Mom comes to Ponce!!

Ok, another exciting blog! My mom came down here last week, and we had a blast. Here's a recap of everything we were able to do and see while she was her.

She came down Thursday afternoon, and drove up to the mountain. I took her on a quick tour of the station, and introduced her to all of the people living here. I then proceeded to cook a delicious dinner of dinner and dessert crepes for all of the tree census crew (Rachel, Ed, Tuber, Mark, Alejandro and Chris) and the two of us. After we ate, we shuttled off to the bio bay in Fajardo to take a tour. It really is an amazing experience, to go to one of these bays. There are only 5 in the world, and consists of a lot of little organisms in high concentrations that emit light when you touch the water. Once these organisms, called dinoflagellates, emit a burst of light, they can no longer emit light for another half hour. That means that the concentration of these little guys has to be extremely high, so that you can see so many bursts of light every time you touch the water. We kayaked through the bay to get to a lagoon where the concentration of these little guys was even higher. Every time we touched the water, little sparkles would touch our hands and light up those around it. It really is magical to see, and the kayak trip wasn't so bad either :) We then drove home and had a nice night in the apartments here at El Verde.

Friday morning we woke up an had a leisurely morning here at the station. We walked around, and I told her about what we were doing here in the forest. After talking to Chris for a while, we got on the road to take the long way down to Ponce. To get to Ponce, you can either cut down the island's middle, or you can take the long way around the coast. We started going that way, anyways. At some point, we got lost, and ended up back on 52 down the middle of the island. Ah well. We stopped for lunch and smoothies at some kiosks off the highway. My mom had her first pincho (teryaki/barbeque chicken kebab) and we had two of the fastest melting smoothies of our lives. Seriously, we couldn't even keep up. I also picked up a new purse in the style of Britto, which is apparently pretty popular on the island. A little of the island culture to bring home with me :) We then made our way down to Ponce, and checked into our hotel. It's a cute little hotel right in downtown Ponce, with a great little garden on the roof and an outdoor pool with a little fountain. After dropping off our stuff, we took a quick walk around and then went for a swim. The pool was very nice, and having most everything be outdoors is a nice way to relax. Unless it's hot out. Which it was. After swimming, we went and changed, and then headed down to the boardwalk to walk around and look at the shops. Turns out there are no shops. Just fried food. Mmmmmm. So we came back to the downtown area for dinner at Cafe Tomas, where they do not know how to serve fruit juice sans alcohol. After dinner, we just talked for a while. It's nice having your mom around :)

Saturday we slept in a bit (again), and then went up to have a lovely breakfast on the roof. After breakfast, we went out to go walk around in the markets a little, and then tried to go the the music museum. When I say tried, I mean we went during their normal open hours, but they were closed already. When we asked an info booth about it, they said that the museum kind of opened when it felt like it. Bummer for us, man. We consoled ourselves with ice cream (well, we had already eaten the ice cream), and then went to get pizza for lunch. We made it back to our hotel to cool off a bit (SO HOT), and ended up falling asleep for the afternoon. Whoops. In the evening, we went to check out a video game convention with 3 Wii systems, 3 Playstations, and 5 XBox's, 2 of which had Kinect. OHMAHGAH. So high tech :P The convention was at a mall, so we decided to go see what was going on and just shop around a little. We grabbed dinner at a sizzler, and then came back to the hotel. We went to bed early, as we needed to get up early in case we might be able to go snorkeling on Sunday.

Well, snorkeling fell through. Apparently the waves were too choppy, and it wasn't safe to take us out on the boat. However, this gave us plenty of time to go to a bunch of museums and historic areas of Ponce anyways. We started off by visiting the oldest tree in Ponce, a ceiba, which has been around for over 500 years. Pretty old tree, that's for sure. We then went up to the Serralles castle of the Don Q rum fame, and took a tour there. The castle is very beautiful, built in the 1920's by the family and bought by the historical society of Ponce in the 1990's. There is a lot of history here in PR, but as my mom and I realized on this trip, most of the history is post Columbian. Not much is known about the indigenous people of the area. I find that a little sad, in the end. Such a rich history has been lost. We then went to the art museum, and walked around there. They have the original Flaming June, which is just a gorgeous painting. Also, with my mom having a history in art, it was very interesting going through the artwork with her. I learned much more from her than I did from my art history classes, that's for sure :P After that, we headed back into the Plaza Delicias (the central plaza that our hotel was located on) to find a place for lunch. We finally settled at Lola's, which was so good that we decided to go back for dinner before we had even had our food. And, we stuck with that decision after we ate. After lunch we met up with my tree census crew (I know, we can't even go a weekend without seeing each other), as they had ventured down to Ponce for the day. We talked about what was going on up at the station, now that the REU's are gone, and meandered around the square and the shops surrounding. They left pretty early, as they wanted to get to a swimming hole for the afternoon, and my mom and I went shopping for a little bit in the square. We then went swimming again, and spent the evening watching NFNS. No regrets.

Monday we woke up and packed, and then hit the road around 11. We were aiming to get to Luquillo around 3, and planned for lunch around then as well. On the way back, we drove up 3 for much longer, and were able to see more of the coast. It really was gorgeous, and even though it took much longer to get back, we were so glad we went that way. At one point we stopped to take pictures and buy kenepas (little fruits that taste a little like lychees), and then got back on the road again. I'll post pictures tomorrow, probably, maybe. Once we got to Luquillo, we walked through the kioskos that I have become so familiar with. We had lunch/dinner at El Jefe's burger shack, which was delicious but FILLING. We ended our afternoon sitting on "my beach" and wrapping up our vacation conversations. We tried to get smoothies before we left, but she had already closed up for the night. Sad. Up the hill we went, we said our good byes, and my mom went back into San Juan. It was a lovely trip, and I wished it could have lasted forever. We'll have to make it to another trip sometime soon, because we make pretty good vacation buddies :P

Balance between the exciting and the "bland"

So, as I was just talking with my mom (potentially my most dedicated follower on this blog, even though I talk to her practically every day :P), she mentioned that she sometimes feels like even my most boring days are more exciting than her busiest days. I hadn't really thought of it that way, and I'm not sure that I agree with her. You see, there is a general excitement factor of just me being on an island for the summer that I have completely forgotten about. I know I can got to a beach in no time flat, and that I'm surrounded by palm trees everywhere I turn, but I forget that this isn't just home. I feel really comfortable here, like I've lived here for months and years, instead of just two months. Life at the station is both fast paced and relaxed, and I am definitely in the swing of things. This weekend I sat and read for two days, but also enjoyed a family dinner, went grocery shopping, negotiated a beach trip for others, did data work, and did my laundry. All the while, I just felt like I was enjoying a nice, relaxing weekend. Now, for those of you who are in those busy areas of the world, you may look at this post and think "Silly little island brain." But, I'm happy :)

In fact, even my regular work is both monotonous and invigorating. We do the same thing every day--hike out into the forest to measure trees, knowing that it will either rain on us or we will fall and get mud EVERYWHERE. However, every day is completely different--different trees, different stories, different jokes...I swear, the only thing that doesn't change is what Tuber, Ed and Mark bring for lunch. We always find a way to make each other laugh, and the movement across this great forest of ours really changes scenery in both the literal and figurative. So, maybe my day is exciting for those of you reading, and if it is, I'm glad I can share it with you. But if you were here, and if you could understand what I meant...it's not so much that it's exciting. It's just life. Plain, old, wonderful, fulfilling life. I love what I do, and I really love being here. I really do :)