Pondering Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico, 

My heart’s devotion - 

Let it sink back in the ocean.

Always the hurricanes blowing,

Always the population growing,

And the money owing,

And the sunlight streaming,

And the natives steaming.

I like the island Manhattan - 

(I know you do!)

Smoke on your pipe

And put that in!

~ Anita, in the film “West Side Story”

Truthfully, I think I liked Puerto Rico more than Panama, although to be fair, I haven’t been to Panama in almost 10 years. But one of our last visits to Panama was in the month of May, and I remember it felt SO hot, and you know my tolerance for heat has to be fairly high, given how long we’ve lived in and loved Florida. 

PR in July felt way less hot, or maybe there were just better ocean breezes, since it’s an island versus Panama being an isthmus (which is actually a really hard word to spell and say, another point in PR’s favor vs Panama). 

🤣

My friend moving to Panama soon as her husband is ready to retire told me PR has too many hurricanes and is too expensive (milk is like $8 a gallon she said! My response was well, we don’t buy milk), but after this first visit and how much we liked it, I think it’s a pretty strong contender for our dream of living as ex-pats somewhere in the future. Except, not sure if you’re really an ex-pat since it’s a US territory? Obviously, I have more research to do, something my husband’s really good at, and I’m admittedly much less so.

But my overall impression, from one day walking around Old San Juan and two days driving to other towns on the island, is that it seems very livable and would be very do-able to move there someday, maybe. 

It did strike me as so strange though, to feel like you’re in another country and then see familiar things like the highway speed limit in miles and US post offices, not to mention all the usual chain stores and restaurants. Apparently the distances on maps are done in kilometers but the speed limit signs are in miles, which is confusing, but I suppose you get used to it.

Either way, I loved getting to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary by exploring a brand-new place together and pondering the idea of someday moving there; I also had a great time taking photos of the iguanas at the ages-old fort we visited, and all the sweet street cats.