Yauco

Yauco was the centre of the coffee trade in the nineteenth century, when Puerto Rican coffee sold at premium prices in Europe, and the money built the town: neoclassical houses, a substantial plaza and a church, much of it from that period and a good deal of it still standing. Corsican families were prominent among the planters and their names remain. In recent years a stairway in the town has been painted in bright colours as a public art project and has become the image most associated with Yauco.

What you actually see

• The painted stairs - a stairway painted in bright colours as a public art project.
• The nineteenth-century houses - neoclassical buildings from the coffee boom.
• The plaza and church - the town centre from the same period.
• The Corsican legacy - planter family names and buildings through the town.

When to go

December to April is the drier season and the most comfortable. The coffee festival is usually held in the spring. The southwest is hot in summer.

Honest expectations

Some of the historic buildings are in poor repair. The painted stairs are on a residential street and residents live there. There is little visitor infrastructure.

Nearby

Ponce is east, and Guánica dry forest is south.