Donde es el Puerto Rico

by: Kimberly Querry

On our first full day in Ponce, we headed across the city to see new, along with the old sites. We began our tour of the town with the local streets accompanied by our guide Francisco. We simply glanced at the busy "dog market," as the locals like to say. The story behind the name of the almost ancient meat market goes along with the over population of dogs that still exists today. The dogs would wait outside the market until closing when the owners would throw out all of the old meat that didn't sell for the dogs to eat. We continued up the twisting streets to the Don Q rum factory. Don Q is supposed to be the best rum in the world, or so say the locals of the "rum capital of the world." Don Q rum is made with the richest and purest ingredients aged over time in wooden barrels to preserve the fullest taste in the process. The first family of rum used the image of Don Quixote as its mascot for the rum to show its obsessiveness with perfection. After we passed through the over flowing rum bottles and antiques of the castle, we headed to the cross on top of the hill. The cross can be seen for miles around the city, and the elevator to the top gives visitors a new definition of being "on top of the world." Overlooking Ponce, from the mountains to the Caribbean sea, allows many to see the grandness of their location. Coming back to solid ground, we soon had the pleasure of leisurely touring the central plaza with Francisco as we all ate Ponce's famous ice cream. The soft pineapple taste stayed with us as we moved from corner to corner of monuments. He explained the history of the plaza with its statues and buildings, and he also described the quirks of the buildings surrounding the square. His stories showed that even mistakes in architecture can still behold a beautiful, unique building even without the complete essence of perfection. As we moved from the plaza to the art museum, we reached paintings and sculptures that represented the culture of this tropical place. We did not realize we would soon encounter the culture we were being taught at the moment. We were told of a series of buildings that were reserved for a lane that represented the fire department's history. When we reached those buildings of black and red, the fire and ashes soon came alive as we had the pleasure of meeting a couple that lived in one of the houses. A charming couple that resided on 15th enero calle welcomed us into their home and gave us a glimpse into their family. While knowing little English, the old woman was able to tell us she was a fire fighter for over twenty five years. As Francisco relayed our questions, the couple only smiled when they were lost in translation. Their actions and appearances showed no frustration and complete friendliness to our group as our first full day came to a close. Tuesday we not only learned about the history of a culture, but we were lucky enough to experience it firsthand by meeting living embodiments of the virtues and historical pride Puerto Ricans hold dear.