My Day As A Tourist

"Yesterday I arrived at San Juan, Puerto Rico (shown in the picture above) for the first time.  I have always been invited by a couple of friends but I never dared to come and I don’t even know the reasons why.  Maybe I was scared of going to a place that I had no idea where it was or that it even existed. Sitting at the hotel lobby, waiting for my car to drive back to the airport, made me want to take out my journal and begin to write about my experiences here.  

I have to start by saying how hard it is to drive here in Puerto Rico.  There weren’t specific traffic signs that marked the different routes and exits.  We got lost like four times trying to get to the Convention District that has like three different entrances and none of them is properly identified.  But I don’t want to ruin my vacation with that little mishap, so we laughed all the way until we got to our destiny.  People here at hotel have been so friendly and sympathetic.  They were so happy that we were visiting the island for the first time and they have been very interested in making our stay as pleasurable as it could be.  

During the afternoon we went to the Old San Juan, specifically to the pier area.  It had an amazing view and it was so well acclimated as you can see in the picture below.

I was fascinated with the whole spirit of joy and celebration that I experimented there.  They were holding an activity where people got the opportunity to taste different foods and beverages.  They had music, children activities, etc.  To me it was a place so full of life and unity.  It made me see how little Puerto Ricans need to have fun and enjoy as a whole community.  After that we went to have dinner to a place called Downtown.  What an amazing place! The treatment there was taken very good care of.  The family that was seating right beside us they started a conversation with us about the music that they were playing there as if they knew us from a whole lifetime.  I found very lovely how everybody went crazy about singing happy birthday to a little guy that celebrating his birthday.  I don’t think I am as enthusiast as they were, not even for my own birthday.  I also noticed that every single table had at least one beer on it.  Everybody likes to drink pretty much in this island.  Maybe that is what keeps them so happy all the time.  But I have to make a pause because the valet just brought my car and I have a plane to catch. Nice visiting Puerto Rico!" 

Reflection:

As part of my English class I was assigned to make a journal entry as a tourist for a day.  Trying to portrait the common things as a tourist would see them was a little hard for me.  At the end of the day i found out things that I don't usually notice about our own island and culture.  First of all I became really aware of the bad traffic signs system we have.  Maybe the whole population assumes that people who transit the streets of a specific area they know it all and that we don't mind getting to know new places.  The street and exit identification is really poor and it makes it really hard, not only for tourists, but for anyone who is from another area of the island to familiarize with any route.  Another thing I realized after this exercise was that puerto ricans are really happy persons.  Everywhere I went during that day I was treated with the greatest of friendliness.  Not only where the employees of the different places nice, but also random people who were just seated by my side or walking past me.  Most of the time us puerto ricans go through life creating such a bad image of ourselves based solely on our imagination.  Sometimes it takes a little time for fellowship with those around us and notice that there are still good and nice people that put the name of our island very high.  Putting myself in the body of a tourist made me feel really comfortable with the atmosphere of joy I was feeling.  I am actually really proud of the fact that there are still family Sundays and that good values are cultured.  The main  teaching that I want to spread through this experience is that there are puerto ricans who still make the effort to make others feel good and like home even when we may be far from it.