Continuing on what has been an extremely eventful time in Puerto Rico we have had the fortune of being able to stay in an apartment right on the border of the Recinto Universidad de Mayagüez. Some could say we’re getting a full experience since we’re staying in an apartment with barely any of the utilities that are commonplace in Illinois. I absolutely love it, I’ve always liked camping and living very frugally so this is even more comfortable for me. We get to take cold showers as well because the weather is always at a perfect temp and then at night it gets nice and cool. I haven’t had one uninteresting day here yet. Fortunately when we interacted with the students at the university we were able to find out that they are just as concerned about the effects of human interaction on the environment as us. It doesn’t alleviate the issues we face but it helps to know that a larger global scale we can all come together as one to prevent us from destroying the only sure source of life we have. At the same time when we go to the farms here they are much different as well. I wouldn’t say they are more environmentally friendly for the purpose of helping the Earth, it’s maybe a more economic purpose but whatever works I guess. The farmers here want to grow as much as possible in as little space as possible, they use citrus trees to cover the coffee plants so they can control climate, grow more, and sell a diverse amount of crops to use for multiple purposes. This is a much more eco friendly way of doing it rather than creating mass production farms in Illinois that get carpet bombed with fertilizers and pesticides. I personally think that food should never be one of the things that people should be cheap on because it affects our bodies so intricately. I think the locals here have a much higher appreciation for their food which is why it seems like they are much more aware of where everything comes from. At the end of all of it we need to educate both sides on the sustainability of the agricultural practices on either side. There are factors we all should improve on but some of these farms are doing it completely correct here. For example we visited a plantain farm where they use drip irrigation to effectively water their plants and a fertilizer that slowly deteriorates by use of a polymer so it is easily able to be fertilized without producing any significant runoff. In Illinois we still face a huge runoff problem that leads to Eutrophication in the Gulf of Mexico. I think the best course of action is to take what we learn here in Puerto Rico and apply it to what we’re doing in the farms of Illinois. Aside from the farms we got to spend a substantial amount of extra time at the beach since my last post. I’ve been pretty burned but body surfing 14-18 foot swells was definitely worth it. It’s incredibly interesting to see how much different certain parts of Puerto Rico can get. Isla Verde compared to Mayaguez is unrecognizable. It completely caters to the United States tourist and they don’t ever leave the strip. They stay on the beach and make sure that they just lay out and watch the water, I personally don’t like it and think it’s a waste of a vacation but to each their own. It’s kind of sad because they miss out on a lot, but there’s a gucci store so that makes up for it I guess.