My memories of Puerto Rico are as clear as its beautifulwaters. Every year when I visited Puerto Rico during summer vacation, mygrandfather and I would go fishing on a secluded beach. Our journey alwaysstarted when we took our first step out the door. After saying good-bye to mymother and grandmother, we were on our way, walking down a steep hill that ledinto the wilderness. The thing that fascinated me the most (except for thefishing itself) was getting there. We hiked past horses, cattle, other animalsand plants. Once, a bull escaped from the gated area and onto one of the dirtroads. My grandfather was very close to him and not even aware of the situation.Suddenly it ran toward him! Luckily, he escaped by running.

Carrying ourheavy equipment and wearing a lot of sunscreen made us sweat like crazy, buteventually we made it to the beach. There we'd put down our bags and prepare togo in. Unrolling our huge net we headed for the water. As we got in deeper, thewater turned a darker blue. Our net must have weighed 15 pounds, and with it wecaught barracudas and other great tasting fish. This technique of fishing waspretty easy. We put the two wooden ends of the poles of the fishing net into thesand. This method might seem ancient, but it caught us a lot of fish.

Grandpa had been doing this most of his life with his friends, his wife and nowme as a partner. Every so often I would dart underwater and check if we hadcaught anything and if we had, figure out how big. After taking the fish from thenet, we placed them in a cooler to keep them fresh. Man, when we put the fish in,did they put up a long struggle.

While fishing, we also caught sand crabsby placing baited traps under the sand. My grandfather caught these to sell, buthe would have to feed them so they would grow, enabling him to make moremoney.

I still remember those days I enjoyed so much with my grandfather.He has passed away, but the skills he taught me are ever present in myunderstanding and appreciation of Puerto Rico's wilderness. The feeling oftranquillity that comes to me there will always return when I hike up themountains of El Yunque, snorkel through the coral reefs, or fish from a smallboat in the middle of the night.






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