We leave San Juan in the afternoon and head south over the mountains. On the way, we stop in Juana Díaz for an early dinner at a local spot, where you order whatever you like.

In Ponce, we slow down. We walk Plaza Las Delicias, past the cathedral whose towers fell in the 1918 earthquake, and stop at the Parque de Bombas, the striped firehouse that honours the firefighters who saved the city from an exploding powder magazine in 1899. Along the way, your guide shares the stories Ponce still talks about: a composer who collapsed while conducting at Teatro La Perla, the fires that rebuilt the city, the old cemetery whose first burial was its own founder.

As the sun goes down, we climb El Vigía, the hill where, they say, sentinels once watched the southern coast. Here you enter The Haunted Manor at Castillo Serrallés: dark hallways, more than a hundred characters and five stations built to make you jump.

On the ride back to San Juan, the lights go down and the legends come out.