Rocking that *International* Paradise

It looks like harmless grass, doesn’t it?  And it looks like they’re enjoying themselves, doesn’t it?  Well it isn’t.  And they…well, they were, but no thanks to the grass!! This weekend, Josh and Amanda and I went camping in El Yunque.  We wanted to hike the Tradewinds/Rio Sabana trails, essentially hiking from the North to South end of the national rainforest (and back again).  Since round trip it should have taken about 8 hours of hiking, and the two of them have 2 tents and 3 backpacks down here, they suggested camping in the forest.  And how could I pass up an offer like that?  With the help of our favorite trip-planning website, we planned our route for the day.  We figured that, according to the information on puertoricodaytrips.com, we should have about 2 ½ hours of hiking to reach a potential campsite, where we’d drop our packs, then maybe another hour and a half to go to the end of the trail and come back to camp.  Easy day.  Start of day.  We're su

When I run, I run for me.  I run to stay healthy, challenge myself, and improve my times.  I am not a competitive runner.  I’m not fast enough.  And that’s okay with me.  When my students (who see me running all over the city in the evenings) tell me I should go to the Olympics, it makes me laugh.  They don’t realize that most of them could probably keep pace with me if they tried—at least for a mile or so.  I never in a million years dreamed I’d be in a position to win anything in a race.  I am the runner who finishes the race, grabs her bottle of water and banana, and takes off without bothering to stay for the awards ceremony.  I’ll check the results online, and if I’m in the top 50% of competitors, I’m quite pleased.  Of course, that mentality changed in Puerto Rico.  As I’ve mentioned before, running as a woman on this island is…profitable, generally.  Especially for longer distances.  I have somehow placed in my category and taken home prize money 4 times now.  Usually

There is something inherently peaceful about a cloudy, cool day on the beach.  Yesterday was one of those rare Puerto Rican days in which no patches of bright blue sky poked out all day long.  Rain was intermittent, but mostly the clouds just hovered in the sky, a breeze made it almost chilly, and Jenni and Kelsey and I sat on the beach without sweating or putting on sun screen.  It was peaceful.  It was relaxing.  It was a good day. At about 3pm, it started to rain just as Robert and Sonja pulled up.  We headed off together to get pinchos and alcapurrias (ground beef surrounded with plantain and fried).  On the way, we took a back road through the countryside.  All three of us in Jenni’s car were in giddy, excited moods and totally, totally soaking up how beautiful the world around us is.  To some, the view might have been just a scrubby field with a few skinny cows.  To us, though, it’s part of our sliver of paradise.  And it’s gorgeous. As the year draws to a close, we sp

In my experience, flat tires often turn into good stories.  I hope you enjoy this one as much as I do. Last Friday, I picked up my friend Lauren from the San Juan airport just before 4pm.  We planned to meet some of my friends for dinner at 6pm, so we had a bit of extra time to kill.  I suggested we take a preview of Old San Juan, just driving through it, since we were close.  Lauren thought that sounded fine. The day was cloudy, with spatterings of rain.  As we drove along the coast, I assured Lauren that in the sunshine, the water is ten times more beautiful.  She took my word for it, but I think was suitably impressed even by the grayness.  Traffic backed up in Old San Juan, and we sat bumper-to-bumper on the blue cobblestone streets waiting to exit.  (I hadn’t factored in the fact that on Good Friday, of course there would be tons of traffic near the cathedral).  Stopped on a narrow street, a man tapped on my window and motioned toward the back of my car.  I thought I

What a fantastic day yesterday.  Kezia and I set off at 8:00am, bound for adventure.  Our plan was to hit up two caves—Cueva Ventana and Cueva del Indio—and then end up at the beach for the remainder of the afternoon.  I had been to Cueva Ventana (the Window Cave) before, but Kezia hadn’t.  And neither of us had been to the other two places. Today was one of those days where, for me, the drive was half the fun.  Route 10 is one of my favorite drives in PR, even though there’s one twisty, winding section in the middle that slows you down a bit.  The mountains, valleys, and lush greenery make it worth it.  We arrived at Cueva Ventana with no problems, and I noted that, again, the property has undergone some upgrades.  The price to see the cave has gone up, but no one charged us for parking in the Texaco lot this time, so it evened out.  A new gravel/stairway has been put in place up the hill, and at the entrance to the cave there are now a few stairs and railings.  Let’s just h

It’s a fact of life (especially in Puerto Rico) that things don’t always go according to plan. Yet with a bit of positive thinking and a “glass half full” attitude, it’s generally possible to salvage a pretty great time. Take, for example, the first three days of my friend Lauren’s visit to Puerto Rico over spring break.  On Friday afternoon, I picked her up from the airport in the rain.  In an attempt to be an excellent tour guide, I swung us through Old San Juan before turning towards Guayama.  Well, first we hit traffic on the cobblestoned streets of the old city, and then, as we were stopped in a bottle neck, a man on the sidewalk tapped on my window and motioned to the passenger rear tire, saying, “Una goma vacia.”  Wonderful.  The story of our tire change, which took over an hour, is enough to merit its own blog post .    Suffice it to say that we were delayed enough to miss our dinner plans (which ended up being okay, because it was Good Friday and the restaurant we’d