Back and Forth Across the Pond

We took a trip down to The Cabo Rojo National Wildlife Refuge, which is located in the southeast corner of the island. Some claim the region's name, which directly translates to Cape Red, comes from the red-colored hypersalinated lagoons. Others say it stems from the color of the limestone cliffs. The Refuges features a subtropical dry forest, a lighthouse, and the salt flats. We followed a bumpy dirt road for a mile or two and came to a dead end in a parking "lot." A path meandered through the dry forest toward the lighthouse.   Unlike a desert, which tends to get minimal rain fall, a dry forest can receive a lot of precipitation. But it experiences long dry spells, often lasting months, that dictate the type of plant life that call it home. I saw a lot of coarse, leggy shrubs and cacti, like this beauty.  As we made our way to the lighthouse, we caught sight of what I believe is Boriquen Bay. It's a top-rated bathing beach with fine white sand and ca...

I take a break from posting photo blogs to announce that my visa has arrived, and we have booked our plane tickets to Scotland. We leave for the next chapter of our lives on June 28. Wow. Just . . . wow.

Driving around Puerto Rico is an interesting experience. As I mentioned before, the vast majority of the drivers take the maximum speed thing seriously and drive well under the speed limit. Other rules of the road, however, do not garner quite as much loyalty. For instance, stop signs are often optional for many drivers. This is especially true on the narrow, one-way streets of downtown Isabela. Right-of-way tends to be meaningless, as well. And people think nothing of just stopping in the street and blocking traffic. I am also baffled by the emergency vehicles. All of them - police, fire, ambulance - drive with their lights on. I'm not talking their headlights here. I'm talking the flashing lights. I saw a cop sitting in traffic with her lights flashing and was gobsmacked that no one made room for her to pass. That was because she wasn't on a call. Emergency vehicles put on their sirens for that. The problem is, you see the lights long before you hear the siren (you know...

After our visit to El Yunque, we made our way to Old San Juan. We had no real idea what to expect there, nor any real plan of attack. We just found parking and started walking. The first order of business was to find something to eat. We came upon a nice bar/restaurant and had an enjoyable meal there.  The restaurant's decor was eclectic and fun. After we finished eating, we just went wandering. We figured we would just walk in the general direction of one of the forts and see what we could find. San Juan is the oldest city in the U.S. and its territories. It was founded in 1521. Actually, when Columbus stumbled first upon the island in 1493, he named it San Juan Bautista and the port city was Puerto Rico, which means rich port. But a cartographer got a bit confused when he was drawing a map in the of the island in the 1520s and he swapped the names. No one bothered to switch them back and San Juan grew to become an important Spanish colonial city with a hospital and unive...