Puerto Rico Guest® A Travel and Sports®, Inc. MasterGuide™ to Puerto Rico, © 2008 Select Language English | Español Expert Help | Email this page | 34249 | Packages / Coupons / Auctions | Create Your MasterGuide™ | Advertise Puerto Rico > Magazine Articles > South | Island-wide | San Juan Metro | North | West | South | East | Central Adjuntas Arroyo Coamo Guayama Guayanilla Jayuya Juana Díaz Patillas Peñuelas Ponce Salinas Santa Isabel Villalba Yauco South Waterfront Restaurant, Santa Isabel /Dean South June-2004, By:Luisa Forrest The Southern Touch Santa Isabel, Guayama, Ponce As you arrive in the South the lush greens of the north give way to the arid khakis of the south. It is as if you had reached a different island, an island of drab-colored hills; brilliant bougainvillea; isolated patches of thorn trees; ranches, pastures and occasional communities; and, in the distance, a shimmering Caribbean Sea. The coastal towns of Guayanilla, Ponce, Santa Isabel, Salinas, Arroyo and Patillas stretch out along sandy white beaches where you can enjoy waterfront restaurants and stunningly beautiful coastal forests. For five centuries sugarcane was virtually the only crop grown in southern Puerto Rico. The “sugar fever”(similar to the gold rush) started in 1520 in Añasco and soon vast cane fields covered the plains, and sugar mills and estate homes dotted the landscape. Today, you still get a yesteryear, Lesser Antilles feel in southeastern Puerto Rico. The interior towns of Yauco, Peñuelas, Juana Díaz, Coamo and Guayama developed as agricultural communities based in large part on the sugar fever. Santa Isabel celebrates its patron saint in the summer. Patron saints are part of the Island’s Catholic heritage. At its founding, each town named an official protector, or patron saint, and held festivities in the days surrounding the saint’s official day in the Catholic calendar. These festivities include special masses, processions, competitions, folkloric music and dance, and regional foods. Also, the festival features music groups, kiosks selling foods and refreshments, rides and other entertainment. Santa Isabel celebrates from mid-July through the beginning of August. At the Santa Isabel boardwalk you find the Villa Pesquera, an area with many cafés, bars and restaurants. Expect to find excellent seafood. One of the nicest stops in Guayama is Casa Cautiño off the town’s elegant plaza. Once home to the wealthy Cautiño family, it is now a museum showcasing family furnishings. In Arroyo you can board a train, once used to haul sugarcane, on an hour’s journey through former cane fields. A restored sea walkway in town reflects the international past with colorful flags. To the west, vestiges of one of the region’s largest sugar mills can be seen in the community of Aguirre. The old clubhouse at Aguirre is now a small museum explaining the Jobos Bay National Estuarine Reserve, a network of offshore cays, mangrove forests and lagoons, birds and marine life. The cays here extend to the town of Salinas, where seafood restaurants border the waters. Today, the city of Ponce is the undisputed capital of southern Puerto Rico. When sugarcane and hillside-grown coffee (another major local crop) dominated the region’s economy, Ponce became one of the most important trade centers in the Caribbean. Its port bustled with cargo ships. The historic district of downtown Ponce reflects this wealth, with much lovely and well-preserved architecture. In the hills behind the city, one of Puerto Rico’s most opulent mansions, Castillo Serrallés, has become a museum reflecting the grandeur of the sugar-producing Serrallés family. If you want to see how agriculture worked in centuries past, make reservations to visit Hacienda Buena Vista in the hills to the north. The farm features a two-story estate home, equipment for processing cornmeal and coffee, and paths through the lovely grounds. 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