拉丁美洲博物馆

I was here in January during the San Sebastian festival and it was free during the festival. They have a lot of different displays paintings etc. it is on the second floor. The open-air square in the middle of this building is filled with stalls for shopping they have bands playing but again this was during the festival and it was wall to wall people

Very nice exhibits on Indian culture, though covering such a wide range that they were necessarily sketchy. Nice choices of artifacts in each area, well displayed. I was glad to have seen this, and would recommend this to those who like museums of culture.

This is a quality museum which shows the history of Puerto Rico and its people from the Indians to the present. Very spaciously laid out with air conditioned galleries.

Many local artists had set-up in the courtyard when we visited the Museum on a Sunday. I bought an original pastel painting and a 2015 desktop calendar. Happy we visited and learned about some local San Juan artists.

We took our friends from Chicago to see this gem of a museum. The guides in each of the rooms took the time to explain each of their respective rooms. They provided a great story about each exhibit and the background of their creation. Being from Chicago, the Who we are exhibit showed Puerto Ricans in different cities and states. There are 3.5 million Puerto Ricans on the island and an equal number that live in New York, Chicago and even Hawaii. The instruments display and explanation gave new meaning to the music and craftsmen.

If you have a few extra hours or have an intense interest in Native American peoples, you might want to stop here. Most of the museum is Spanish/English with the unfortunate exception of the Puerto Rican history area, which was the only exhibit I was really interested in! It's only $3 though, so if you like this kind of stuff, it's a good deal!

My wife and I ventured onto the grounds of this large building that had once housed the soldiers, families and horses of the men who were part of the San Juan garrison. The second floor is now the museum. There are approximately eight galleries, each of which depict a piece of the history of this Caribbean island; ancient peoples, Tainoi Indians, African Americans,colonial settlers, and so on until you see the gallery depicting current day Puerto Rico. Each of the exhibits does an excellent job depicting the culture. It is an outstanding museum with first class displays. Having served on the board of a major regional cultural/history/natural science museum in my own community, I was impressed with the professional exhibits and the amount of information that was imparted. The building and the space caps off the great experience with this major adaptive reuse of space in what is now a major historical landmark in Puerto Rico. It was a great afternoon visiting this landmark.

A very good museum of the travels of people thru the Americas from Alaska down to Mexico, Central, South Americas and the Caribbean Island. A good way to spend a couple of hours.

There are 4 changing exhibits. I found them to be of average interest.In some exhibits TMI...e.g. almost like the history of man since the cave age. Perhaps my interest being in more recent Spanish colonization, affected my viewpoint. I would not go way out of my way to come here. The fee was $2 or so per person. The old building is beautiful and there is a cafe on the ground floor, although we did not eat there. In hind sight I wish we had as it was less touristy and busy and commercial than lunch restaurants in old San Juan.

In the Old Barracks overlooking the ocean the Museum of the Americas is a great way to spend some time out of the sun or rain.You purchase a $3 ticket from the gift shop on the ground floor and then swap the receipt for an armband on the first. The galleries are dotted around the first floor and each has a different theme. They are well laid out with a modern approach and descriptions are mainly in both Spanish and English. Some are reserved for visiting exhibitions and some ae likely to be closed during any one visit. For the small entrance fee though the value is astounding.The only real drawback is the peculiar opening hours. The museum closes for lunch and the galleries were closed 15 minutes before the official finish at 4pm. Notwithstanding this I highly recommend a visit.

The Art Galleries were divided into two sections. The first with many contemporary and beautiful art works reflective of the Puerto Rican culture and history. This section in the front was comfortably air conditioned. An additional one room gallery was in the back and had older, famous portraits of governors, and the like. Both were very interesting and worth seeing.

This museum was easy to get to using the free tourist trolley along Norzagaray and getting off at the Castille El Morro stop which was the fort just across the road from the museum. One could also walk here from the cruise ship pier in about 15 -20 minutes using several different routes, but my favorite route would be walking along the outside walls of old San Juan on Paseo de la Princesa and then entering the city through the red old San Juan Gate. Know the opening days and times of this museum. Fortunately, it was open on the Tuesday our ship was in port, but because the ship docked at 1 pm we opted to visit this museum first because it closed at 4 pm. We allowed ourselves about 90 minutes for a visit so we did have additional time to visit the famous cathedral near by and to see the shopping district before the shops closed. Museo de Las Americas had eight display rooms or galleries on the second floor which showed the history and culture of people in the Americas. After paying our admission fee in the museum shop on the first floor ($3 or $2 seniors), we headed up the stairs to visit the galleries which were located off a U-shaped walkway that looked down onto an enclosed square below. One would never have known that this building had once been an army barracks.Each air conditioned gallery had a different theme. I really enjoyed the first gallery with its theme of aboriginal people in the Americans. While the displays of historical colorful head dresses, woven jewellery, and weapons like poison darts from these different groups were interesting, the gallery made a point of emphasizing that aboriginals were still alive today. This gallery displayed many sculptures of present day aboriginals done by an artist who made his casts using alive aboriginal models who lived on the isolated rivers of South America. National Geographic had recorded the process he used to complete his sculptures and this video was shown in a small dark area of the gallery. Seeing this process on the video was memorable. I returned into the gallery for a closer look at the final products of his work. This gallery also had a life-size Taino hut on display. I could see the construction methods and the materials they would have used. Also, the diorama which showed the Taino's use of land and activities was very informative. Another gallery that was fascinating was the one that had dioramas made from small wood carvings. Each diorama showed an important event in San Juan's history. The detail shown in one of the dioramas - of painters painting a colorful mural on the side of a building - captured my interest. The intricate carvings were exceptional. Details like delicate fingers, a paint-splashed paint can, the fine bristles on a paint brush, the expression on the painters' faces made me pause for a good long look. A smaller gallery showed religious icons and portraits of Spanish priests. Neither the topic nor the content interested me, but definitely both were part of the culture of San Juan. Signage in the galleries was bilingual and ranged from artifact identification to on overview of the time period, or the theme of the gallery. This museum was close to a grouping of other museums that displayed art work by San Juan artists and the history of San Juan. Apparently, another attraction, Pabla Casal's Museum, was also in this vicinity, but I couldn't find it. My guidebook gave the location for it as 101 Calle San Sebastian. Later, after consulting my San Juan map, I noted that it grouped the Pabla Casal museum with the Museo de Las Americas. So, if like me, you too are interested in the Pabla Casal museum, do ask in the museum shop for the location of this attraction. We made the right choice to visit this museum on that cloudy afternoon as it did rain quite hard. The streets were very wet, but the deluge had passed when we emerged dry from the museum.

Great, a wide variety of themed local art and a unique historical view of both indigenous peoples of the Caribbean and African influences

Only had 90 minutes to visit but that was adequate. This is a small museum but interesting. Folk art and mockups of historic houses were fascinating.

As we wandered through the entrance of the huge structure housing this museum, we were greeted by a very sweet hostess who encouraged us to visit the museum. It is divided into 8 different sections, all relating to the history of Puerto Rico and its relationships with the Americas. There were English speaking guides at every corner, and they were well-versed in the topic of the various museums. We found some incredible art work housed in this structure that at one time provided housing for military families. The entrance fee for senior citizens was $2 pp. and was well worth it for the several hours of enjoyment and interesting information we gathered. All four in our party had a favorite, and we can't emphasize enough the value of the young guides that enhanced our experience with their abilities to bring history alive. We are grateful for that hostess who did her job well and didn't let us get away!!