Rico. Car alarms, trucks, motorcycles, people, staff, students hollering, air conditioners and refrigerators in Universidad Sagrado Corazon in our backyard.
Today I decided to take a stroll with great possibilities to become a tour of Santurce for people like yours truly, sexagenarians fit with stamina, will and energy to enjoy those little things in our urban context that most never get to see, since they live in their vehicles of choice for any activity outdoors.
I started at 8:30 AM. The stroll, most of it down Ponce de Leon avenue is full of possibilities to exercise, drink or eat. You will find churches, masons, nursing homes, museums, coffee houses, original graffiti, bookstores, original architecture and vegetation of all kinds, most of it wrong with very few exceptions,
The highlight of this trip is Del Parque street; there is a row of Murraya paniculata in both sides. Café de la India is the common name. Exactly, 36 of them. These small trees never grow more than 15/20', In my opinion, the only trees in any street of the metro zone of San Juan, planted with some intelligence/wisdom, a total accident considering the innumerable mistaken species planted in this context. The small dark green leaves, the intense, great fragrance of their white, lemon like flowers, make this short segment of the street an unique sight/smell in the whole of Puerto Rico. I doubt very much the existence of any other street in the isle, offering such show of aroma, two hundred feet before you reach that corner where First Bank, stands in Del Parque and Ponce de Leon. They have started to bloom, so now is the time to check by yourself if in doubt.
There are around 800 trees planted in both sides of Ponce de Leon avenue between the University of Puerto Rico and the weird looking church designed by legendary architect, Nechodoma, in Miramar. I know because I took the time to walk and count them, writing a couple of articles about it in now defunct endemismotrasnochado.blogspot.com, 3 years ago. Every surviving tree show machete mutilation, they are too tall or too wide, their branches hanging in the electrical wires and/or have broken the sidewalks with their root system.
There are also about one hundred empty holes where the mistaken trees have disappeared, something of use and custom in a country where nature, flora and fauna are taken for granted and nojuan knows anything about it, particularly the government agencies/private institutions foolishly given trees away at any opportunity.
The peoples' Fondo de Mejoramiento keep their own tours in necks of the woods, boondocks of Puerto Rico. Every week they announce their strolls in the far away country side of the isle. Nojuan considers the idiocy of wasting gas/oil, creating more C02 in the atmosphere to stroll in those, inaccessible sites for most people hating to be in a vehicle 1,2,3.4 hours to enjoy the quiet and fresh air by the mountains.
That is why Atila Matamoros, your humble servant claims his tours are most friendly to our flora, fauna, health and environment. We do not need to move to the country side to have fresh air. What is necessary is to ban vehicles in our urban context for days/hours. People need to walk, instead of spend their lives surfing channels and eating/drinking like there is no tomorrow.
Atila has spoken/written!
Our tour in the third person, ended in la Plaza del Mercado
en Santurce. The architecture of this building is not
much different from the one in the French Quarters of
New Orleans, Louisiana. This landmark is the perfect spot
to dine, drink, coffee or buy local and imported produce
for your gastronomy skills.
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