we left puerto rico on 2/9 at around 2230. we’ve been sailing en route to salvador, brazil for two days, seems like three. we arrive in brazil on 2/17. this info is as much for my benefit as for you readers. time seems to slip away without me ever really knowing what day of the week it is or how many days its been since whatever. i can go on about how on board the ship we have only A days, B days, and port days (no weekdays or weekends), and the implications for keeping good time, scheduling work study students, etc., but i’ll spare you. this posting is intended to be about my san juan experiences. our port days in puerto rico were few, 2 nights and three days. at each port there are a range of s@s organized field programs we can sign up for. some are inexpensive ($5-$50) local excursions, others are multiple days and can require air, train or bus transportation ($100-$1,500). so that i can bop around on my own, in san juan and other ports, i signed up for only one field program.
my san juan field program, the first thing i did on arrival, was a visit to loiza, a community established by former slaves and free blacks, which retains much of its african heritage. loiza was the slave trading center of the island. in loiza we visited the home and studio of local artist and native son, samuel lind. although he’s an established and successful artist he has chosen to stay in loiza, the subject and inspiration for his oil paintings, sculptors, and posters. lind gave us a tour of his studio, and discussed his work.
we also visited the shop of the ayala family. the ayala’s are mask makers and have, for generations, been making the masks for the annual (july) st. james festival, a heritage festival, where locals parade, wear masks and recreate the battles between the christians and muslims in spain during the middle ages. we had lunch at a local restaurant before going back to the ship. theo, tiffany and I sat together at lunch. both are students from california, theo from san francisco and tiffany from san diego. i regret not getting a picture of us together. they’re very cute, fun kids, having the times of their lives; neither have ever traveled outside the US. these photos of theo were taken since leaving san juan:
once he discovered i was old enough to be his mother, he’s taken to calling me “old school”. an (pronounced on), one of my work study students (he's actually in the background of the photo of theo and i), insists on calling me “boss”. being around all these kids 24/7 is not making me feel any younger.
before leaving for loiza, i had packed a bag with the plan of walking into old san juan and getting a room. i wanted a room with a window (even if it opened on to an alley) and to wake up in the city. i ended up at a spectacular place in a room with no windows, yet i was completely sated. i had emailed the gallery inn (found in a lonely planet guidebook) the day before to see if they had any available rooms. i walked into town with a fellow voyager and managed to find the inn without the address i had left behind in my haste to get to town. the lonely planet description didn’t do the place justice, and the web site is not at all representative of the rustic 18th century 23 room inn perched over the sea, on the edge of old san juan, between el morro and san cristobal, the forts, connected by a long wall, which puerto rico used to defend itself before falling to the u.s. the rooms are connected by stone stairways, lush gardens, and art covered walls. much of the artwork are the sculptures and molds of the artist-owners jan d’esopo and husband manuco gandia. the space is open and rambling, making it hard to tell where the furnished gardens and outdoor space end and the rooms begin. the door to my room was a shutter door. although i didn’t have any window, light and sound came through and i no longer felt cut off from the outside world.
these photos are of the inn lobby, the view from the balcony outside my room, and the countyard where i'd have breakfast and read.
in contrast, as i sit and type this in my cabin, the clock says 1215; i haven’t been out of my cabin today; and i have no idea whether the sun is out or not (it usually is). i woke up groggy this morning at 0815, realized that i was going to miss breakfast which ends at 0830 and proceeded to go back to sleep when i remembered that we were suppose to set our clocks ahead one hour (but why, what difference does it make?). i was not only going to miss breakfast, but global studies (the course all must attend) too, which begins at 0920 every day. after sleeping a little more, i sat up to work on the blog. i’ve chosen to work the 1500-2300 shift in the library so that i can have the day time hours to read, blog, get some sun, etc. i guess this is what can happen as a result. the alternative is to work 0800-1600 and be too tired in the evening to do anything and never get any time under big sky. since leaving puerto rico, finding the right routine has been the agenda of most aboard.
at the gallery inn, finding a routine was simple and natural – waking up slowly (possible because breakfast was served until 1030) to the sun peeping through the shutters, reading in the garden over breakfast, then returning to my room to prepare for a day of roaming the streets of old san juan - in and out of galleries, cafés, restaurants, shops, historical sites, museums and of course, walgreens for some necessities. so not to ramble on and on, because i did cover a lot of territory and saw some splendid things, some of the places i visited and would recommend include, the museum of african heritage (museo de la raiz africana):
castillo de san felipe del morro (aka el morro)and castillo de san cristobal (the forts where puerto rico defended itself before falling to the u.s.)
visit restaurante la danza for the best sangria you’ll ever have. at the spanglish café, i learned why crunchy plantains aren’t sweet (they're not ripe), and talked at length, about books, puerto rican art, and life in old san juan, with robert, the owner. for yummy fine dining check out amadeus, located off the same plaza as the museo de la Africana raiz. other favorite sites were this tree, its serious roots, and strange hair that hangs below a canopy of leaves. unfortunately, no one i asked was able to tell me what type of tree it was.
while at the gallery inn, i also had a clean well lighted place to read, many in fact. it was a pleasure to read again in peace, without interruption or fatigue (while not suffering from full blown seasickness, the constant motion has definitely fatigued me). jeremy mercers’s book, time was soft here, was the perfect complement to my san juan experience - no high drama, but lots of characters doing “soft time” (as opposed to the familiar "hard time") at george whitman’s shakespeare and company bookstore in paris. despite the challenges of shipboard life, which mostly can be attributed to the newness and uniqueness of the experience, it certainly can’t be considered anything but soft time, despite it’s elusiveness.
in conclusion, some folk art for the folks back home. peace, kisses, and know for sure you're missed.
p.s., also checkout the new links, under "site seeing". there are links to info and resources i've recently learned about, but am not necessarily referencing in my narratives.
