“If England had won the war, I’d be speaking like Benny Hill instead of like Ricky Ricardo,” Ranger Jose L. Gonzalez says while leading the San Cristobal tunnel tour in San Juan National Historic Site, Puerto Rico. Ranger Gonzalez walks us up and down secret passages and stairs that we might have missed on our own. The final tunnel can only be accessed on a ranger tour. He opens the rusty low gates with a large key. We each take a flashlight and silently enter the tunnel. Then he closes the gate so that another visitor can’t wander in randomly. We are locked in.
At the end of the dark tunnel, we find two slits in the walls where the Spaniards looked out for enemy ships. “Imagine a soldier with a lit torch in one hand and explosives in the other,” Ranger Gonzalez says. “They had better keep their two hands apart.”
Sincerely,
San Juan National Historic Site
San Juan National Historic Site is a picturesque journey into Puerto Rico's colorful past. Tour Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo San Cristobal, the largest Spanish fortification in the Caribbean.
State(s): Puerto Rico
Established: 1949
“National Park rangers keep our country’s history alive. They are the best when it comes to interpreting and explaining complicated events. I always look for ranger tours when I visit a national park.”
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