Puerto Rican Cuisine.

San Juan, known as 'La Ciudad Amurallada', was set up in 1521 and is the oldest town under the US flag. Fortifications in the Old San Juan section of the city rebuffed many attacks from the British and the Dutch during those years.

The liner terminal is basically found near the south-facing side of Old San Juan so rather than booking a hotel in the beach resort area of San Juan, we made a decision to order one right in the old section for walking distance to the terminal as well as the local sights. The beach tall hotels along the northern side of San Juan were plain from the road. Our stay for the night was at the Hotel Milano which is right on Calle Fortaleza, which is one of the major commercial streets in Old San Juan. It gave a pleasant view of the area from the top. One of the nicest services offered in Old San Juan is a free shuttle bus which covers 2 different routes thru the district. puerto rico is an island co! untry that is officially a territory of the US. Puerto Rican cuisine has developed from many strong influences, including those of the first races, for example the Tainos, and the Spanish conquerors that drove most of the locals out and enslaved the leftover. African and Caribbean influence is also mirrored in the cuisine of the island, that has also been formed significantly by its climate and geology.

Cocina criolla, one of the main cuisine styles particular to the island has deep roots, extending far back to the local Tainos and Arawaks.

As enslaved African races were imported for work on the sugar cane plantations, their culinary practices took root as well, and their contributions, which included taro and okra, became absorbed into all of criolla cuisine. When acquired prepared in powdered form, most include salt, powdered garlic, citric acid, pepper, oregano, turmeric and MSG, which is a good reason to spend a little time making your own if playing wit! h Puerto Rican cuisine at home. While generally used for seaso! ning mea ts, it is thought to be a kind of all-purpose seasoning mix.

When it was time to go to the cruise liner terminal, we just took a short 5 minute ride from our hotel. The sole disappointment I had with San Juan was that I was hoping to do some scuba diving in the area but from the reports I read, the waters off the town are quite murky with limited sea life to see. Free Spirit Studio has many info resource articles with pictures of authentic Inuit and Local Indian art as well as free eCards.