Puerto Rico Snapshot

The ride on a busy highway from the airport to the home of our host, revealed lavish emerald foliage, against lofty mountains reaching skyward to an exuberant sun. Elegant palm trees papered the road where gentle zephyrs stirred the air. The afternoon sparkled with the colour of freshly, polished copper.

Peddlers dotted the landscape along the grassy sides at the edge of the road. The shorts and skimpy tops of the vendors boiled with fiery gold, vivid turquoise, shocking pink, and lime green. Chartreuse moss hung languidly on the deciduous trees. A battalion of merchants, unimpeded by buildings freckled the landscape. The cab stopped for a red light and a man ran into the traffic and cleaned the taxi’s windshield. The seller showered us with Spanish holding up a decapitated fresh chicken. The cabby did not acknowledge the squeegee panhandler. His eyes were affixed on the light waiting for it to turn. The ribbon of black that we travelled became an army of similar merchants.

The route to the guarded, gated community unveiled my eyes to the stark poverty of the mansions behind the fencing.