Vivir y morir en Puerto Rico : El día de supervivencia

My first impression of Puerto Rico was 'Wow! This is what LA will be in a
few decades.' All the roads, roadsigns, and businesses in San Juan seemed just like those in LA, but were all en
espanol. I admit, I was a bit disappointed at first, thinking the place
was too much like the 'mainland,' but I soon discovered that in this
corner of the American empire there lingered a very Latin culture,
laid-back and friendly (some say irresponsible).
Now I'm eager to see more of Latin America, and practice my Spanish. Mi
espanol es asi que malo, pero tengo que comenzar en alguna parte. And
fortunately for me, most people in PR are bilingual -- what a gift!

After the 'business' part of the trip was over, I spent a few days
exploring the island with Sid, a friend who came; he's a medical student at
UCSF with some free time at the moment while he waits to hear where he'll
do his residency. We hiked and slept in the jungle of El Yunque (pronounced joon-keh) for a night -- it was
full of all kinds of exotic noises. We stayed in the 'backyard' of a interesting guy named Robin Phillips. We ran across him in the jungle and he suggested we stay at one of his cabins (only $25 a night). He grows many kinds of exotic fruits from all over el mundo on his 12 acre jungle-farm. And he lets his guests have a taste of such fruits as durian, carambola, and rambutan. By the way, he's trying to build a concrete house to replace his old wooden one that got devastated in a 1998 hurricane. He says he'll give free room and board to anyone interested in helping him build, so e-mail him if you or a free spirited friend of yours is interested.

Friday, we bought some cheap snorkeling
gear (tubo respirador en espanol) and snorkled off the coast. You enter the world of the fish and see all kinds of wildly
colored animals and plants, all gently waving with the rhythm of the tide.
I imagine if animals lived in the clouds of Neptune, the experience would
be quite similar.
Then we decided to circumnavigate a small island off
the coast, wearing only tevas and shorts.
It got to the point where we
were on our hands and knees in the thick of the wilds, focused like
animals on nothing but survival. (Just like junior high.) I've got a
thousand and one bug bites to prove it! I'm sorry to say we never found a
passage around the island... and were late for the pick-up by the
fisherman giving us a ride back. A few 'Lo sientos' and he seemed to forgive us.

After a supreme seafood meal, Sid and I hightailed it to Old San Juan, where I had a rendezvous planned with some locals I'd met a few days before. Things went sideways for a while as we couldn't find the place we were supposed to go. So we wandered Calle San Sebastian, played pool and drank some light beers for a bit. But then, under an impulse from Providence, I wandered down a street and happened to see a car full of jebas (women) that were shouting at me. I almost said No quiero drogas, but then I realized I knew one of them. We all met later at Club Lazer and bailado toda la noche. Later, Sid and I found ourselves eating papas fritas at Denny's (yes, they have Denny's), taking a power nap in the bedraggled rental car, and then heading back to the mainland.