Elliott C. Back » Travel

Violence in Puerto Rico

Elliott Back — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 22:25:21 +0000

The New York Times just published Murder Rate and Fear Rise in Puerto Rico, a brief and grim piece covering the latest rash of murders to sweep across the island of Puerto Rico, just off the US coast. With 525 murders in the half year, more than NYC’s 199, Puerto Rico is on track to see the violence broach more than 1,000 deaths in a population half the size, and far more spread out:

“Enough is enough,” said Mr. Clemente, 59, who works for the town doing cleanup duties, as he motioned toward the liquor store. “We live unsafely in our homes. The cops know who did what, but there are no witnesses. Even if you see who did it, you stay quiet.”

When I visited Puerto Rico earlier this year, I didn’t feel like it was a dangerous country. Admittedly, I was staying as a tourist in the Condado area, which is relatively safe and isolated from the rest of San Juan. However, I did come across some interesting anti-violence posters. The propaganda, which lacks any indication if it is government-sponsored, or independently produced, is below:

“Suicide, Desperation, Drug Trafficking, Adversity, Irresponsibility, Drugs, Corruption: Such is Life”

“Violence: Now on a corner near YOU!”

“It weighs more than truth,” referring to the money unbalancing Lady Justice’s scales.

Old San Juan in Puerto Rico

Elliott Back — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:35:07 +0000

The main historical attractions in Old San Juan are its two famous forts, but the colonial historic section of San Juan has its own charms. Many restaurants, shops, museums, historic sites, can be found in viejo San Juan. If you have a day to spare, pack some sunscreen and do it exploring the old city. Maybe 4 km² in total area, you can easily walk through the entire neighborhood in an afternoon.

The first thing you will notice is the houses, painted in colourful yet harmonic hues, bright, pastel all kinds of schemes, and laced with white trim. These fascades are the price of old San Juan and you can buy replicas in many of the tourist gift shops.

Old San Juan is full of blue cobblestone, one-way streets. These unique tiles were made from slag from Spain’s iron foundries, used as ballast in the boats, and then subsequently bricked into the streets themselves.

One thing interesting you will see is a lot of cats wandering the streets, sleeping in the sun, or stalking birds on the lawns of El Morro. Why are there so many wandering cats in old San Juan? I don’t know!

The streets in old San Juan have great names: calle luna (moon street), cil sol (sun street), cil las monjas (nuns’ street), cil morovis (morovan street). As you wander around you can take pictures with the ceramic street plaques that sit six or seven feet above the street on every corner.

As you leave old San Juan, you’ll pass by again plaza colon (Christopher Columbus) which features a spectacular statue of the navigator and explorer, and engraved metal frescoes of his ships.

More Puerto Rico

Check out these other posts in the Puerto Rico travelblog series:

Bio Bay Kayaking in Puerto Rico

Elliott Back — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:36:48 +0000

A popular tourist attraction in Puerto Rico are the biobays, salt-water lagoons containing bioluminescent dinoflagellates (Pyrodinium bahamense) in high concentrations of approximately one million organisms per liter of seawater. When objects disturb and agitate the organisms, they release a burst of light. Kayak paddles, hands in the water, the bodies of swimmers all glow like thousands of grains of sandy white light are flowing along them.

Location

There are three biobays in Puerto Rico, Mosquito Bay by the Isla de Vieques, Laguna Grande in Fajardo, and La Parguera in order of brightness. The Guinness Book of World Records of 2008 lists the Vieques biobay as the “Brightest Bio Bay in the World.” Unfortunately, La Parguera biobay is now the most polluted, and many expect the organisms there to die off entirely.

Conservation

The dinos in the bio bays are fragile organisms. The Puerto Rico Department of Natural Resources has issued directives that swimming is no longer permitted in the bio bays to preserve the native organisms. Motorboats are also not allowed. As pollution, development, the destruction of the mangrove trees, and other human activity encroach on the bio bays, the pyrodinium bahamense die off.

pyrodinium bahamense

Biobay tips

Go on a day with as little moonlight as possible. The organisms sink the bottom of the bay/lagoon when there is light, so your experience will be less luminescent. That said, even on a full moon night, you will have a great time.
Wear natural bug repellent (not DEET/DDT) as you will be outside and there are some mosquitoes.
Be prepared to get wet, wear a swimsuit under your clothes and when you get there, leave your clothes and a tower behind to change into after.
Don’t bring a camera, unless it’s a serious DSLR for low-light shooting. It’s too dark to capture normal photos, and unless your camera has a rig for water, it is quite likely to get very wet.

More Puerto Rico

Check out these other posts in the Puerto Rico travelblog series:

El Yunque, Puerto Rico Rainforest

Elliott Back — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 18:27:48 +0000

In Spanish, “el yunque” means “the anvil,” named for the powerful lightening that sweeps the rainforest during storms. El Yunque gets up to 200 inches of rain annually, making mudslides and flash floods a potential hazard.

El Yunque National Rainforest is the only rainforest in the US Forest Service system. Located around part of the Luquillo Mountains range in Puerto Rico, it occupies only a small 28,000 acre part of the island. Some of the main features of the rainforest are Sierra Palms and parasitic plants known as epiphytes. here are 240 native tree species–23 of them found only in El Yunque–50 native orchids and 150 types of ferns.

There are no poisonous snakes, but watch out for stinging nettles plants.

La Coca Falls

Right by the roadside, this 85 foot falls provides an opportunity for lazy tourists to snap photos. The more energetic can climb the rocks to get right up to the fall’s face.

The Trails

If you enjoy hiking, you have a large number of options:

Trail Name	Length	Time (One Way)	Difficulty	Min / Max Elevation
El Yunque	2.4 miles	2 hours	Challenging	2,067 to 3,445 feet
Caimitillo	.2 miles	20 minutes	Moderate	2,067 to 2,427 feet
Baño de Oro	.3 miles	20 minutes	Moderate	2,132 to 2,362 feet
Enlace / Spur Mt. Britton	.3 miles	10 minutes	Easy	2,788 to 2,952 feet
Los Picachos	.2 miles	8 minutes	Easy	2,952 to 3,051 feet
Roca El Yunque	.1 miles	7 minutes	Easy	3,379 to 3,412 feet
Mt. Britton	.8 miles	40 minutes	Challenging	2,493 to 3,087 feet

Yokahu Tower

Located a mile up the road from La Coca Falls, Yokahu Tower rests at 1,575 feet and provides an amazing view of Luquillo and El Yunque from the top. You have to climb 98 stairs to the top, but the view is worth it. The stone tower was built in 1962.

Things to Do

Take a half-trip to La Coca falls, Yakahu Tower, and El Baño Grande
Take a full trip to La Mina Falls
Go adventure zip-lining through the rainforest
Hike to the top of El Yunque peak

More Puerto Rico

Check out these other posts in the Puerto Rico travelblog series:

Plaza las Americas

Elliott Back — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 00:38:25 +0000

I don’t know why Plaza Las Américas has a 4.5 star rating on yahoo travelguide. It’s a big mall; if you’ve ever been to a 300+ store mall before, there’s nothing new here. If it’s your first time to a city with a big mall, maybe you’d be amazed and love it, but otherwise there’s little to set the Puerto Rico mall apart from a stateside one. The mall has been around for over 40 years, has a fire department and two police stations, and three big outlet anchor stores (JCPenny, Sears, Macy’s).

Hours

It’s open 9AM to 9PM every day, and 11 to 7 PM on Sundays.

Fountains

I did find their animated fountains interesting. They have a turtle and manatee which gyrate in streams of water. Peaceful visitors perch candidly on the ledges surrounding the fountains and chitchat.

Fountain Animated Turtle at Plaza las Americas, Puerto Rico –

There are some cool dangly metal sculptures that hang here and there from the ceiling too:

More Puerto Rico

Check out these other posts in the Puerto Rico travelblog series: