You're Not Really a Teacher in Puerto Rico Until...

There's a joke around here that you're not really a[n abroad] teacher in Puerto Rico until you have car problems. Today was apparently my initiation.

We (the rest of the abroad teachers and I) left Guayama a little past 8am with a full itinerary: see two caves, hit up the Bacardi Factory, then we'd split into two groups as half the group had a baby shower to attend. Divided into two cars, we began our adventure. And all was well until I noticed the meter on my car was well above the red zone. 

Both cars pulled over at a conveniently located bar, and put oil and water into my car and waited for it to cool off. Roughly 20 minutes later we were on the road again, heading to Cueva Ventana. My car began overheating again when we encountered hills, but we made it to the first cave.

The Entrance of Cueva Ventana

The walk up to the cave was easy; in fact, someone had made steps. We came to an opening which was somewhat covered in tree roots, and some of us (myself included) decided to go in that way, since it was a short-cut to Cueva Ventana and seemed like an excellent adventure. While the rest carried on around the path, we pulled out flashlights and held on to overhead roots to avoid sliding down the slippery sides inside the cave. There was a drop of about five feet, but a rope attached to the ceiling allowed us to repel down and continue into the center. Bats occupied the ceiling of the cave, but for the most part it was just a dark expanse of mud. Still pretty cool. As soon as we clambered up the side, we were outside the entrance of Cueva Ventana ("Window Cave").

The Ventana

Cueva Ventana was significantly larger (and more exciting) than the little shortcut cave. The stalactites and  stalagmites formed intricate labyrinths on the walls that made you feel like you were inside a coral reef; they were also the perfect size for a child to move an action figure through a stone "forest". Flashlights helped us navigate the muddy cave, annoy some of the bats (on accident), and muse over the graffiti as we wondered if Orlando and Laura are still together, despite their heart-shaped declaration in the cave. And then we reached the ventana ("window"). Absolutely beautiful.

We were on our way to the second cave, when my car overheated for the millionth time and we concluded that it probably wasn't a great idea for me to keep driving the car. The other car continued on and the rest of us in my car stopped at an Advanced Auto Parts where they sold me a new cap (I'm not sure for what exactly) and put water-- a ton of water-- in the car. Seemingly fixed, we made our way to San Juan to try and meet up with the others at the Bacardi Factory, their destination after the second cave which my group skipped.

After many wrong turns, because directions are never easy in Puerto Rico and Google Maps clearly likes to mess with people, we made it to the welcomed commercialism that was the Bacardi Factory. We signed up for the tour and immediately used our free drink coupons (we had to shut off the air conditioning in my car to keep it from overheating). Accidentally, we wound up on the Spanish tour, which I looked at as more opportunity to practice. For the most part, I could only understand snippets of what the guide was saying, but the videos which used clearly annonicated Spanish were much easier. 

Fun facts from the Bacardi tour:

-There is a law that rum in Puerto Rico must be aged for at least one year

-Bacardi started in Cuba

-Coca Cola and Bacardi joined forces to create a drink called Cuba Libre ("Free Cuba") which is basically a rum and coke, but with a lemon. Without the lemon, they call it rum and coke.

-Once the founder of Bacardi was exiled, he traveled around and created Bacardi distilleries in other countries.

On the Bacardi tour

Post-tour my group went to Caguas and found a Chili's. Ironically, the first Chili's I've ever been to. After a nice dinner break, we began the trek back to Guayama, with a seemingly functioning car. About 30 minutes away from home, the meter was well above red again, the check engine light (usually on) began flashing, the oil light came on, and the car emitted an impressive cloud of smoke. Figuring it was best to just keep going instead of worrying about a tow-truck and staying on the shoulder of the road in the dark with no streetlights (Puerto Rico doesn't really have them), we carried on and had the misfortune of hitting every red light possible. As I pulled into the driveway, the car died. Still half in the road, it had to be pushed the rest of the way into the driveway. That's pretty lucky.

Today turned out to be a little more of an adventure than I was expecting, but it was great to see more of the island. We essentially drove all over the island and the view, let alone the cave, was amazing. And hey, now I'm officially a teacher in Puerto Rico!

The Right Book At The Right Time

Being an English teacher, I'm predisposed to be a book nerd. (Vice versa may also apply) But I think even occasional readers will agree that every once in a while, usually through sheer dumb luck, or through the recommendation of a friend, you find yourself with a book that registers so completely with something you're experiencing that you just sit back and say, "Yeah."

Before I left for Puerto Rico, my friend Ally gave me the book All Roads Lead to Austen by Amy Elizabeth Smith and the instructions to begin reading it on the airplane. It's a nonfiction book about an English professor from California who goes on a year-long expedition in Latin America to set up Jane Austen reading groups (reading the Spanish versions) with the locals. Smith (the author) experiences Guatemala, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay, and Argentina and reads each of her three selected novels twice to get different perspectives from different countries. All the while, Smith is trying to answer the question "Are Jane Austen's novels applicable everywhere, even in other languages?"

The frustrations, curiosity, and excitement presented by traveling and grappling with new everything are perfectly illustrated in this book. Struggling with Spanish, meeting new people, seeing new places, learning a new culture, teaching, and finding solace in literature are in the forefront for Smith--and for me at the moment. In her book, Smith argues that you cannot separate people from place; "We don't know a place until we know the people, and that takes time, patience, and serious reading skills." In each country she visited, Smith made a point to read local literature. With each novel read, she was able to gain a deeper understanding of the culture in which she currently found herself--and the jokes too!

The beauty of literature is how universally it connects people and cultures all around the world, whilst still managing to impart wisdom specific to locations, populations, or situations. So why didn't reading occur to me before? Smith's book made me start thinking that I have been trying to get to know a place, instead of a people. Sure, I know a little bit of history, but I don't know local literature that has colored the way people see things. It's a different way of looking at a place, a different kind of understanding. I may be here to teach literature, but I can learn it here too.

Smith says it best when she writes, "Immersion in a new culture can inspire huge changes, but so can reading. Any bookworm knows how a truly powerful book can motivate us toward major change." Now, put the two together and you have major changes in perspective, in appreciation, and in action.

And sometimes all it takes to create change is a book given to you by a friend, at exactly the right time, that makes you sit back and say, "Yeah."

West for the Weekend

Thanks to Puerto Rico technically being part of the United States, we were lucky enough to have a four day weekend. Naturally, this meant it was time for an adventure. Our destination was the West coast of the island-- more specifically, San Sebastián.

Friday night was pretty relaxed and we headed to the movie theater. The movie we saw (We're the Millers) was in English, but had Spanish subtitles at the bottom of the screen. Apparently this is typical, though I did notice a few Spanish titles also playing at the theater.

Saturday afternoon we packed up the car and drove a little over two hours to San Sebastián. The road went up through the mountains, which were partially covered by fog, and then gave way to tons of bamboo trees before taking us to the residential area.

As soon as we arrived in San Sebastián I thought, "THIS was the Puerto Rico I was expecting." Everything was tightly packed together; brightly colored houses, small businesses, lots of trees, some lizards, a mountain view a short distance away from the houses, and the ocean not far off. To give you a comparison, in my city, Guayama, things are much more spread out. My neighborhood is colorful houses quite close together as well, but you need to walk or drive a ways to get to any of the small businesses and large/chain businesses are quite prevalent. As far as foliage is concerned, it's mostly planned (like palm trees next to the sidewalk) and there aren't many natural patches of trees. You can see the mountains from most places in my city, however, the ocean requires some driving to reach.

That evening we went to a town called Moca because there was a festival. Immediately it was like being back home at a county fair. There was a massive amount of cars trying to park in various places in the grass, people milling about the various fried food stands, a stage area designated for live music, and some rides that have definitely been around since at least the 80's. There was even a Tilt-a-Whirl! We listened to some live merengue music for a while, then made our way to a bar to play pool, talk, and dance.

The bar--I'm not sure what it was called--was partially outdoors. The main section with the actual bar, juke box, and pool tables was indoors, but suddenly there ceased to be a roof and more tables and trees made up the other half of the bar. While here, I got the chance to do a little salsa dancing and had quick lessons in how to dance both merengue and bachata. I love dancing, so this was the perfect end to our first evening.

The pier I jumped off of, into the ocean!

Sunday was for the beach. We drove about 45 minutes to Crash Boat Beach, which is a pretty touristy beach with boat and scuba rentals, jet skis, bright umbrellas, and various food vendors. There is a long pier that stretches into the water which I made sure to jump off of, even though it was kind of scary. We hit a few patches of clouds, but otherwise it was a perfect beach day of sunshine and salt water.

Another shot of Crash Boat Beach.

Our last evening in the West lead us back to the festival in Moca because El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico was the musical entertainment. Apparently this group is the most popular Salsa group in Puerto Rico. The ensemble was quite large with trumpets, an upright bass, multiple drummers, a pianist, and three old, but energetic singers who salsa stepped their way through the entire concert. For reference, when I say "old" I mean this group is celebrating 50 years together this year. Several couples took this opportunity to show off their salsa dancing skills, which was amazing to watch. I wasn't able to take a video of the performance, but I did find the following one on YouTube, so take a minute to experience El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico:

El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico 

Today we slept in a little, stopped at the bakery, and then meandered our way back to Guayama. It was a great four-day weekend and I think I'm ready for another school week.