Studying Spanish & cleaning beaches – a busy Caribbean holiday!

French S left yesterday to go back home to Brussels, and quite fittingly it started raining when we walked to the taxi stand and it didn’t stop for the whole afternoon! She had an active Caribbean holiday which included both studies and cleaning… This is her summary (written in our guestbook):

[—] attending a cycling race in Humacao; Daniel Sea Food – its langostas and mofongo; Puerto Rican Spanish lessons; the small quiet and charming beach next to your tower; the Bistro de Paris and its “Tontons Flingueurs” [French film classic]; the Old San Juan’s endless patchwork [of beautiful buildings]; El Morro views; feeling like Indiana Jones in El Yunque; your delicious cooking; the outlet of the outlets [Marshalls]; Costco; the mosquitos; cleaning La Pocita (“Somos grandes”); the Spanish, Swedish, Puerto Rican and French crayfish party; Bacardi and Piña Colada; Guanica – the subtropical forest and its cacti; the superb Guilligan’s Island and the mangrove… there’s no preferential order here  😉  Opps, I forgot LA GUAGUA*… [—]

La Pocita beach off Balneario El Escambrón**, just behind the two hotels Normandie and Caribe Hilton

We try to keep our guests busy and I think that with S we very especially successful since we decided to give her two private Spanish lessons with my Spanish teacher as an early birthday present! Why didn’t I think of that activity earlier?? I am sure that lots of our guests would have loved to get a crash course in Puerto Rican Spanish (including the Spanish visitors!)!

International Coastal Cleanup Day 2009

Another activity that I involved S in was the Limpieza Internacional de Costas or the International Coastal Cleanup! The Alliance Francaise had signed up to participate in the beach cleaning in Puerto Rico and I thought that it could be fun for both S and I to take part, even if it meant getting up early on Saturday morning after the crayfish party…

Registering for the cleanup

We gathered at La Pocita, a small beach off Balneario El Escambrón (Punta de Tierra, behind The Normandie hotel), in the morning to register and get gloves, garbage bags and t-shirts (XL for us, unfortunately) with the slogan “Somos grandes” (We are big). S and I were sat to prepare data forms that would be filled out during the cleanup to count everything that was removed from the beach and the waters – bottles, cans, plastic bags, refrigerators, car tyres, clothing items, construction material – you name it!

Form to fill out during Coastal Cleanup

The atmosphere was great – most of the participants were local teenagers from various schools and sport clubs, and while waiting for the cleanup to start, a few of them were playing drums and singing. S said that it felt like a genuine Puerto Rican moment, which is quite true!

Before starting the cleanup, we gathered for information and rules, and then a prayer (!) – very Puerto Rican…

Together with one of my Alliance Francaise colleagues, J, we helped counting all the garbage that the snorkelers and divers brought up to the shore. They didn’t find any refrigerators, but a lot of debris ranging from cans, bottles, plastic bags and food wrappers, to construction material of different kinds. In order to not throw away wildlife, the potato (?) bags of the divers were emptied into containers that we had filled with water. We found a few small fish (payaso – clown fish) and other sea creatures, algae and corals that we brought back to the sea.

The divers getting ready to clean the waters outside the beach. The Hotels Caribe Hilton (left) and Normandie (right) in the background. 

A snorkeler has already found something in the water!? The people cleaning the water collected the garbage in “potato bags” as seen in this photo

Some of the stuff found in the water and on the beach while cleaning. The weirdest was definitely the Nativity scene (Christmas decoration)! Our fellow Puerto Rican cleaners told us that the Schaefer cans must be really old – that beverage (beer?) hasn’t been sold for years…

TV was there as well to film the cleanup!

Hopefully the involvement of the younger generation will increase the awareness of the importance of keeping the Puerto Rican beaches and coastlines clean. Unfortunately the island’s beaches are not as clean as desired… I am always worried about stepping in some dog shit or on broken glass, but hopefully they are a little cleaner after Saturday’s initiative.

After a few hours of intensive work, S and I relaxed in the newly cleaned sea – La Pocita is a very small beach but the waters are much calmer than at other beaches around San Juan.

Walking back home we crossed the entrance to the Laguna del Condado and passed these two guys – does anybody know what rowing on a surf board is called?

*) Puerto Rican word for bus and S’s favourite Puerto Rican word (as well as mine!)  😀
**) El Escambrón should not be confused with the Spanish swear word (without the es-) – apparently a commonly misheard name among foreigners in Puerto Rico (as well as the very common phenomenon in Puerto Rico – tapón (traffic jam), which is not the same as tampón  😉 )