Isla del Encanto
This was probably my first real "overseas" vacation as an adult, although its debatable whether you could call la "isla del encanto", a.k.a. Puerto Rico, overseas since it is still part of the U.S. However, it did seem distinctly foreign and I will consider it overseas. I'm going to to try and cover the major events of our week long trip, although we lost two days in travel and spent five days in Puerto Rico.
On our first real day, Dec 20, being in San Juan, we decided to visit Old San Juan. Unfortunately, we woke up late and by the time we got ready (we had to make a trip to the Farmacia to buy basic items like toothpaste, deodorant, and shaving cream, and contact lens solution) and had lunch, it was already past 1 p.m. We didn't take toothpaste, deodorant, and shaving cream because of my experiences with the TSA officials at the airport. Contact lens solution was OK with the TSA agents in Philadelphia, Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Francisco airports on my California trip, but the guys at Newark, in their infinite wisdom, decided to confiscate it, lest it be an explosive chemical which could be used in an act of terrorism. These very same guys in Newark made the lady in front of me at the security check remove her toddler's shoes to be passed through the x-ray machine.
Anyway, so by the time we took a bus to Old San Juan, it was already past 2 p.m. We decided to visit the Bacardi distillery, so we took the ferry from Old San Juan across San Juan Bay to a town by the name of Cataño. The fare for the ferry was by the way 50 cents. Mani and I are still astounded as to how they operate a ferry on that fare. We took one more bus from Catano to the Bacardi distillery. At the distillery, we toured the facility and had a couple of drinks on the house. I had a daiquiri, which is basically rum, lime juice, and sugar. Very, very refreshing, especially on a hot afternoon. Mani had a Cuba Libre, or rum and Coke. I didn't like it and neither did he. The second drink I had was a Mojito, which is rum, lime juice, and freshly crushed mint leaves. I didn't like it too much since it had too much of a minty taste and Mani's second drink was the Daiquiri.
Between our drinks, we toured the factory, which is the largest rum distillery in the world, where they process more than 400,000 liters of alcohol every 24 hours. I loved how the guy when talking about the Bacardi family would get a special accent in his English every time he mentioned "Facundo de Bacardi" from "Santiago de Cuba." But I guess the same would happen to me if I said, "Hi, this is my friend Manikantan (Last Name)." But it was still funny.
After touring the factory, we went back to Old San Juan, walked around the place, which is basically like Old City in Philadelphia, except a little bit more beautiful with tropical greenery around everywhere (the hottest temperature we experienced was about 32 degrees on the last day our stay and the coldest temperature we experienced was about 19 degrees when we were driving through the high altitude regions of the Toro Negro Forest Reserve (our rental car had a little temperature display)).
On the second day, we again got up late and got the rental car by about 1 p.m. or so. We drove into Old San Juan and parked. We visited El Fuerto San Felipe del Morro, a naval fort guarding the entrance to Bahia de San Juan (San Juan Harbor). It was really weird to be in what seemed a very foreign country with people speaking mainly Spanish, but come across the familiar Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service uniforms that I could find if I headed down to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. The fort was pretty cool, being almost 500 years old. We explored all the various defensive structures and read up on the history of it. The views from the fort across the Bahia de San Juan as well as out onto the Atlantic Ocean were phenomenal. We even saw a complete rainbow (arc of 180 degrees) out over the ocean which seemed to be getting closer and closer, at which point we started getting hit by rain. The shower was very brief and light, fortunately. In front of El Fuerto San Felipe del Morro, there is a huge lawns which reminds me more of what England should look like than Puerto Rico. We noticed several lawnmowers working to keep the rampant plant growth in check in a tropical region like the Caribbean.
After that, we headed out to the place where we would be spending the next three nights, El Yunque, or Caribbean National Forest. The first place where we had booked was a cabin called the Casita Zumbador. We went there and met the hosts, Matt and Karen Needham. We introduced ourselves and Matt seemed as if he had met a ghost. Searching for a few words, he informed me that there was a misunderstanding and they had overbooked. Apparently, another Vivek had contacted him for the same night! He didn't realize we were different people and had given the room to the other guy. This was extremely funny, because as he explained to me, "I've never met a Vivek before in my life" and all of a sudden, two booked for the same day. Also funny, because earlier Mani and I were remarking over how few desis we had seen in our first 48 hours. Fortunately for us, the Needhams were kind enough to secure accomodation for us in another lodging in the vicinity. We then decided to go into the nearest town, Humacao, some 15-odd kilometers away for dinner.
Reaching Humacao, we went into the a Chinese take-out restaurant. Unlike what we had previously seen in San Juan, the menuboard was entirely in Spanish. We asked the lady at the counter for vegetable lo mein but she didn't understand and passed us an English menu. Unfortunately, there was no vegetable lo mein on the menu, only chicken, beef, and shrimp lo mein. So I tried to improvise some Spanish. I had previously seen street signs in San Juan that said "Calle sin salida" meaning "road without exit," i.e. dead end. So I asked for lo mein sin pollo. She then asked me, "sin po-yo?" since apparently the double l is supposed to be pronounced as a y sound. I said yes and we got our vegetable lo mein. This would be the beginning of our language difficulties, but also the most interesting part of the trip where we would learn what universal human communication is.
On the third day, we hiked on a trail in El Yunque along a path that gave us nice views of the hill to a point that looked out over the ocean in the distance. We must have walked a total of 10 kilometers or so over rough terrain and the view wasn't that great, but it was a good hike through the rainforest. We would have preferred hiking to a waterfall though. After the hike, we decided to go to Humacao again for dinner and on the way down the hill, our rental car got a flat tire. We managed to change the tire before sunset, despite being exhausted from the hike.
So we got the donut on the car and drove to Humacao where we came across a Pep Boys. At the Pep Boys, we talked to one of the mechanics and told him we had a flat tire. He replied in Spanish and understood when we pointed to the tire. He directed us into the store and luckily, the guy who worked in there seemed to have lived on the mainland U.S. for some time since he spoke English, with an American flavor.
He told us that it would take about an hour to fix the car, so we decided to go and get something to eat. We had noticed a Domino's about a block and a half away, so we decided to walk there. We seemed to be in luck when we walked into the Domino's since the menu was in English. So when the lady came to the counter, we asked for a medium Vegi Feast pizza. She said something in Spanish and had this look on her face that seemed like, "SOB, English!" Luckily we were able to point to the English menu and say what we wanted. So that went more or less fairly well. Anyway, the remainder of the day was uneventful, we picked up the car and went back to our accomodation at the Casita Zumbador.
For the fourth day, the plan was to wake up early in the morning and leave by around 8 a.m. or so. The plan was to drive across to the eastern side of the island through the mountainous central roads. Once on the eastern side of the island, we would visit the Rio Camuy Cave Park and the Arecibo Observatory, made famous by the James Bond movie Golden Eye. Unfortunately, by the time we did eventually leave, it was past 10:30 a.m. We had two choices, either drive across the mountainous central roads or take the high-speed highways, known as the Autopistas, up to San Juan and then along the northern coast. We opted to try the central highways since we wanted to drive along a portion of the Ruta Panoramica, which passed through the Toro Negro Forest Reserve.
When we left the autopista in the town of Caguas on the plains, the temperature meter on the car read 26 degrees. By the time we reached Barranquitas, about 600 meters above sea level, the temperature had dropped to 22 degrees and the sky had turned cloudy. The going along the twisting, turning mountains roads was tough but it was a pleasure to drive along. I only wish I had a manual transmission. When we reached the Ruta Panoramica, we entered the Toro Negro Forest Reserve which was breathtakingly beautiful. The sights from the crests and ridges were amazing. The best sight by far was when we drove down from a crest into the road to see Cerro de Punta, Puerto Rico's highest peak rising in front of us shrouded by mist and clouds. By the way, the view we got was a million times better than the one listed on the Wikipedia page since we got the view from within the Toro Negro Forest Reserve.
Also, it was along the Ruta Panoramica that I showed the Puerto Ricans how to drive. This one guy in what seemed like an old, white hatchback was driving in front of us. I overtook him on a downhill in a maneuver that in retrospect was a bit hasty. After some time, Mani was unsure if we were on the right route so we pulled over to the side of the road to check. We were on the right route, but while we were checking, the white car went past us. We got back on the road and I soon got on his tail again. He was right behind a red car that was driving even slower, no doubt driven by some American tourists who couldn't drive (we had previously met some people from Alaska who complained that Puerto Ricans drove badly since they didn't adhere to all stop signs). I tried overtaking the white car a couple of times, in perfectly safe situations, but he kept coming to the left and blocking me deliberately. This quickly became annoying. This guy obviously was a Puerto Rican "cheapo", driving a dilapidated car with loud Spanish music blaring from it. But he obviously had never come across an Indian "cheapo", me. So at one point I moved left to overtake him, he tried to block me, I slammed the accelerator and horned loudly. The horn threw him off balance and he instinctively moved to the right and I sped past him and the car in front of him. Within five minutes, he was no longer in my rear view mirror.
Lesson to Puerto Ricans, you may drive better than mainland Americans but your skills are nothing compared to Indian drivers, so don't even try to compete. Mani and I plan to visit the Dominican Republic within the next couple of years, so I think they may prove to be more of a challenge to me.
Anyway, despite my best efforts, it took us more than four hours to cover the 100 miles along the mountain roads. This included a stop in a Chinese restaurant in a small town, Comeria, along the way, where we had more language issues. Anyway, by the time we got to the Rio Camuy Cave Park, it was almost 4 p.m. and unfortunately for us, they closed at 3:30 p.m. (don't ask me why since even in December, the sun only set well past 5:30 p.m.). So we decided to hit the Arecibo Observatory. Unfortunately for us, the observatory closed at 4 p.m. and we got there only around 4:20 p.m.
While the drive through the Toro Negro Forest Reserve was definitely worth it, we did want to see at least one of these things. We decided that we could see caves pretty much anywhere in the world, so we decided to come back early next morning to see the Arecibo Observatory. On that night, we were originally supposed to stay in some rainforest cabins but since that involved a hike up a steep mountain and it would have been near impossible in the dark when we got back, we decided to stay in the only other accomodation available. The people that owned the rainforest cabins also rented out their neighbor's house, known as Mr. Ko's House. Mr. Ko's house was an experience and a half. For $35 a night, it was unbelievably cheap. The name of course is hilarious. Only the bedroom is finished. In the bed room, there was a king size bed with a small desk and lamp on one side. Now on the other side of the bed was a machete, kept upright. More suited for hacking through rainforests rather than adorning bedrooms, we tried to imagine why Mr. Ko would keep a machete in his bedroom while simulataneously trying to control our laughter. On the flight back to Atlanta, the Delta Airlines magazine had a travel article in which the authors described their travels. One of the things in the article was "Most Memorable Lodging." That honor definitely goes to the house that Mr. Ko built!
On the fifth day, we woke up early and were out of Mr. Ko's house by 8 a.m. Using the autopistas, we reached the Arecibo Observatory by about 10:30 a.m. We hung around for about an hour and headed back to San Juan. After returning the rental car and checking into the hotel, we took the bus to Old San Juan again. We took the ferry across to Catano where we had these amazing cookies the previous time. Unfortunately, the sidewalk vendor who was selling them wasn't there. So we just walked around Old San Juan, took in some final sights and sounds of Puerto Rico and headed back to the hotel.
We left San Juan early morning on Christmas Day. Our flight was at 10 p.m. We passed through security check and got to the gate. As we proceeded onto the narrow connecting bridge to the plane, we were blocked by three U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security agents who were confirming the passengers' legal status in the U.S. They asked us what nationality we were, whether U.S. or non-U.S. When we replied non-U.S., they directed us to the third guy who checked my green card and Mani's visa.
Now if we had said we were U.S. citizens, what would have happened? Would they have asked for our passports? Unlikely, since Puerto Rico is marketed as "U.S. Passport not Required" and we technically were still in the United States. And since the coast guard patrols Puerto Rico, there is an equal chance of someone on a raft landing in Puerto Rico as landing somewhere in Florida. So will they check immigration status at Miami next?
The U.S. Dept of Homeland Security is possibly one of the most inefficient, illogical, and idiotic government agencies ever. They were basically relying on the honor system to enforce immigration laws at San Juan International Airport. Those of us who were truthful about our nationality were subject to scrutiny and had to make sure we had all our papers in order. While those who lied about their nationality status could have potentially gotten away scot free. This, ladies and gentlemen, is pretty much American immigration in a microcosm. Legal immigrants have to endure excessive processing fees, processing times, and strict quotas in their effort to achieve the American dream while illegal immigrants are pretty much given a free ride until Congress decides it's too much effort to deal with them and discusses an option to make them legal, or in other words, amnesty.
Anyway, besides, the slight tangent at the end, this was our Puerto Rico trip, on the whole pretty awesome.
On our first real day, Dec 20, being in San Juan, we decided to visit Old San Juan. Unfortunately, we woke up late and by the time we got ready (we had to make a trip to the Farmacia to buy basic items like toothpaste, deodorant, and shaving cream, and contact lens solution) and had lunch, it was already past 1 p.m. We didn't take toothpaste, deodorant, and shaving cream because of my experiences with the TSA officials at the airport. Contact lens solution was OK with the TSA agents in Philadelphia, Oakland, Los Angeles, and San Francisco airports on my California trip, but the guys at Newark, in their infinite wisdom, decided to confiscate it, lest it be an explosive chemical which could be used in an act of terrorism. These very same guys in Newark made the lady in front of me at the security check remove her toddler's shoes to be passed through the x-ray machine.
Anyway, so by the time we took a bus to Old San Juan, it was already past 2 p.m. We decided to visit the Bacardi distillery, so we took the ferry from Old San Juan across San Juan Bay to a town by the name of Cataño. The fare for the ferry was by the way 50 cents. Mani and I are still astounded as to how they operate a ferry on that fare. We took one more bus from Catano to the Bacardi distillery. At the distillery, we toured the facility and had a couple of drinks on the house. I had a daiquiri, which is basically rum, lime juice, and sugar. Very, very refreshing, especially on a hot afternoon. Mani had a Cuba Libre, or rum and Coke. I didn't like it and neither did he. The second drink I had was a Mojito, which is rum, lime juice, and freshly crushed mint leaves. I didn't like it too much since it had too much of a minty taste and Mani's second drink was the Daiquiri.
Between our drinks, we toured the factory, which is the largest rum distillery in the world, where they process more than 400,000 liters of alcohol every 24 hours. I loved how the guy when talking about the Bacardi family would get a special accent in his English every time he mentioned "Facundo de Bacardi" from "Santiago de Cuba." But I guess the same would happen to me if I said, "Hi, this is my friend Manikantan (Last Name)." But it was still funny.
After touring the factory, we went back to Old San Juan, walked around the place, which is basically like Old City in Philadelphia, except a little bit more beautiful with tropical greenery around everywhere (the hottest temperature we experienced was about 32 degrees on the last day our stay and the coldest temperature we experienced was about 19 degrees when we were driving through the high altitude regions of the Toro Negro Forest Reserve (our rental car had a little temperature display)).
On the second day, we again got up late and got the rental car by about 1 p.m. or so. We drove into Old San Juan and parked. We visited El Fuerto San Felipe del Morro, a naval fort guarding the entrance to Bahia de San Juan (San Juan Harbor). It was really weird to be in what seemed a very foreign country with people speaking mainly Spanish, but come across the familiar Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service uniforms that I could find if I headed down to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. The fort was pretty cool, being almost 500 years old. We explored all the various defensive structures and read up on the history of it. The views from the fort across the Bahia de San Juan as well as out onto the Atlantic Ocean were phenomenal. We even saw a complete rainbow (arc of 180 degrees) out over the ocean which seemed to be getting closer and closer, at which point we started getting hit by rain. The shower was very brief and light, fortunately. In front of El Fuerto San Felipe del Morro, there is a huge lawns which reminds me more of what England should look like than Puerto Rico. We noticed several lawnmowers working to keep the rampant plant growth in check in a tropical region like the Caribbean.
After that, we headed out to the place where we would be spending the next three nights, El Yunque, or Caribbean National Forest. The first place where we had booked was a cabin called the Casita Zumbador. We went there and met the hosts, Matt and Karen Needham. We introduced ourselves and Matt seemed as if he had met a ghost. Searching for a few words, he informed me that there was a misunderstanding and they had overbooked. Apparently, another Vivek had contacted him for the same night! He didn't realize we were different people and had given the room to the other guy. This was extremely funny, because as he explained to me, "I've never met a Vivek before in my life" and all of a sudden, two booked for the same day. Also funny, because earlier Mani and I were remarking over how few desis we had seen in our first 48 hours. Fortunately for us, the Needhams were kind enough to secure accomodation for us in another lodging in the vicinity. We then decided to go into the nearest town, Humacao, some 15-odd kilometers away for dinner.
Reaching Humacao, we went into the a Chinese take-out restaurant. Unlike what we had previously seen in San Juan, the menuboard was entirely in Spanish. We asked the lady at the counter for vegetable lo mein but she didn't understand and passed us an English menu. Unfortunately, there was no vegetable lo mein on the menu, only chicken, beef, and shrimp lo mein. So I tried to improvise some Spanish. I had previously seen street signs in San Juan that said "Calle sin salida" meaning "road without exit," i.e. dead end. So I asked for lo mein sin pollo. She then asked me, "sin po-yo?" since apparently the double l is supposed to be pronounced as a y sound. I said yes and we got our vegetable lo mein. This would be the beginning of our language difficulties, but also the most interesting part of the trip where we would learn what universal human communication is.
On the third day, we hiked on a trail in El Yunque along a path that gave us nice views of the hill to a point that looked out over the ocean in the distance. We must have walked a total of 10 kilometers or so over rough terrain and the view wasn't that great, but it was a good hike through the rainforest. We would have preferred hiking to a waterfall though. After the hike, we decided to go to Humacao again for dinner and on the way down the hill, our rental car got a flat tire. We managed to change the tire before sunset, despite being exhausted from the hike.
So we got the donut on the car and drove to Humacao where we came across a Pep Boys. At the Pep Boys, we talked to one of the mechanics and told him we had a flat tire. He replied in Spanish and understood when we pointed to the tire. He directed us into the store and luckily, the guy who worked in there seemed to have lived on the mainland U.S. for some time since he spoke English, with an American flavor.
He told us that it would take about an hour to fix the car, so we decided to go and get something to eat. We had noticed a Domino's about a block and a half away, so we decided to walk there. We seemed to be in luck when we walked into the Domino's since the menu was in English. So when the lady came to the counter, we asked for a medium Vegi Feast pizza. She said something in Spanish and had this look on her face that seemed like, "SOB, English!" Luckily we were able to point to the English menu and say what we wanted. So that went more or less fairly well. Anyway, the remainder of the day was uneventful, we picked up the car and went back to our accomodation at the Casita Zumbador.
For the fourth day, the plan was to wake up early in the morning and leave by around 8 a.m. or so. The plan was to drive across to the eastern side of the island through the mountainous central roads. Once on the eastern side of the island, we would visit the Rio Camuy Cave Park and the Arecibo Observatory, made famous by the James Bond movie Golden Eye. Unfortunately, by the time we did eventually leave, it was past 10:30 a.m. We had two choices, either drive across the mountainous central roads or take the high-speed highways, known as the Autopistas, up to San Juan and then along the northern coast. We opted to try the central highways since we wanted to drive along a portion of the Ruta Panoramica, which passed through the Toro Negro Forest Reserve.
When we left the autopista in the town of Caguas on the plains, the temperature meter on the car read 26 degrees. By the time we reached Barranquitas, about 600 meters above sea level, the temperature had dropped to 22 degrees and the sky had turned cloudy. The going along the twisting, turning mountains roads was tough but it was a pleasure to drive along. I only wish I had a manual transmission. When we reached the Ruta Panoramica, we entered the Toro Negro Forest Reserve which was breathtakingly beautiful. The sights from the crests and ridges were amazing. The best sight by far was when we drove down from a crest into the road to see Cerro de Punta, Puerto Rico's highest peak rising in front of us shrouded by mist and clouds. By the way, the view we got was a million times better than the one listed on the Wikipedia page since we got the view from within the Toro Negro Forest Reserve.
Also, it was along the Ruta Panoramica that I showed the Puerto Ricans how to drive. This one guy in what seemed like an old, white hatchback was driving in front of us. I overtook him on a downhill in a maneuver that in retrospect was a bit hasty. After some time, Mani was unsure if we were on the right route so we pulled over to the side of the road to check. We were on the right route, but while we were checking, the white car went past us. We got back on the road and I soon got on his tail again. He was right behind a red car that was driving even slower, no doubt driven by some American tourists who couldn't drive (we had previously met some people from Alaska who complained that Puerto Ricans drove badly since they didn't adhere to all stop signs). I tried overtaking the white car a couple of times, in perfectly safe situations, but he kept coming to the left and blocking me deliberately. This quickly became annoying. This guy obviously was a Puerto Rican "cheapo", driving a dilapidated car with loud Spanish music blaring from it. But he obviously had never come across an Indian "cheapo", me. So at one point I moved left to overtake him, he tried to block me, I slammed the accelerator and horned loudly. The horn threw him off balance and he instinctively moved to the right and I sped past him and the car in front of him. Within five minutes, he was no longer in my rear view mirror.
Lesson to Puerto Ricans, you may drive better than mainland Americans but your skills are nothing compared to Indian drivers, so don't even try to compete. Mani and I plan to visit the Dominican Republic within the next couple of years, so I think they may prove to be more of a challenge to me.
Anyway, despite my best efforts, it took us more than four hours to cover the 100 miles along the mountain roads. This included a stop in a Chinese restaurant in a small town, Comeria, along the way, where we had more language issues. Anyway, by the time we got to the Rio Camuy Cave Park, it was almost 4 p.m. and unfortunately for us, they closed at 3:30 p.m. (don't ask me why since even in December, the sun only set well past 5:30 p.m.). So we decided to hit the Arecibo Observatory. Unfortunately for us, the observatory closed at 4 p.m. and we got there only around 4:20 p.m.
While the drive through the Toro Negro Forest Reserve was definitely worth it, we did want to see at least one of these things. We decided that we could see caves pretty much anywhere in the world, so we decided to come back early next morning to see the Arecibo Observatory. On that night, we were originally supposed to stay in some rainforest cabins but since that involved a hike up a steep mountain and it would have been near impossible in the dark when we got back, we decided to stay in the only other accomodation available. The people that owned the rainforest cabins also rented out their neighbor's house, known as Mr. Ko's House. Mr. Ko's house was an experience and a half. For $35 a night, it was unbelievably cheap. The name of course is hilarious. Only the bedroom is finished. In the bed room, there was a king size bed with a small desk and lamp on one side. Now on the other side of the bed was a machete, kept upright. More suited for hacking through rainforests rather than adorning bedrooms, we tried to imagine why Mr. Ko would keep a machete in his bedroom while simulataneously trying to control our laughter. On the flight back to Atlanta, the Delta Airlines magazine had a travel article in which the authors described their travels. One of the things in the article was "Most Memorable Lodging." That honor definitely goes to the house that Mr. Ko built!
On the fifth day, we woke up early and were out of Mr. Ko's house by 8 a.m. Using the autopistas, we reached the Arecibo Observatory by about 10:30 a.m. We hung around for about an hour and headed back to San Juan. After returning the rental car and checking into the hotel, we took the bus to Old San Juan again. We took the ferry across to Catano where we had these amazing cookies the previous time. Unfortunately, the sidewalk vendor who was selling them wasn't there. So we just walked around Old San Juan, took in some final sights and sounds of Puerto Rico and headed back to the hotel.
We left San Juan early morning on Christmas Day. Our flight was at 10 p.m. We passed through security check and got to the gate. As we proceeded onto the narrow connecting bridge to the plane, we were blocked by three U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security agents who were confirming the passengers' legal status in the U.S. They asked us what nationality we were, whether U.S. or non-U.S. When we replied non-U.S., they directed us to the third guy who checked my green card and Mani's visa.
Now if we had said we were U.S. citizens, what would have happened? Would they have asked for our passports? Unlikely, since Puerto Rico is marketed as "U.S. Passport not Required" and we technically were still in the United States. And since the coast guard patrols Puerto Rico, there is an equal chance of someone on a raft landing in Puerto Rico as landing somewhere in Florida. So will they check immigration status at Miami next?
The U.S. Dept of Homeland Security is possibly one of the most inefficient, illogical, and idiotic government agencies ever. They were basically relying on the honor system to enforce immigration laws at San Juan International Airport. Those of us who were truthful about our nationality were subject to scrutiny and had to make sure we had all our papers in order. While those who lied about their nationality status could have potentially gotten away scot free. This, ladies and gentlemen, is pretty much American immigration in a microcosm. Legal immigrants have to endure excessive processing fees, processing times, and strict quotas in their effort to achieve the American dream while illegal immigrants are pretty much given a free ride until Congress decides it's too much effort to deal with them and discusses an option to make them legal, or in other words, amnesty.
Anyway, besides, the slight tangent at the end, this was our Puerto Rico trip, on the whole pretty awesome.
posted by Vivek at 8:19 PM
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