More-to Rico

Ooh... some of you have been requesting vacation updates. I'm glad to oblige. :-) Puerto Rico is amazing! I can't wait to get my photos online, but until then, a few verbal snapshots. Last night we decided to experience a bit of San Juan nightlife, so we went to a bar and played a little pool. It's quite a communal game here, so we ended up making a few friends (I bowed out after the first game and let the seriously good people compete against each other)... and then we saw one of them again today at lunch! I know it's a small island (35 miles by 100 miles), but that was a nice little small-world coincidence.

We made some other friends today, too, during our tour of the Bacardi rum factory, which was quite the amazing tourist adventure, I must say, from the 50-cent ferry ride across an Atlantic bay to the guided factory tour to the two free drinks at the end. New friends Jewel and Clay are cops in Colorado Springs -- he used to be on the US Olympic Judo team. They may come with us to the national (tropical rain) forest tomorrow.

On our way back to the hotel we got caught in the worst rush hour either of us had experienced -- so we scrapped our plans, took the next available parking spot, and wandered around downtown for a while, killing time until the narrow cobblestone streets unclogged. We chanced upon the coolest art gallery/souvenir shop ever, where I fell in love with some prints by a local artist and some poems by a local poet (and bought some great, frameable souvenirs).

All of the adventures are piling up in my mind and I'm wishing I'd kept a more detailed journal... actually the most useful journal-type thing has been my careful record of the money I've spent! Which was less than I expected, so I may buy a hammock tomorrow. :-)

Still marveling at the hybrid fusion that's so vibrantly evident here: African, Caribbean, Spanish, Taino and American influence blend smoothly or sometimes choppily to create a culture and environment that is uniquely Puerto Rican. As usual, the effortless bilingualism of so many islanders humbles and awes me.