Published on April 26, 2009

Highlights of Enchantment

Highway traffic is typically light in Puerto Rcio.This year we started our annual photosynthesis trip in the oldest US city: San Juan, Puerto Rico, or, La Isla del Encanto, how the locals like to call it.

Once we got our car rental I punched the address of the hotel into my Garmin GPS... Samantha took a few seconds to calculate the route and after a few turns, and with a very American accent told me to make a right on a street with a very Spanish name (about four words). Before we were able to figure out what she meant, I heard her again saying "recalculating!" with, I felt, some sort of ironic inflexion in her voice. But maybe it was just me....
I imagine how much fun it would be having a GPS with insults (as Linux users may have)! Like:

My favorite view: Palm tree with blue sky and white clouds.Hey! Right is the hand with which you hold the knife!
Take a stress pill and think things over.
The more you drive, the dumber you get!
I think ... err ... I think ... I think I'll discharge my battery.
Maybe my transistors outnumber your neurons!

Interestingly, in PR gas is sold in liters, distances measured in kilometers, but the speed limit is posted in mph!
Having Samantha with you is great when you travel in unknown territory as it lets you see more while you drive. Something like this: Look honey! Nice clouds over there! Wow, some big lizards on the road! That ... WAS ... a lizard...
Why are those cars flashing their lights and honking? Interesting! Their salute looks like the Hawaiian hand salute, but somehow different...
Seriously now, signs are posted urging slow traffic to use the right lane, but everyone "hoping" to go faster crowds into the left lane.

Iguanas can grow to up to 6 feet long and weigh 8 lbs.Sooner or later, someone - probably a tourist – except me - is too slow for everybody else and the crowd behind starts passing on the right, those at the end of the line coming fast and frustrating those in front.
And by the way, the turn signals are rarely, rarely used. Just looking at the traffic, you may think that the average driver's age is 17. Ah, why Germany is no tropical country?

Sky Diving Iguanas

Finally, with Samantha's help we found the hotel, got the room and headed to the pool. Mmmm... it's great feeling the touch of the sun, the breeze, hearing the palm trees' whisper and the chirping of the tiny Coqui.

She looks mean and angry, but this is how the species survived, I guess...But the palm's whisper suddenly becomes a shuffle and as I look right up I see one of those prehistoric-looking lizards diving right at me. Instinctively I jump out of my chair, but she is better than me with those laws of Newton. She lands in the pool, swims wiggling its tail, crawls out of the water and disappears in the nearby bushes. Phew!
That's enough "enchantment" for one day!