Two Days in the Lovely City of Ponce, Puerto Rico, Ponce, Puerto Rico

Was back in Puerto Rico last week with Serena, a play/work trip as we were working on a few videos for three local non-profit organizations. We did, however, find time for some cultural activities (check out the other posts). Our work also brought us to the south coast for a few days in the second-largest city on the Island (after San Juan), Ponce.

Ponce, often referred to as La Perla del Sur (The Pearl of the South), was founded on August 12, 1692 and is named after Juan Ponce de León y Loayza, the great-grandson of Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. The city can be found 73 miles SW of Luis Munoz Marin International Airport (SJU) in San Juan.

We stood in the lovely Boutique Hotel Bélgica, which was right by the Plaza Las Delicias, the main plaza in the town of Ponce. The square dates back to the early Spanish settlement in Ponce of 1670. It is the main tourist attraction of the city, receiving about a quarter of a million visitors per year.

The Plaza consists of two squares: Plaza Muñoz Rivera on the north end, and Plaza Federico Degetau on the southern end. Plaza Degetau, the larger of the two plazas, was designed by architect Francisco Porrata-Doria in 1914. In the center of this plaza lies the famous Fuente de los Leones (Lions Fountain). ...... (follow the instructions below for accessing the rest of this article).