Dusky natives in landing boats are soon alongside, and we learn to our surprise that our ship does not go to the dock. We are to go ashore in these small awning-covered boats. This is a new experience for us, but it is an old Spanish custom.
[Illustration: LANDING FROM OUR STEAMER AT SAN JUAN.]
The steward of the ship tells us that we may retain our rooms and use the ship as a hotel during the stay in port, going ashore for sight-seeing when we like.
We have heard that the hotels in San Juan are very poor; but of course we wish to see for ourselves what they are like, and so we decide to give them a trial.
We are in no hurry to seek the hotels, however. The streets of San Juan present so many novel sights to our wandering eyes that we wish to look about first.
STREET SCENES.
We have been told that we could walk all over the town in an hour, and we resolve to try it.
[Illustration: A STREET IN SAN JUAN.]
The streets are narrow and dark, but well paved and clean. They ought to be clean, for they are swept by hand every day. The sidewalks are so narrow that only two of us can walk abreast, so we take to the road. This is used as a highway for people as well as vehicles.
Naked little children of all ages and colors play about the streets and on the sidewalks. Colored men and women, smoking black cigars, saunter idly about. Street venders carrying their stores upon their heads or backs, or in large panniers upon tiny ponies, fill the air with cries announcing their wares.