wrapping up the cruise thoughts

(from 5/19 - 5/20):

went to san juan yesterday. took an actually interesting and historically/culturally relevant tour of the bacardi factory. and got drunk. then we went into old san juan and toured an old coastal fortress from the 1500s. then we shopped a bit (i.e. i followed my family around while they bought things), walking up and down old colonial roads that now mostly serve as alleys and one-way streets. then we were back to the ship and got drunk again. all before like 6pm.

i wondered just now if road infrastructure has more to do with america's status in pre-industrial times vs. other then-"first world" countries. western europe, for example, already had huge cities with roads built for foot traffic and carriage traffic when industrialism hit, forcing them to adjust those roads to having cars on them, or to tear up the roads and build new ones within the layout of their already-present cities. america only had a little of this going on, mostly in the extreme east (evidence of this still abounds in the boston area, for example), but most of the country wasn't at all built over when cars became important (see: the west). so we could begin building and planning cities with car/truck traffic already in mind. this seems like an important circumstantial advantage. does this make any sense? this idea seems sound, but i can't seem to express it coherently.

...

just got back from grand turk. the water was absurdly clear, and there were some great fish. of course the coral was all dead from all the zillions of tourists stepping on it over the years, but that's to be expected in a non-protected area like the beach we were at.

snorkeling is great though. like backpacking underwater. sunburn seems to be mostly receding. nobody's speaking spanish anymore; i can still catch about one word out of ten, but most of it seems to be some weird creole that i've never heard before.

i've come to the conclusion that couples dancing is cool. if you're actually with someone who knows what they're doing. not that i have a right to judge people on their dancing abilities, or lack thereof.