Puerto Rico

We spent the past three days in Puerto Rico. We docked in the military port in Old San Juan early on the 7^th. Upon arriving, we were greeted by Governor Aníbal Salvador Acevedo Vilá and the Secretary of State. I also finally saw Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The governor spoke briefly about Puerto Rico and its unique culture. All Puerto Ricans are U.S. Citizens, but they do not call themselves Americans. They are Puerto Ricans. They have their own culture and do not want to lose that. The feeling of the majority is that they like the current relationship that exists between Puerto Rico and the U.S. Following the Governor’s talk, we began the long process of having all of our passports stamped so we could leave the ship.

I spent Wednesday wandering around Old San Juan and checking things out. The San Juan area of Puerto Rico has a lot of things you would find in the States. We passed McDonald’s, Starbucks, Walgreen’s, Payless Shoes, and more. We also walked up by the forts, which are really impressive. Wednesday evening I went to Sacred Heart University, the Catholic University on the Island, for a welcome reception where we had the opportunity to interact with Puerto Rican college students. We were greeted by a bunch of students playing traditional music and performing traditional Puerto Rican dances. There was even one student up on stilts dancing around and hopping on one leg. The Puerto Rican students performed for us, taught us some salsa dance steps, and provided us with snacks.

On Thursday, a few of us took a taxi to Loiza. Before leaving, we had to negotiate a price with the taxi driver. The taxis here don’t run on meters like in the States. Instead, you’re charged a per person rate which you can negotiate to an extent with the driver before leaving. Our taxi driver was named Frankie and we learned he has three children. At one point, we were driving past a beautiful beach and Frankie pulled over, we all got out and crossed the street, and then he took our picture with the ocean in the background. At another spot we were passing vendors on the side of the road, and again he pulled over. He got out, and came back with fried plantain stuffed with beef for us to try. We finally made it to Loiza, which is a more traditional area of the island. It’s not touristy at all. We had lunch in Loiza, and then for $5 each, we rented these rickety bikes for an hour and a half from a guy on the side of the road. We road around a bike path that went through the forest and along the beach we had stopped at on our way. We also found a deserted beach along the path, and stopped for a while to swim. The waves were huge and the undertow was really strong so we couldn’t go out too far. We eventually headed back to return the bikes and then navigated our way home by the buses. I got back just in time to shower quickly and leave again for the Bioluminescent Bay. The bay is full of single cell organisms that give off light by the same chemical reaction that is found in fireflies. When the water around these organisms is disturbed, it pushes on their cell wall, and they let off a spot of light. After they let off their light, it takes a half hour for them to replenish the chemicals to glow again. In the bay we were at, these organisms are found in a concentration of 1.3 million per liter. There are only three places remaining in the world where they can be found in this concentration. Sadly, there were two other places that have been destroyed by pollution. These organisms require a very specific environment. Because of this, we took kayaks out to the bay so there wouldn’t be pollution from a boat. Upon returning to the ship, I met up with a few others on board, and we went out in San Juan for some salsa dancing. We found a bar where there weren’t a lot of Semester at Sea participants and had a chance to dance with some Puerto Rican students who were able to show us some other salsa steps.

Yesterday was much more low key. I slept in a bit and right after lunch headed to the beach with a few other SAS students. It was warm and sunny out. We spent a few hours there, and then headed out into Old San Juan for a bit. We stopped at a Starbucks for some free internet, stopped in a couple of shops, and then came back to the ship good and early so we wouldn’t be late. If you’re even in line at the time you’re supposed to be back, you are penalized with dock time. That means that at the next port you have a certain amount of time you’re not allowed to get off the ship. Apparently there were a few people who got dock time yesterday. I think the majority of people were nervous about getting stuck in line to get on and came back pretty early.

Overall, Puerto Rico was a lot of fun. I found that being here refreshed a little bit of my Spanish. I remembered more than I thought I did and was able to understand some things that were being said around me. At times people we were talking to didn’t understand what we were trying to say, so we struggled to find the Spanish words for our questions. It was a great experience.

Now it’s back to classes. Today began our 7 day stretch of class.