Puerto Rico is a Caribbean country, formerly a Spanish colony, now a Free Associated State, but located on U.S. controlled territory. Despite formal independence, America’s influence is still quite tangible: people here learn English, practice Catholicism, pay with dollars – in general, they do everything to please their stronger neighbor. Puerto Rico is an island nation, with most of its population living on the island of the same name. Less significant pieces of land that make up the country include the islands of Vieques, Desecheo, Caja de Muertos, Culebra, and Mona.
History of Puerto Rico
The history of the country differs little from that of the other Caribbean colonies. With the arrival of the European conquerors on the islands, the local Taino Indian culture was virtually destroyed. The Spanish conquistadors, who declared Puerto Rico their own colony and brought in black slaves, and with them new diseases, exacerbated the unenviable situation of the indigenous population. In the end, most of the Indians died as a result of epidemics and hard labor in the cane plantations. Gradually the tiny remnants of the Taino culture mingled with Europeans and African slaves, thus giving rise to a new nation, the Puerto Ricans.
The name “Puerto Rico” itself translates as “rich port”. At first it was the administrative center of the colony, but gradually the sonorous phrase stuck with the whole island. In 1898, after a military armed conflict, Spain ceded this part of the Caribbean islands to the United States. Since then, Puerto Rico began an active process of emigration of the local population to the Land of Freedom, topped off with a very sluggish struggle for independence. In 1952, an assassination attempt on the U.S. president by Puerto Rican separatists gave the country its own constitution and the status of associated territory with which it still exists today.
Nature and Climate
For today’s fashionable trend of eco-tourism in Puerto Rico, if not a paradise, then something very much resembling it. Covered with impenetrable tropical thickets, riddled with turbulent rivers and washed by the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea, the local islands have an incredible magic of attraction. Moreover, some of them remain uninhabited to this day, which attracts downhikers and all seekers of seclusion.
If you’ve watched all the National Geographic documentaries and are firmly convinced that you know all the animals of the planet “by sight”, Puerto Rico will dispel your arrogance. Some 239 species of animals, 16 species of birds, and 39 species of reptiles and amphibians found in this small state are not found anywhere else in the world. By the way, the best place to get acquainted with the local biosphere – protected areas and national parks, of which there are seven in tiny Puerto Rico. And this is not only the traditional tropical jungle, often glimpsed in the brochures of travel agencies, but whole islands with their unique flora and fauna, as well as entangled in a network of underground mazes karst areas.
Puerto Rico belongs to the maritime mild tropical climate zone, which is characterized by small fluctuations in temperature. The average annual thermometer in this part of the Caribbean does not drop below +28 °C. From June to November, weather conditions worsen slightly due to the traditional arrival of Atlantic hurricanes.
Tourists
Most travelers associate this sultry slice of Central America primarily with cozy beaches, the ultramarine hue of the sea surface, pina coladas and groovy rhythms of salsa. Despite the fact that Puerto Rico is still inferior in popularity to neighboring Dominican Republic, you can rest here just as good. And the proverbial exoticism, which usually attracts tourists to the Caribbean, in this country has plenty, whether it be the local nature or national cuisine. Add to that the architectural heritage of the colonial past, the obligatory Latin American carnivals and the best rum in the world, and you know why most downers seek exactly Puerto Rico.