By Staff Writer: Rachel Cichon

Over spring break, I received the opportunity to go take a study abroad trip to Puerto Rico, where I visited many regional wonders and communicated with locals to experience the culture and language of native Spanish speakers. The trip was hosted by Spanish teacher Mr. Duane Millar, lasted a full week, and was attended by four other students beside myself: senior Aubrey Kennedy, juniors Madison Rhoades and Hunter Carlson, as well as sophomore Jamie Frisbie.

Throughout the week, we spent a lot of time touring a historical city called Old San Juan, where we saw many local artisans setting up shop in the plaza, fed pigeons in the “Pigeon Park” and visited an impressive old fort called El Morro. Some of our time in Old San Juan was spent shopping and communicating with locals, but we also witnessed the way people live there – in colorful, apartment-like buildings with balconies and gardens inside. An interesting thing about Puerto Rico is that one can find extremely modern homes and apartments in the cities, and then travel an hour away to a place where people still live like it’s the year 1800.

We also visited landmarks and tourist attractions, such as El Yunque, a rainforest where we hiked to a waterfall and swam in it. We were lucky to have a helpful tour guide, Mario, on this journey, who was able to tell us about each different plant, tree or insect we came across along the way. When we were at the waterfall, Mario even collected several rocks of a different pigment and rubbed them against wet stones to create multi-colored clay that we used to paint our faces.

“Mario was great,” says Frisbie. “It was cool that we had a tour guide who really knew about the area.”

The Camuy Caves, an ancient cave system hollowed out by a river hundreds of years earlier was another place we visited. A tour guide, fluent in both English and Spanish, led us through and explained the cave’s unique formation, pointing out various shapes on the cave wall and smaller crevices where bats dwelled.

Of everything, my favorite activity was when we kayaked, at night and under a brilliant full moon, through a river concealed by a canopy of trees out to a huge lagoon called the Bioluminescent Bay. The lagoon is one corner of the Bermuda Triangle and home to a delicate species of plankton that emit a glow when touched. If we stuck our oars or hands into the water – which of course we did – they would be illuminated in a smoky white color.

Each day, we had a quick lunch and visited an authentic Puerto Rican restaurant for dinner. I tried foods I had never even heard of – mofongo, tostonés and piraguas, to name a few.  I’m a picky person, but I took a bite of everything and enjoyed it all. It helps that most Puerto Rican food involves some variation of banana. Interestingly, even if you were less brave and ordered something more convention, like fried chicken, it would still be different than how it is prepared at home. We’re used to boneless chicken, but in Puerto Rico, there are chicken vertebrae visible right in the meat. We also enjoyed an abundance of smoothies and fresh juices – passion fruit was everyone’s personal favorite.

Amid all of our cultural learning, we did stop to have some fun as well. We made routine visits to Walgreens for snacks, souvenirs and Aloe Vera and swam in the ocean – which we could see from our hotel rooms – nearly every day. The weather in Puerto Rico is perfect, as it is always hot, but there is a constant breeze and no humidity.

Everyone in Puerto Rican, being an American commonwealth, is respectful to Americans and can speak English if necessary, although we mainly practiced Spanish when talking with locals. It was truly an ideal study abroad destination because it was a safe way of studying language and culture.

Iguanas run wild in Puerto Rico, and I can’t express how delightful it is to stumble upon them when you’re roaming the city. Chameleons and other lizards also roam the town, and some are so unafraid of people that you can pick them up in your hand. We were surprised to find that Puerto Rico is also home to many docile stray cats that spend their day sunning on rocks right beside the ocean shore.

Mr. Millar was a great teacher to have on the trip, not just because he is familiar with the island, but because he was considerate of the students and took our needs and wants into consideration. If ever we didn’t want to do something or had an idea of an activity, he would be eager to listen. Along with that, he shared a lot of cultural information with us, such as the fact that Puerto Rican’s tend to pronounce their “R” sounds with an “L”.

Overall, Puerto Rico was the trip of a lifetime for everyone who went. We left on my seventeenth birthday, and I don’t think I could have celebrated in a better way than lounging in the Caribbean. Howell High School students are lucky to have opportunities like this and should take them – I promise, you won’t regret it.

“My favorite part was meeting everyone,” says Frisbie. “Making new friends and memories with them.”