Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico!

We decided this year to go to Puerto Rico. Boy was that an experience! It's so different from here....WAY different! We went with some friends of ours, the Barkers. We stayed a rural area called Aguadilla. It was a very pretty area. Everything is so green and lush there. But the humidity because of the rainforest was awful! While we were there it was between 90-100 degrees, with 100% humidity. And the people that live there don't have air conditioning! They don't even have windows. They have these loovered metal shutters that open up to the outside! I don't know how they live in that heat! But the beaches were spectacular. Crystal clear water and tons of tropical fish! We snorkeled every day for hours.

The city, however, was a different story. It was dirty and scary. We went to downtown Old San Juan and walked around on our last day. We saw this little town tucked down by the water on the outskirts of the city called La Perla. There was only one entrance in & out. There is a cop that sits at that entrance and will not allow anyone in that doesn't live there. Apparently it's the most dangerous town in all Puerto Rico. Well, we didn't know that and walked along the brick wall that surrounds it. We started taking pictures of the run down buildings and people. They got very hostile and started throwing beer bottles at us. We were thinking, "what the heck!" and some man came up to us and said, "Do not take pictures of them. They don't like it. They will hurt you." Come to find out, the town is overrun with drug dealers, prostitutes, fugitives, etc. If you go into the town, they will not let you out unless you know some secret password. And a sign at the entrance reads, "If you enter this town, you could be robbed, beaten, killed, or all three." So, we high-tailed it outta there!
At that point, I was so glad to be going home the next morning. But we got some great pictures of things you just don't see around here, like cemeteries where people are buried above ground.
Or the fact that they hate George W. Bush. Anyway, it was an experience I'll never forget, and will remind me how much I love California.