Puerto Rico Trip Synopsis
The name of the game was business, and there were all sorts of lectures and conference speakers...but I don't want to bore you with those. So I am going to stick with the fun stuff. And when you are with a group of people, almost all intelligent, and from different placs round the world, networking can be VERY FUN.
Highlights of the trip included trips to Old San Juan, where we explored a couple of old forts. The most interesting of the forts was used to repell Sir Francis Drake as he attempted to invade. Got a good look at the dungeons and thought, "My lord, what a horrible dark, small, moldy cramped place for someone to live in solitude for months even years!" And I was right on everything but the "solitude" part. Turns out they would fit 40 people in this dungeon that is uncomfortable for one. Remind me to buckle my seatbelt and be an otherwise law-abiding citizen for now on. I don't want to end up in anything like that place.
While in Old San Juan, I visited some art galleries. Some art gallery dude tried to sell me a really crappy 19th century Austrian painting claiming that it was about to be sent next week to Sotheby's England for auction with a reserve price of $20,000. I asked him whether it was being sent to Sotheby's on Bond Street or Sotheby's in South Kensington. He looked stunned and said. ," uh....I don't know" which is pretty much THE WORST answer you can give. At least if he lied it would have been plausible, but knowing the auction house where the peice is selling is something that gets worked out WELL ahead of time. My networking friends chuckled, the gallery owner's face turned red, and we turned and left.
A group of us "networkers" also managed to go on to a bike tour up the coast of the island. The only time I had ever been on one of those was last summer when Paul and I went to Vancouver and we rented the bikes ourselves. Paul and I agree it was the best part of the whole trip, so I was pretty excited to do another one. But..as it turns out, San Juan doesn't hold a candle to Vancouver in this regard. Before reaching the cost we cycled through what amounted to a swamp complete with nefarious odors, and by the time we got to the coast it wasn't really all that special. Plus the guide would stop every quarter mile (and i'm not exaggerating the distance...we're talking EVERY QUARTER MILE) to talk about the wildlife in the area. That is interesting to hear about every once in awhile....but it completed ruined the flow of the tour. I barely broke a sweat because I was studying the differences between the barks of the various trees with a commie, hippie, tree-hugging former marine biologist who was our tour guide. He ws wearing one of those wolf t-shirts kinda like what Napolean Dynamite has on. Whole thing pretty much sucked...but I met some nice people along the way.
Other highlights include dining at a hotel which is a converted convent. All of the iconography is still there ( I still haven't decided if the whole concept is blasphemous or not, especially considering the pope's passing on the day we dined in the convent, and much of the evening focused upon discussing relationships...and i don't mean one's relationship with God.) What has been reinforced is that I really don't want to be a nun. I was dithering at one point...but now i'm sure. No celibacy for yours truly. ( at least not willingly)
The most exotic thing we did was to dine in the middle of the rainforest. That was a fantastic experience. With the fire torches and the bongo drums echoing through the trees while traditional Puerto Rican mascots danceda tribal dance. Oh yeah...and their was alcohol.
And the most pleasant part of the trip was a trip to an Hacienda in the hills where we were treated to a show featuring three specially bred Puerto Rican "stepping horses" that walk and clip clop as if they were Sammy Davis or Gregory Hines. Pretty amazing stuff. Once that was done we dined outside while mariachis played their corazon's out,and a native created cigars from scratch for all of us to savor. Very pleasant indeed.
Did i mention this was a business trip? LOL. I need to take business trips like this more often.
Highlights of the trip included trips to Old San Juan, where we explored a couple of old forts. The most interesting of the forts was used to repell Sir Francis Drake as he attempted to invade. Got a good look at the dungeons and thought, "My lord, what a horrible dark, small, moldy cramped place for someone to live in solitude for months even years!" And I was right on everything but the "solitude" part. Turns out they would fit 40 people in this dungeon that is uncomfortable for one. Remind me to buckle my seatbelt and be an otherwise law-abiding citizen for now on. I don't want to end up in anything like that place.
While in Old San Juan, I visited some art galleries. Some art gallery dude tried to sell me a really crappy 19th century Austrian painting claiming that it was about to be sent next week to Sotheby's England for auction with a reserve price of $20,000. I asked him whether it was being sent to Sotheby's on Bond Street or Sotheby's in South Kensington. He looked stunned and said. ," uh....I don't know" which is pretty much THE WORST answer you can give. At least if he lied it would have been plausible, but knowing the auction house where the peice is selling is something that gets worked out WELL ahead of time. My networking friends chuckled, the gallery owner's face turned red, and we turned and left.
A group of us "networkers" also managed to go on to a bike tour up the coast of the island. The only time I had ever been on one of those was last summer when Paul and I went to Vancouver and we rented the bikes ourselves. Paul and I agree it was the best part of the whole trip, so I was pretty excited to do another one. But..as it turns out, San Juan doesn't hold a candle to Vancouver in this regard. Before reaching the cost we cycled through what amounted to a swamp complete with nefarious odors, and by the time we got to the coast it wasn't really all that special. Plus the guide would stop every quarter mile (and i'm not exaggerating the distance...we're talking EVERY QUARTER MILE) to talk about the wildlife in the area. That is interesting to hear about every once in awhile....but it completed ruined the flow of the tour. I barely broke a sweat because I was studying the differences between the barks of the various trees with a commie, hippie, tree-hugging former marine biologist who was our tour guide. He ws wearing one of those wolf t-shirts kinda like what Napolean Dynamite has on. Whole thing pretty much sucked...but I met some nice people along the way.
Other highlights include dining at a hotel which is a converted convent. All of the iconography is still there ( I still haven't decided if the whole concept is blasphemous or not, especially considering the pope's passing on the day we dined in the convent, and much of the evening focused upon discussing relationships...and i don't mean one's relationship with God.) What has been reinforced is that I really don't want to be a nun. I was dithering at one point...but now i'm sure. No celibacy for yours truly. ( at least not willingly)
The most exotic thing we did was to dine in the middle of the rainforest. That was a fantastic experience. With the fire torches and the bongo drums echoing through the trees while traditional Puerto Rican mascots danceda tribal dance. Oh yeah...and their was alcohol.
And the most pleasant part of the trip was a trip to an Hacienda in the hills where we were treated to a show featuring three specially bred Puerto Rican "stepping horses" that walk and clip clop as if they were Sammy Davis or Gregory Hines. Pretty amazing stuff. Once that was done we dined outside while mariachis played their corazon's out,and a native created cigars from scratch for all of us to savor. Very pleasant indeed.
Did i mention this was a business trip? LOL. I need to take business trips like this more often.
posted by Mark at
4/08/2005
2 Comments:
It happens I PROMISE YOU! Besides I was net-WORKING. see "work" is even in the word!
By
Mark, at 8:37 AM
Sorry to post this here...
I thought you might wanna reconsider having Powerline being the ONLY conservative political blog on your sidebar, seeing as they've made fools of themselves and totally discredited their entire site.
By
Dylan, at 5:03 PM
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