During our cruise in February one of our stops was at San Juan, Puerto Rico. We had signed up for a brief trolley bus excursion through the commonwealth's capital city and into the country and quickly found our station after leaving the ship on Wednesday morning, the 12th. Angel (pronounced "Ahn-hel" was our driver/guide and gave us a brief history of Puerto Rico, first informing us that we were on the "little island"...this is where the ship harbored and some forts are...but would soon be on the "big island" as we rolled down the road. Angel asked the packed bus if anyone knew what year the United States acquired Puerto Rico...nobody but me knew it was 1898 and I lightly muttered the answer: Melissa, my champion, then proceeded to shout it out loudly! I thought this was the sort of thing we were taught in high school history class, but apparently that isn't so. Angel also mentioned that Puerto Ricans on the island are neither accorded voting representation in the U.S. Congress nor allowed to vote for president...neither do they pay federal income tax, although the Puerto Rico government levies its own taxes on them. We rode through San Juan, noting that the road system was designed and marked pretty much as it is on the mainland U.S. as well as the many still-damaged rooftops from disastrous Hurricane Maria that devastated the island in September, 2017. We drove on, eastward toward Carolinas, and stopped at a long stretch of beach called La Posita. We all got out and walked around the sand and some waded in the calm, shallow water: a lengthy coral barrier shields the shore from the Atlantic Ocean's rip current and strong waves...visitors simply park beside the road and enjoy the sand and water. Then we got back in the bus and rode to an outdoor restaurant called Iguana, which prepared and served something called "alcapurrias": fritters of plantain with beef or chicken filling...they were scrumptious and I also had some of their grilled barbeque chicken on a skewer. The prices were very reasonable but I was taken aback at how the hot grill was totally exposed to the public...anyone walking past could have accidently touched it and been badly burned. There were also arcade game machines in the back...one penny per game! After lunch we rode back into San Juan and parked behind their Capitol building, designed after the one in Washington, D.C....there were lined up statues of every American president (with the exception of our current one) who had visited Puerto Rico: the above photo shows President Eisenhower about to smilingly pat Melissa on the head. Then we went back to the "little island" and explored old forts and a beautiful seaside church and cemetery before disembarking near the ship where there were numerous shops. By this time it had begun to rain and Melissa and I decided to get back on board...
I didn't see anything especially spectacular on our brief excursion around San Juan...I got the notion that to truly get to know Puerto Rico on any substantial level I would need to reside there for a much longer period of time. I feel uncomfortable with their ambiguous status as Americans subject to the military draft but unable to vote for their own representation on a national level. I've never stepped onto another country's land: I planned to do so on Monday the 10th in the Bahamas but that was scrapped when the ship couldn't dock there because of high winds. Puerto Rico has its own national sports teams as well as national beauty contest representatives...still, in all honesty I can't bring myself to claim it as my "second" country. By the way, Angel pointed out the two predominant "national" sports...can you name them? Baseball and boxing...
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