Friday, January 23, 2015

Beautiful San Juan and El Convento Hotel

How lucky are we to have been to the able to visit San Juan, Puerto Rico twice in the last 7 weeks?  Both visits have been because we have had the opportunity to speak on cruises which have been a delight but we are totally in love with San Juan and particularly a gorgeous old hotel there that was originally a Carmelite convent built 365 years ago. After a hundred years of use, it fell into ruins and passed through several hands until in 1959 under the auspices of Operation Bootstrap, Robert Frederic Woolworth - heir to the Woolworth fortune –the conversion began to create El Convento Hotel. It was renovated again beginning in 1990 and was named the premier “Small Luxury Hotel” in Puerto Rico.

We think you’ll agree that the renovators and decorators did a fabulous job!

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This beautiful tapestry depicts the landing of Columbus on the Island on his second voyage to the new world on November 19, 1493.

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Orchestras have been around for a LONG time!

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Many cute cats lounge around the property like they own the place. We spent two nights here which was a welcome splash into luxury and glorious weather. Especially nice since we had just come from nine degrees below zero and lots of ice and snow at our home in Park City.

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Directly across the street is the beautiful Cathedral of Jan Juan, the oldest Cathedral on the Island. FYI, our taxi driver told us that Jennifer Lopez was married here.

 

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All the Christmas decorations were still up including this lovely nativity scene in the Cathedral.

The beautiful statues, the unique blue bricks taken from the ballasts of early ships and the beautiful bricks surrounding this walled city of Old San Juan make this a place we’d love to go back to!

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What they can do with plantains on this Island is simply amazing. This plantain base fill with delicious seafood was scrumptious!

And we are off to the gorgeous Islands of the Caribbean

2 comments:

Unknown said...

A question off topic here. Shawni did a post about goal setting and your Life balance book. Do you still sell the "workbook" that goes along with it? From one list and goal setter to another! Thanks!
Jamaillejameson@yahoo.com

Barbie said...

This is so beautiful. My daughter is serving a mission in Puerto Rico right now and I hope we will be able to go back with her at some point.