Blogs from Puerto Rico, Central America Caribbean - page 10

Day 3 consisted of the ride of my life, literally! We attempted to find this coffee plantation because coffee is one of the island main agriculture exports and money revenue. But alas, we did not find it. Instead we go to take the ride through the mountains and all around them, allowing us, when not fearing of falling down the mountain side, to see how the landscape changed. As we went through the mountains, the landscape was lush and green. When we were more towards the south west end of the island, the orographic lifting gave way to a dryer climate, more lowlands and browner vegetation. On our way the San Juan, we transitioned from the mountainous interior to the costal lowlands. You began to see grazing lands rather than mountainous landscape. We did manage to ... read more

So this is my first time as a Traveler blogger. And since this one is first within a US territory, I thought it would be a good start. Today I arrived in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico with my Geog 399 class from Salisbury University. We flew into San Juan and are here to explore the Puerto Rican physical and human geography. I can tell you that I am VERY excited. Though we are still techanically on US soils, I feel like I am in a different place all together. You can already tell the differences here. The signs are spanish first, and english second (if there is any). There are so many street vendors too! Everywhere. Also, and this is before lecture has started, tonight the 10 of us (thats how many are in the class) went ... read more

This is why we love the east coast. Get on a plane at two in the morning and 3 hours later you are in paradise - Puerto Rico. First stop - SAN JUAN. To be more specific - historic OLD SAN JUAN. We drove straight here, because we have heard so many wonderful things. It was a Friday and everyone was running at 5am in the morning. Wow. We kind of just followed the runners and ended up at "the end of the city" guarded by the "GARITA'S" AT the FORTRESS. EL MORRO FORTRESS was used in defending the city many years ago. A beautiful fortress with views of the ocean and coastline as far as the eye can see. It was definitely quite the experience to just sit on the wall and watch the sun ... read more

After our long day of traveling, we finally made it to San Juan, Puerto Rico about 9pm local time. While waiting for our luggage, we asked one of the airport staff members where we needed to go to get to our hotel. The lady told us to take a taxi to the Pan America Port. In trying to explain to her that we were not going there yet we just needed to get to our hotel, we quickly realized she had no idea what we were saying. So, we gather our luggage, make our way to the taxi stand and jump in. The cabby asked which hotel we needed to go to and again there was the language barrier. Thankfully Mike had printed out the information and grabbed it from his bag. So the cabby looks ... read more

Boqueron, our last stop on the far west end of the island, is the jumping off point for vessels leaving the Caribbean. And as we quickly found out, one of our favorite beach towns in Puerto Rico. This town is wild with activity (to put it mildly). The streets are lined with vendors selling everything from fresh shucked oysters to shell necklaces, the bars blare all different kinds of Puerto Rican music that give the town a distinctive rhythm that is inescapable, and the streets are filled with college students and families bound for the beach and some fun in the sun. We have spent the last four days here, waiting for a good weather window for our passage to the Turks and Caicos, and just love the place. The town just vibrates with energy and ... read more