
Frequent-solver Roderick Simpson identified Gumbo's locale as the Cathedral of Jerez, in Spain. Another frequent contributor to the solutions spotted lots of clues: Spanish garb of non-angel statues, size not huge and cathedral not wealthy...
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Virgin America Plans on Adding Hawaii
Descending into Honolulu. Pearl Harbor below the wing Virgin America ...
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Fort Barrancas Has it All: Cannons, Gun Turrets,Tunnels and Great Views
Fort Barrancas is located within the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. You have to show your drivers license, or other ID, to enter the base. It sits on the barranca ,or bluff, overlooking the entrance to Pensacola Bay. This National Historic Landmark...
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Gumbo's Pic of the Day, June 20, 2015: A Ferry Ride to San Francisco
Visiting friends in Alameda, across the Bay from San Francisco, I decided to take the ferry and spend the day in the City. Far less expensive than parking in San Francisco, $3.10 each way for seniors and $6.25 full fare, the price of the...
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Underground Puerto Rico: The Camuy River Caverns
If Old San Juan and the El Yunque rain forest and the beaches have been drawing visitors for hundreds of years, that's certainly not true for this hidden attraction: a vast, and still-not-fully-explored system of caves, carved out by the world's...
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Gold Country, California: Auburn
Auburn is a town at a crossroads. Interstate 80 passes through from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the desert of the Great Basin and the nation eastward, and west to San Francisco. It was the main route migrants traveled coming west,...
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A Day in Ponce, Puerto Rico (Where Gumbo Was #87)
On our second-to-last day in Puerto Rico, we headed to the south shore of the island, to the city of Ponce. It's smaller than San Juan, has less tourist traffic—all that, and yet it considers itself the cultural equal of the capital or of...
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Amsterdam on JetBlue? Orlando on Icelandair? Codeshare coming!
JetBlue Airways and Icelandair, which already have an interline partnership, have asked for U.S. government permission for a codeshare agreement. If approved, JetBlue would place its code on seven Icelandair routes from the U.S. to Iceland, and eight...
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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: Where Gumbo was #233
Jonathan L reveals a museum whose architecture and its collections both qualify as modern art.
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Back to Oaxaca: Mercado de la Merced
Escaping from winter in Mexico, PortMoresby finds yet another market and realizes no two are ever the same.
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United's last 747 flight sells out fast
United is sending off its last 747 with a gala finale—and the tickets sold out in less than two hours.
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Top 5 island destinations to revisit in 2017
Dreaming of distant oceans, white, sandy beaches, a Mojito in your hand, while a gentle breeze is just ruffling the waters lounging a few feet from your feet? Waking with the sounds of exotic beats trumpeting the air while you lie in a hammock, munch on a coconut and daydream the day away? Might be it’s high time to take a vacation. If you equate vacation with island , paradise and offline , stick with us. We know there are about seven hundred and forty one thousand articles on the best...
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Back to Oaxaca: Hoofing It, Dainzú to Tlacochahuaya
This week’s walk in the southern Mexico countryside takes PortMoresby from an ancient Zapotec Ball Game site to a beautifully decorated church in the valley below.