Graduate Students
Latino Language, Pedagogy and Culture Immersion Institute in Puerto Rico
This afternoon we went to the marine research station in La Parguera to learn about some of the environmental elements of the area. When we arrived on the island we saw a sign that said in Spanish "Don't feed the iguanas," which sounded humorous at first. Then all of the sudden I noticed an iguana walking down the path towards us.
"So," I thought, "there really are iguanas here. The sign was for real." Then I noticed another iguana sitting under the palm tree a few feet away from us. Then another. Then I realized they are all over the island.
We went up and stood on the porch for a while and watched them and they watched us. We were told to watch our toes, as we were almost all wearing sandals. It was like being in a mini Jurassic Park. We never knew when one was going to sneak up from behind.
Our guide, Dr. Juan Gonzalez, had told us earlier that it doesn't rain much in the southern part of the island because of the mountain chain running the length of the island. He said it never rains in La Parguera, except when he says it's not going to rain. Well, it poured while we were there. We were scheduled to have a lesson outside about the mangrove trees, and as he started talking, the ominous clouds that had been thundering decided to let loose. We ran inside and had our lesson in the classroom inside the research center. We were somewhat distracted by the small lizard running under our chairs, but it was a fascinating class. Dr. Gonzalez showed us the documentaries he had done for the Discovery Channel and Good Morning America about the bioluminescent bay in La Parguera. The bay has a high concentration of an organism called pirodinium bahamensis that puts off light when agitated. When you swim in the water, it glows around you! Unfortunately the bioluminescence isn't as bright as it used to be because of light pollution and damage from too many tourist boats.
After our class we went outside to see if we could take our afternoon trip out to the coral reef to go snorkeling. The rain had let up but there was still lightning in the area, so we couldn't go out on the boat. We entertained ourselves by leaning off the edge of the dock and trying to see the fish that lived under it. We called this "Pennsylvania Snorkeling." The boat driver thought we were nuts, but at least we got to see some fish. They were all different beautiful colors, the kind you see in a pet store.
Dr. Gonzalez wanted to show us the mangroves he had told us about,
so we had the remainder of our class outside even though it was still raining. Then he took us over to the dock, jumped in the water, and showed us some organisms that were growing along the coast. I must say that was the first time I ever had a prof that crawled around under a dock in the rain. He is so passionate about what he teaches.We checked the weather and found out there was a huge cloud that was going to cover Puerto Rico until morning, so we decided to switch our plans for today and Monday.
We went to Cabo Rojo to see the "salinas," the salt flats where they mine salt. They wait until it crystallizes about a foot thick on the bottom of the flats and then they drain the water into the sea and scrape up the salt with a bulldozer. The salt from here is used to make salt licks for cattle. While we were there we also saw the eggs of tiny shrimp that thrive in this very salty environment. (These are the same shrimp that are commonly known among college students as "sea monkeys.")For a fantastic end to the evening we went to the light house of Cabo Rojo ("Red Cape"), which is so named because the rocky cliffs look red from out on the ships in the sea. It was perfect timing because we got to see the sun setting over the water. It was absolutely beautiful.
posted by Jerika at
10:41 PM
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