mayaguez is the third largest city in puerto rico, out on the west coast. i spent 2 nights here, and worked a bit on my research for fellowship. i stayed in the creaky hotel colonial in what used to be a convent, in the essentially deserted downtown. it has recently been 3 kings day, which occurs in january in the spanish-speaking world and is almost as big as christmas.
the biggest thing that happened to me in mayaguez was a motor vehicle collision, and it was my fault. thankfully no one was injured. the very nice woman i accidentally ran into and i had to go down to the local police station, and a lot of bureaucracy occurred in spanish. i spoke no spanish and she minimal english, so she called in her boyfriend. i though “oh no.” but he was a really nice guy, and used to live in pennsylvania, and we hit it off; she may have even regretted calling him because he wanted to be my friend more than talk about the accident. it all ended up working out ok, and her car got paid for.
