We headed deep into the mountains the other day in order to meet a woman who sells plants from her farm in Las Marias. We are planning on expanding our tropical flower farm business and most of these exotics must be found at private farms rather than in viveros (nurseries).
It was here that we could really feel that the hurricane was still only very slowly being dealt with (and the coincidence of name). The damage from Maria to Rincon was severe, especially at the coast, but in the mountains they confronted different issues such as landslides off of cliffs and intense winds in the higher levels. Not only that but it is much more difficult to fix the electrical lines through the thick mountainous jungles and therefore most of Las Marias is still without power.
We had to take a detour through the cemetery in Anasco because the road had washed out
A horse in the road is fairly common here
Huge boulders in the road usually are not!
A whole house had been engulfed in mud
And another had collapsed along with the roadway
This road was painted to, I assume, FEMA workers when Las Marias locals were blocked completely from the rest of society. The tick marks may mean the days they waited.
There is still such a tremendous beauty to the interior of the island!
We celebrate life! We will rise up!
When we arrived back in Rincon, we stopped by a little chinchorro for a drink and stumbled upon a birthday party. It was a perfect little Puerto Rico scene complete with lechon, dominoes, karaoke cerveza y tragos.
Lechon, lechon, lechon
Thanks for the travel post! Your observations are always insightful. P.R. is not much in the news lately and I have wondered how it is faring. I wrote to Lin Manuel Miranda about doing a play on P.R. and its history and current happenings and he wrote me back thanking me! I think he has been traveling there when he has a little free time to assess what is going on. The major of San Juan has been pleading with Trump to get help for the rural areas but instead he levied a tax on P.R. exports of 20% which is puzzling to say the least. Did you find plants in Las Marias for your finca?
While we visited we also went into the mountains. There is lots of damage (away from tourists eyes). Lots of mud slides, trees mangled, “blue roofs”. Roads were barely wide enough for one car to get through. Lots of construction workers and power company workers.
Sorry we missed you guys while we were there. Next time we’ll try again. I’m out of vacation time so it might not be for another year.
We were glad to see the Puerto Rican Pride and how they don’t let it get them down. People really love the island and will work hard to recover.