Gasikara Kolotora sy Kolontsaina

Culebra, a.k.a., Snake Island, is still a sleepy little speck, just a hop from the mainland of Puerto Rico, where fine white sand beaches, coral reefs and friendly smiles abound. Go for the snorkeling, for the diving, or even just the sunbathing and people watching on Flamenco Beach, but don’t go looking for luxury in the form of high-end resorts or fine dining – it’s not there yet. And that’s the allure of Culebra: it’s an escape, not only from cold climates, but from the fast pace of life, the onslaught of media and marketing — Internet is slow and intermittent — and also from our consumer-based society (no ones trying to hawk anything anywhere on the island). Without ever leaving the U.S., you will be transported to another world, and a simpler time. My family spent a week searching for the best beaches, swimming, snorkeling and diving. We’re a hard bunch to please: I have two newly minted divers in my family, my son, 13, and daughter, 12, and their instructor, my dad, plus my divin...

n 1958, Laurance Rockefeller threw an inaugural party for Dorado Beach, his luxury resort on the northern coast of Puerto Rico. The guests included millionaires, politicians, and movie stars. In the years that followed, Dorado became the most glamorous resort in the Caribbean, attracting everyone from Ava Gardner to John F. Kennedy. But, as time passed, resorts on other islands lured high-end travellers away, and Dorado eventually became a charming relic. In 2006, it closed. History had passed it by. Puerto Ricans could have been forgiven for thinking the same was true of the island generally. It had been one of the great postwar economic-development success stories, turning itself from a poor, largely rural society into a manufacturing powerhouse with a thriving middle class. But by the nineteen-nineties the economy had slowed, and then it went off the rails. Puerto Rico has been in and out of recession since 2006. Its unemployment rate is around fourteen per cent; forty-five per cen...

I’ve wanted to go to Puerto Rico for a long time and I’m so happy that I finally have had the chance. Puerto Rico is a stunning tropical island, with American, Spanish and Caribbean influence. The natural beauty here is breathtaking and because the weather is so fantastic it’s not difficult to find yourself surrounded by it on any adventure you decide to take. After spending a few weeks there recently, I have put together my Top 7 Healthy & Fun Things to Do in Puerto Rico. These are not to be missed when visiting. Diving. If you have your dive certificate, I recommend driving to Guanica on the southwest coast and diving with Island Scuba. Dives begin at 8 a.m. and you must be at the shop at 7:30 a.m. It takes about 2.5 hours from San Juan. Puerto Rico photos from Angela Orecchio From the shop, you will take a dive boat 15 minutes from shore to a reef wall where you will dive to between 60-80 feet. There, you will see many fish and plants and possibly even a Caribbean Reef Shark...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - Colombia and Puerto Rico continue to work on joint trade relations, this time in the groups and conventions tourism segment, Milton Segarra, president and CEO of Meet Puerto Rico, also known as the Puerto Rico Convention Bureau, announced recently. Segarra gave a presentation on Puerto Rico as a destination for meetings and conventions to more than 80 Colombian businesses related to the tourism industry as part of the activities of the ANATO Tourism Showcase held in Colombia. "The participation of the organization in this event has exceeded our expectations. Puerto Rico has already forged a strong cultural connection here in Colombia, and now there is much interest in other areas – such asthe groups and conventions and tourism business segment,”Segarra said. He added that although the United States remains the major group travel market to Puerto Rico, they have seen an upward trend in international groups. In the fiscal year 2012-2013,Puerto Rico closed 3...

The sky is a perfect cerulean, with not a cloud to be seen. The water is that wonderful Caribbean aquamarine that you see in pictures. It is 86 degrees in the sun and it’s not even 9 am. The waves roll the boat a bit uncomfortably for some. I can see my husband, Rafael, turning a bit green as he prepares his dive gear. We need to get under those waves quickly. One giant stride off the back of the boat and we are in the 80 degree water. Once the rest of the group joins us, down we go. We are diving “La Pared” in Guanica, Puerto Rico and it is a beautiful day for it. The visibility is about 65 feet so there is a lot to see. We follow the wall (la pared) down into what looks like an abyss. I have no idea how far down that goes, but it is very dark down there. I keep waiting for some giant creature to come swimming out of the dark at me. I can’t decide if I want that or not. I love seeing big animals, but I can do without being startled while underwater. We see black coral, a beautiful sp...

This isn’t Puerto Rico’s first moment in the sun. Back in the Sixties, the island found itself fleetingly one of the most fashionable destinations in the Caribbean . Banned from Cuba , high-society “snowbirds” from the north-eastern United States were happy to slum it for a slice of easily accessible sunshine. Back then, John F Kennedy and Joan Crawford frequented what is now Ritz Carlton’s newly luxurious Dorado Beach resort, even though Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story had immortalised the island as a place of “diseases … hurricanes … money owing … bullets flying”. The locals were falling over themselves to leave for a new life in Brooklyn. Wealthy New Yorkers just wanted winter tans. For many would-be long-haul travellers it’s the lyrics of Bernstein’s America that still define Puerto Rico. But that was a long time ago. Now it’s enjoying a tourist renaissance: local chefs have developed innovative, sophisticated new styles; chic hotels are opening up; and for New Yorkers, in p...

The construction of telecommunications towers threatens to destroy the habitat of the Puerto Rican "guabairo," or nightjar, an endangered species of bird found only in the southern part of the island, community leaders said Tuesday. Telecommunications company Soluwise began building the towers last May, Luis Garcia Mercado, a member of the Health and Environment Coalition in the Susua neighborhood of Sabana Grande and the Arenas neighborhood in Guanica, told Efe. Since then, the Puerto Rico-based company has removed 8,250 cubic meters (29,135 cubic feet) of soil, Garcia Mercado said, citing Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, or DRNA, figures. Soluwise was authorized by the Office of Management and Permits to remove just 43 cubic meters (1,520 cubic feet) of soil, the community activist said. When the "abuse" was detected, Garcia Mercado said, the Health and Environment Coalition, along with biologist Luis Martinez Acosta, visited the area that provid...

VIEQUES, P.R. — The sun was starting to recline on the horizon, but as the chef Jose Enrique slid a beaten-up Ford Explorer into a parking space here at an easygoing beachside hotel called El Blok , he admitted that his menu for this Saturday evening was still up in the air. What would he be cooking? “I have no clue,” he said, and laughed. “We’ll see. I kind of like it that way. I think it makes me more creative.” Mr. Enrique and Katie Savage, his chef de cuisine at the hotel, tend to wing it based on whatever baskets of fruit, bags of vegetables and buckets of seafood come their way. Dinner that night would overflow with lobster ceviche, a conch salad spooned into steaming pockets of fried bread, a dip spun from eggplants that had been smoked over the wood of wild mesquite trees, a pork chop brushed with sugar-cane juice. Toward the end would come a sweet, coral-hued sphere of guava ice. Where did the guavas come from? Mr. Enrique motioned toward the window. The fruit tree stood ri...

An environmentalist group signed an accord with the government over the weekend to officially adopt a beach of high ecological value in Puerto Rico and work to keep it clean while protecting its plants and animals. Signing the agreement were Natural and Environmental Resources Secretary Carmen Guerrero Perez and the Friends of La Poza del Obispo organization, named after a beach at the town of Arecibo on the island's north shore. With this contract, which will remain in force for six years, the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, or DRNA, officially acknowledges the organization's volunteer work to protect and preserve La Poza del Obispo Beach, a favorite of bathers and surfers. The initiative forms part of the Adopt a Beach program, by which "community organizations, private companies, municipalities and other entities can contribute to citizens' quality of life and promote the protection of natural resources and the environment by adopting a beach....

Puerto Rico’s inaugural international tourism expo ETI – Expo de Turismo Internacional, will take place at the Puerto Rico Convention Center, May 13-16. The expo is designed to showcase the beauty, sports, nature, adventure and gastronomy experiences available throughout the Caribbean and beyond, bringing together members of the tourism industry from across the globe. ETI-Puerto Rico will be held at the Puerto Rico Convention Center, the largest and most technologically advanced business conference venue in the Caribbean. The Center is located in the heart of San Juan on the Isla Grande peninsula, near the world-renowned city of Old San Juan. The four-day event will include group meetings, social and cultural events, field trips, workshops, destination trainings, keynote addresses and more, with the exhibit hall open two days to travel trade and one day to consumers. “In planning for this event and with input from local and regional organizations such as the Caribbean Tourism Orga...

Rum is the most versatile spirit in the world, able to stand against even the finest cognacs and whiskeys. How do you spot a good one, and how should it best be drunk? Staring at the paper mat before me were 12 unlabeled rums in glasses, all slightly different colors. I’d come for a blind tasting in a room with some of Washington D.C.’s most educated and ambitious bartenders and beverage directors in the United States Bartender’s Guild, unsure of whether I was really going to discern any differences. Because with variations in exactly how much, rum’s all sweet and caramel-y, right? Wrong. The event was part of a national series called Rum for All, spearheaded by venerable spirits reviewer and Spirit Journal author F. Paul Pacult and industry mogul Sean Ludford. It aims to help the spirits industry appreciate the nuances and varied characteristics of a liquor that, frankly, is too often associated with cheapness and drunkenness. But au contraire , as I came to fully understand that da...

Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, home to one of the world's largest radio telescopes, will try to obtain information on asteroid 2004 BL86 this week, the Caribbean Astronomical Society said. The asteroid is expected to pass relatively close to the Earth on Monday. Asteroid 2004 BL86, which has a diameter of nearly 700 meters (2,295 feet), will be about 1.2 million kilometers (745,647 miles) from the Earth on Monday, with the best viewing time around noon (1620 GMT) in Puerto Rico. The asteroid is traveling through space at 56,420 kph (35,057 mph). The Arecibo Observatory, which was completed in 1963, is visited by more than 100,000 people a year. The enormous 305-meter-diameter (1,000-foot-diameter) telescope has been featured in a number of films, including the 1995 James Bond film "GoldenEye" and the 1997 film "Contact." EF.   Comments   Is a Big Data Doomsday on the Horizon? Work Intelligently by Ricoh Pu...

AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) –   A local company which specializes in tensile membrane roofs was just contracted to complete the roof of a cathedral being constructed now in Puerto Rico. Birdair, an Amherst company known around the world, will be making a PVC membrane roof for The Gran Carpa Catedral. The massive 423,000 square foot roof will be as large as four football fields, and will be red, white and blue. The Gran Carpa Catedral is a project which was started in 2006, stemming from a Christian pastor’s desire to have a church with the ability to serve people from different religions and denominations. When completed, the building will serve with conference rooms, studios for television, radio and music, along with space for a school and printing. Birdair representatives said the material choice is the right choice for the cathedral. They said they’d be supplying the membrane, but the frame and the installation will be organized by the general contractor. “PVC mem...