Puerto Rico

The flight was uneventful (despite the imminent rapture). Save for a few gate changes and a slight delay, I arrived in Puerto Rico without any problems. Thoroughly surprised that Continental got me to my destination without a major outrage, I headed out of the airport to meet Mar. Seeing her felt like going home. This summer that home will be spread between Puerto Rico, Spain, and Sicily.

The day after I arrived in Puerto Rico we were set to go caving in Cabo Rojo. We woke up early and headed out. I complained the entire time because I didn’t get my morning coffee. We finally made it through my grumbling to the meeting place where we found Tim and Jeff (read last year’s blog for more on them if you are so inclined).

After a short drive we made it to the beginning of the excursion (at least the part on foot). We hiked for about a half hour before reaching the first cave. It was an average cave with a ceiling just low enough that you have to bend down to walk through it. The floor was dirt and the walls were rather smooth and rounded. If you asked a child to draw a cave this would be what you would get. It was ordinary, not much to write about so I’ll stop writing about it. I was already dripping with sweat.

We left the first boring cave and walked to the second (really just another part of this same one). This one was bigger, with higher ceilings and several rooms that opened up majestically. Light poked through holes in the ceiling in a few places. Rats hid with cockroaches in tiny holes in the walls (the holes were tiny but the rats weren’t). We saw giant spiders (called whiptail scorpions) at several points along the way. Farther down the cave we came to a room emanating a warm draft with a familiar smell for anyone who has gone caving before, the smell of bat. We entered the room to the sound of screeching bats, flying, flapping, and diving through the air. The feeling was completely overwhelming and capped off yet another successful caving adventure.
My favorite thing to do in Puerto Rico is caving. It s so humid in there that Greg always gets super wet from sweat.

Some of the animals we found in the cave. Big toad.

Bats.
Whiptail scorpions. People called it a spider but it is not a spider.

This is a spider. A tarantula. I was afraid to get closer... I don't like spiders!

Since we left Puerto Rico a while ago (now in Spain, don’t worry we’ll get to that), I am going to give the abridged version. I was lazy before and didn’t want to write the blog, I’m sorry! I’ll do my best to keep recent with it now. So, Puerto Rico, the Abridged Version:

We.... went to Sancho Panza several times (I think every time we went out to dinner), which meant tostones and asopao de pollo (a Puerto Rican dish that is fantastically good). I made goat cheese from Anais’s (Mar’s goat) milk that turned out fantastic! I fell in love with the baby goat Anais had recently, I miss her (sad face). The power went out at least three times during the two weeks we were there. Puerto Ricans drive even crazier than I had remembered. We watched Barca beat Manchester United to claim the UEFA Champions League (Yeahhhhhhhhh). We saw an amazingly beautiful and bright Bioluminescenct Bay on the island of Vieques, which was otherwise very depressing and included being stranded by people who we had already paid to take us back to our hotel. And there was a lot of moving going on - furniture, clothes, pictures, etc.
Greg with Anais and the baby goat. Greg and the baby goat fell in love with each other!

Anais grabing a guineo (banana) from Greg. They are in the front yard in my house in Puerto Rico.

The best view in Vieques, after the biobay.

-Greg