Harry S. Pariser:Adventure Guide to Puerto Rico: Excerpts

The Adventure Guide to Puerto Rico : Third Edition

by Harry S. Pariser

All text on this page is copyright, 1997.

Detailed

If Puerto Rico can be said to have a national animal, it must be the diminutive coqui. This one-and-a-half-inch (36 mm) streamlined treefrog has bulging eyes, webbed fingers and toes with 10 highly efficient suction discs, and smooth, nearly transparent beige skin. Its cry is enchanting, so sweet that it's sometimes mistaken by newcomers for that of a bird.

Informative

San Juan was originally served by streetcar lines. Although these have disappeared, streetcar stops are still used to identify locations. Watch for yellow obelisk posts or the upright metal signs (reading Parada or Parada de Guaguas) which identify bus stops. For reference purposes, Stop 8 is near Parque Muñoz Rivera in Puerto de Tierra; Stop 10 is in Miramar; Stop 18 is near Av. Roberto H. Todd; Stop 30 is the Fomento Building in Hato Rey; and Stop 40 is the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras.

Comprehensive

Naturalista y Vegetariano is at C. Duarte 205. At C. César González 553, Booby's is an inexpensive family-run restaurant serving Puerto Rican food. For buffet dining, Gourmet To Go (tel. 766-4079), Tnte. César González 437, serves innovative Puerto Rican dishes. At C. Barbosa 597, La Guitarra serves a variety of tapas and other Spanish dishes. For Puerto Rican food, Metropolitan Restaurant and Coffee Shop is at the Metropolitan Shopping Center. At Av. Ponce de León 507, La Cueva del Chicken Inn sells cock-a-doodle-doo in all formats.

Humorous

There's a parlor with a Victrola poised to play La Traviata, a sewing machine, a rocking horse, tables and chairs; a study with wire rim glasses still on top of the ledger; a bedroom with shoes tucked under the bed; and a kitchen with coffee beans in various stages of processing. In short, it appears as if the family has either just stepped out for a minute or has been kidnapped by aliens.

Descriptive

Inside, the first level has one room dedicated to Francois Oller's portraits of local notables, with another room containing indigenous artifacts and a collection of Ta’no skulls. The remaining rooms are largely devoted to the remarkable artwork of the local artist Tomas Batista. His work includes bronze and fiberglass busts and fossilized stones carved into the shape of gigantic seashells. The top floor contains governorial and mayoral portraits by local artist Tulio Ojedo and a genuine mayoral desk belonging to the current mayor. It's obvious who was backing the museum. Another room illustrates the history of Bayamón complete with the making of chicharrones and the daily life of the j’baro. There's even a shovel from the 1977 groundbreaking of a Union Carbide plant. The museum is completed with yet another room of Indian artifacts.

"Ecotouristic"

The seldom-seen Culebra giant anole (a huge lizard), resides in the forested areas of Mount Resaca. Four species of sea turtles breed on Culebra's and Culebrita's beaches: the Atlantic loggerhead and green sea turtles, the hawksbill, and the leatherback. Leatherbacks may reach a length of 6.5 feet (two m) and weigh up to 500 kg. These turtles have been exiled from one Caribbean beach to another by poachers and developers. Here too, despite the threat of stiff penalties under the Endangered Species Act, local poachers value the eggs as a protein source and an aphrodisiac.

Adventurous

Visiting Playa Resaca is a true adventure. To get here you must hike a long way down through thorny brush. The only time this path is clear is during turtle nesting season which is also when you aren't supposed to visit. It can be difficult to find your way toward the end. After emerging in a mangrove forest, a path leads down to the magnificent beach which is generally deserted, but without shade. It's like a tourist brochure but without the hotel. Along the way you might see a hermit crab, a snake slither by, or a land crab. Be sure to bring a good supply of water, as none is available. Good shoes and long pants are strongly recommended.

Controversial

After the polls closed in 1980, Commandant Enrique Sanchez, security chief in charge of polling and a Romero henchman, refused for hours to turn over the ballots to the counting authorities. What happened to the ballots in that time remains a mystery. On July 25, 1978 security forces shot and killed two independentistas atop Cerro Maravilla, Puerto Rico's highest peak, which is topped with communications towers. Apparently, two youths, Arnaldo Dario Posado and Carlos Soto Arrivi, were lured by undercover agent Gonzalez Malaveto to the mountaintop to plant explosives. It is believed that the youths, one mentally disturbed and the other a teenager, were enticed there and then shot in order to discredit the independence movement.

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