Puerto Rico - Jan 21, 2008 - Day 10
Day 10 - Puerto Rico - Mayaguez, Holiday Inn Tropical Casino, Arecibo Observatory
A truly great day. We stopped briefly at the same El Meson for food, then off to the world famous [Arecibo Observatory], the largest single aperature radio telescope on the planet. It’s been featured in films such as Contact and James Bond’s Golden Eye. We stayed on the major roads to get there, so it was a 90 minute drive half way back to San Juan. Beautiful little roads leading up to it.
The one thing we weren’t certain of, given that it’s MLK day, was whether the observatory would be open. Their normal hours are Wednesday to Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday, but open on holidays. MLK is a Puerto Rican holiday. And, guess what? It *was* open. As lame as the El Yunque interpretive center was, the Arecibo one was spot on! Lots of videos explaining how quasars and pulsars work, what happens when a supernova goes off, how to classify stars.
The list of people who have [made firsts using the telescope] is impressive, including the first planets outside of our solar system. Several Nobel prizes have been awarded based on research done here as well. The SETI@home project was another success, where a screen saver you downloaded could be used to help speed up calculations in the search for extra-terrestrial life.
The dish itself is very cool. The little motors move the head around to a triple concentrating collector, which is then fed through a bank of computers for collation. All of the light ever collected since 1963 when the dish was completed would be less than the energy of a match being struck. Now, they are trying to tie thousands of collectors together with a time signature to watch incoming radio waves and map the sky systematically. We bought some gifts for some special folks, including us.
We were there from about 1:30pm until they closed at 5pm, like little kids running from display to display, and outside to see the dish, and to the gift shop, and the little movie theater. And loving it. I must say, very impressive. Even a little scale model of the radio telescope that I could move and adjust like the real one.
We took a serious backwoods drive home. Some of the roads *really* made me crave having the STi there. Several points were 100% 25 mph switchbacks for 15 minutes at a time, crawling up the side of a steep hill and down the other side. Gorgeous lake in the middle of the island. Stopped once for a hillside shot that was so typically rural Puerto Rico it made my teeth ache. Didn’t hit anyone or anything. Bonus!
We headed straight for dinner at El Gato Negro, one of four recommended seafood restaurants in Joyuda Beach. The waiter was born in NYC so he had a very different way about him than most locals. When he found out we were from Boston he was all chatty, and even asked about the Patriots (sigh). There was a stray kitty who was very friendly and underfoot from the moment we arrived.
It was clear, however, that this kitty was hungry and used to someone feeding him from table scraps. No dice here, so I got the kitty equivalent of puppy eyes until he finally gave up in about half an hour. There were turbot fish literally right next to the restaurant, so when the cook was finished making dinner, he went fishing for tomorrow’s catch of the day. Nice.
I had lobster, squid and conch, and redjo had lobster in garlic butter. I tried the local beer, Medalla, which was fine, slight cut above a regular American beer which I normally avoid in favor of English stouts, but quite ok. Final tab was $52, not bad for once again ordering the fanciest things on the menu :).
Back to the Casino Hotel, and sat watching TV with redjo. Man, American Gladiator has gotten weak. Now the gladiators don’t even get to try and break the contestants in half eyeball to eyeball, they have to hit them with things that may or may not do damage. And Hulk Hogan, the host, sure sign of a product in decline these days.
Called xmelancholia to catch up.
[Previous Day] [Next Day] [Daily Pics]
A truly great day. We stopped briefly at the same El Meson for food, then off to the world famous [Arecibo Observatory], the largest single aperature radio telescope on the planet. It’s been featured in films such as Contact and James Bond’s Golden Eye. We stayed on the major roads to get there, so it was a 90 minute drive half way back to San Juan. Beautiful little roads leading up to it.
The one thing we weren’t certain of, given that it’s MLK day, was whether the observatory would be open. Their normal hours are Wednesday to Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday, but open on holidays. MLK is a Puerto Rican holiday. And, guess what? It *was* open. As lame as the El Yunque interpretive center was, the Arecibo one was spot on! Lots of videos explaining how quasars and pulsars work, what happens when a supernova goes off, how to classify stars.
The list of people who have [made firsts using the telescope] is impressive, including the first planets outside of our solar system. Several Nobel prizes have been awarded based on research done here as well. The SETI@home project was another success, where a screen saver you downloaded could be used to help speed up calculations in the search for extra-terrestrial life.
The dish itself is very cool. The little motors move the head around to a triple concentrating collector, which is then fed through a bank of computers for collation. All of the light ever collected since 1963 when the dish was completed would be less than the energy of a match being struck. Now, they are trying to tie thousands of collectors together with a time signature to watch incoming radio waves and map the sky systematically. We bought some gifts for some special folks, including us.
We were there from about 1:30pm until they closed at 5pm, like little kids running from display to display, and outside to see the dish, and to the gift shop, and the little movie theater. And loving it. I must say, very impressive. Even a little scale model of the radio telescope that I could move and adjust like the real one.
We took a serious backwoods drive home. Some of the roads *really* made me crave having the STi there. Several points were 100% 25 mph switchbacks for 15 minutes at a time, crawling up the side of a steep hill and down the other side. Gorgeous lake in the middle of the island. Stopped once for a hillside shot that was so typically rural Puerto Rico it made my teeth ache. Didn’t hit anyone or anything. Bonus!
We headed straight for dinner at El Gato Negro, one of four recommended seafood restaurants in Joyuda Beach. The waiter was born in NYC so he had a very different way about him than most locals. When he found out we were from Boston he was all chatty, and even asked about the Patriots (sigh). There was a stray kitty who was very friendly and underfoot from the moment we arrived.
It was clear, however, that this kitty was hungry and used to someone feeding him from table scraps. No dice here, so I got the kitty equivalent of puppy eyes until he finally gave up in about half an hour. There were turbot fish literally right next to the restaurant, so when the cook was finished making dinner, he went fishing for tomorrow’s catch of the day. Nice.
I had lobster, squid and conch, and redjo had lobster in garlic butter. I tried the local beer, Medalla, which was fine, slight cut above a regular American beer which I normally avoid in favor of English stouts, but quite ok. Final tab was $52, not bad for once again ordering the fanciest things on the menu :).
Back to the Casino Hotel, and sat watching TV with redjo. Man, American Gladiator has gotten weak. Now the gladiators don’t even get to try and break the contestants in half eyeball to eyeball, they have to hit them with things that may or may not do damage. And Hulk Hogan, the host, sure sign of a product in decline these days.
Called xmelancholia to catch up.
[Previous Day] [Next Day] [Daily Pics]