El Fin

Well I'm going to wrap up the blog.  There won't be very many interesting things going on now until I leave Dec 17th.  It's been fun posting pics and sharing the adventure.  I hope you enjoyed it!

signing off....

Day 3 of 3

10/30/11

First stop on the way back...Arecibo Lighthouse.  

They had Pirate Ships!

 'Las chozas de jibaros', a mock village of the 

indigenous people of PR.

 The absolute best part of the park was the Guarida de Piratas.  You had to walk down a dark, spooky tunnel with thrilling, adventurous music playing while looking at all the cool pirate exhibits.  It was kind of like a haunted house!

 Tesoro!

 Here is the shores at the lighthouse. 

The best part of the day was......Papa Johns Pizza!!!

Touring the Bacardi plant now.....

Free drinks!!

It was fun to break free from my prison cell dorm room and escape to the other side of the island.  Puerto Rico has a lot of interesting sites to see and I'm glad I got to see some of the major attractions.  It was really nice to have air conditioning, if only for 3 days. 

Day 2 of 3

10/30/11

Here is pictures of my lovely hotel..the internet only works in the bathroom!

 

Rincon Light House

  Surfer Dudes

 They were having a surfing competition...

I really wanted coffee so I stopped at this place called 

Banana Dang!

 Best mocha ever!  

 More mozaics...

 There really is no beach to speak of in Rincon.  It's about 10 feet of sand and ferocious waves.

 In town they were having some sort of festival.  Here are some of the crafts...

 A purse made out of can tops!!

 This pic illustrates the topography of PR. 

Hilly!

Day 1 of 3

 10/28/11

Rented a car and headed west.......

 First stop, Arecibo Radio Telescope. 

Some lady was kind enough to take my picture.

 

If picture is worth a 1000 words, then at 25 frames a second, the video below is worth 500,000 words!  It still doesn't do it justice.  The telescope was massive.  It was 450 feet tall and had over 4 miles of cable. 

 Next stop, the Rio Camuy Cavern.

In the pic, we're taking the trolley down.  They gave us these nifty little gadgets that would talk to us and explain the cave structures at each station.  I elected to hear mine in Spanish.

 Entrance

 Afterwards, I made my way to Rincon, a sleepy little town that is famous for having the best surfing in the Caribbean.  

Here is the beach.

 

Finally, a soft bed and airconditioning....

impending fun...

Im planning a trip for next Friday.  The plan is to rent a car and visit the Arecibo radio telescope (featured in Goldeneye: James Bond) and the Camuy caves (3rd largest in the world).  Then it's on to Rincon (western side of the Island) for a stay at the Inn.  The Saturday will be exploring beaches, shops, lighthouse and maybe an excursion into Mayaguez followed by another stay at the Inn.  Sunday will be a tour of the Arecibo lighthouse and also a stop at the Bacardi plant. 


Also, on November 12th the school is organizing a trip into El Yunque. 


Fun will be had by all.

In the meantime, enjoy some drawrings I did...(yes, I did infact mispell 'drawings')

Casual Comments 3 and Museo de Arte

10/15/11

I am certain now the PR will be the death of me. Four of seven nights are devoted to partying. Me, party,....no. However the rest of the city does it on a regular basis. Tuesday-Fridays are party nights. Loud, rythmic, pulsating, and well....annoying, music can be heard from a club 3 blocks away. With the window panes retracted and ear plugs in, the music still sounds like a person is talking directly into my ears. It is that loud, and well...a n n o y i n g. A muffled obnoxious DJ, sounding similar to the Charlie Brown teacher, crashes with the music to create a rythmic cacophinated mess. Did I mention it was annoying? Needless to say, sleeping is a problem. Between the club, loud cars and buses, insufferable horn honking and people yelling to each other on the streets, I am slowing morphing into the walking dead.

The weather is predictably miserable. “The forecast for today is....sticky”. I have discovered there are three typical days in PR. The first is very hot and mildly humid. The sun is, sadistic. It sits up in the sky like a kid with a magnifying glass torching all who wanderer under its lens. The second type of day is mildly hot and very humid. These days feel like you are in a sauna except there is no exit. Stickyness becomes the norm. And the third type of day is very hot and very humid. These days I want to kick over the refridgerator and seal myself in the cold refridgerated coffin. 

On a lighter note, I went to the Museum of Arte.  It was...interesting.  Puerto Rico art is very strange to me.  There were a lot of abstract pieces and a lot of religious pieces, and there were only a few that made me stop and say..."wow".  Unfortunately, I was not allowed to take pictures. However, ... here are some anyways just for your viewing pleasure.

I love the expression.

 3-D exhibits

There was a botanical garden outside with various sculptures and a nifty pond with koi fish.

 

Click on the picture. Can you see the angels?

 My favorite are the works done by Rafael Trufinyo.  I would like to have some of his stuff.

It had exhibits from Jose Campeche, the first puerto rican painter. He specialized in the typical stuffy 18th century portraits (you know the ones....the person wearing the goofy military garb and no expression on their face) and religious scenes feature creepy, half-naked, baby angels.  It did amaze me how his paintings looked like they were taken with a camera rather than using a brush and canvas (the portraits, not the creepy half-naked baby angels).  How do artists do that?  It was a pleasant experience and highly recommend visiting!

Van Food!

10/7/11


Against my better judgment, I decided to eat food being sold from a stranger's van. Everyday out front of Torre Norte there is a nice older fellow who sells food from his van.  He has giant pots of rice, beans, and chicken.  It was actually the best food I have eatin since being here. Go figure! The chicken was wierdly stuffed with a mashed potato substance and wrapped in bacon. Yum!

 

All for $5, drink included!

A note on crime:  Today I talked with a man who said always lock up your stuff because it will be stolen first chance.  Something coincidental that happened today was that my roommate forgot to get his brand new $500 phone on the table and within a matter of minutes, poof! It was gone.  Needless to say I will be mindful of my possessions.