As you already know, I went to Puerto Rico to attend the 2011 American Society of Limnology and Oceanography Aquatic Sciences Meeting.
This is the amazing conference center where the conference was held. This venue was huge, but it needed to be with 12 concurent sessions every day for 5 days!
Me, Rolo and Heather Spaulding (from HI- photo courtesy of Ray Boland)
On the first night, there was a mixer with local rums of Puerto Rico. I ran into some old friends from Hawaii!
This is El Hamburguer...or El Hamburgito.....or that hamburger place. A really nice, local, simple $3 hamburger with french fries and onion rings. And don't forget the Medalla.
Rolo was lucky and got to give his presentation on the first day of the conference. I had to wait until the last day. He did a great job and we went out in Old San Juan that night to celebrate! Here he is showing his love for the University of Puerto Rico.
We went to a cool microbrew in Old San Juan called Old Harbor. Their stout was delicious!
I found this giraffe statue to be quite interesting!
Rolo's friend Deana worked at a local bar with a huge drink selection, so we walked through Old San Juan to go visit!
Rolo's sister, Sylmar with a sunflower.
A true locals place- Bebos. Terrific roasted chicken, weird boiled green plantains and not so great Mondongo (pork tripe stew). The mondongo had OK flavor, but the texture was unbearable!
Rolo's brother, Jomar, worked at the hotel where we were staying and sent us some treats!
Rolo and Sylmar gave me a tour of their campus at the University of Puerto Rico.
Rolo and Sylmar
We ate such great food on this trip.....
....and I got to try so many local flavors. Like chichaito which is rum, anise and fruit juice. This bar, The Three Horns, had a wide variety of flavors. You win some and lose some with the flavors, but the best was the passion fruit and pineapple!
This bar had really cool tribal paintings on the walls. These are vejigantes which are seen during festival celebrations (a lot like Carnival) to symbolize the devil in a battle between good and evil and are used to scare people into going back to church!
Hanging out at the Nuyorican Cafe for some salsa dancing!
So, I gave my presentation on our coral nursery on the last day of the conference in the afternoon of the last session of the conference. I had this huge auditorium and about 25 people in it! Ray took this picture of me halfway back in the room (which tells you how big the room was!!!). I think my talk went well and I got some good questions. I was glad it was over, but hated having to wait all week to give it!
That night, there was a full moon and every month at the full moon, the locals host a full moon party on the beach in Candado. They light a fire and tell the story of how the moon's energy is tied to the spirit of the earth........there's dancing and music and a nice way to spend time on the beach!
Once the conference was over, I spent the weekend with Rolo and his family. On Saturday, we drove along the southern coast of PR and wound our way up into the mountains for a coffee festival!
The mountains of Puerto Rico.
On our trip, we passed this little jeep toting around about a 45 inch projection TV in the back. The TV was amost about as big as the jeep!
Sylmar, Cindy, me and Rolo at the coffee festival.
We didn't have the best weather for being outside, but we all had jackets and umbrellas to get us through the rain!
Craft stalls at the festival.
Dancing and enjoying a Medalla.
On our last day in PR, Rolo and I went to the beach in Candado. The sun was warm and the water was great!
The beach turned into a beach part by the end of the afternoon- there was a DJ and lots of techno music!
After our day on the beach, Rolo mashed up some Mofongo (not to be confused with Mondongo). It's mashed up plantains which are then stuffed with a variety of veggies and meats (we had shrimp with ours). The balls are lightly fried and are delicious!!!
So, our balls were stuffed, but we ate them as a side to our shrimp!
I am so thankful to the Santos family for bringing me into their home and showing me around their island! I had such a great time!
