And More Beautiful Puerto Rico

Where did we leave off? And hello! I've returned with more on the vacation I took to Puerto Rico. Do I need to say once more how completely AWESOME it was? Let's hope not. Now we're getting to the bestest (that's not a real word) and juiciest part of the trip. Along with these other activities and sights came the founding of the Puerto Rico Running Club, founded by us high school runners. After a few nights of getting settled on the island, I started running with some teachers and other students, as a way of just living to the fullest. You have to find some time to do that, right? 

During the trip, its hard to take in everything because you get distracted with your friends or the service, but with running in the morning, and with only a few people, you get that chance to absorb all that around you; the town, the houses, the trees, the occasional stray dog, and the community. You're not sitting behind glass, but you hear the noises around you. Doing this not so official activity also added to my experience and I will always recommend a good morning run before a long day. Why waste any more time...
CAUTION: This post contains many, and I mean many photographs. Get lost in them!

✾ Luquillo Farm ✾

Now I lied when I said we completed our community service. We left Ponce for a farm in Luquillo, a town in northeast Puerto Rico. This farm was by far, filled with nicest, most memorable people I've ever met (i can't stop saying that!). I really admire their way of life; the farmer and his wife (also the farmer), with their mother-in-laws, run the farm together and they all have such great knowledge of their land and the ecosystems around them. Hearing their story of how they dealt with Hurricane Maria shrunk my problems. Me and my first world problems. Hearing Carlos's and Hectór's story, I nearly teared up, both because of what they had to go through, and how strong they were to return to their lives. I did notice some houses that were destroyed as we walked through the towns, but I mostly see a strong and triumphant community that can conquer anything.

On the farm, what did I do?.....You guessed it! Weeding. I also planted some seeds, accompanied by conversations about farming and ethics. For lunch, the farmers' mothers prepared home-cooked meals for us! And for me, a vegan burger! They were so sweet and they made the most decadent guacamole. All of us hovered around the bowl until it had nothing more to offer. We spent some time talking with the farmers and played some field games like Frisbee and volleyball. I hula hooped for the first time in forever.

✾ El Yunque Rainforest ✾

I had been longing to get a taste of the Puerto Rico culture, food, and now, the nature, or la naturaleza. Our tour guides took us to El Yunque rain forest, a national rainforest of Puerto Rico. I yearned to see the different types of trees, plants, and to my surprise, there was bamboo! Hectór told me it was brought here for farming purposes. Or was it aesthetic purposes? I can't really remember, but I do know that obviously bamboo didn't originally come from Puerto Rico. I was just surprised to see such an abundance of it! Even with the bamboo, the rainforest was beautiful. It amazed me that even with so many varieties of plants, they all had a unified appearance, if that makes sense. Here, I also heard the coqui for the first time. The coqui is a frog that, to me sounds like a bird, but it makes a "¡coqui!" sound. I ended up buying a little frog figurine at the end of the trip because the coqui is really important to Puerto Rico. When you see a lot of frogs in the gift stops of Puerto Rico, it's the coqui.

Hectór also told us that El Yunque looked significantly different from how it looked ten or so years ago. The hurricane had stripped the mountains and hills of their trees, the life under them. We were supposed to see heaps of trees and only splotches of sky, but we saw the whole horizon and bare parts of the mountain. We also came across an occasional uprooted tree and trees without branches. Hurricane Maria. 

Onward! A waterfall! Waterfalls are my jam. I love climbing rocks in streams under waterfalls. La Coca waterfall was immense; I've never seen waterfalls completely spread out on rocks. I attempted to take some blog-worthy photos, but that's always a daunting task. And caution! There's many!

Por fin, we ended the day in a stream. A literal stream near the waterfall. I did myself some rock jumping and submerged myself in the water for sometime, normal stream activities. Next time you visit a stream, find an area with little stream waterfalls, sit on those rocks and then lay down until you're just lying in the water and can't hear anything. I did that for a hot minute and stared at the blue sky. ¡Qué divertido! Another way of living life to the fullest.That night, we were introduced to a Puerto Rican card game called Brisca. I would explain the rules, but I have no idea how to and I am not good. Hectór can verify that. All I know is you need a Puerto Rican card deck to play. I may not have been good, but I was  happy to learn something new about the culture and playing with my friends (sore loser response).

✾ A Fajardo Beach ✾

Our second to last day. *Sigh* The day full of water! Started with a beach, ended by the pool with arroz y habichuelas. We took a boat ride to a beach in Fajardo, which was already really fun; going on a boat really fast with nothing but a swimsuit and piña coladas. We arrived at a  beautiful clear, BLUE beach (surprise, surprise) and were given the privilege of jumping off the boat. I exercised that privilege right away. I really have nothing more to say other than the beach was really pretty. Lousy, I know. I picked up a few shells and sat my bum on the hot sand and let the water wash on me. Take me away! I did have a few run-ins with some prickly, spiky things (also called burrs). Ow my gosh! 

And its snorkeling time! This was the first time I properly went snorkeling. I went one other time...and let's say there was a lot of sea water in me by the end of it. This time I felt like I was flying, because I was floating on top of everything. We saw fish, fish with long noses, big red fish with bulgy eyes, fish with stripes, and cool corals. But no pictures! 

As I said, the day ended with dinner by the pool. Before that I had some conversations with parrots. I'm pretty sure one of them squawked, "¡Hóla!" (I kid you not) and some of them whistled, while others just screamed. We all have those days. But not today!

✾ Old San Juan ✾

Bittersweet emotions today! Our last day in Puerto Rico and ironically, our first in a tourist-infested town. Pardon my French. I think that's why we were able to find a vegan restaurant. I bought some gifts, and yes, items here were much more expensive than in Ponce. Don't take that tip for granted! I came across a one-eyed kitty while in the gift shop. But this was when we had to leave... so a bad video made on my part. Might I also say the cats here are very small compared to in the United States. Even if they're chubby they're incredibly tiny!

I ran into this little fellow.

Now on our way to Castillo de San Cristóbal, we walked through tunnels, the prison and learned about the Spanish building the fort when coming to the New World. We learned how Puerto Ricans utilized the fort in times of war. What especially interested me was how Spanish prisoners were given privileges in prisons over other groups of people. They were allowed to draw on the walls with charcoal. I was surprised they were able to draw so intricately in pitch-black darkness. We didn't have much time to really explore the fort, who doesn't want to go down an eerie staircase?, but we learned plenty. 

Proceeding, we walked in the Plaza Coulomb in San Juan, before we were on our to the movies. I won't mention how I, among a few others, got lost and walked in numerous different directions before finally finding the right way, and ultimately delayed dinner by twenty minutes. I'll just leave you with ambiguity. And that's Puerto Rico in a nutshell! 

Let it Rain!💧

✾ ¿Reflexiones? ✾

So..... what now? I will say writing about the last day of the trip was the most painful, being sad during the trip and sad now. But happy thoughts! Another thing I wanted to talk about was my use of Spanish during the trip. I had multiple opportunities to talk to people in Spanish, with the girl in Lajas for example, but those were mostly in instances of ordering food. And with restrictions, you have to be as clear as possible. I learned how to "beans" in Puerto Rican Spanish: habichuelas. I'll also say, spending time with friends from school made me doubly emotional, knowing I'll only be in Puerto Rico with these people this one time. And the seniors! Since then I've been anticipating when they'll finally leave. Its too painful! I'll miss y'all forever!

Saying goodbye to Hectór was terribly painful. So many goodbyes! I hate goodbyes! I will miss his funkiness, his knowledge, his kindness, and.... I have to say this.... his accent. ¡Gracias para todos Hectór! Eres el mejor. I'll miss all the Puerto Rican people. To be frank, you'll only find some people like that in New England. And goodbye to my smooth skin and goofy, silky hair. I'll never see you again. I really don't have much more to say other than I will without a doubt visit Puerto Rico again. It's a strong place with the strongest of people. From this trip I have one tip (it even rhymes!): Collect all the experiences you can! 😜