Shalina's report from Puerto Rico

Shalina Chatlani's report from Puerto Rico:

Puerto Rico's capital, San Juan, from what I have discovered being here only one day, is divided up into 3 main sections—the tourist infested section, known as Isle Verde (Green Island), Condado, and Old San Juan, along with many other little neighborhoods. Isle Verde is where I am staying, as this part of town has most of the hotels. In addition to that, there is a beautiful beach 5 minutes away. In fact, I recall one man say, "we love the water here." I imagine he would, because the temperature is so extreme. The high was 85, and it was 91 all through the day. Old San Juan, the meat of the capital, has an amazing mix of contemporary and old. Old San Juan is the original city, the streets and houses have that great Latin American vibe. It’s an oasis of multi colored houses. Within it there are little squares that have just a fabulous, fantastical sitting area. And this sounds exaggerated, but the scenery is truly just awe inspiring. The streets are still paved with the old stones that made this city, and built on them are modern style restaurants and boutiques. Now if you want to walk past this, all the way to the water, sadly, you’re out of luck; you will be blocked a gigantic fortress. This is called the San Juan fort which is pictured right above. The fort is more than just a great exercise to tone those American legs. It’s a fun and educational adventure. My dad and I went through as many entrances as we could, but the structure was so large, we probably missed a lot. Initially of course, we just swerved through all the rooms with their display items and such. And then we hit the jackpot. THE DUNGEON. Such a fascination in this specific section of the fort might be considered a little bit wacky, but it IS interesting. We made our way down a dark tunnel and entered a tiny little room, which smelled disgusting, and I imagined a couple dozen people packed in there when the fort was actually in use. And when I look at the dungeon drawings, I saw someone had scribbled, right next to a picture of a ship, the word, “Mierda!” The fort offered many amazing things, like another treasure—the firing section, which is the top part of the fort. Stacked up, was a huge pile of lovely cannonballs. I loved it. Of course, this fort cannot be summed up in a mere summary, or even a book. You have to fly to Puerto Rico and see it yourself ;). The other fort we saw was El Muro, the oldest fort in the Americas, much like the San Juan fort, el muro had its own wonders, like circled and triangular staircases that led to nowhere or somewhere, a light house, which unfortunately was cut off from the public, and real cannons. It also had a replica of the Spanish headquarters, which were quite dismal. It gave me a quite a clear picture of how awful the conditions were at that time. Those were the sites I saw in one day; now the food I ate deserves another blog entirely. I went to a restaurant called Café Puerto Rico. The food was traditional Puerto Rican food. I had mofongos con camarones, which is a bowl of plantains and shrimps in the middle and a delicious sauce drizzled over it. It was quite good. The flavors take a while to get used to, because it’s quite a change from regular salty American food, to a mixture of bitter and sweet. For dinner we had ceviche, which is seafood cooked in vinegar or some acidic sort of mix like lemon juice, so its not entirely cooked. It was delicious. And of course, desert had to be tres leche, the closest thing to heaven, a cake soaked in three kinds of milk, absolutely delicious. My first night in Puerto Rico was fun, exciting, and extremely tiring. If anyone decides to come here, make sure to come with an open mind, GOOD walking shoes, and lots of sun screen. The bus takes about an hour to go somewhere maybe 10 miles away, so it would be very wise to choose walking as a mode of transportation (as lots of taxis are ROBOS- rip-offs) All in all, I love this place. So much culture.