Day Three: Zuriel, Alex, Jeremy

 El Yunque

Today we traveled an hour from Miramar to El Yunque National Rainforest ( the only rainforest in the United States). Although, there are 21 subtropical forests in Puerto Rico. Within El Yunque it rains approximately 250 inches a year, which is 50 more inches than needed for a forest to be classified as a rainforest. El Yunque is 38,000 acres in area and is home to over 240 different species of native trees. The winds and rains the Forest experiences come from the northeast and because the forest is comprised of mountains it blocks the weather drafts to the south side of the island; thus, the south of Puerto Rico only receives 30 inches a year or less.   

Jibara’s Borqiuen Resturant

Jibara’s restaurant is located along the coast in Luquillo. In 2018, the restaurant lost electricity and since then it runs on an electric plant or a facility designed to produce heat generated from fossil fuels. This sheds light to the island's approach to restoration after the hurricanes and attempt to become more sustainable. Even 5 years after the hurricane there are many places still trying to recover at their own expenses without much support. The choice is to become more sustainable or make a livelihood. Although, even in the midst of struggle prices were reasonable and fair into customers. Services were provided in both English and Spanish, also alluding to the curriculum of educational institutions in Puerto Rico being forced to teach English as a second language and the forced assimilation to become more “modern” or subjected to United States standards. 

Piña Colada sin alcohol 

Mrs.Ducharme ordered the table Piña Coladas without alcohol. They are made of frozen pineapple, coconut milk, and ice cubes. When talking more in depth about Piña Coladas with Señor Campos we learned about the difference between them in Puerto Rico and the continental United States. When most people from the continental United States think of Piña Coladas, they assume the drink contains alcohol and something for “selfish “entertainment, while here in Puerto Rico the drink is a refreshment that serves against the hot temperatures and has cultural significance due to the ingredients used and produced on the island. 

The Beach 

After the restaurant the group remained at Luquillo Beach where we walked along the coastlines and enjoyed the cool waves. Later, it became apparent that the coasts were becoming shorter because of climate change. The waves grew larger rapidly throughout our stay and swept the sand from the coast, creating trenches that could potentially sweep swimmers underwater and out to sea. This added to the slanted and drastic slopes of the coasts that at some points made it hard to walk straight. If climate increases by 1.5 degrees Celsius there could be a possibility of the disappearance of public beaches. 

Bioluminescence

There are 3 bodies of water with bioluminescent bacteria from mangrove trees. Each with a variety of clarity to see the plankton shine their light when they are scared off by what they seem to think are predators. The trip into the large body of water started off with going through a canal, which was difficult at first because of the current that pushed against us. After what seemed to be a long and tret ride, we entered the beautiful scenery of a piece of land that was once destroyed by hurricane maria. As the night sky settled into lightfall we started to unwrap tarps and put them over us to see the amazing species of plankton that lived in the water. After a while of being out their and experiencing something so naturally beautiful we started to head back through the canal in what seemed to be a pitch black tunnel of water where the plankton started to be a lot more noticeable, after many bumps and traffic we made it back to the beginning where it was all smiles and laughter after a long and sweaty and wet kayaking trip.

 (Jeremy)

 Although today was full of amazing experiences. Much of those experiences didn’t come in the form of helping with my project. But what did come into help was the gentrification that was surrounding us everywhere we went. Meaning that I saw a lot of for sale signs. We talk a lot about how much the price increase for rent and property cost have gone up. And in these cases it has not positively affected the Puerto Rican community. That impact of poverty increases correlates completely to my project in which I talk about how the decline of the Puerto Rican economy will look like in a couple of years. It also adds on to the fact that more than half the Puerto Rican population doesn’t even live in Puerto Rico and even though their a part of the United States their aren’t given the same treatment at all when it comes to business taxation nor expenses to property and land.

   

Although I (Alex) was originally interested in Puerto Rico’s power grid and electrical infrastructure, I have shifted my topic, in part due to signs I have seen since our arrival in Puerto Rico, and especially today. As we were driving from San Juan to El Yunque I noticed a large volume of signs that said for sale on buildings while we were in more urban areas. These signs are representative of the ways that Puerto Rican people are being displaced in their own countries due to gentrification. We talked to Jorge about how much more money rent is in Puerto Rico now due to a huge amount of businesses and corporations moving to back to Puerto Rico to reap the benefits of the tax breaks present here. This gentrification was most striking to me in passing a beautiful historic looking building that had been repurposed as a Burger King.