>>Years ago, my company used to have our annual sales meeting in Hawaii. One year, we decided to go to SanJuan instead. Let me tell you, San Juan IS NOT Honolulu! We returned to Hawaii the next year and never went bsck to Puerto Rico.
A dozen or so years ago, I went along with the wife to a conference at a resort hotel a little west of San Juan. We of course visited San Juan, and I rented a car one day and drove out into the countryside to engage in some geek tourism - checking out the radiotelescope at Arecibo.
We had a nice enough time, I suppose, but my overall summary of the trip - I am uncomfortable in a place where the locals are buying wrought iron fences and security bars, and razor wire, by the metric ton. Oh, and especially so when I am unarmed.
When I went to Puerto Rica, I brought my handgun.
It was common sense; the place appeared to be teeming with some type of Mexican, which I found out later were called “Puerto Ricans”.
We went to the island of Vieqes, where it seemed every single person was on welfare.