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Showing posts from 2014

Legend Surf Classic Puerto Rico To Be Held January 16

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Legend Surf Classic Puerto Rico To Be Held January 16 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE —December 7, 2014 Rincon, Puerto Rico – The Second Annual Legend Surf Classic Puerto Rico takes place from the 16th to the 19th of January 2015 in Rincon, Puerto Rico. This year’s event proudly features two of surfings greatest champions: Hawaii’s Fred Hemmings, the winner of the 1968 World Championship which was held in Rincon, Puerto Rico and Australia’s Nat Young, the 1966 World Champion and a finalist in the 1968 World Contest. Introduced by Monty Smith in 2014, The Legend Surf Classic Puerto Rico has embraced its mission to “Promote and Celebrate the Surfing History and Culture of Puerto Rico.” This nonprofit event does so by recognizing the original surfers who started surfing in Puerto Rico and by recognizing surf legends from around the world who have had an impact on Puerto Rico’s surf culture. The 1968 World Surfing Championship brought international recognition by surfers and beach lovers worldwide

Thousands to attend Campechada cultural festival in San Juan

Thousands of people will flock this weekend to Old San Juan, the historic colonial center of the Puerto Rican capital, to take part in activities of the 4th Campechada cultural and artistic festival. This year's event will be dedicated to Myrna Baez, 83, considered one of Puerto Rico's greatest painters and engravers. This is the first time the Campechada has spotlighted the life and works of a living artist, and also the first time it has featured a woman. Honored with countless prizes and exhibitions on and off the island, Baez is one of Puerto Rico's leading artists with a career spanning more than 50 years. This weekend will feature dozens of concerts, dance performances, stage plays, handicraft displays, painting and sculpture exhibits, movies, exhibitions of Baez's work, a book fair, conferences and other activities in the streets and plazas of Old San Juan. The festival is an institutional project that debuted in 2011, organized by the Institute of Puerto Ri

Best Caribbean Islands

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If you're planning a tropical getaway, the Caribbean islands are a gold mine of beauty, seclusion, and adventure. Even though all the Caribbean islands are beautiful, some are better than others. So we decided to rank them. We figured that the best islands would have a low cost, be easy to get to, and have beautiful beaches and lots of activities.  In most instances, we defined a Caribbean island as a single country, republic, or territory in the Caribbean. To rank these islands, we factored in each island's average hotel room cost, according to Hotels.com ; the distance from New York City; the number of attractions listed on TripAdvisor ; and the amount of coastline per square kilometer, which we called the beach density score.  Read more on our methodology here. We also created an infographic and map that shows our ranking of the best Caribbean islands. CLICK TO SEE THE CARIBBEAN ISLANDS, RANKED »   1. Puerto Rico Flickr/breezy421 Distance from NYC:  

Where to Find the Best Roast Pork in Puerto Rico

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JAMES BEARD , the American cooking authority, was not impressed with Puerto Rican cuisine when he was posted on the island during World War II. “I have always felt that food in the Caribbean is perhaps the worst in the world,” he wrote in his memoir, “Delights and Prejudices.” He would certainly change his mind if he could enjoy the work of the island’s modern chefs—the true-to-roots refinement Jose Enrique Montes displays at his eponymous restaurant, the crossover cuisine Jose Santaella creates at Santaella, the farm-to-table fare of Juan Jose Cuevas at 1919. But even back then, Mr. Beard noted one culinary saving grace: “Fortunately we had available   lechón asado , the traditional barbecued pig with its crisp skin and deliciously tender meat.” Lechón asado is Puerto Rico’s unofficial national dish. It’s served year-round but is particularly prevalent during the holidays—especially Christmas and Three Kings Day, marked on Jan. 6. And it’s not just roasted pig: Lechón asado is a craft

Caribbean Food: 5 Best Things to Eat in Puerto Rico

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Wikimedia/Arnold Gatilao Pasteles are a much-loved dish in Puerto Rico, especially at Christmas. Looking to take a holiday to the Caribbean and eager to know more about the Caribbean food scene? To start, Caribbean food is an incredibly diverse arena in the culinary world. With African, East Indian, Arab, European, Amerindian, and Chinese influences mixed into one big pot, Caribbean food recipes are representative of cultures from around the world. An array of delicious Caribbean found can be found in Puerto Rico , which is just a short flight from the East Coast of the U.S. Here, the Caribbean food scene thrives, with traditional Caribbean food recipes present in both the restaurant scene and home cooking. When visiting Puerto Rico , there are a tremendous amount of Caribbean dishes to try. You can’t go wrong with a tostone , which is also very popular in many Latin American countries. Tostones, which are fried plantains, are a simple but tasty snack, appe

Puerto Rico Monitors Whales After Fatal Stranding

Authorities in Puerto Rico are monitoring two dense-beaked whales that got free and are swimming off the U.S. territory's northwest coast after they became stranded on the island along with one that died. Natural Resources Secretary Carmen Guerrero says it is rare to see Blainville's beaked whales strand themselves on the island. The third whale was an 8-foot (2.4-meter) calf that stranded itself Friday in Aguadilla. Guerrero says biologists transported it to a nearby zoo, but there was no way to artificially feed that type of calf and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ordered it euthanized. Puerto Rico Monitors Whales After Fatal Stranding

Puerto Rico is where women wear the highest heels in the entire U.S, study finds

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And the winner is – drum roll – Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico claims the top spot in a survey of United States and its territories seeking where women wore the highest heels. Puerto Rico came in with an average of 2.86 inch heels, with Nevada, Florida, Arkansas and Texas following the island. The survey, titled “Stilettos by State,” was conducted by Gilt , an online shopping site, in effort to see whether fashion tastes varied by location. Nebraska, Kansas and Maine were home to women preferring the shortest heels, just under 1.97 inches. The Gilt survey did not look at boots and ballet flats. High heel averages in states near the top of the list were 2.46 inches in Florida, 2.35 inches in Texas, and 2.25 inches in California. Theories abounded in published reports about the variety of taste in heels. They included drawing a link between a preference for high heels and warm weather, and low heels and rural areas. Another publication drew a parallel between high heels and places whe

Next big idea in forest conservation? Recognize the value of novel forests

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INNOVATION IN TROPICAL FOREST CONSERVATION SERIES Despite decades of attention and advocacy, tropical forests are still falling at rapid rates worldwide. Now, mongabay.com's new special series, Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation aims to highlight solutions to the crisis through short interviews with some of the world's leading conservation scientists, practitioners, and thinkers about new and emerging approaches to conservation. For more of these interviews, please check our Innovation in Tropical Forest Conservation feed. Ariel Lugo overlooking an urban watershed in Puerto Rico. Photo courtesy of Ariel Lugo. Think first before you eradicate non-native species says Dr. Ariel E. Lugo, the current director of the International Institute of Tropical Forestry within the USDA Forest Service, based in Puerto Rico. Lugo, an accomplished ecologist, supports the idea that both native and non-native plants have important roles to play in conservation efforts. “Many conser

Puerto Rico wants Spanish royals to inaugurate giant Columbus statue

  The Puerto Rican promoting the assembly of a monumental statue of Columbus, as tall as New York's Statue of Liberty and taller than any other in the Americas, wants Spain's king and queen to inaugurate the monument in the spring of 2016. Entrepreneur Jose Gonzalez Freire told Efe Tuesday in an interview that his goal is to take advantage of the Spanish royals' possible visit to the Caribbean island for the 7th International Congress of the Spanish Language, also scheduled for the spring of 2016. "We believe construction will be completed between late 2015 and early 2016, which gave us the idea that the king and queen could take part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony," said the entrepreneur, owner of the food company Pan American Grain, one of Puerto Rico's largest concerns. Completed in 1991, its Russian creator Zurab Tsereteli tried to install the mega-statue a year later in the United States, but local authorities denied him the necessary permits. The municip