I arose at sunrise to begin my second day in Puerto Rico. The morning sun was
streaming through the door leading to a balcony, so I walked out onto the balcony to
take in the view. I looked through white painted iron bars totally enclosing the small
balcony out across the street to more buildings and the Catholic church; the view was
nothing to write home about. But the sun was shining brightly telling me to get up and
get going. So I put on my shorts and shirt, grabbed my portable CD player and
headed out barefoot onto the street to make my first phone calls of the day. Before
heading out of the heavy steel locked gate I again asked the owner if he had a phone I
could use. And once again he instructed me to use the pay phones on the street, so I
headed down the stairs out to the street and found a pay phone half way down the
block on the street corner.
My first call was to MCI to see if they had connected my toll-free number yet. I was put
on hold while the person who was helping me was checking on my order. In the mean
time the denizens of Humacao were just starting their commute to work. And
unfortunately for me, they commuted in cars - very noisy cars without mufflers. The
sound of the engines reverberated loudly off the walls of the close buildings on the
narrow street such that if someone were talking on the other end of the phone it was
unlikely that I would hear what they were saying. So I hung up the line and headed
back to my room. Needing to get my clothes washed, I asked the hotel owner where
the nearest laundry was located. He informed me there was a place just downstairs
and around the corner. How lucky. I grabbed most all of the clothes I brought to
Puerto Rico with me and headed off to the laundry.
It was literally just beneath my balcony, so I arrived at the cleaners in just a few steps. I
got there a few minutes before they opened which afforded me the chance to talk to a
beautiful, no, stunningly beautiful young lady sitting on the porch of a music school
awaiting its opening. She saw me listening to my portable CD player (a new gadget at
that time) and she was interested in that. I asked her if she liked music to which she
replied positively. Then I asked whether she could sing and again she replied with a
delightful yes. So I told her that I was a concert producer from California and that I was
planning a concert in June. Since she was very pretty and she said she could sing I
asked her, half cocked, if she would like to perform at my concert.
By the look in her eyes I could see this worried her so that she replied, “Oh no, no," as
she shook her head. She didn’t speak English very well so that was about as far as
the conversation went. The cleaners opened and I dropped off my clothes. I went
back to the hotel room, grabbed my backpack, the video camera, a few CDs, and I
headed back out to the car. I still needed to make many phone calls and I needed to
find a phone where the noise wasn’t so deafening. So I decided to drive myself away
from town and out toward the ocean.
After driving just a few minutes on the road heading out of Humacao I came quickly
into a rural farming area. There was a side road heading off to the right so I turned
and headed through sugar cane fields for several miles until I reached a small store in
the middle of nowhere with a pay phone right out front. I thought to myself, “this
should be a quiet enough spot.”
I parked the car and headed to the pay phone. The unfortunate thing was that it
wasn't working. So I entered the store and asked the keeper if there was a phone
somewhere nearby.
He replied, “No, but if you drive up the road a little more than a mile further you’ll come
to an intersection. There’s a phone there at the intersection.”
So I thanked him and I returned to the car and headed further up the road where I
found the intersection and the pay phone.
| 3.4-1 My Second Day in Puerto Rico Thursday Morning until Friday Morning March 21st - 22nd, 1991 |
Pictures of the old Hotel Palace in Humacao. My room had the balcony facing the church.
Entrance road to Buena Vista in Humacao. Sugar cane fields filled the left side of the road, now gone
World Turned Upside Down
Music -Nothing Ever
Goes as Planned by
Styx
Goes as Planned by
Styx