{"id":476,"date":"2011-01-15T08:17:43","date_gmt":"2011-01-15T07:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=476"},"modified":"2011-03-13T07:48:06","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T06:48:06","slug":"week-1-puerto-rico","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/?page_id=476","title":{"rendered":"Week 01: Puerto Rico"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first week of 2011 was spent in the same place as the last week of 2010, in Puerto Rico. As was the case last week, I present the pictures chronologically, starting with New Year’s day and ending at the San Juan airport just before flying home to Spain on January 6th.<\/p>\n

Main<\/strong>
\nWe started the new year with a walk in El Junque, Puerto Rico’s last remaining rainforest:
\n\"_1030344\"<\/p>\n


\nAlternates<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Alternate 1<\/em>
\nAfter a long, humid walk, we climbed the observation tower:
\n\"_1030358\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 2<\/em>
\nThe view from the tower, incredibly lush and green:
\n\"_1030357\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 3<\/em>
\nAt El Junque, we had arranged to meet up with Ada, a friend of my wife’s from her university days. Ada has two children and has recently adopted a puppy, Habibi:
\n\"_1030365\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 4<\/em>
\nMy wife has two brothers and two sisters. On the evening of January 2nd, I took the “official” picture of the family of which I have been a part since we were married in 1983. My wife is the only one who has left the island, the others all live in Puerto Rico:
\n\"_1030397\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 5<\/em>
\nWe drove to the observatory at Arecibo to see the world’s largest collecting dish, 305 metres in diameter:
\n\"_1030421\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 6<\/em>
\nIt is truly an impressive structure:
\n\"_1030418\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 7<\/em>
\nThe anchor of one of the huge pylons holding the giant dish:
\n\"_1030431\"<\/p>\n

The next few pictures are from the town of San Lorenzo, where my wife was born and where her parents and three of her four siblings still live. San Lorenzo is about 45 minutes drive inland from San Juan. It is a sleepy place, but in a nice way. <\/p>\n

Alternate 8<\/em>
\nThe local cemetery is a short walk from my in-laws’ house:
\n\"_1030401\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 9<\/em>
\nAn exhortation to obey God:
\n\"_1030404\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 10<\/em>
\nTypical street in the centre of San Lorenzo:
\n\"_1030438\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 11<\/em>
\nThe plaza with the church:
\n\"_1030443\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 12<\/em>
\nCar door:
\n\"_1030440\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 13<\/em>
\n“My God is real”. Given the state of many Puerto Rican roads, pickup trucks and SUVs actually make some sense:
\n\"_1030449\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 14<\/em>
\nLottery vendor:
\n\"_1030447\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 15<\/em>
\nThe evening of January 4th we went to have a very late lunch\/early dinner at this restaurant on the beach in Maunabo, on Puerto Rico’s south-eastern coast:
\n\"_1030502\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 16<\/em>
\nMy son with his drink:
\n\"_1030465\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 17<\/em>
\nThe ubiquitous lottery vendor at our table:
\n\"_1030468\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 18<\/em>
\nThe local specialties, fresh fish and mofongo<\/em>, a mash of plaintains and other tropical vegetables:
\n\"_1030489\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 19<\/em>
\nMy sister-in-law’s chihuahua, Ach\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00bf, in her bed. She is so small that my cat would probably attack her, mistaking her for a large rodent:
\n\"_1030534\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 20<\/em>
\nMy father-in-law keeps chickens in his garden, ensuring a steady supply of eggs and an early wake-up call every morning:
\n\"_1030455\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 21<\/em>
\nThe guard dog, Kila:
\n\"_1030454\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 22<\/em>
\nJanuary 5th was our last evening in Puerto Rico, and my wife’s parents held a farewell get-together. My father-in-law is preparing chicharrones, basically deep-fried pork rinds but with a lot of meat attached. I should mention that my in-laws have a nice, big and modern kitchen, but sometimes my father-in-law likes to cook in this rustic manner in his back yard:
\n\"_1030540\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 23<\/em>
\nThe finished chicharrones. Not exactly a healthy food, but as an occasional treat (in my case for the first time in years) they are absolutely delicious:
\n\"_1030544\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 24<\/em>
\nEarly morning dew on our old Volvo, which we have kept in Puerto Rico since we left the US in 1995. This way my wife does not have to rent a car when she goes there every Christmas. The car is now 27 years old. We don’t know the mileage since the odometer stopped working some years ago. But the rest of the car is kept in good working order by my father-in-law:
\n\"_1030578\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 25<\/em>
\nOne of my wife’s many nephews with his girlfriend:
\n\"_1030548\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 26<\/em>
\nHabibi in front of the Christmas tree:
\n\"_1030555\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 27<\/em>
\nThe next morning one of my brothers-in-law drove us to the Luis Mu\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00b1oz Mar\u00c3\u0192\u00c2\u00adn International Airport, from where we flew to Philadelphia and then on to Madrid. Much to my delight, I found an Elliott Erwitt exhibition at the airport:
\n\"_1030579\"<\/p>\n

Alternate 28<\/em>
\nThis was my very last picture taken in Puerto Rico:
\n\"_1030580\"<\/p>\n

More on chicharrones here<\/a>, and mofongo here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The first week of 2011 was spent in the same place as the last week of 2010, in Puerto Rico. As was the case last week, I present the pictures chronologically, starting with New Year’s day and ending at the San Juan airport just before flying home to Spain on January 6th. Main We started […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":470,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/476"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=476"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/476\/revisions\/503"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fotocycle.dk\/paws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}