December 20, 2014

Santa Claus came to Parc Luis Munoz Rivera last Saturday. He arrived, not in a sleigh with reindeers, but rather atop an off-road vehicle. His vehicle was escorted by about fifty other jeeps, land rovers, and the like, most of which were equipped with sirens. As Santa approached, the sirens sounded like emergency vehicles responding to a ten alarm fire. I did not anticipate any of this and thus failed to get a picture of Santa sitting in his beach chair on top of a Land Rover.

Santa Claus in Parc Luis Munoz Rivera, December 2014. He is in front of the vehicle he rode in on.

Here are images of some of his escort vehicles.

Again, there were about fifty off-road vehicles, most of which had emergency sounding sirens at full volume.

I noticed, later in the afternoon, heavy traffic heading into Old San Juan, so much so that the buses were gummed up by being caught in the traffic. It was a beautiful night (what a surprise!) and so I decided to investigate.

Another beautiful late afternoon in Old San Juan.

I waited for a bus which, when it came, was standing room. We get caught in traffic before the bus terminal and so the driver let everyone off just below the Capitol. It was an easy walk to the waterfront in the new park, to the east of the piers in Old San Juan.

There were thousands of people there, and it was impossible to get close to the water’s edge. This was the night of the San Juan Yacht Club’s annual Christmas parade. About 100 yachts, all equipped with Christmas lights, lighted figures, and sound systems playing Christmas music, paraded down the channel from the marina, and then returned passing close the edge of the waterfront park. An announcer from the club described and named each boat as it passed a reviewing stand. While I could not understand a lot of what was said, I did hear him describe one yacht as having a theme of a Jurassic Park Christmas. I had to hold my camera over my head to try to get an image or two. This did not work very well, as the images below prove.

Two very poor images of the San Juan Yacht Club’s annual Christmas parade.

I was so disappointed with these poor results that I spent the rest of the night at the Douglas Pub. At least I got invited to their Christmas party.

The next night, Sunday, I walked across the bridge into Condado. I did not have my camera with me, which was a shame since there was a parade of decorated bicycles through the heart of that part of San Juan. Most of the bikes, mountain bikes and BMX types mostly, had Christmas lights strung along the frame. Some even had, I’m not sure how, lights intertwined within the spokes of the wheels. A few of the bikes were equipped with boom boxes playing Christmas music. The San Juan police motorcycle escort added to the ambience with their blue flashing lights.

There are Christmas lights and decorations all over San Juan. Last night, in Plaza d’Armes, the Marshalls store had dancers as their window display. I wonder what it is like to dance in a Christmas present costume. I bet it is hot. Here are some images from around the city.

Finally, Feliz Navidad and Happy Holidays to all who read this missive.