Latino Language, Pedagogy and Culture Immersion Institute in Puerto Rico

For the weekend we had some free time to travel wherever we wanted. We basically split up into two groups, which both stayed in hotels in Ponce but went separate ways from there. Since there's not much in the way of public transportation across the island, we had to rent cars to get to our destinations, which turned out to be half the adventure. We paid the same toll three times just trying to find our hotel. We finally stopped for directions at the toll plaza and got a very Puerto Rican response, which went something like, "Get off at the second exit, go through four stop lights, and turn where there's construction." Never mind the road names, just the landmarks.

We finally got settled in our hotel and it was time to head into downtown Ponce to find something to eat. After driving in circles all afternoon, we decided that it might be nicer to take a taxi to get there. We had supper at a restaurant called El Rincon Argentino, where we ate outside (with bugspray provided by the waitress) and listened to live music. It was a nice reward for our all our hard work just getting to Ponce. To get back to our hotel at the end of the night, we called the same taxi driver we had earlier that evening. Well, apparently since the last time we had seen him, he managed to put himself in a very good mood, and as he drove us to the hotel he decided to make a game out of how close he could get to the dogs and bicyclists in the narrow side streets. Needless to say, we were glad to get back safely to our hotel.

On Saturday we drove east to El Yunque, the only rainforest in the U.S. National Parks system. We had to make a few stops along the way (including the most crowded Wal-Mart I've ever seen in my life), so by the time we got there we only had a few hours left. Kelly and I were determined to see everything, so we ran ahead to try to find the lookout tower. Where the trail split there was a map, albeit not a very clear one, but we figured out which trail to take. Or so we thought. After about ten minutes of brisk walking, we started to question our direction. We seemed to be going down more than up, which didn't seem right for a trail leading to a lookout tower, and we had not seen anyone else on the trail the whole time. We turned around and started to walk back, and came across some guys who kindly informed us that we were, indeed, on the wrong trail. We returned to the spot where the trail split and took the other branch. Along the way we met the rest of our group on their way back from the lookout tower. They said there wasn't much to see, but we were only five minutes away so we went anyway. They were right. The fog was so thick you couldn't see more than a few feet out of the tower windows. It was a little disappointing, but we were glad we made it to our destination, and we got to see lots of interesting plants and flowers along the way. We didn't get to see any coquis (tree frogs) because they were all high up in the branches, but we certainly heard a lot of them. http://www.millersville.edu/futurestudents/graduate/blog/uploaded_images/waterfall-771617.jpg

The next trail we took led to a waterfall that Kelly and I swam in. It was a little cold at first, but it felt wonderful after hiking through the humid rainforest. The same guys who had helped us find the lookout tower helped us get under the waterfall since the rocks were very slippery. We agreed that it was one of the coolest things we’ve ever done.

We stopped at a restaurant for supper on the way back to Ponce and had a great time laughing and joking about our experiences on the trip. I tried to order in Spanish, but I wasn't quite sure how to say "refill" in Spanish, so I asked the waiter. His response? "Refill." OK, that one's not too hard to remember. That set us off laughing even more.