Advice on visiting cemetery please

[psbfan01]

For the longest time I have been looking forward to visiting Old San Juan, and on my January cruise I will finally be able to.

 

One place I am interested in visiting is Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery. This cemetery was featured along with, I assume, many other sites of Old San Juan in one of my favorite music videos, Domino Dancing by Pet Shop Boys.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0T3FFrHtLE

 

So we will be in port from 8am - 4pm. I have heard the cemetery is near a pretty bad area, so I would guess the best time to go there is right when we get off the ship. Looking for advice and specific information on how to access the cemetery.

[pghsteelerfan]

It should be very easy to see the cemetery. It is located right next to El Morro (fort) and easily accessible from the fort. The "bad area" is just beyond the cemetery, so it's near it but the cemetery itself isn't unsafe. When on our cruise on Valor out of San Juan in May 2013, we went to to the fort first then walked down through the cemetery and there were others there as well. We never felt unsafe there but we knew not to venture into the bad area. I'll attach pictures so you can actually see where the cemetery is from the fort.

 

View of Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery from Fort El Morro:

 

View of from the cemetery looking back toward the fort:

 

As for time, this is definitely doable. We spent about an hour and a half to two hours at the fort, went down and walked through the cemetery, then back up the trails on the large grassy area (great for kite flying) and onto the main road that goes along the top and walked over to Castillo San Cristobal to get pictures of our ship in port from the top. That road, I forget the actual name, goes above the bad area but not through it and we never felt unsafe. There were many other people, several families with kids, doing the same as we did, so we were never "alone" either. I'd go right when getting off the ship, but only to beat the heat, it does get very hot.

[dodger1964]

Check and see if the free tram is running when u get there. It does a round trip and goes right by cemetery on way to fort. You can get off at fort and walk the wall back to the cemetery entrance(some nice views), or get off at the stop before. No matter where u get off the tram, there is only 1 way to get to the cemetery from this side. You have to walk down road and through small tunnel to get into cemetery. (You can see the road to walk down on the above picture). I can't remember the exact kind, but right at the top of that road (and where u get off tram to go directly to cemetery) is at some kind of medical school. There is a sign on that building, which is on the corner where u exit tram.

 

Have great trip.