Cathedral School Puerto Rico 2026
April 11, 2026
We started at 6:30, when we were awoken by a rooster. The food crew had to hurry out of bed to set up breakfast for everyone. For breakfast we all had scrambled eggs, sausage, french toast sticks, and a wide variety of fruit. Then we had a 45 minute drive straight to San Juan where we met our tour guide.
We had the best tour guide, Alvin. We started off by walking the section of the city that was encircled by a huge, protective wall. The wall protected Old San Juan from the natives and foreigners from around the world. We viewed the magnificent bay from cool vantage points that were built into the wall.
We learned that in some sections of the wall it is over 20 feet thick. We learned about the inspirational story of how the Puerto Ricans caused invading Europeans to retreat. The story goes that the women, slaves and Bishop of San Juan had a torch parade to pray to the gods for good luck and guidance. Inadvertently, the Europeans saw the huge line of torches and were scared off. We walked to the great fort on the edge of Old San Juan to explore the views and the rich history that were involved in protecting Puerto Rico.
The Puerto Rican flag had a light blue symbolizing independence and the US militarily forced Puerto Rico to change the light blue to royal blue to show they were part of the US. Now, Puerto Ricans will fly the light blue flag during times of protest and resistance against corruption.
We ended at the fort on the end of San Juan island where we then marched across the city to a traditional Puerto Rican restaurant where we were either served: meat, pork, or chicken with a side with rice and beans, or fried plantains.We also tried mufongo, mashed plantains with butter and garlic.
After lunch we went to get souvenirs where people got delicious gelato or sorbet. All the flavors were delicious and tasty.
After souvenir hunting we made the trip back to the yellow house where we had “tranquillo hour”. Afterwards we walked only a block to the beach where the water was incredibly blue and clear. We body surfed waves and did tricks in the water as we played monkey in the middle and ball tag with a volleyball. After about an hour the salt consumed us and got into our eyes and dried us out. We walked back to the little yellow house and showered to get the salt and sand off our bodies. We spent the rest of the time before dinner playing baseball with a random cone. For dinner we had garlic chicken, fried/ sweet plantains, and salad. Then we played basketball and slowly went to sleep. Buenas noches!
By Trent, Richard, and Stanley
