Alright so presently I am sitting in a park in Caguas,PR with 2 parrots posted up in a gigantic cage in front of me. Different yes, but it is Puerto Rico!
So last night, Melody and I had the pleasure of camping on the beach. Not the most comfortable sleeping arrangement but indeed a cheap nights sleep and the pleasure of dipping ourselves in the water at anytime. So we set up camp and got to exploring. We explored the la playa de Luquillo, which actually seemed somewhat deserted. On the coast of the Caribbean Ocean, ba jesus it was beautiful, kinda scary at times. The ocean can be so humbling.
Before that we trekked, fa reals, the beautiful rainforest of El Yunque. Four hours in the moist, green, colorful rainforest... Amazing! We felt one with the flora/amazing greenery called rainforest. :) Between the sounds of birds, the coqui (frog) and rain sporadically falling, Melody and I felt like we had become closer to the sun, the land and the spirits of maybe our ancestors. Imagining where people were inhabited or if this particular plant was used to build a home, I mean... this stuff all happened.
After spending the night we headed to Ponce early this morning to check out a site, which was known as Taino Ceremonial ground. We watched a short Taino video and then headed towards the grounds. The tour guide was rather unknowledgeable in his answers. I visited three years ago and then there was a gentlemen by the name of Salvador, beautiful storyteller and definitely took this history far more seriously so we asked and discovered he worked not too far from the park, at the History Museum in the center of Ponce.
We found him and he didn't let us down. Answered all our questions with a bit of passion and soul in his ojos y corozon. Man o man I got chills the way he spoke of Africans, their beauty and great assets. He has done numerous years of research on the early existence of Aborignal Indigenous groups like the Taino's. He furthered his research with the Indians integration with Africans as slavery took over. Mind blowing I must say, very informative as well. (video coming asap)