Ponce, Puerto Rico: Borinquen Art, Music, and Culture

Puerto Rico Week 4: Exploring the Southern and Western Coasts of the Island

Read about my third week in Puerto Rico here!

Early Sunday morning we boarded a bus outside of the Plaza Residencia to travel across the island to the southern coast and visit the second largest city on the island, Ponce. Ponce borders the Carribean Sea to the south, and is famous for its cultural influence on the island. We got the opportunity to experience the incredible art and music the area is known for, along with the natural beauty of this side of the island of Puerto Rico.

Antonio Martorell’s Workshop in Ponce

Our first stop was the workshop of the famous Puerto Rican artist Antonio Martorell. His work is displayed all around the world, and he’s one of the most well-known creators from the island, with a career over sixty years long. We spent most of the morning there, listening to him talk about his experiences and looking at all of the art he had displayed in the building. He even had a garden in the backyard full of sculptures he had created as well. Of all the artwork we saw in the workshop, my favorite was a massive canvas painting of an ocean wave that was breathtaking. You can view an online collection of his work here at antoniomartorell.com and are even able to book a tour of his Ponce workshop for yourself.

Central Ponce

After our time with Antonio Martorell came to a close, we drove into the center of the city to drop our luggage off in the hotel we’d be spending the night in: Melia Century Hotel, less than a block away from the city’s central Plaza Degetau. Ponce is home to nine total museums, more than any other municipality in Puerto Rico, so there’s plenty to explore and discover. We were supposed to visit the Museum of Puerto Rican Music, but when we walked there we unfortunately found it closed, so instead we spent a few hours exploring the general central area. My first stop however, was to buy some ice cream from King’s Cream, located right around the corner from our hotel and directly in front of the Plaza Degetau. The ice cream was incredible, and the portions were huge. While enjoying my ice cream cone, I walked around the central area of Ponce passing through the Plaza Muñoz Rivera, stopping in to visit the Parque de Bombas, a landmark fire station that now is a museum. 

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I walked around a bit more before circling back to the Plaza Degetau, where a group of local musicians were playing. The musicians were super friendly, and even let me play the drum with them! Ponce is known worldwide for its impact on Latin American music, including a strong influence on the plena, bomba, and salsa genres. Many famous Puerto Rican artists and musicians are from the city, and the town is a cultural hotbed. It was fun to get to participate in such a rich cultural traditional and the plaza’s beautiful fountain provided a wonderful backdrop to the music’s rhythm and beats.

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La Cuarta, Ponce

After my Puerto Rican musical debut ended, I walked back over to the hotel to meet up with the rest of the group. We traveled to a neighborhood known as La Cuarta to listen to a presentation from local leaders on the impact the Barrio has had on the island. They explained how La Cuarta hosts a National Festival of Afro-Caribbean music each summer, and even performed some traditional songs. This entire experience was held in a local bar in the center of the neighborhood, so by the time the sun set there were just as many residents as there were members of our study abroad program. We stayed a while to eat dinner and dance with the locals before heading back to our hotel in Ponce. I got to play the drums again with the band there, and we enjoyed the atmosphere this small but influential community offered us.

Puerto Rico’s Western Coast: Boquerón

The next morning we began our trip back to San Juan. Instead of going straight back the way we came, we drove along the western edge of the island. We passed though Cabo Rojo towards our first stop, Tanga Beach in the Parque Nacional Balneario Boquerón. I set up my hammock between two palm trees along the shore and relaxed for a while reading a book.

Eventually I got a bit hungry, and the temperature had gotten even warmer as the sun climbed higher into the sky, so I packed up my hammock and walked over to the commercial area of Boquerón. There’s a small pedestrian bridge that connects the beach to the city center, which made crossing over the marina super easy. After exploring the area for a bit, I found a place that sold ice cream and bought some. After everyone finished at the beach and ate lunch, we regrouped at a dock painted with the Puerto Rican flag, known as the Freedom Mural, to take a few pictures before getting back on the buses.

Puerto Rico’s Western Coast: Mayagüez

Our next stop was the city of Mayagüez, located on the western edge of the island. There is also another campus of the University of Puerto Rico located there in the northern part of the city. They also happen to be the home of the only school to beat Georgia Tech in this year’s regional American Society of Civil Engineers competition. I tried not to let that influence my opinions on the school, and in reality they actually had a really nice campus. We also stopped at an incredible bakery, Panaderia Ricomini, for a snack along the journey. Then I walked down to look at a riverwalk park nearby along the Río Yaguez as the rest of the group finished their pastries, and we got back on the bus to continue the trip.

Puerto Rico’s Western Coast: Rincón

Eventually we arrived at the western most point on the entire island, Punta Higuero, in the city of Rincón. We stopped at a nice park that featured a small lighthouse. A restaurant called Ola Sunset Café overlooked Domes Beach below, and there was a band playing live music as we ate dinner. You could even see the Dominican Republic in the distance, and we stayed to watch the beautiful sunset before heading back to San Juan.

Click here to read about my adventure to Bayamón during my last week in Puerto Rico!