{"id":1479,"date":"2018-10-03T07:52:06","date_gmt":"2018-10-03T07:52:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.svenlucaworld.com\/?p=1479"},"modified":"2020-05-07T08:12:10","modified_gmt":"2020-05-07T08:12:10","slug":"reisebericht-puerto-rico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.svenlucaworld.com\/en\/travel-report-puerto-rico\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel report PUERTO RICO - Numerous colonial buildings and Bacardi rum on the Spanish-speaking Caribbean island of the USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Visa and entry requirements Puerto Rico:<\/strong>
\nPassport required
\nThe Electronic Travel Authorization System (ESTA) is required<\/p>\n

Information from the Foreign Office about your trip to Puerto Rico:<\/strong>
\nhttps:\/\/www.auswaertiges-amt.de\/de\/usavereinigtestaatensicherheit\/201382<\/a><\/p>\n

Puerto Rico is an archipelago in the northern Caribbean with approximately 3.5 million inhabitants and is also the largest territory of the United States of America outside of the American mainland.<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico is part of the Greater Antilles and consists of the main island and eight smaller islands: Desecheo, Mona, Culebra, Monito, Vieques, Caja de Muertos, Culebrita and Palomino.<\/p>\n

Geographically, the island state is located around 100 kilometers west of the Virgin Islands and approximately 150 kilometers east of the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola.<\/p>\n

The two official languages of the Caribbean island are Spanish and English, and the US dollar is used as the general means of payment.<\/p>\n

The ten largest cities in the archipelago include San Juan, Carolina, Ponce, Bayamon, Caguas, Arecibo, Mayag\u00fcez, Guaynabo, Toa Baja and Toa Alta.<\/p>\n

The land area of Puerto Rico is very varied and mountainous. The highest point on the archipelago is the 1,338 meter high mountain \u201cCerro La Punta\u201d. The ocean around Puerto Rico is sometimes extremely deep and can reach a depth of up to nine kilometers, including in the Milwaukee Deep.<\/p>\n

Due to the increasingly deteriorating economic situation on the Caribbean island, the country's population has shrunk significantly in recent years. Younger people in particular increasingly left the island for the American mainland. Although the islanders are American citizens, they do not have the right to vote in the USA.<\/p>\n

With an average local population, Puerto Rico is generally one of the most prosperous areas in Latin America. Thanks to various and very significant discounts, the Caribbean island is considered a so-called tax haven.<\/p>\n

The country's most important economic sectors include agricultural products, the textile industry, the pharmaceutical industry, mechanical engineering, fishing and steadily increasing tourism.<\/p>\n

Puerto Rico's best-known export product worldwide is \u201cBacardi\u201d rum, which has been produced there for many decades. Important agricultural products include coffee, sugar cane, pineapple, bananas, tobacco and ginger.<\/p>\n

The capital and largest city of Puerto Rico is San Juan with around 500,000 inhabitants in the urban area and around 2.5 million in the metropolitan area.<\/p>\n

It is at the same time the economic, cultural, industrial and tourist center of the Caribbean island. The main attractions of San Juan include the old town with the Fortress of San Juan, the Cathedral, the Castillo de San Cristobal - the largest Spanish fortress in America, the Art Museum, the La Fortaleza Fortress, Condado Beach, the Santa Maria Cemetery, the Princess Gallery, Colon Square, the Holocaust Monument, the San Jose Church, the Central Square, the Calle de Fortaleza shopping street, the Botanical Garden, the Market Square, the Capitol of Puerto Rico - the Government House, the San Felipe del Morro Fortress, the Convention Center, the Cathedral of San Juan, the History Museum, the Ocean Park Beach, the Port of San Juan, the Carolina Beach and the Maritime Museum.<\/p>\n

In June 2015 I visited the Caribbean island of Puerto Rico for the only time so far. Previously in the Dominican Republic, I almost missed my flight to San Juan because for some reason my flight booking couldn't be found in the system. Luckily this was cleared up in the end, otherwise I would have been faced with a huge problem because there were no other possible flight connections.<\/p>\n

When I finally arrived in San Juan with the local airline \u201cSeaborne Airlines\u201d, Randy picked me up at the airport in the car. I had previously met Randy, an absolute sports fanatic and an avowed fan of FC Bayern Munich as well as a really great mixer of delicious evening Pina Colada cocktails, via the internet platform \u201cCouchurfing\u201d.<\/p>\n

In this short time, Randy showed me almost every corner of this wonderful capital and many of the attractions of his beloved home island. San Juan somehow reminded me a lot of the USA, except that everyone there spoke predominantly Spanish.<\/p>\n

The historic Old Town of San Juan was architecturally just amazing. The many ancient colonial buildings and numerous walk-in forts made the city tour with Randy a real experience.<\/p>\n

My stay in Puerto Rico will always remain in my memory in another sad way. During my time on the Caribbean island, my father was hospitalized in Germany and after ten brave weeks never left alive.<\/p>\n

From this point on, in the middle of my long Caribbean tour planned for a total of nine weeks, my mood was very clouded and I really considered canceling this trip, which had been precisely planned for over a year and booked right through to the end, every day.<\/p>\n

In this situation, I first had to wait and see how my general health developed and so I then went from Puerto Rico to the American Virgin Islands.<\/p>\n\n