Tourist for the day

       In class I had the curious assignment of positioning myself as a tourist for one day to look at the reactions of the people around me and to view my surroundings from the point of view of a tourist. I decided that if I had to be a tourist, I had to go to an area close to a hotel or to a place that is frequently visited by them. For it I chose the area of Piñones where there are many hotels near by and is also a place where tourist would visit at least one time during their vacation in Puerto Rico. 

Piñones entrance

       Piñones is a well known area in Puerto Rico for it's beach and fried food. A couple of minutes before you see the entrance of Piñones you can see the beautiful ocean from the beach called "Balneario de Carolina". In this road you can see curious things that as a tourist can seem a little odd. For example, the driver's license is tested in this area. Normally in the US, this test is taken in a closed course, not in a public road. Second, there are many cyclists around this area which are in the middle of the road until they reach the part where they have their own road. Third, but not least odd, is that the national airport is right beside this area so you can hear every plane ascending to the skies. 

       For my activity I chose to wear an american brand swimsuit, with a tank top shirt and sun glasses as if I was vacationing with no concern of work nor related things. My plan was first to walk to the "Balneario of Carolina" and ask someone in english for directions. The first person that I approached was a person in the parking lot and I asked him where could I find the best restaurants in the area and the person looked at me as if I were from another planet and responded with a face of confusion "me no speak english." I was kind of surprised when acting like a tourist but being Puerto Rican I know how it is so that did not surprised me much. The face the man made could have been interpreted as a kind of othering since I looked like an outsider and his reaction was that he knew he could not answer me because I spoke another language that he does not know.

       After this event I decided to stop at a kiosk and see what would happened there and how would they treat me as a tourist. When I entered no one looked at me differently, but as soon as I ordered the famous "bacalaitos" (fried cod) the man looked at me in a strange way and did not answer. After a few minutes he gave me the food and I sat down at the table. Now that people knew I "only" spoke english they looked at me more. I felt a little out of group since they saw me as someone that was not from here and everyone's eyes were staring at me, don't know why. 

Beautiful Piñones beach

     I decided to act more like a normal tourist and started taking pictures of the beach. A couple of people where around me so I said "what a beautiful island!" to see their reactions. A couple of minutes passed by and I kept taking pictures, when I heard a little boy tell his friend "mira a este gringo tomando fotos" (look at this american taking pictures) and they both laughed. I laughed at this internally since I know my real identity and felt a little disgust by the stereotype some Puerto Ricans have towards americans, even this kind of young boys.

     

Selfie at Piñones

     
        After a few hours of enjoying the beach, my favorite part of the day arrived, time to eat. After I asked a few people, I finally found what is considered the best restaurant in the area, which is called Soleil Beach Club Restaurant. When I entered, I spoke english and was greeted the same way, impressively. The service was incredibly good. I was so hungry that I decided to go half Puerto Rican food, half US food to satisfy my hunger. Here I saw that both, the people and the employees in grouped me and it felt good even knowing my real identity. I order what they call Puerto Rican treats for appetizer, some "sorullitos de maíz" (corn sticks), "alcapurrias" (fritter) and mozzarella sticks were some of the included, all in small portions. For the real deal I ordered a New York Steak with a side of mofongo (fried plantain). Wow, it was all fantastic.

Soleil Beach Club

     Finally after this great meal, I decided to head home. Looking back at the experience I could sense that Puerto Ricans have two ways of reacting towards an american tourist, the first are the people that do not know english and react kind of scared to your questions, and secondly the ones that do know english and socialize with you because they are confident of their dual linguistics. This is what normally a tourist would encounter in a question scenario with a Puerto Rican. I think this is not only here in Puerto Rico but also around the world, a person that does not know the language of the asking tourist gets afraid and does not act normal as if it where a native from the land.