Puerto Rico, day three
Camuy Cave Park, Arecibo Observatory, and Arecibo Coast
August 4, 2008
By Joshua Anderson
photo: Scholars @ the Arecibo Coast, Puerto Rico
I'm not sure at what point it was that I realized I was coming down with something awful (probably the night before I left, when my children began exhibiting symptoms), but I remember desperately hoping that the early signs of sickness weren't real: by day three I knew that they were.
Wednesday, July 16th
6:00 a.m.
Salsa music. Loud. In my ear. Where am I? Why can't I breath?
It all comes to me: music = alarm clock, location = Puerto Rico, lack of oxygen = a nasty, nasty cold.
"Oh no you didn't..." I think to myself, pulling on my jogging shoes and marching downstairs to the gift shop, preparing to clean them out of Halls and the strongest please-Lord-let-me-not-feel-this pills. They're closed. I march right down to the beach.
Remember how they tell you to drink a glass of salt water (aka saline) if you're all plugged up? Well, try running a couple of miles -- getting real warmed up -- and then jumping into the world's largest glass of salt water. I emerged from the waves, cured.
I stop back at the gift shop for my fix, just in case. It's the first of many visits.
9:00 a.m.
The San German/ Kansas all-star team is loading up for another adventure. The first destination of the day is the Rio Camuy Cave Park. During the drive we learn about the geology of Northern Puerto Rico, the large and sudden mountains that spring up seemingly out of nowhere. These, I learn, are Mogotes, sections of the soft indigenous rock that make up much of the island that didn't sink during early epochs. The Caverns, which we are on our way to see, are the opposite sort of phenomena: massive (and I do mean massive) sink holes. Apparently, one of the world's largest underground rivers flows through the bottom of the cave system there, though we won't go too deep, due to an accident a year ago. The Mogotes, I also learn, often fall victim to landowners and developers, and this is unfortunate considering the fresh water retention and filtering function they provide the eco-system. As our tour guide will later put it, Puerto Rico - being an island - always has a water problem (a concept this Kansan finds ironic).
Noonish:
We're on a trolley, headed towards the largest sinkhole. We've just watched a video in Espanol, kindly translated in whispers by my friend Eric. We are let off on the far side of the hole, where our tour guide begins a very thorough explanation of not only the caves and the phenomena that formed them, but the ecosystem of the outlying park, as well as the three cities it encompasses. We slowly make our way around the largest sink-hole, taking pictures and asking questions, and eventually head down a smaller one to take a peek in a cave.
photo: stalactites in the mouth of a cave at the Rio Camuy Cave Park, Puerto Rico
Afternoonish:
The whole crew is pretty much beat, and we're running behind schedule. We make a mad-dash to the Arecibo Observatory, the world's largest radio-telescope, suspended between three massive Mogotes -- Karsic mountains. We're glad we did: Arecibo is amazing. Upon entering the mountain-top museum that sits adjacent to the dish/ array and research facility, we are inundated with data. The space is loaded with displays on the nature of their research there at the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center. In a few minutes we gather in the non-air conditioned room (a small oscillating fan sits uselessly in the doorway) to watch a film. In the film we learn that the cafeteria begins making breakfast at 6:00 in the morning, then I fall asleep. The film is the only weak link in Arecibo's presentation, but that's okay, because I'm exhausted, and really I'm only biding my time until we can go out on the observation deck and take a look at the radio dish. Eventually we do, and it's really, really cool.
Later...
We climb in the van and begin yet another nausea inducing descent from the mountains. We're on our way to the coast at Arecibo, the hometown of INTER San German's McNair director and our host, Roxane Cepero -- a great woman who has made our stay in Puerto Rico feel like a visit to a friend's house. She promises us that we're on our way to the most beautiful coast in all of Puerto Rico. The shore there, she says, is a sort of focal point for two sets of currents that come in and converge at a point where a rock formation has created a bowl, in conjunction with the steep sandy beach, wherein people ride massive waves that come in, somewhat dampened by the rocks. As the waves hit the protective rock barrier, the spray shoots up and rains down on the swimmers, and it glistens in the setting sun, not unlike a picture of paradise (see the photo at the beginning of this post).
That night:
We eat Pizza and read the Lawrence news from a laptop. We're half-way done.
thanks for reading,
-theblackrabbit
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