Articles about Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico cities
When one goes to Puerto Rico, the natural wonder are the main attractions. However, its cities also represent great centres of interest for tourists and they are a welcome change from the Puerto Rican beaches, which are however, mesmerizing.
San Juan is the capital city od Puerto Rico and it has a population of 442,447. San Juan is also called “La Ciudad Amurallada”, which is translated by the walled city. It was founded in 1521, its name previously being the name of the whole island, the one that was given by Cristopher Columbus himself. San Juan is an excellent natural harbour and is ranked as the second in the top of the oldest cities founde by Europeans in America. Taking into consideration its long history, there are some impressive sightseeing spots in San Juan.
Old San Juan is a neighberhood of 465 years oldwhich was initially conceived to be a military stronghold. Its has kept some of its original elements such as the blue stone the streets are paved with. These were brought from Spain on ships and are called cobbles of adoquine. Moreover, about 400 buildings dating back to the 16th and 17th century were restored and are now main tourist attraction. However, there were made many changes to the original city and now we can find here shopping centers and gambling casinos.
There are more Plazas in San Juan and each has its own point of interest: Plaza de San Jose, Plaza del Quinto Centenario, Plaza de armas, which is the main square of Old SAN Juan, Plaza de Colon, Plazuela de la Rogativa and Plaza de Hostos. The city also has four former fort: Castillo de San Cristobal, El Moro, Fuerte San Geronimo and Santa Elena Battery.
There are many old beautiful buildings in San Juan among which we can count: La Fortaleza or the Palacio de Santa Catalina that was built between 1533 and 1540; Alcadia, Dan Juan’s City hall that was founded in 1602 and finished in 1789; El Capitolio, Cathedral of San Juan, Iglesia de San Juan ands Capilla del Cristo.
More museums, parks and other attractions are found in San Juan.
Ponce is the second largest city in Puerto Rico with a population of 195,000 people. Other names for this city founded in the 17th century are La Perla del Sur, which means The pearls of the South and La Ciudad De Los Leones, meaning City of Lions. Just like San Juan, Ponce has a long history, even being capital of the Sapin’s southern region until 1898 when it was invaded by US.
Main Attractions is Ponce are Parque de Bombas that was built in 1883 and has a fire house on its territory, Museum of Puerto Rican Music, Csa Alcadia, Ponce Museum of Art, La Guancha Paseo Tablado, castillo Serales, Tibes Indian Ceremonial Center, Hacienda Buena Vista and a lot others.
These two cities with their history and cultures visible on the streets represent some worth to visit location. The tourists that have come here never regretted.
Puerto Rico economy
At the biginning of the 20th century, the main branche in the Puerto Rico’s economy waas agriculture. The main product obtain was sugar. After more projects were implemented in the 1940s that wore the name of Operation Bootstrap, the manugacture industry was encouraged. The tax exemption were closely related to its development and it soon took the place of the agriculture.
However, during the Great Depression the economical situation of the country was not a good one and this even led to protests. After this period has passed, industries like pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals and technology flourished thanks to massive investement from the exterior of the country. The industries were beneficiaries of special taxes from the US and this helped their development a lot. However, nowadays, Puerto Rico has to compete with the poor countries that do not pay their labourers with such high wages. The salaries from Puerto Rico are legislated by the US minimum wage lawss. In the last years, many factories from Puerto Rico that had foreign or even US owners were relocated in other countries from South America or Asia.
As all the citizens of Puerto Rico also are american citizens since the Jones Act from 1917, heavy migration took place. Starting in the 1950s, many Puerto Ricans left their country and went to United States with the hope for a better life. Their number increases dramatically over the decades with figures per year like 1,800 in 1930-40, 31,00 in the period of 1946-50, 45,000 durin the 1950s, reaching a peak of 75, 000 people in 1953.
In 2003, it was estimated that there are more citizens of Puerto Rico origin in the United States than in Puerto Rico itself.
The economical crisis started to reach Puerto rico in 2006, when serious cash flow shortage was suffered. This led to a situation never experiemced befor by puerto Rico, whch meant that the Department of education had to be closed just like other 42 governmental institutions. It was the first time in History when all the 1,536 schools were closed and 95,762 people did not have to go to work as part of the government’s partial shutdown. This situation lasted from may 1, 2006 to May 10, 2006, when the solution of a new tax reform was found. The 5.5% tax for sales was implemented in November 2006 and the local municipalities also had to enforce a tax of 1.5%, coming to a total sales tax of 7%.
One important component of the economy of Puerto Rico is tourism and it brings the country each year an amount of 41.8 billion.Most of the tourist come from the United tates and their number has grown a lot in the recent years. While in 1990s, most tourists were from a cruise ship, the investment on hotels and other infrastructure brought more of them on land and made Puerto Rico the favorite Caribbean Island as a holiday destination.
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