[PRCo] Re: Off to see the Wizzard

[Fred Schneider]

Enjoyed Puerto Rico ... want to go back!   Seriously.  I enjoyed it a  
whole lot more than Steubenville and East Liverbile!

First meal was Mofongo (hollowed out mashed plantnine (a banana like  
fruit) stuffed with seafood including octopus, shrimp, fish,  
scallops).  Second night we ate in a French restaurant ... I had very  
delicious sscargot as an appetizer followed by bouilabaisse (very  
good but not really done in the same tradition as this excellent fish  
soup would be done in Marseilles or Nice).   Yesterday, before we  
left, we had lunch with a former New York restauranteur that Phil  
Craig and Jack May knew, in a very fine restaurant (Atlantico) ... I  
had a Spanish style appetizer of veal brains followed by sea trout.    
No Ed, I did not find any roaches.   The mosquitos were not out in  
January.   Picked the proper day to go down because the plane was  
flying at 50% load (90% returning).

The city is clearly a mix of well-to-do and those of lesser means.    
The buses clearly serve the poorer individuals ... they charge 75  
cents and the drivers happily take my medicare card and 25 cents as  
proof of age.   The Metro fare is $1.50 and they told us that, in  
spite of a federal law to the contrary, they will only give a senior  
citizen discount to residents.   It does not matter that I subsidized  
it.   That will only change if I file a complaint with the FTA.   But  
the people at the system were most hospitable.   Take pictures any  
where you want except in the control room (dispatching and station  
television monitoring screens).    We were free to photograph in the  
car shops.   They have 36 married-pairs (72 cars), have availibility  
in the 90 percent range (I guess not counting the car from which  
Siemens had removed the floor for warranty repairs).   They are  
hauling 30,000 people a day and using no more than 48 cars in the  
peak and as few as 6 trains of a single married pair (12 cars total)  
in the off peak.   The patronage on the rapid transit is clearly much  
more highly educated, much more English speaking than on the buses.    
Perhaps that has something to do with the fact that the line services  
the banking community, the university, and the U. S. Veterans  
Administration Hospital at San Francisco station.

I found the territory rather curious.   Of course many Americans like  
to consider them not part of us in spite of the fact that Teddy  
Roosevelt took Puerto Rico from Spain in the Spanish American War in  
1898.   It's a rather curious place with Spanish as the primary  
language but with many corporate names in English ... with Waste  
Management trucks with admonitions warning you that the back  
frequently in English, with familiar stores ... Ponderosa, Wal*Mart,  
Walgreens, Holiday Inn, Hilton, and thousands more and English words  
peppering the language like muffler.   Cable television brings them  
probably 10 Spanish channels and 60 English channels including WOR  
New York (We got up yesterday, saw it was already 75 outside but only  
10 degrees in Manhattan).   It spite of the majority speaking  
Spanish, here are the U. S. Postal Service trucks scurrying around  
and the the FAA signs around the airport and the Veterans  
Administration signs on the fence around the hospital.   It's just  
the part of us or U.S. that speaks Spanish.

They have some of the same problems we have.   Just like the people  
up here don't want to speak Spanish, they have people whose pride  
causes them not to want to learn English.   There is stubbornness  
everywhere!

In spite of Jack May, who only wanted to spend time on the rapid  
transit, Phil and I and Jack's wife did manage to get him away from  
public transit on Thursday.   We rented a car and drove east along  
the beaches.   Fantastic azure water with nothing built along them  
for miles.   Then we drove up into the Caribbean National Forest ...  
my Golden Age Card got us all free admission just like it would at  
Arcadia or the Everglades or Yellowstone or Yosemite.  Also called El  
Yunque, after the mountain in the park, this is the only rain forest  
in the U. S. National Park / National Forest system.   Some of you  
may enjoy looking at the links below, particularly Jim Holland whom I  
think is as much of a nature lover as I am.   Then we went back down,  
circles around the forest to the east and south and wound up back in  
San Juan in time for dinner.

And my impressions were that I would like to go back again for a  
whole week so see more of the island.   Maybe a week in Puerto Rico  
and then a cruse over to the American Virgin Islands so I can add  
that to my list.    Phil Craig had the same impression as I did and  
he told his wife he wanted to take her the next time ... she didn't  
go this time because she, in her late 60s went back to work full time  
as an English as a Second Language teacher.



http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/caribbean/about/index.shtml

http://www.elyunque.com/about.html


On Jan 23, 2007, at 2:23 PM, Fredbruhn at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 1/23/2007 9:32:34 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> trams2 at comcast.net writes:
> San Juan...filthiest place I've ever been.  Three days there can  
> seem like
> an eternity!  At least Fred won't have to use the airport on a  
> Saturday or a
> Sunday
> I have a good friend who is a pilot for AAL and flies the Chicago  
> San Juan
> route.  He agrees with Joe 100%.
> Fred Bruhn
>
>
>