The very beautiful Port of San Juan has a warm tropical climate and is located on the north east corner of the island of Puerto Rico, and within one hundred miles of the Virgin Islands to the east. Culebra and Vieques Islands are two of the Spanish Virgin Islands with gorgeous white sand beaches, phosphorescent bays and good facilities en-route to the British and American Virgin Islands. Colon (Christopher Columbus) discovered the island of Puerto Rico in 1493, and Ponce de Leon founded the first island settlement in 1508 at Caparra. San Juan was founded in 1521 and is laid out in an American grid type system on a headland protecting a large ‘flask’ shaped bay. It was home to a university, a hospital and a library within twenty years of its founding. Puerto Rico has been a United States possession since the Spanish American War of 1898 with its people being American citizens since 1917 and electing their own Governor since 1948. Puerto Rico became a self governing Commonwealth within its relationship to the U.S.A. in 1952, known as ‘Estado Libre Asociado’ (Associated Free State).