San Juan

San Juan is the capital and largest municipality in Puerto Rico. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 433,733, making it the 42nd-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States. San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico ("Puerto Rico City"). In addition to being the oldest city in Puerto Rico it is the oldest European-founded U.S. city, older than even St. Augustine, Florida. Puerto Rico's capital is the second oldest European-established city in the Americas, after Santo Domingo, now in the Dominican Republic. Several historical buildings are located in San Juan; among the most notable are the city's former defensive forts, Fort San Felipe del Morro and Fort San Cristobál, and La Fortaleza, the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the Americas.

Today, San Juan serves as one of Puerto Rico's most important seaports,[3] and is the island's manufacturing, financial, cultural, and tourism center. The population of the metropolitan area, including San Juan and the municipalities of Bayamón, Guaynabo, Cataño, Canóvanas, Caguas, Toa Alta, Toa Baja, Carolina and Trujillo Alto, is about 2 million inhabitants; thus, about half the population of Puerto Rico now lives and works in this area.[4] The city has been the host of numerous important events within the sports community, including the 1979 Pan American Games, 1966 Central American and Caribbean Games, 2006 World Baseball Classic and the Caribbean Series.

San Juan's climate is classified as tropical marine. San Juan enjoys an average temperature of 82 °F (28 °C) during the year, although 90 °F (32 °C) or higher temperatures are often felt during the summer, especially if the winds come from the south. In the winter, temperatures can drop to the 60s, though the average winter low is 71 °F (22 °C). The coldest temperature ever recorded was 60 °F (16 °C) on March 3, 1957, and the hottest was 98 °F (37 °C) on October 9, 1981. Rainfall is well-distributed all year, but the months of February, March and April are the driest. San Juan is a tropical city.

Due to technological advances after World War II in the development of the airliner coupled with the island's climate and natural setting, has transformed San Juan into the springboard for tourism around the island, and has made the rest of the Caribbean known throughout the world during the last fifty years.[28] Today the capital boasts numerous deluxe hotels, fine restaurants, museums, historical buildings, beaches and shopping centers. Its main tourist attractions are Old San Juan, Condado, Ocean Park, and Isla Verde.

Places and monuments emphasized in tourism campaigns consist of: Old San Juan, promoting the historic nature of its colonial buildings and narrow streets covered by adoquine, a blue stone cast from furnace slag; they were brought over as ballast on Spanish ships.[27] This includes the city's ancient defensive wall and forts, most notably El Morro and the Castle of San Cristóbal.[27] On January 23, 1984 both of these edifications where catalogued as being part of humanity's cultural patrimony.[27] The numerous restaurants and art galleries in the zone are frequently visited by visitors.[27] The local universities are promoted as historic places, most notably the campus of University of Puerto Rico located in Rio Piedras, which is the oldest university in the island being founded in 1903. The campus of the Interamerican University is also regarded as an historical location being founded in 1912.