“Los exploradores.” – Missing the cultures and language that
we grew to love over the years lived in South and Central America, Kevin and I
decided to explore the one spot in the US that still holds strong its Latin
legacy and lore—and even nationality.
Puerto Rico has been a territory of the United States since 1898, and advocates
for statehood constantly confront those loyal to maintaining commonwealth
status in order to guard culture and history.
As for the Reillys, we desire to visit and explore this spot
in the world because it is a taste of our old home within the fronteras of our new home. In actuality, when we decided to take this
vacation some months ago, we began our exploration with a tour book. Through
the Midwest evenings of late winter through spring, we have read of the history,
language, fauna, culture, food, and places.
This morning, we boarded a Airtrans jet (business class!)
and flew to Baltimore, and now on Southwest (not in business class) we’re
headed four hours south to San Juan, Puerto Rico. And for all those who always thought that
when we lived in Costa Rica we were living on an island, this time we are going to
an island. Puerto Rico is part of the
Antilles, between Hispaniola (Dominican Republic/Haiti) and the Virgin Islands.
Goals for this trip:
see palm trees, listen to the ocean, check out the army base and VA
medical center, PRACTICE SPANISH, visit a local church . . . .
And when we arrived in San Juan (our first "pit stop" in this Amazing Race), the Spanish flowing full and free from voices all around me almost made me tear up.
Tomorrow I will tell you why this trip is now called our "Amazing Race."
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