Finally back on land! I can’t stress enough how much the ship moves, and once you’re finally used to it, you end up going on land and getting a mild case of land sickness. But it’s worth it.
I convinced Grant to get up with me this morning to have breakfast with my friend Kevin and me (yes, that is correct grammar) and watch the sunrise while we pulled into San Juan, Puerto Rico. A lot more students were up before 7 in the morning than I thought would be, considering most of us go to sleep around one or two We cleared customs by nine and were free to roam old San Juan. We all started out in a giant mob and eventually dispersed to the corners of the city. We went to the old forts and the White House equivalent in Puerto Rico, which is pretty neat. The big group chiseled down, and then some of my friends learned a valuable travel lesson…
TRAVEL LESSON ONE:
It doesn’t matter if someone is bleeding to death with missing limbs. DO NOT GIVE ANYBODY MONEY.
That seems simple enough. Well, this nice looking man came along who seemed to be in distress. He asked us if we spoke English, and we said yes. He then proceeded to tell us how he and his father were just mugged in some neighborhood (we were actually warned not to go to this neighborhood, La Perla, in our briefing) and had to go to the emergency room to get stitches on his face. The man, who claimed to be the Attorney State General of Wisconsin, said that he had to pick up a cab asap to the emergency room so he could pick up his father and make a boat ride that was scheduled to leave in a half an hour to where they were staying, at the Southeast part of the island. He had been “robbed” of his passport, credit cards, identification, etc, and he needed $25 for a cab. The man did actually look beat up, but I didn’t believe him. Well, my friends did. I didn’t give him any money, but some of the people I was with gave him $25. The man was pretty convincing, especially at the end, because some of my friends offered him more money, but he refused to take more than $25. I then felt a little guilty after he left that I didn’t fork over any cash, but we met a lady who worked in the government building and told us it was a scam. Yeah, it could have been prevented…
The man was wearing sunglasses and a fanny pack. If he was “robbed”, shouldn’t those have been stolen too?
He did have some scars on his face, but none looked fresh.
He seemed relieved that we spoke English, which is not exactly uncommon in Puerto Rico…
You just shouldn’t trust people like that in general.
I really wanted to take his picture or something, but the idea slipped my mind after a while. Well, the lesson is, don’t trust people who want money. Yeah.
We then proceeded to have lunch and go to a cock fight. Yes, a cock fight. It’s… interesting. The place was alright, but I thought the fighters were a little cocky. They’re brave too, which is good. It wouldn’t be a good fight if they were chicken. But it really is just… weird. I can’t really say that I enjoyed it, because I didn’t really know what was going on, but I don’t really regret going either. It’s a cultural experience. Just one of those things that you have to do. Well, I’m going to Bioluminescent Bay in a half hour. I’ll tell you about it later. Peace!
3 comments:
chicken! i get it. i'm sure if AJ read this he would come up with some sort of sexual joke about cock fights but i'm not being very creative right now. miss you thomas! i'm glad you're having cultural experiences :)
thomas!! thats crazy. when i first started reading your entry i thought there was gonna be a guy actually with no limbs. That would have been a lot more convincing. Sounds like a blizast! I leave tomorrow and i haven't packed yet. Glad you're making Grant wake up. Sweet pics too! I'm vewy jealous. Yayayay miss you love you hate you for getting to do this trip buhbye!
While in San Juan in May of 2008, my daughter & I were approached on the sidewalk near our hotel by a tall, thin, blonde man with a fanny pack. He gave a convincing story about how he and his father were beaten & robbed in an area of San Juan that nobody warned them against going into. He said that he was from Wisconsin, would be working in Puerto Rico, and wanted to show his dad around. He said the police were no help at all when he wanted to file a report of the incident. He was extremely convincing. His conversation was so natural. He said it was humiliating to beg for money. He needed the money for cab fare to get his father out of the hospital, etc. We gave him $20, which he said he would pay back to us or he would give to our favorite charity. He even asked for our e-mail address so he could arrange to pay us back, but we didn't want to give that to him. He sounded grateful for the money. It seems he had a watch on his wrist, because I wondered why he still had that after being robbed. It would have payed to be more observant. He had red marks on his arms and face as if someone beat him up. Sounds like the same guy. We passed him a couple of nights later on the sidewalk and he was walking very fast, had the same fanny pack, was frowning and his head was down. Someone must have told him they didn't buy his story. He had the same clothes on as when he asked us for money. My daughter & I both had our doubts about giving him money, but we wanted to help and that's what people like that count on. Leach!
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