My visits to Old San Juan, a jewel of history in Puerto Rico, recall a line attributed to Hillaire Belloc, an Anglo-French poet of the early 1900s: “We wander for distraction, we travel for fulfilment.”

Maybe that’s why the Puerto Rican capital is so vivid in my memory: its preserved beauty, profound history, inevitable contradictions. Old San Juan, very small in population (though 400,000 inhabit Greater San Juan), was first sighted in 1492 by Christopher Columbus. About 30 years later it was settled, claimed by explorer Juan Ponce de León as a Spanish outpost in the New World.

Tumultuous years followed for centuries: the Spanish, British and French quarrelled over historic claim to San Juan and its larger land mass to be known in time as Puerto Rico. So, San Juan’s first governors promptly began creating a huge wall that still encircles the city.

They also took on an even more daunting task: building a military fort to protect against invaders from the vast sea that made San Juan so vulnerable. It’s claimed it took 250 years before Fortaleza San Felipe del Morro was complete. It still stands, grey and sombre, looking upon the vast sea from the old city cliffs. Often, I’ve watched families flock on weekends to the sweeping green in front of the fort, Campo del Morro, the children flying kites in the cross winds.

Old San Juan is a city within a city. Not many people live in the old city but countless thousands — most aboard cruise ships — come to see it. Given its monumental sites, it’s a place for walking.

A place to begin is where countless others begin: on the broad plaza where the ships dock. Leaving there (temperatures in January to March can be very high so dress accordingly) you’ll stroll for over a half-hour upon what may well be the most beautiful promenade you’ll ever encounter, Plaza de la Princesa, with endless sites for viewing.

Then take the wide walkway beside the sea to one side, the storied city wall on the other. You’ll pass by art displays, statuary monuments, historic artifacts including a fine fountain that is quite properly a testament to the true first inhabitants of San Juan: its indigenous people, the Tainos.

Next, to enter Old San Juan proper, you’ll walk through the city’s original gate — Puerta de San Juan — standing, it’s said, since the 1520s. It’s high and huge, and leads through a street lined with brightly colourful houses, and a tiny park. Nearby is a manor house called La Fortaleza, built around 1545, to deter invaders, but for many centuries now, home to the governors of Puerto Rico.

Take the walk for roughly a mile that takes you finally to the most massive of all Old San Juan structures, the historic Fortaleza san Felipe del Morro. It covers almost thirty acres, its stone work and cannon fire deterring/withstanding all invaders.

From El Morro, cross the grassy land to a wall overlooking an ancient historic cemetery of ornate flowered vaults and, a bit further, a very dangerous neighbourhood, La Perla. Every time I’ve looked upon it, I see children diving joyously from porches into the very blue sea. But I’ve also seen police cruisers blocking its entrance.

From the broad lands around El Morro, make your way directly down to the old city’s heart, where, in turn you’ll see museums and galleries well worth a later visit: the School of Fine Arts, the Institute of Puerto Rico Culture, the Museum of the Americas, and especially given its unique history, a hotel cultural anthro/archeologist Ricardo Alegria and his architect brother led in restoring: El Convento on Calle del Christo.

I stayed there in my earliest visits. It had been a convent-nunnery from the 1600s, the rooms, with Alegria’s guidance, restored with fidelity to its history: narrow, spare and austere. I truly felt I’d stepped into the deep past. That’s what Alegria had hoped for; but, being run by the government didn’t seem to work. So it became privately owned and it’s a commercial success. (Still when a 2010 guidebook described its once spartan rooms as “lavish” I was pleased I stayed there decades ago.)

On later trips I chose San Juan’s most memorable hostelry, a 22-room inn set on its highest peak of land, over the sea: The Gallery Inn. It’s centuries old and long owned by Puerto Rico’s respected artist Jan D’Esopo who became, in time, a friend who almost expected us. In fact, from time to time my wife, Barbara, and I not only stayed, but at public receptions Jan held, we sometimes helped out: I as the front door greeter, Barbara as a server whose visual appeal I still remember. I’m glad I can often recall those San Juan years, grateful for each one, and left wondering when I can go back to a place that through memory became a part of my life forever.

Special to The Hamilton Spectator

If you go

Air Canada/United Airlines fly to San Juan with one stop in the U.S. Rates at El Convento: inquire at info@elconvento.com. For The Gallery Inn see www.thegalleryinn.com.