Me in the dry forest during a tour given by Fransisco.
By: Dawn Scales
Friday, May 18, 2007
Ponce, the second largest city in Puerto Rico, is where we have spent the first three nights of our stay. Francisco Jusino, dressed in crisp khakis and a polo shirt with Adventuras Travels sewn onto the left breast of the shirt, introduced himself after we loaded the bus to begin our first full day in Puerto Rico. After a day of his guiding, I was impressed. He wasn’t supposed to show us around the second day but Angela Fetty, graduate assistant, did some talking and convinced him to come if we gave him $2 each. We all put two bucks together and had the opportunity to enjoy Francisco for yet another day. The absence of Francisco would have hurt my heart. He speaks brilliant English and knows almost everything about everything. He is his own boss, selling his car and buying a van is how he first started his business, Aventuras Puerto Rico Tours.
We started out the day by taking a winding up hill road to the Caguana & Tibes Indian Parks where most of our cell phones lost signal. The fact that our phones aren’t a priority for an hour or so relieves me. We as citizens of the United States seem to be engulfed with issues concerning materialism, which are rooted from perceptions of self-image.
On the way there we witnessed three brown horses just walking side by side in the middle of the street and before taking eyes off of them they began to gallop onto the highway. Are you serious, were my thoughts.
On the way to the Caguana & Tibes Indian Park we witnessed three malnutritioned horses run onto the highway.
Upon arrival Salvador Mas, park tour guide, guided us into a small structure filled with wall-to-wall information on the early civilization of Taino Indians.
Salvador Mass explains the huts that original Indians resided in during our tour.
Salvador’s speech conveyed that of conviction and passion, not just for his job but also for the history of civilization.
“Beautiful African culture, just so beautiful, look at you, you’re beautiful,” Salvador said with such conviction.
We followed Mas across a bridge into the woods where he used imagery, mythical tones of speech and humor to keep everyone engaged. He speaks like a novel, Franciso said. Who knew there were hallucinogens used that were so potent it could kill you or better yet take you to a place where you see Gods and Spirits? I hate to admit it but when he said that my ears perked up. At one point Francisco picked up a baby lizard and told us when women would lose their earrings they would, well he didn’t finish he just put the baby lizard up to his ear and the lizard clinched on and dangled for moments. I had to do it.
After witnessing Fransisco let the lizard cling to his ear I wanted to experience the same.
Thus far Salvador would be the second best tour guide we’ve met, Francisco being the first of course. Following we grabbed a bite to eat and then headed to the Dry Rainforest where the sweat seemed to pour out of my body. Imagine a bottle of water, that’s how much rainfall the forest gets a year. That's how much water I didn't have yet lusted for.
Like Lauren said, “I would die.”
There are 100 or so different kinds of birds on the island and 50 are found in the forest, one was sighted but I missed it. Apparently they are most prevalent in the morning.
After spending all day filling our “cabezas” (heads) with much wanted information we were able to fill our stomachs with the islands best, a little rum. Kendal, Wes and I walked about a block left of our hotel and ran into a crowd of young looking natives, just standing. There dress definitely was reminiscent of Hip-Hop culture. Matching shirts, shoes, sunglasses at night and baggy clothes were all seen. At first we thought they were waiting to get into the clubs, which consisted of about three bars right on top of each other. No, they were just talking, watching and of course drinking in the middle of the street.
It was an awkward vibe. I was told something interesting by Norman, an English speaking native, who told me a majority of people know English they just choose not to speak it and act dumb when you say something to them.
1 comment:
Dawn is so shy...(not!)as you can tell from her photo. She seemed fascinated by the dry forest..can't wait to see what she will have to say about the rain forest we will visit. Perhaps of all of us in the group, Dawn really "got" what Sal was about, despite his sometimes provocative, even outrageous, statements. He was passionate and unapologetic about his most profound beliefs. On the whole, these are not bad qualities to have.
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