It seems like a long time ago that I was on the shores of
that Caribbean island, doing nothing but figuring out how to do nothing. Today
the realization hit me that only a week has passed since spring break. The week
following one of the most relaxing weeks of my life seemed to take up the
busyness of a month. Between working on a new major art project, twenty hours
of work, developing a playable script for a directing workshop that would
consume my mind for the week and my actions for the weekend, and getting
settled back into a routine of “normalcy”, I found myself monumentally ready
for a break in the action. So today, I take a moment in that break of action to
revel in my experiences just last week.
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| A view of Old Town San Juan from a castle turret |
Nine o’clock A.M. Sun streaks through the gap in the
curtains of our cheap, bathroom sized hostel room, home of three other
inhabitants besides myself. I have no choice but to wake up. I wouldn’t describe
it as stifling, but it was the first time in a week that I experienced the
sunny 81-degree Puerto Rican weather in something besides a hammock. I was just
thankful to have a shower. Eventually we roam around Old Town San Juan and
explore the Spanish castles. I didn’t know there were any castles in America
that didn’t have the Disney stamp on them so I was super excited. After
exploring in a manner that reminded my travel mate and I of times in Europe, we
moseyed to the airport to spend the “night” there before flying out super early
the next morning. While on our aimless amble, we came across a wonderful place
to eat a local meal, something we had been looking for. Taco Bell and Walmart
just seemed wrong when in the Caribbean. Walmart is how our troubles for the
trip began in the first place.
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| I climbed a coconut tree similar to this one to get milk for our breakfast |
Almost 180 hours before (the Friday on the preceding week),
we had our taxi driver stop at Walmart so we could pick up necessities we
didn’t pack along before spending a week on the island of Culebra. A day and a
half prior, we set out on a journey to this island, and without sleeping (due
to travel) we had made it to this point. Our brains were working at a
significantly lower functional capacity than normal and mixing that with our
communication barrier we had with our barely-spoke-English taxi driver, we got
left at Walmart instead of him waiting for us. Oh well. We walked to the ferry
from there through a part of town that would normally frighten us, but we
hadn’t slept so we were only working on a mechanical level. This took about an
hour. The ferry had left for the night and we, by happenstance, found a hostel
right next door and stayed the night. So like the pirates of old, in the
morning, Culebra would be ours.
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| Our view every morning when we woke up. Not a bad life you might rightly say. |
It was, and it was pretty swell. We ate cereal with the milk
of coconuts since we didn’t know how long regular milk would last sans
refrigeration, and it’s the Caribbean so why not? We cooked all our
meals, except the cereal one of course, on a pit of coals, and had altogether a
great time. One night it rained which was complicated because we were in
hammocks with just a tarp that was about 2 inches above my head. Remarkably we
remained dry; we cannot say the same for several of the tenters that didn’t
last the storm. I got tanned and of course sunburned…because I’m white and
that’s what happens. And on the theme of whiteness, one day I was looking for
coconuts with which to eat breakfast, but they had all been scavenged by last
night’s campers who were clever and didn’t procrastinate. However, me being a
Colorado boy who grew up climbing mountains and trees would not be thwarted by
the coconuts in the trees above me. I wasn’t, but I fell a few times.
Our trip ended similarly to how it began. We ended up not
sleeping for a couple of days in transit. I am willing to loose sleep, something
I do on a regular basis as a film student, to save money, something I as a film
student rarely have. But all of our transit was beautifully uncomplicated,
contrasting the way it was at the beginning and we got home safe and sound a
mere 5 hours before I had to get up and go to work and start the week after
spring break.
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| A random little pier in Old Town San Juan. It was closed so I couldn't walk on it. That doesn't mean I can't get pictures though. |
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| The part of the beach opposite to our campsite. The green area across the water, about in line with the buoy is where our campsite was. |
