Puerto Rico

Sunday night at 9:15

When we docked in Puerto Rico, I thought "why are we spending 4 days in Puerto Rico; it's a small island; what is there to see for four days?" Today, I realized there is more to do than I have time (& I'm sure I'll feel that way again).

I took the City Orientation Bus Tour and wasn't too impressed with it as a whole, but the El Morro Fort, the oldest Spanish fort in the New World & a Unesco World Heritage site, was impressive: 6-levels with a lighthouse on the top level which is still used today. Then, I went to the El Yunque Rain Forest which covers 28,000 acres with some 240 tree species, waterfalls, rare birds and gets about 200 inches of rain a year. The rest of northern Puerto Rico gets (only) 150 inches --talk about green, everything is green. I did not take the opportunity to play in the water under the large waterfall, but many of the students did and they had a great time. I was a bus leader for this trip and was responsible for 19 students and I must say, they were great. The time was given for them to be back at the bus and every one of them (including the ones in the other two buses) adhered to the time frame. An important incentive is that they get "dock time" if they are late. For every 15 minutes they are late, they have to stay on the ship 30 minutes (or more) when we dock the next time.

Last night my roommate and I took a taxi to Old San Juan, walked around for awhile and drank a wonderful rum drink mixed with passion fruit and guava. Yum . . . Unfortunately, some of the students don't know when to stop drinking, so many of them came back to the ship not feeling too good.

Today, I joined 34 other students, faculty and staff on the bus tour to the city of Ponce and the Tibes Ceremonial Center. Ponce is the second largest city on the island (south of San Juan) and much less touristy that San Juan. We saw a 100-year old firehouse which was painted red and black. The architecture around the town plaza was beautiful. (I have pictures, but still haven't taken the time to download them.) The Tibes Indian Ceremonial Center was fascinating--we learned about the Igneri and Taino Indian Cultures and the saw the Pre-Taino plazas which date to 700 CE. It is believed that Tibes could have been an astronomical observatory during Pre-Columbian times since the dance ground is shaped like a rising sun lined up with the sun during equinoxes and solstices. There was also a re-creation of a Taino Village.

I'm staying on the ship tonight and not setting the alarm for the first time--but I will still be awakened by my roommate around 6:30 because she has to go to clinic at 7:00, but I'll bet I can go back to sleep. I don't think I mentioned we have an inside room, so when the lights are out, it's very dark.

Tomorrow I'm spending a leisurely day walking around Old San Juan. I want a day when the only schedule I have is to be back on the ship before 9:00 pm when we start our sail to Brazil. We have several days at sea, so perhaps I'll have time to download my pictures.

Till later . . .