Hola from Puerto Rico!

Blog:

Hola from Puerto Rico! I’m sitting on the 6th deck of the MV Explorer on our last night in San Juan. The past couple of days have been beautiful and exciting in our first port.

We arrived in San Juan on Wednesday at 8am. Pulling into port I was a little overwhelmed and I think it started to hit me that this trip is actually underway and I was arriving at our very first port. The governor or Puerto Rico (forgive me, I’m blanking on his name!) came to the ship and addressed all of the students. It was crazy- there were paparazzi in the union and they all freaked out when Archbishop Desmond Tutu walked into the room. I don’t know if I told all of you, but he will be with us on the entire voyage, it’s such an amazing opportunity to meet and even get to know one of the most influential figures in recent history! Anyway, it was a privilege to hear the governor speak to us and he stressed the importance of our upcoming experiences and our education and that no matter what happens and what changes we will always have our education. It was definitely really cool to have the governor on our ship. In Puerto Rico the governor is basically the equivalent of the President.
After the governor’s address I went up to Old San Juan via taxi with a group of girls and we just wandered around and went into some cute shops. Old San Juan is a pretty cute little city and the people are very friendly. I had to be back at the ship by 1 to go on my kayaking trip but unfortunately this other girl and I got into a crazy cab and the driver didn’t understand where we wanted to go so we were running a little late. Luckily I got to the ship on time and could still get onto the trip. It is definitely hard not knowing the language… I can only imagine how much harder it will be in the upcoming countries.
So we rode on a bus for about an hour to a big bay and got partnered up. I was partners with this really cool girl Alex who I’d met a couple other times. After brief kayaking instructions by our gorgeous guide, Julio (of course), we were off! I hadn’t been kayaking in a while and it was a little bit harder than I remembered. We basically kayaked around a big bay which was not as exciting as I had expected although we did see an iguana (but they bite apparently so we were warned not to get too close). Then we went ashore and went swimming for a little while and Julio found a sea cucumber (anyone remember the Jackass movies? haha). Then we kayaked along the shoreline back to our original spot. In the description of the trip it said that we would kayak to see this “majestic tree” that grows “magically” in the middle of the bay… well, no such tree. So that was a little disappointing but at least I got to be out in the sun and got to meet some new people.
When we got back from the kayaking trip almost everyone went to welcome receptions at various universities around Puerto Rico. I went to the Universidad de Puerto Rico and it was absolutely amazing, I’m so glad that I got to go. We were greeted by a bunch of friendly students and Lydia and this other girl Sarah and I were paired with Rafael. We got pina coladas and small gifts (a glass with the University Seal on it, a small PR flag, a bracelet and some other cool goodies) and then sat at a table to chat. There was also a small group of students dressed in traditional outfits and playing traditional Puerto Rican music, they were so good and it was such a fun atmosphere. We spent some time talking to Rafael and he told us some cool places to check out near San Juan. The band walked around all the students and I even got to play one of the instruments (no idea what it’s called, my bad). The food that they served us was delicious and then 2 students taught us to salsa dance. Well, they tried to teach us. I personally failed miserably, haha. It was definitely really cool to get to talk to other students and I was amazed at how welcoming and friendly they all were.
Yesterday Lydia and I woke up super early and took a taxi out to Isla Verde. We wanted to spend some time at the beach and go to watch some of PR’s national sport… cockfighting! We asked some police officers where we could see the cockfights and they actually called one of their friends and told us that they were at 4pm that day. So we walked to an internet café and then came back to the beach where we just lounged for hours. I took a nice nap and Lydia and I drank strawberry and mango daiquiris. The water was beautiful and warm although there was a lot of gross seaweed attacking my legs. Around 3 we decided that we had gotten enough sun (turns out the backs of my legs were bright red… yikes!) and so we stopped at a cute little café and got sandwiches and gelato (of course we also took nerdy pictures). Then we went off to the cockfights. Women get in for free (either because women can’t bet or there just never are any there… we’re still not sure).
The cockfights were the most bizarre thing imaginable. Although I definitely did not enjoy watching 2 roosters fight to the death I’m definitely glad that I got to experience something that is so important in the Puerto Rican culture. Basically it is a big pit with Astroturf in the bottom and this ref guy sits there and yells things out that we obviously couldn’t understand. The roosters get lowered down in these fiberglass boxes on this conveyor belt and then get put into these burlap sacks where they are weighed. Then the ref examines them (who knows what he’s looking for…?). Then the guys that were putting the roosters in the ring would take this little stuffed animal rooster and kind of try to rile the roosters up by like hitting it in the head with it. Then they are placed in these clear plastic boxes facing each other where they get more agitated. Finally the boxes are picked up and they start the fight. It was really intense and definitely gory but as I said, I’m glad that I went. Each fight is on a 15 minute timer (although they usually didn’t last that long) and then a winner is proclaimed; usually it’s pretty obvious. I’m not really sure how it is such a popular sport because it just seems so cruel, but I guess that since it’s been going on for so long and is so embedded in their culture that it is almost like the USA and boxing, for example… it’s not exactly pleasant to watch I guess but people love it. Or maybe greyhound racing… although they don’t run to the death (in most cases anyway). Thursday night we just checked out old San Juan some more and got coffee and sat in a little piazza and people watched. It was low key but definitely enjoyable.
Today I went on a biking “eco-adventure” at 8am. It was definitely not what I would describe as an adventure, but pretty cool nonetheless. Since I hadn’t ridden a bike in years literally, I was a little wobbly at first but got the hang of it. We rode on a boardwalk through the woods and then out along the beach. Then we came to a pretty area and stopped for about 20 minutes to take pictures and have some water and then biked back and spent an hour at the beach. I didn’t wear my bathing suit but apparently the water was really warm. It was a nice relaxing morning to say the least. And our guide Javier was definitely hitting on Lydia, haha.
We grabbed lunch on the ship and then ventured back into Old San Juan to spend the afternoon doing some shopping. We went into a great little gallery where I got 2 prints of gorgeous paintings and even got to meet the artist and his wife who were so sweet. We just wandered around some more and took dorky pictures of course. Tonight Dean Maniates (aka the political science professor from Allegheny turned Academic Dean of SAS) took Lydia and I out to dinner to a very authentic Puerto Rican restaurant. It was really nice to have dinner with him and a great way to end our time in Puerto Rico. We grabbed coffee and cookies after at a historical pastry shop, La Bombadera. We leave in about an hour and start the trip to Salvador Brazil. I have class for 7 days in a row (eek!) but then about 5 off where I get to experience Carnival!
I hope everyone is doing well! Post Comments or send emails to bowmank@allegheny.edu
I miss you all!
Ps- pictures will be uploaded when I'm in Brazil so I don't use up precious internet minutes