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Belto · 09-26-2008, 11:30 AM

well I know some of you guy know some about us here in the middle of the Sea. But this is for you guys that are curious to my culture or/and history,, so just ask away,, if I dont know it at first give me a day or two to find out..

I promess you will find out more than you expected...

first some quick history of PR

we were first populated by native indians called "Tainos" they travel from south america threw all the small islands going one by one, till they got here and liked it and stayed,, they were pasive non violent people

they when the new world was discoverd by Chritopher Colon (he is Portuguese not Spanish like many think) by accident (he was shooting to go to India thats why they called the navite here indians) they arrived to Domincan Republic / Haiti and then came to PR. they liked it so much here that the Spanish kings decided to make PR their colony and explote the gold here.

After some years of abuse by the Spanish PR people decided to do something about it and well got the help of this new cool contry USA. so in the Spanish American war between USA and Spain, the US won and PR, Cuba, Guam were given to US as war wins and Philipines was sold very cheap aswell.

then we had a military US gov for many year and well we decided and debated that we were capable and enough to goven ourself so in 1952 The Free Associated State of Puerto Rico was founded. and has stay like that ever since.

so any Qs of any info that you guys are interested that I probably left out since this is just a quick light history ask away

Belto · 09-26-2008, 11:50 AM

also some food facts:

we do not use hot spices like for example mexicans. we are not into hot that much,, just what tastes good

the most common spice used is "adobo" witch is a mix of spices: salt, pepper, oregano, garlick.. this goes well with red meats, fish, chicken, pork, well everything, its real jummy

aslo the tipical plate is: rice and beans (those are cook a lil different from you guys) , chicken, some aguacate (when in season) , fresh salad, and some nice decerts.. that well I can post but there are no translations plus they will be hard to explain so if no one asks well ill save that time

also as you may know, we are the REAL rum capital of the world, we have many good rums that get exported like Bacardi, Captain Ron (I think is called), but the best smothest one does not export its called Don Q, so if you have ever a chance to travel here or know someone that will come here, tell them to buy some so that you can taste it..

Belto · 09-26-2008, 11:56 AM

also so that you guys know we are about 4 million residents in the island and in New York they are about 2 million more and there is also a big population in Chicago, and well everywhere in the world there is a guy from PR..

want to know how and why did we end up in the US so many of us? we didnt illegaly migrated there,, nop, back when the US came to PR the economic strength of the island was agriculture, then the mechanical revolution came and the agriculture was TOTALLY droped as to 0 agriculture. So there were not that many jobs in the cities so the government started giving plane ticket to New York so that we could get jobs there, that other people didnt want to work as.. for example janitor, housekeeping all those hard low paying jobs.. but it was a better option that to stay here in the island and be spr poor.. so thats the truth about why there are so many of us there

Belto · 09-26-2008, 11:58 AM

also for education matter, we are educated English and Spanish as a first laguage and in history we are educated PR and USA history as our history.. its just like any other state I belive..

BlueXJ · 09-26-2008, 12:17 PM

Thank you Belto. I knew most of that but for many of the others that will be very informative.

Belto · 09-26-2008, 12:20 PM

any other question Blue ask away,, no probs

BlueXJ · 09-26-2008, 12:23 PM

Talk a little about the monetary system in PR and how it compares to the US! Dollars vs Pesos and what a dollar will buy there as opposed to here.

Belto · 09-26-2008, 12:26 PM

well no pesos here,, the official and only currency accepted in PR is the US $ Dollar

same,, no special edition nor nothing

BlueXJ · 09-26-2008, 12:29 PM

Well here a soda/soft drink/Cocacola is about $1.25 in a convience store what about there?

Belto · 09-26-2008, 12:31 PM

well $.85 plus 7% sales tax so well about $1

Belto · 09-26-2008, 07:40 PM

anyone else,, any other question,, ?

lornix · 09-26-2008, 07:54 PM

Very interesting Belto ... thanks for sharing that!

Belto · 09-26-2008, 07:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lornix

Very interesting Belto ... thanks for sharing that!

no prob any thing that interests you about my island let me know

BlueXJ · 09-26-2008, 08:14 PM

Tell us about the rain forest and the beautiful mountains. I was there and have pics but can't locate them. I have been looking since you started this thread.

Belto · 09-26-2008, 08:47 PM

ok, flora of PR...

well we have small mountains compared to the rest of the world,,

we have the "cordillera central" witch is on the center of the island this is where the rain forest El Yunque is located at. some may think El Yunque is the highest point of the island but they are mistaken the actual Yunque is a big rock that sits on top of the third highest point. The highest point is called "Toro Negro" Black Bull, on top of that point you can see the North shore and the South Shore at the same time.. since the island is only 3O miles tall..

Every day it rains there,, but most at the tip of the mountain,, thats what feeds much off the mayor rivers of the island.

fauna of PR

well we dont have any poison snakes nor frogs nor any animals of that sort. we do have our native lil frog called "El Coqui" after the sound it makes. this is smaller than a regular frog, also it can only lived in PR, until recently that people have discover some pretty familiar frogs in Hawaii. Also we have our native Parrot. and we are proud of our "Paso Fino" Horses.

well thats some lil info on that..