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.
Judging from the number of the venders of drinks we see on the streets,
every one in San Juan is thirsty. We are, at any rate, and very
delicious we find their ices and sherbets, their iced orange, lemon and
strawberry waters, iced cherries, milk, coffee and chocolate.
[Illustration: DULCE (SWEETMEAT) SELLERS IN PUERTO RICO.]
Fruit sellers under the arcades and in stalls tempt us with their
attractive wares; but the fruits are new and strange to us, and we
hesitate about buying.
The hack drivers are asleep on closed carriages at the hack stand.
