Puerto Rico
15-25 July, 2007

This year, the main Astrobiology conference (Bioastronomy) was held in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Since the local astrobiology group very generously offered to send me, I got to spend 10 days in Puerto Rico. This first 5 were in San Juan at the conference and the second 5 were spent (in my usual style) off exploring the rest of Puerto Rico. It was a great trip, stressful at times, but a lot of fun. The diving and snorkelling were phenomenal, some of the best I've seen and the rum was just as good as you'd expect it to be!

Things I learnt on this trip:
1. I really like Don Q rum (the Don Q Grand Anejo was voted one of the top 5 rums in the world!)
2. Road rules are optional in most of Puerto Rico
3. I like Don Q rum
4. If I get sunburnt and it's uncomfortable, no matter how much it hurts, my mother and boyfriend will laugh like crazy at me
5. Did I mention about Don Q rum?!

July 16 - Old San Juan
Several of us spent the afternoon wandering through the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan, the 465-year-old center of San Juan. Old San Juan is a beautiful city, very much your stereotypical Spanish Carribean city with cobblestone streets and classic architecture. Almost all of the stores were very touristy (the area is adjacent to the cruise ship dock) but the general area itself was fun to walk through and really very beutiful to look at.

	Medium Large	The view from my hotel room balcony
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	Medium Large	Watching the afternoon storm approaching over the ocean
	Medium Large	San Cristobal Fort Built in 1634, it covers 27 acres and is a UNESCO World Heritage site.
	Medium Large	A guerite, a type of sentry box and the unoffical symbol of Puerto Rico
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	Medium Large	One of the many iguanas in the fort
	Medium Large	Looking out of the dungeon
	Medium Large	One of the galleons drawn in the dungeon by a Captain awaiting execution
	Medium Large	The red and white flag is the flag of the Spanish Army
	Medium Large	The main plaza
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	Medium Large	Looking up one of the many tunnels in the fort
	Medium Large	Looking towards Candado from the top of the fort
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	Medium Large	Cannon balls!
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	Medium Large	Looking towards El Morro, the other main fort in Old San Juan
	Medium Large	Part of the living area
	Medium Large	One of the tunnels heading down into the dungeon area
	Medium Large	Statue of Columbus in Plaza de Colon
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	Medium Large	The streets of Old San Juan
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	Medium Large	I love the architecure of this area!
	Medium Large	The Capilla del Cristo
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	Medium Large	The ornate alter is made from silver
	Medium Large	Yep, that really is Ben and Jerry's in the center of Old San Juan!
	Medium Large	The obelisk in the Plaza de Quinto Centenario
	Medium Large	Yes, it really is embedded with various shards of pottery!
	Medium Large	Fort San Felipe del Morro (El Morro) The other main fort in town Built in 1539, it is also a UNESCO World Heritage site
	Medium Large	The El Morro lighthouse
	Medium Large	I really like guerites!
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	Medium Large	The main enterance into the fort
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	Medium Large	They still have some of the old cannons in place in the fort
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	Medium Large	The ramp and steps leading to the upper levels
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	Medium Large	The remains of the kitchens
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	Medium Large	Panorama of El Morro
	Medium Large	The old gate into San Juan. There are six gates that used to be closed at sundown to protect the city. This one was used by vistiors while cargo deliveries used another seperate gate.
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	Medium Large	Looking along the outside of the massive wall that used to surround all of Old San Juan as part of its fortifications
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July 18th - Diving and snoreklling from Fajardo
This was a free day during the conference and although there was a tour organized, I registered too late to make it. So instead I spent the day in the water!!! I took a day trip out of Fajardo on the western coast of Puerto Rico to do some diving and snorkelling. The first site that we went to was pretty good (LOTS of seagrass!) but the second site was fantastic - deeper water with a great variety of fish and other sealife.

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	Medium Large	We were greeted by fish as soon as we entered the water
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	Medium Large	Looking back towards the beach
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	Medium Large	I love Parrotfish but just couldn't get a good picture of them
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	Medium Large	This coral outcrop was really cool - just rising above the rest of the coral around it
	Medium Large	Fish really don't know how to hold still long enough for me to take a photo of them!
	Medium Large	This beach looked beautiful but was off-limits
	Medium Large	Iguanas by the dock as we were coming back in. They were fed the leftover fruit and loved it!
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July 21st - Arecibo Observatory
With the conference over, I headed off to start exploring the rest of the island. I started by driving out to Arecibo Obersvatory, the world's largest radio telescope, before heading down to Ponce through the central mountain range of Puerto Rico. The driving was . . . interesting! Beautiful scenary all the way but I was happy when I finally made it to Ponce. I tried to stop at the Bacardi factory but sadly I couldn't get to it.

	Medium Large	Arecibo Observatory
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	Medium Large	Looking down into the dish
	Medium Large	An example of the mesh that the dish is made from
	Medium Large	A sample of the 39 support cables used to support the platform. This sample weighs 30 kg!
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	Medium Large	One of the three support towers
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	Medium Large	Looking back towards the platform
	Medium Large	Throughout the observatory, there was a scale model (planet size and seperation) of the Solar System set up. These stations gave you some physical data about the planet, marked its scaled location and had a scale model of the planet itself.
	Medium Large	This was the station for Saturn . . .
	Medium Large	. . . and this one is for Earth. It's the small blue smudge in the center of the glass enclosure.

July 22nd - Ponce
I spent a day exploring the coastal southern town of Ponce. It's a very colonial city with many neoclassical buildings and facades that have been very well preserved. The entire area is very historic and contains many different historic sites, such as the Tibes Indian Ceremonial archeological site. It's also the original home of Don Q rum! I spent the night eating crab mofongo and drinking Pina Coladas right on the edge of the Caribbean Sea . . .

	Medium Large	Welcome to Ponce! These are replicas of the large letters that gret drivers as they enter the town. Yes, that's me in the O!
	Medium Large	City Hall
	Medium Large	I loved the architecture here!
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	Medium Large	Looking across the Las Delicias Plaza
	Medium Large	The Lion Fountain Lions are the symbol of Ponce
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	Medium Large	The spire of the Virgin of Guadalupe Cathedral
	Medium Large	The Parque de Bombas, the old firehouse. It was built in 1883 and was a working firehouse until relatively recently.
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	Medium Large	The lions on the Bridge of Lions at the Tercentenary Park
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	Medium Large	The Castillo Serralles, built in the 1930's for the family that makes Don Q rum. The house and gardens are amazingly beautiful!!
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	Medium Large	Looking down towards Ponce You can just make out the cathedral and firehouse in the center of the image
	Medium Large	Panorama looking over Ponce from the gardens
	Medium Large	Looking up to the Cruceta El Vigia, a 100-foot concrete cross on top of the hill where the Spanish used to watch for ships
	Medium Large	View from the top of the cross
	Medium Large	Panorama of Ponce taken from the top of the cross
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July 23rd - El Yunque Rainforest
Covering 28,000 acres, El Yunque is the only trpical rainforest in the US National Parks system. It's an incredible area and is very much your stereotypical rainforest - incredibly lush, wet and overflowing with flora and fauna. The hiking trails are very well maintained and you can swim in all of the waterfalls and pools. I spent a day hiking in there but when I drove out, I saw 2 15 seater mini-vans on fire. I have no idea if anyone was injured or what caused the fire, but it was incredible to feel the heat from it when I was so far away and to hear the sounds of plastic and metal and who knows what else melting and hitting the road. It really was pretty freaky.

	Medium Large	A Breadfruit, supposedly tasing like a potato and a good source of carbohydrates and vitamins
	Medium Large	La Coca Falls
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	Medium Large	Juan Diego Creek and Falls
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	Medium Large	The Mt. Britton Lookout Tower, the end point of one of my hikes
	Medium Large	A view down the valley on my way up
	Medium Large	MADE IT!
	Medium Large	Looking over the rainforest and the Luquillo Mountains from the top of the tower
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	Medium Large	Yep, I was happy!
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	Medium Large	One of the lizards I saw back at my car
	Medium Large	The mini-vans on fire on my way out
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July 24th - Culebra
For my last day, I flew out to Culebra, a small island off the east coast of Puerto Rico. It's only a couple of miles long, has just one small town and is a wonderful place to just go and relax for a couple of days. I really wish I had spent more time there! Culebra is home to Flamenco Beach, which has been ranked as being one of the worlds best beaches. It was amazing - white sand, turqoise water, palm trees, the whole lot! Having a lunch of freshly grilled fish on the beach was heaven! Since I couldn't dive, I got to do some of the best snorkelling I've done at the Reugio Nacional de Vida Silvestre de Culebra, a wildlife refuge just over the hill from Flamenco Beach. So that you can see what it was like, I took a short movie of part of it. Sorry about the movement in the swell! BE WARNED: the movie file is big.

	Medium Large	Flamenco Beach
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	Medium Large	Panorama of Flamenco Beach
	Medium Large	The trail over to the snorkelling beach
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	Medium Large	Looking across the reef
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	Medium Large	The fuzzy black marks are fish!
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	Medium Large	Self-portraits while snorkelling are interesting . . . !
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	Medium Large	The jeep convertable that I rented (I loved it!) outside my hotel for the night
	Medium Large	The hotel entrance
	Medium Large	Looking across the courtyard towards the bay. The hotel was right on the water front - I got to eat breakfast on the dock, watching two 3-foot tarpons swimming in the bay.
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Puerto Rico 15-25 July, 2007

Puerto Rico
15-25 July, 2007