A little bit of Jay: A place called Puerto Rico

The privilege of visiting San Juan, Puerto Rico was bestowed upon me for a November visit to this Caribbean territory of the United States. An amazing beautiful yet economically sad country this is to visit.

Discovered by Columbus on his second exploration of the new world in 1492, Puerto Rico has had a very fascinating past. Exclusive domain of the island was held by the Spanish government until negotiations in Washington DC ended the Spanish American war in 1898. The Spaniards used the island as their primary wealth accumulation point to both North and South America in their annual shipment to Europe.

A failed attempt to overtake the island was attempted by the US Flotilla in 1898 before politics intervened. Of interesting note is that the city of San Juan, the capitol of the island even to this day, was never taken by force.

The Great Depression had a significant economic impact to the island, as they had no significant industry to support them. During the 50's, 60's, and even 70's, Patricians left their homeland in droves (up to 75,000 per year) for a better life stateside, with most of the settling in New York. It is said that there are more Patricians living in the US than there are in Puerto Rico.

Having no income or property taxes to collect money, the government there exists almost entirely off monies from the US Government. Changes in tax free manufactured created a big boom in the 80's and 90's as pharmaceutical companies opened up sites in large numbers. Tourism became the countries second largest industry (even though several hotel chains started there in the 50's and 60's, no significant impact was seen on the economy) as a booming downtown was redeveloped with towering hotels and nightlife.

The 1980's and 1990's saw a peak in tourism and industry, and the city streets definitely reflect that in their colors, styling, and design. The ethnic influences of the Spanish can be seen in run down civil engineering that fights a never ending battle against the elements.

Of volcanic origin, the island has a vastly differing topography very similar to that of Hawaii. The temperature averages 86 year round. The island is roughly 1200 square miles and has a rectangular shape to it. Language spoken here is predominately Spanish, but English can easily be spoken in all of the tourist areas.

The worlds largest radio telescope, the Arecibo Observatory, in housed in a sinkhole spanning over 300 meters in width, located about an hour outside of San Juan. Facing a potential loss of NSF funding, the telescope is in 24x7 use by scientists from around the world who wait years just to get a few minutes on the system. Built in the 1960's, the site saw a significant upgrade in 1997 that resulted in much needed technological improvements including a 1MW transmitter.

I spent two weeks here doing mostly work, but I did get to spend a lot of time traveling around and experiencing the culture. Although run down, the island is a marvel of history.

Encircled by an impenetrable wall up to twenty-five feet tall, San Juan once boasted a pre-1900 population of over 26,000. The wall and two forts (one to protect from attract by sea, El Morrow, and one to protect from attack by land, San Sebastian) took over 400 years of slave labor to build. The original native peoples died at the hands of the Spanish while building the wall and were later replaced by African slaves.

The wall and forts are nothing less than amazing, even to this day. The US even used both of the forts during World War II adding cement lookouts to each to spot German U-boats. Open to tourists since 1948, both are an amazing snapshot into military technology going back centuries.