Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Stroll the grounds of an immaculately restored coffee plantation at
Hacienda
Buena Vista
(
Click here
)
Connect with the mysterious Taíno past, on the ball courts of
Centro Ceremonial
Indígena de Tibes
(
Click here
), the island's largest archaeological site
Hike or mountain bike the dusty, birding trails at
Bosque Estatal de Guánica
(
Click here
)
Stagger down the crooked streets of
La Parguera
(
Click here
) after snorkeling
its cays
Soak at the
Baños de Coamo
(
Click here
), once thought to be the fountain of
youth
Sway on a hammock while lunching on golden, octopus-stuffed pastries at
La
Casa de Los Pasteliollos
(
Click here
) in Guayama
History
The rolling foothills and broad coastal plains of the south coast were home to a number of
indigenous tribes and were first colonized by Spaniards, who raised cattle and horses for
the colonial expeditions in Mexico and South America in the 16th century. In 1630 they
built a hamlet on a port between the mountains and the coast which would eventually be-
come Ponce.
For more than a century, goods and materials flowed through the welcoming harbors.
Ostensibly the port of Ponce was only open to Spanish vessels trading directly with Spain,
but the watchful eyes of the island governor were a universe away - over the mountains in
San Juan - and free trade flourished, bringing goods, currencies, and people from across
the New World and Africa.
When slave revolts erupted in the neighboring French-held island of Saint-Domingue in
the 1790s and South America between 1810 and 1822, many wealthy refugees fled to the
south coast, buying land to grow coffee and sugarcane. Soon they imported former slaves
from Caribbean colonies to meet the ever-increasing American appetite for sugar, coffee
and rum. Production and profits from agriculture skyrocketed throughout the 19th century,
when sugar barons built cities with elegant town squares, neoclassical architecture and im-
ported French fountains.
The Spanish-American War ended the freebooting days, bringing military occupation,
uniformly enforced trade laws and an economic freefall. Hurricanes devastated the coffee
industry, sugar prices fell, and the US government decided to develop San Juan, not Ponce,
as a strategic port. When the Depression hit in the 1930s, the region fell into an economic
hibernation.
