Adios San Juan

Adios Isla del Encanto! It’s been a few days since we left Puerto Rico, and I’ve been so busy I haven’t had a chance to sit down and collect my thoughts into a blog. Don’t worry, it’s a good kind of busy. We had our Activities Fair, and now I have 16 meetings with 8 new student groups to organize before we get to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil in 3 days. But, while I have many new ship life stories to share, I am going to attempt to be chronological and discuss PR next.

I have to admit, I was treating Puerto Rico as a bit of a “throw away” port. I mean, afterall, it’s part of the United States, right? I figured it would be a good starter port for everyone to begin to understand the workings of Semester at Sea. That part was true, but when we pulled out of San Juan Harbor, I realized how great my time there really was. Back to the beginning…

We woke very early our first day in port in order to clear immigration. We were told in advance that immigration in PR would likely be our most rigorous of the voyage, since the US has strict guidelines post 9-11. The immigration officials demanded to meet face-to-face with every passenger on the ship, with their passports in hand before clearing us to go ashore. The staff alone took 30 minutes, and then funneling the students through took another 2 ½ hours. A few of the field trips were delayed as a result and people weren’t thrilled for the delay. Part of the delay was that a few people didn’t think they needed to go through immigration b/c they weren’t planning on disembarking, or other nonsense, and a couple just felt like taking their sweet ass time b/c they were spoiled as children (ok… I may be reaching there). One of my residents was the last guy to saunter up and go through the process. When I had the sheer audacity (sarcasm intended) to tell him he would likely receive dock time for holding our entire process, he went off on me. It was all I could do not to laugh in his face. Somehow, I managed. Before we were able to disembark, the Governor of Puerto Rico came aboard for our diplomatic briefing. It’s an honor that he came aboard, since last Spring they just sent the Sec. of State. There was a ton of PR news cameras and journalists who came aboard as well, and I was astounded about the coverage our arrival had stirred. Then, Desmond Tutu walked past me into the Union, and there were flash bulbs everywhere. This is the first time the student body had seen the Archbishop, except briefly in passing. Oddly, he was not formerly introduced, but the Governor welcomes us all, and paid specific intention to our Nobel Laureate. Something tells me they’ll be rolling out the red carpet in all of our ports, thanks to the Ace we have up our sleeves. If you can travel with a Nobel Prize winner, I highly recommend it. I was really pleased with the students on board. They packed the Union, and were really excited to hear from the Governor. He was treated as a rockstar, and that made me realize that many of them really are a part of this program for the right reason, to explore the world. The Governor’s remarks were very enlightening. He discussed the precarious relationship between Puerto Rico and the US. PR does not pay federal taxes, nor do they have a voice in Congress, or an electoral vote for the US President. However, they have faught in every War since the early 1900s. Puerto Ricans are Puerto Ricans first and foremost, and secondly they are Americans. They would never describe themselves as Puerto Rican-American. They’re completely separate identities. PR is the smallest of the islands of the Greater Antilles, and has the most tourism of all the islands in the Caribbean (which surprised me). It belonged to Spain for over 400 years, and as a result has a tremendous Spanish and European influence in the culture and architecture. The US “liberated” PR during the Spanish-American War and that’s when they became part of the US. Sorry if this reads like a history lesson, but if I don’t type it all out, I’ll forget once we get to Brazil and I fill my head with new/interesting/Brazilian facts.

So when we were finally off the ship a big group of staff members decided to walk into Old San Juan and check out the city. There were about 14 of us walking around and learning about the city. The weather was perfect the entire time we were in PR, and so it was warm, and bit humid but with an awesome breeze. Walking through Old San Juan was great b/c the homes and buildings look very Old World European. In fact, it reminded me of Rome and Milan with all the narrow streets, balconies, and coble stone streets. The big difference is that all the buildings are painted in bright Caribbean colors with white trim. One building will be bright blue, followed by an eye popping Orange, then pale pink, and a lime green… and on and on. The effect is charming. We learned that if you buy a home in Old San Juan, you cannot change the façade or the color of the home. I think that’s a great idea. Our first stop of the day was to visit the Castle Fort San Cristóbal Colón. Yes, they named the forst after Saint Christopher Columbus. The entire day, I kept wondering WHO sainted Christopher Columbus? The man who “found the New World” also killed thousands, enslaved thousands more, and spread disease, yet now he is a saint? Sheesh! But I digress, the fort was interesting, and overlooks the water, and has lots of authentic cannons which were used to repel the French, and English on a number of occasions. One of the more interesting architectural details I saw was that the entire city of Old San Juan is surrounded by a huge stone wall (built by the Columbus’ slaves no less). And set into these stone walls are small ornate look out posts that jut out over the water. They are really fun details and one of their national symbols (it’s on their license plates). Cool stuff. We also checked out “El Morro.” El Morro is the second, and larger fort in Old San Juan. It is positioned at the head of San Juan Harbor and protected the city for thousands of years. In fact, San Juan was considered the best defended port, and many a pirate failed in their attempted to plunder the Spanish “Chest of Gold.” El Morro was also quite cool, and full of more cannons, great views, and other fun things. Next to El Morro was a huge cemetery full of ornate graves for all of the old families of San Juan. The grave sites were beautiful with huge mausoleums and statues. Some of the sites had up to 16 people in them (and I’m guessing they’re stacked on top of one another… not sure how else they would fit). There was a small area where children had been buried, and a low tree hung over them. The tree had no leaves, and its branches were laden with small toys and stuffed animals. It was pretty very Blair Witch, and pretty eerie. The stray cats wandering around didn’t help, but overall it was very interesting from an anthropological and sociological standpoint.

Between the two forts, the group of staffers broke off into a couple different groups. My group went to get lunch at a restaurant recommended by our Puerto Rican S@S student. Roberto met an S@S professor a couple years back when the voyage arrived into San Juan. The professor described the program and recruited Roberto who raised the tuition money to be a part of our voyage. Go Roberto! Anyways, we went to “La Fonda El Jibarito” for our lunch. It wasn’t until later that I learned the name loosely translates to “the working man’s Starbucks” (no joke). I used my Spanish a bunch on this trip, but it failed me here. Lunch was a pork/maize dish that was yummy, but the highlight was a side dish called Mofongo. Mmmm Mofongo is a national dish made from plantains mashed and cooked with LOTS of garlic and butter. It was amazingly good. I was breathing and sweating garlic most of the day, but I’d eat in again in a heartbeat!

It was about halfway through the day when my camera decided to die on me. I swear, I really am the most techno-stupid person I know. After spending WAY too much energy and brainpower trying to fix it I realized the batteries were dead. It sucks those puppies down. After my battle royale with the camera, a few of us wandered around Old San Juan some more and stumbled across Cristo Street which has all sorts of posh retail stores. I was a little surprised (and let down) to see stores like Tommy Hilfiger (not sure how to spell it) and Banana Republic, and Harry Winston Jewelers. But there were some nice local stores interspersed. We stopped by Maria’s Bar and had some great frozen margaritas to quench our thirsts. Maria’s is a little hole in the wall right next door to the Governor’s Mansion, and it became the local hangout for our little staff crew. Maria herself works behind the bar and was always good for a laugh or two (provided you had a frosty beverage in front of you). After discovering Maria’s we wandered on and stumbled upon El Parque de las Palomas. Pigeon’s Park is a small square full of literally hundreds of pigeons. The birds are so domesticated at this point that they eat right out of your hand. A couple of kids had already tossed a bunch of corn on the ground and when we strolled into the park, the birds surrounded us and coo’ed as they ate. The sound they made sounded very much like a heartbeat thumping around you in stereo. If that wasn’t eerie enough, I put my arms out straight on either side, and the next thing I knew, the pigeons had flown up and perched on my arms. A couple even landed on my head and shoulders. I felt like a living scarecrow. After snapping a couple of pictures, I shoo’ed them off of me. I know it doesn’t sound exciting, but trust me, it was pretty damn cool. And the best part about it… we all left the park completely free of bird shit. I never woulda believed it. At this point, I made the trek back to the ship to clean up before my evening field program.

Because our ship was going to be docked for three days, we weren’t allowed to park at the cruise ship dock. The cruise ships got to park right at Old San Juan. Instead, we were down at the Naval piers a good 15 minutes walk from anything worth seeing. Once I finally made it back to the ship, I realized I had a little extra time before my trip to Bioluminescent Bay. I decided to put the time to good use and took a dip in the ship pool. It was the first time I could make it out there when there wasn’t a sea of lithe Coppertone commercial bodies out there. The dip in the tiny pool was just what the doctor ordered and I was prepared for my excursion.

I loaded up a busload of students, and we drive an hour from San Juan to the city of Fajardo. When we arrived they placed us into our kayaks I was teamed up with a tiny little student named Julie. They decided that Julie would counterbalance my huge manly frame. What’s more, the other kayakers laughed when they passed us b/c evidently the front half of the kayak was a good half a foot outside of the water. The back end (guess where I was sitting) was riding kind of low. As we’re kayaking through the channel, Julie keeps commenting on how easy kayaking is, and how great a workout she was getting. I told her I would stop paddling so she could see how it felt, and then we stopped dead in the water. Go figure! Anyways, we popped into the kayaks and paddled through a long dark channel to a huge lagoon. The water in the channel and lagoon was full of billions of dynoflagelites that fluoresce when you move them. It was absolutely amazing. I don’t think I can come up with adjectives to describe how cool it was. They glow a bright blue/green/white color wherever they are struck. Each time the paddle went into the water it lit up. We were allowed to hop into the lagoon and swim around, and then your entire body glowed when you moved your arms and legs. Even sitting in the kayak, the water running down your arms or legs looked like little sparkles or fireworks. We were very lucky because the night was clear, and the moon had already set. Here’s your fact of the day: All natural waters in the world have dynoflagelites. From lakes, to oceans, to streams… all of them. The difference is that there are more of them in the waters in Puerto Rico. The concentration is so high, that they cling to one another which makes them visible when they are disturbed and release their energy and floresce. There are only 4 places with bioluminescence in the world, and three of them are in Puerto Rico. When people see red tides in California, it is not the same thing. Red tides are the result of parasites in the water which destroy the waterlife. Cool stuff huh?

Phew, and that was just day 1!! Day 2, I took things a little easier. I slept in a bit, and then after lunch on the ship, I wandered into Old San Juan and took some pictures, and revisited the pigeons in the park. No one was around to take my picture, and the pigeons were keeping their feet on the ground, so I kept moving along. I made a point of checking out Catedral San Jose. San Jose Cathedral in the middle of the city. It is the second oldest church in the western hemisphere, and a very cool site to behold. There were some neat relics inside, and I really appreciated all the history. I also went into the Puerto Rican Capitol building and got some great shots of the dome. Eventually I made my way back to the ship to meet up with my RD colleagues for dinner. We headed back into the city and had amazing Puerto Rican tapas in a restaurant called El Picoteo (the rooster). The restaurant is inside El Convento Hotel. It is an old convent that has been converted into a hotel with a huge open courtyard, and intereting dark bars and candelabras. It was very cool inside and the food was outstanding. I also had two of the best Mojitos I have ever. Fellow RD Matt, and I stopped by a little cigar shop next door and were each given a couple of free cigars to sample. I tried one that had been cured in vanilla, and we were dipping them in rum and smoking them in the streets of San Juan. It was definitely a fun memory. I met up with another group of RDs and staffers and went back to El Picoteo while they ate dinner. Then we moved over to Maria’s to enjoy more of the local culture. Afterwards, I took a cab to El Condado, a more modern part of San Juan outside the old city, and checked out a few bars and clubs. I met some nice folks before heading back to the ship for the night.

Day 3 started bright and early loading up a couple buses for a trip to the rainforest. El Yunque is the name of the rainforest preserve in Puerto Rico. It was pretty impressive driving up the mountainside and into the rainforest. I was picturing a huge canopy of trees going thousands of feet into the air, but the reality felt like a very wet forest. It was indeed lush and tropical, but on a slightly smaller scale than I had assumed it would be. Plus, the entire hike was along paved paths. It was still fun, but this was in large part to our guide. Her name was Carolina and she was the funniest little lady you ever met. She was a black Puerto Rican in her 50s who danced around and preached at us the whole way. She ahred all sorts of tidbits about the island, and the people, and all the vegetation we saw as we walked through the rainforest. She discussed the Taíno Indians who were the original inhabitants of PR, but have not existed for 40 years. She told us all that Puerto Ricans are so attractive because they are a mixture of the Taínos, African slaves, and Spanish colonists. She used JLo as an example, talking about her African booty, Taíno carmel skin, and long luxurious Spanish hair. Carolina really cracked us all up. She kept pointing out all the little roadside vendors who sell fruit and friend foods, and little snacks. These vendor treats are called “Freaky Tings” and are eated by all the locals when they drive around the island. Carolina would point and giggle and laugh about all the “freaky tings, freaky tings.” You couldn’t help to laugh. She also discussed that the lifestyle for Puerto Ricans was to work hard all week, and then have Social Weekends spent drinking Bacardi (made on the island) and other local drinks. She and the driver discussed their favorite concoctions for a good portion of the trip. Everyone got a kick out of their banter, me included. We stopped for lunch at a small restaurant called “El Dajao” (no idea of the translation) and had the best and most authentic food I’ve ever had. It was rice cooked with spices, and stewed chicken that fell off the bone, there were black beans, and fried plantains, and flan… my mouth waters just remembering it all. After lunch we hot Luquillo Beach and enjoyed the warm Caribbean waters with a view of El Yunque and the mountains in the background. It was quite picturesque. I also admired the horrible sunburns that many of our students had received as a result of laying by the ship’s pool for hours each day. Sheesh.

Once we got back to the ship, I only had a couple of hours before I had to be back on the ship to welcome our students back on board before we left Puerto Rico. I used the time to head back into Old San Juan where I bought a few souveniers. I had asked some locals what kind of things would be authentic as opposed to cheap touristy stuff. In the end, I bought a Gypsy Kings CD, and a couple of musical instruments. I got a set of Maracas made from gourds, and an instrument called Guiro also made from a gourd that you scratch like a washing board. I also stopped into Maria’s and said goodbye to the place, and then hit a hat shop called Olé, and bought a Panama Hat, but in the Puerto Rican style. The PR styles are linen/straw fedoras with a black ribbon around the top. The PR style hats are called Plenaros and have short brims. The wider brimmed styles are called Jibaros, and were worn by sugar cane farmers in the field, but the Plenaro style is worn by the musicians in the cities, and the men of PR in their guyabera shirts. I was very pleased with my purchases. I enjoyed a quick taco dinner at an outdoor café where I sat and journaled for a bit as I listened to the sounds of San Juan around me. In reflection, I really think I go a true taste of the rich culture in Puerto Rico, and I hope to return for more exploration sometime soon. I stopped by Pueblo supermarket on the way and purchased 4 crates of Coke (b/c it’s expensive on the ship, and let’s face it… I have an addiction). I hopped a cab back and prepared for an onslaught of drunk students coming back to the ship at the last minute. But that wasn’t our reality. Turns out that with an hour to spare before on-ship time, only 175 people were left to return. In the end, the RD’s goofed around and had fun chatting with the students as they came back. The only people who were late were a group of women who had their belongings locked in a cab and they called ahead to let us k now. Everyone else was on board and just forgot to swipe their ID cards upon returning to the ship. I think everyone was surprised at how easily things went, crew included. We only saw a couple students who were clearly drunk, and we only found a couple of bottles of liquor trying to be smuggled on board. JR is our conduct officer, and he was really putting the fear of God into people when he checked their bags. He opened every compartment, and patted down every pocket. He also opened every bottle of shampoo, and suntan lotion, and everything else, and tasted them all to make sure they weren’t actually emptied and filled with booze. JR was weary of a bottle of bugspray and was convinced that it was vodka. The smell was subtle, but he was sure it was really booze and not actually Deet. Eventually he came over to me with the bottle opened and said, “yea, it’s booze. Taste it.” So being the trusting soul that I am, I put the bottle to my lips and tasted it... only to discover that it was actually 40% Deet bugspray. The RD staff and JR really got a kick out of that, while I convulsed and spat, and scraped my tongue for about 10 minutes. JR finally admitted that it really was bugspray. I laughed it off, until an hour later when the stomache cramps set in. I spent the next four hours shitting my brains out and cursing JR in many different languages. It’s now three days later, and I still haven’t lived it down. JR has taken to calling me “the Deetmeister” and I’ve had to tell the story many times. It’s actually one of my fondest memories from San Juan. Is that strange?

As we watched the lights of San Juan sail away into the distance, I realized just how much I had enjoyed my time in PR. I also realized how many great people I’ve met since I started this trip. I have people around who are genuine and fun, and always there for a quick laugh. They are committed and we don’t let each other get too stressed out. I enjoy their company and am glad to have another 90+ days to go. (so long as no one else tries to get me to drink the Deet!).