A Little More

Casie and I are packing, eagerly anticipating that 6 am flight on Sunday. Genesis has outlined our 10-day itinerary, it is jam-packed with Puerto Rican adventure!

After doing a little more online searching, I have to say, I couldn't find too much more to add. But here is what I did find:

- Beaches? There are 270 miles of beaches. Also mountains, waterfalls, rainforest, and caves.

- Puerto Rico is home to the world's largest telescope; it's 1,000 feet in diameter.

- Roughly the size of Connecticut, Puerto Rico has a higher population than over 20 of the states, and is closer to Florida than Hawaii is to California.

- It was our old pal Chris Columbus who "discovered" the island, naming it San Juan Bautista (Saint John the Baptist) and the main city Puerto Rico. Somewhere down the line the names got swapped.

- The original inhabitants were the Taíno people. Add the incoming Europeans and their African slaves, and you have the ethnic mix of the current people, who call themselves boricua.

- The U.S, acquired the island from Spain in 1898, the residents became U.S. citizens after 1917, and since 1953 it's been a commonwealth, still not a state with full voting rights.

- The weather is 70-80 degrees all year round, lots of rum, salsa dancing, frogs and sea creatures, what else do I need to know?

Puerto Rico here we come!