Tourist for a Day

This week for my literature class, my professor assigned a different type of project in which we had to become tourists for a day. For this, we had to visit some place in Puerto Rico so we could be able to look at things as if we ware a tourist visiting the island for the first time.

For this trip I actually asked my boyfriend to come with me to Old San Juan so we could get the typical tourist experience in Puerto Rico. Though, due to last minute changes, as any tourist would confront, we weren't able to go to San Juan, so we ended up going to the largest mall in our island: Plaza las Américas. I guess I could say that since that moment my tourist experience started because if I'd normally been on a trip somewhere and our plans got cancelled, we'd just end up at the mall and get some shopping done. We arrived at the mall and since I stepped foot inside I knew that I had to think like a tourist, so automatically I said to my boyfriend that wherever we go we had to find the best deals we could find. I guess that's the first thing that I could notice differently from a tourist and a local that are shopping: they always look for the lowest prices. And I guess us locals do that too normally, but the difference is that a tourist looks for the things they normally wouldn't find in the places where they live.

So back to the story, we started going to a few places just looking around to see what we could find and all of a sudden my boyfriend's phone started ringing. He answered the call to find out that it was his mom telling him that she was going to take us to a restaurant in Dorado and on the way there we'd get to go sight seeing through some places. As I saw it, his mom was our little guardian angel that came to the rescue of two poor tourists that had their original plans cancelled! She just made our trip much more interesting than what it was going to be!

We got in her car and we just started cruising through the streets watching all the landscapes, and I guess I noticed how beautiful everything really is. I'm not one to take a lot of pictures of things or myself, but since today I was thinking as a tourist, pictures was a must! We passed by the Bacardi Rum Factory, we passed by Isla de Cabras, took a ride by the beach, and finally made our way through the town of Dorado.

While we passed through the town, I tried to pay attention to the minor details that I'd normally just pass by with no importance. I looked everywhere, and I truly noticed a lot of things: I got to see the beautiful church over at the town, I saw the colorful little houses that people live in, places where people go to eat, and obviously we passed by the beach-side. I got to see everything that I'd already seen with new eyes! It was so different to actually pay attention to what was in my surroundings and I found that in our little island there is truly a lot to see.

One of the the things that I noticed, while I was pretending to be a tourist, is that the locals would look at me in a very peculiar way. When I stood in front of the beach, or by the church and I was taking pictures, people seemed to stare. I'm not sure if it was because I don't look like a tourist, or was it because they thought I was, but they seemed to catalog me as something different from them, and they just looked and then kept on walking like everything was normal, and I guess here in Puerto Rico it is, because of how many tourist come to visit us through the year. I can also say that in that same route that we took in our little journey, because I was trying to notice everything, I saw that indeed there where a lot of tourists. Most of them seemed to be from the US, but I also saw a couple with a more asian look, and a family from Dominican Republic.

After we cruised through the town, we were starving, so my boyfriend's mom took us to a Japanese restaurant. Normally, if a tourist comes to Puerto Rico they'd go to Guavate, or Raíces, or some place that serves typical Puerto Rican food like rice with beans and pork, or alcapurrias and all that, but in today's journey, faith and hunger led us to eat sushi and we enjoyed that sushi like that would be our last meal.

After we finished eating, we took a little break at the restaurant where we talked and commented on an episode of Chopped that was playing on the tv. After we paid, we got into the car and just cruised back to Plaza las Américas where I'd left my car earlier. Now, this whole day was unforgettable, I had a blast and I got to spend it with people that I really care about. The thing about this types of days is that there is always one moment that tops all the others, and that moment was by this time. We where driving and we started blasting music through the speakers, and my favorite song that we played was "Don't stop believing" by Journey. So just imagine the three of us, driving through the freeway, singing this song like this day would never stop.

After everything that happened, we arrived at where my car was parked and my boyfriend and his mom left and I drove to my house. While I was driving, I thought of all the things that happened today, and I was amazed of how we actually miss so many things just because we are accostumed to it all. Though, it didn't seize to amaze me all the things that I noticed today, and not only that, but how if I just pay a little more attention to my surroundings I'll get to see a whole different world. I am very grateful that I got to do this trip with my boyfriend and his mom, we had a lot of fun and it made us a little bit closer than what we already are.