Puerto Rico

"If the U.S. flag in Puerto Rico covers an American territory, we Puerto Rican, by natural rights, are perfect U.S. citizens. U.S. citizenship should not be imposed on a Puerto Rican if he does not want it, but if there is a law making all Puerto Ricans ipsofacto U.S. citizens, then the ideals of the people of Puerto Rico would be achieved." - Jose de Diego

It's American and it's not American.  I can shop at Walgreen's and Payless Shoes.  I can get my morning coffee at Dunkin' Donuts, but set shopping aside and Puerto Rico is clearly a Caribbean nation.  Everyone speaks English and Spanish.  Merv is always greeted in English but of course I am not.  It is assumed that I am native to the region.  It's a different kind of southern vacation than those we usually take.  While we are situated on the beach, we are in the heart of the city.  And San Juan is hopping.  The nightlife is busy and loud, our hotel casino crowded, the lobby bar filled with beautiful young people with far too much money and party hearty attitudes that are too lavish for their own good.   The wait staff can be observed at all times of the day and night, serving expensive bottles of Veuve Cliquot to groups of twenty somethings - even on the beach.  Everything here is expensive from the bottled water to the martinis.

Today we booked a couple of tours.  Merv has been studying what's on offer and there is much adventure on the menu.  As much as he'd like to participate in some of it, he's not prepared to do it alone and some of it is clearly beyond my physical competence.  So we're going to do some scaled-down adventure - still challenging for me.  Thursday night we will be kayaking on a bio-luminescent lake.  Friday we will be hiking through the rainforest.  We won't be doing the hike up the 4,000 foot high mountain but it will be challenging all the same.  There is one more nature reserve Merv is hoping to get us to.

Tonight we will don our comfortable shoes and head into Old San Juan for dinner.  It is about five kilometers from our hotel.  Merv would like to do it as a nightly ritual but we'll have to see.  I'm not entirely sure I will have a ten kilometer walk in these feet every night, particularly after all the daytime explorations we will have made.  But I'm trying to be a good sport and remember there will be lots of time for resting when I'm dead.