Uninformed Nostalgia

I’ve heard that when people are nostalgic for a particular time, they tend to forget the negative aspects of the era. Case in point: San Francisco in the 60s. Haight Ashbury is remembered as the epicenter of peace and love. People bartered with flowers, and LSD made you an introspective genius. Walk down the street and just try to avoid the free hugs.

Take off the rose-colored glasses, however, and it turns out that most hippies were just glorified drug addicts. And for God’s sake, have you ever smelled a hippie? My mom has. She spent some time in the Haight during the 60s, and apparently it did not smell like flowers. It smelled like pee pee. An influx of hippies during this time had led to overcrowding, crime, homelessness, and drug addiction. That is the Haight my mom remembers and that is the Haight described on Wikipedia, so it must be correct.

So, I’m aware that every era had its downside, yet I still find myself nostalgic for a simpler time—a time I never actually knew. Call me old-fashioned, but I wouldn’t mind living in a time when you could have a one-income family and women didn’t have to balance a full-time career with motherhood. A time when America actually made stuff and loyalty to a company was looked upon favorably. Remember when kids could play outside without supervision and respected their elders? I don’t, but it sure sounds nice. The dresses were awfully pretty too!

I’m well aware of the hardships people faced during that time: women were second class citizens; career changes were practically unheard of; and the Cold War was never too far out of mind. Not to mention women had to wear a whole lot of uncomfortable underthings to fit into those pretty dresses. Yet, compared to forced two- income families; a crumbling infrastructure; and the constant threat of Jihad; Donna Reed’s life looks pretty okay to me. And besides, I wore one of those girdle things under my wedding dress and I looked freaking fantastic!

Is there something wrong with me for wanting that—for dreaming of a slower-paced life?  One in which technology doesn’t rule our existence? As I sit here cursing my internet for running so slowly, I also curse myself for expecting everything to be so instantaneous. It’s a learned behavior, and I don’t like it. Yet, nearly all of us have succumbed. I see kids with glazed-over expressions playing on their ipads and it makes me sad. For one thing, I don’t have an ipad. Why does a 6-year old have an ipad? But even more than jealousy is my fear that children don’t know how to use their imaginations anymore. Parents use technology as a way to shut their kids up. I get it, kids are annoying, shutting them up is appealing. But I think it’s stunting them emotionally and socially. In fact, I think it’s stunting us all.

Technologically, we have made a jaw-dropping amount of progress in the last 100 years. Hell, in the last 10 years. We come up with these inspired inventions, but we don’t know how to handle their side effects. People are glued to their technology apparatuses. We don’t communicate face-to-face like we used to. We don’t know how to just be quiet anymore. We always have to be reading or watching something. Not to mention the environmental ramifications of all this progress. A newer, flashier smartphone comes out every year and our old ones end up in a landfill.*

Yes, the internet makes life so much easier. And having GPS means I never get lost. But what’s so bad about getting lost once in a while? I managed to drive across the country twice without GPS and lived to tell the tale (in fact, the best memories come from the times we got lost). But now that every minute of our day seems to be taken up with something. We don’t have time to get lost.

I know I’m glorifying the past (and sounding a bit curmudgeonly about the present), but why can’t we find a middle ground? I like convenience as much as the next guy, but every once in a while, let’s turn it off. Take a break. Go outside. Bake a pie. And for God’s sake, take the ipad away from your kid and play with him!

* Please don’t throw your old electronics away. Either donate them or recycle them responsibly. Here’s a list of places you can contact for proper disposal: http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/ecycling/donate.htm

Taking a Spin as a Travel Writer - Puerto Rico

As I mentioned in my last post, I recently returned from an 8-day trip to Puerto Rico. And since I'm now an expert on the island (wait, it is an island, right?), I feel it’s my duty to report on the trip.

San Juan

We arrived in San Juan around noon, and after renting our car, we drove to Old San Juan for lunch. 10 years ago, I would have loved Old San Juan. It has history, charm, and good restaurants. I would have walked through the streets for hours, peaking into shops and visiting historical sites.

Life and work have hardened me, however, and I now find that visiting a city is no vacation. There’s no parking. There are tourists everywhere. And I don’t feel like walking. I feel like sitting on the beach with a pina colada. Needless to say, my time in Old San Juan was brief, but it looked nice if you’re into that sort of thing.

El Yunque

From San Juan, we drove to the El Yunque rainforest. This was more my speed. Our ecolodge, the Casa Cubuy, was at the top of a winding road with stunning rainforest views all around. The inn is owned by a U.S. ex-pat. We stayed in the suites down the road and had the whole compound to ourselves. There isn’t much around by way of food or entertainment, so plan accordingly if you make a visit.

The Casa Cubuy serves a huge communal breakfast each morning. In my mind, the terms “communaI” and “ecolodge” tend to conjure up fears of patchouli and dreadlocks (and there’s nothing like hippies to ruin a perfectly good trip to the rainforest). Turns out, however, people were actually really cool and it was fun to hear about their adventures as we ate. The inn provided bagged lunches if you didn’t have the foresight to bring your own food, so for $8 each we got sandwiches, chips, fruit, and a piece of chocolate…not bad. 

 

The inn has its own hiking trails that lead down to some beautiful waterfalls. We spent most of the time climbing around on boulders and hiking through the forest. There is a guide who comes to the inn each morning and offers tours of the area. He sort of looked like this. We declined.

When the sun goes down, there are a couple restaurants on the road to choose from. The Casa Cubuy actually has its own restaurant, but it seems to open at the owner’s whim, so don’t count on it. The Mountain Restaurant is where the locals go. They have one entrée and a limited selection of drinks. It was there that I tried mafongo for the first time. Mafongo is a traditional Puerto Rican cuisine of mashed plantains with seafood, meat, or vegetables on top. The restaurant kept giving us stuff (moonshine, dessert etc.), which seemed like a nice gesture until we realized they charged us for everything we received. We chalked it up to supporting the local economy.

After dinner there wasn’t much to do besides go back to our room and read. But this was one of my favorite parts of the day. I love how the rainforest comes alive at night. These invisible critters come out to play once the sun goes down and you’re treated to a symphony of crickets, frogs, birds, and who knows what else. It was the backdrop to my reading, my sleeping, my middle of the night bathroom trips. I missed it when I left.

Vieques

After two wonderful nights at the Casa Cubuy, we loaded up the car and headed to Fajardo where we were to take the ferry to Vieques. We had been warned that the ferry is not always reliable, and this was a very accurate statement. It’s common for the ferry to either be canceled or late. Plus, residents are given priority, so, as was our case, we couldn’t get tickets on the 1 o’clock ferry (which didn’t actually leave until 2:30). The good news is that the Ceiba airport (named for the Ceiba tree) is about 20 minutes away, and you can get a flight without a reservation for about $30. Granted, the ferry is only $4, but if you already have a hotel booked on Vieques (which I recommend if you go in the high season), shelling out an extra $26 is well worth it.

When we arrived in Vieques, we got in a cab and went to get our jeep (4-wheel drive is a must). My husband had written down the name of the place, but when the driver dropped us off in front of a house in a residential neighborhood, something seemed amiss. The house runs a DVD rental business and apparently does rent out cars, but it turns out my husband had written down the wrong rental place and they had no idea who we were. Tip: write down the correct name of your rental car company.

Thankfully, he figured out where we needed to go, but we had no way to get there. That’s when a woman in the store overheard the situation and offered him a ride. She didn’t have room for both of us, so I stayed behind with the bags while she drove him. Now, this is definitely one of those situations you are warned about when traveling, but in this case it was legit. She was just a nice, helpful lady (plus my husband is 6’1” and could probably have taken her). I hung out on the lawn and watched no less than 15 people come and go from this DVD place in the 30 minutes he was gone. Apparently it was the DVD rental place on the island; and apparently Puerto Ricans really like to watch movies.

The view from Malecon House

Once we were back on track, we headed to the Malecon House where we’d be staying for the next 5 nights. Malecon House is in Esperanza, which is a little beach community with a bunch of restaurants and shops overlooking the water. It is much smaller than Isabel Segunda, which is the other town on the island. Personally, I liked it much more. Isabel Segunda seemed kind of run down and had much less of a beach vibe. Esperanza is full of ex-pats, so brush up on your English before you go.

Malecon House is a new inn (opened in 2010) with only 10 rooms, so the owners actually get to know who's staying there. The owners, Marsha and Robin Shepard, are really helpful and friendly. They are fairly new to the island after 20 years in St. Barts, but they seem to know their stuff. We opted for the cheapest room, which still wasn’t all that cheap. The rooms are very minimalist, which is aesthetically pleasing, but doesn’t really make you feel like you’re by the beach. Only 2 rooms have balconies, and I think it would have made a huge difference. The Malecon House provides a continental breakfast on the patio each morning with fresh baked goods and Puerto Rican coffee. They also have lounge chairs, boogie boards, and various games available for guests to borrow free of charge.

The inn is on the malecon, or boardwalk, that runs along Play Esperanza. Just steps from the inn are restaurants and shops, so unlike in El Yunque, we were never worried about where our next meal would come from. The restaurants run the gamut from traditional Puerto Rican cuisine to American bar food to gourmet food stands. There are also a few really nice restaurants on the island. We were told we had to visit El Quenopo, and we were not disappointed. We went there on our last night in town as a final celebration. The seafood is super fresh and everything we had was amazing. Go there.

 

Our days were spent at the beach— and there are a lot of beaches to choose from! My husband had never been snorkeling, so that was high on our list. We actually booked a snorkeling trip through some guy named Nestor, but he never showed (thankfully we hadn’t paid ahead of time). Instead we rented some snorkeling equipment from Fun Brothers and went right off the coast. Who knows if the tours are worth it, but we feel like we did just fine on our own with our $10 equipment.

A little history lesson about Vieques: After WWII, the U.S. military began using it as a site for military practice. About 1/3 of the island was used as a firing range and testing ground for bombs, missiles, and other weapons. After a civilian was killed by a misfired bomb, the islanders had enough and protested until the military finally withdrew in 2003. In 2004, they opened a wildlife refuge, which to this day has some of the best beaches on the island. Much of the refuge is still closed off, as I think they are still looking for explosives (probably should have made a map or something). However, the parts that are open are wonderful. The waters are calm in these areas and great for swimming and snorkeling.

Silver Beach and Blue Beach were two of our favorites. You almost feel like you’re on a deserted island. However, it was a bit windy while we were there, so the snorkeling wasn’t fantastic in these areas. It’s also easy to lose your bearings if you don’t stop to look up every once in a while. We ended up swimming out too far at Blue Beach and the current made it incredibly hard to get back. Every time we thought we were getting somewhere, the island would taunt us by moving further away.

My husband made it to the island first and then tried to be supportive by yelling things like “over here!” and “keep going!” And thank goodness he did. I was considering letting myself get carried out to sea, but after hearing his words of encouragement, I just couldn’t give up. Now I had a new reason to live: I had to beat the ass of the man yelling asinine phrases like “keep going.” I did make it to the island—but only after swallowing two snorkelfuls of salt water, thus rendering me too weak to kick anyone’s ass.

Unfortunately, the little island we arrived at turned out to be off limits (more explosives that haven’t been found), so our rest was short lived. As we swam back through the supposedly benign sea grass and eventually to shore, we were both stung by what we think were jellyfish tentacles that had fallen into the grass. I’d say that was my least favorite day on Vieques.

If you are interested in snorkeling, Green Beach is the ticket. Green Beach is on the opposite end of the island from the wildlife preserve. Within feet of the beach are reefs filled with colorful fish and urchins. Be careful where you enter the water, however. I was not so careful and ended up with two urchin spikes in my heel. It hurts. Don’t do it.

Green Beach was sort of magical for us. As we were swimming along, minding our own business,

we came up on a West Indian manatee. This is extremely rare. Everyone we spoke to said they had been on the island for years and never seen one. Well, my friends, we did not see one. We saw three. About twenty minutes after our first spotting, we came upon a mother and her calf. In both instances we were able to just float above and watch them for a few minutes before they swam off. They had these little sharks on them eating whatever little sharks eat off of manatees, and one of the sharks looked like it was keeping guard. It never threatened us (plus my husband is 6’1” and could probably have taken it), but it just hung out a few feet away from the manatees and watched us until they left. The whole experience pretty much made our trip and solidified the fact that we are better snorkelers than everyone else. We also saw turtles, giant sting rays, beautiful coral, and colorful fish. My husband even saw a barracuda. Thank you, Green Beach.

We heard Mosquito Pier is also a great area, but the visibility was horrible when we went and I am scared of swimming in murky water (you don’t know what you’ll come face to face with until you are literally right in its face). There is a cartoony map of the island available all over town and it has pictures of snorkels in the areas that are supposed to have good snorkeling. If the weather and visibility are good, check them out. If not, go to Green Beach because it seems to be protected from the elements.

I used to boogie board a lot as a kid in Southern California. As an adult in Northern California you couldn’t pay me to get into that water. So, I was thrilled when I had the chance to rip a few curls or whatever it is you say when you boogie board. Malecon House has a couple of boards available to borrow, so we grabbed them and headed out to Playa Navio, where we were told we’d find some bigger waves. A note about roads on Vieques: they are not good. The paved ones are mostly fine, but often the good beaches are found at the end of bumpy, pothole ridden, dirt roads, which is why 4-wheel drives are a must. Playa Navio was beautiful just like all the other turquoise beaches on the island. The waves break sort of close to shore so you don’t get a super long ride, but that also means you don’t have to swim as far to get to them. The day we went was windy, so we really had to hold on to our boards. It also made the waves bigger and I got pummeled a few times. Other than a couple bruises and some sore arms, I was no worse for the wear though.

The real draw of Vieques, however, is the bioluminescent bay. The bio bay is filled with millions of dinoflagellates, and is more luminescent than any other bio bay in the world. Basically, when you touch the water it lights up like a glow stick. Though currently anyone is allowed to take a kayak into the bay, I’d recommend taking a guided tour, as navigating a bay at night is scary. We used Abe’s Tours because we didn’t trust Hector to show up. The less light the better on this tour, so try to book during a new moon if you can. I was kind of hoping we’d get to swim, but apparently a girl was bitten by a barracuda a few months prior, so I was okay with staying in my kayak. We did see some fish swim by which made the strip of water light up behind it. Very cool.

Vieques is also known for its semi-wild horses and packs of dogs. Both are everywhere. A lot of the dogs have owners and most are friendly. The horses seemed friendly too. Some of the locals seem to domesticate them and use them for transportation. I do not recommend this. Horses are big and they can crush you. Rent a jeep.

In conclusion, here are my tips for a visit to Puerto Rico (ha, I made you read through my entire travel diary before summarizing the highlights…suckers).

1. Visit the rainforest and don’t complain about the deafening critter sounds.
2. Visit the caves in Camuy (I didn’t do this and really regret it).
3. Unless you are broke, don’t bother with the ferry to Vieques. Go straight to Ceiba and take a $30 flight.
4. Rent your car early if you are going to Vieques during high season. Cars do sell out.
5. Stay in Esperanza. You’ll thank me.
6. Visit Green Beach for snorkeling. Don’t feel bad if you don’t see manatees. Not everyone can have our skills.
7. Visit Blue Beach, Silver Beach, or really any other beach in the wildlife preserve for swimming.
8. Visit Playa Navio for boogie boarding.
9. Eat at El Quenopo. It’s not cheap, but it’s so good (this is coming from someone who lives in San Francisco and is used to good restaurants).

Now I’m back in the Bay Area and I am cold. All I have to remember my trip are my pictures, my tan, and my gazillion mosquito bites.

Oh yeah, another tip: bring bug spray.