LET ME TAKE YOU ON TRIP...

Let me take on a trip of mind and place of a sudden “Tourist”.

The day as a tourist goes by steps.

-Step 1: Wake up at 7am.

- Had nothing better to do but to go to work. 

-Step 2: Go to work, vibes are feeling ok.

-As I walk down Ashford Ave. I notice everybody around me, mostly tourists, are heading to the beach, and lots of people buying coffee.

-Got assigned at the pastry station today.  Couple of thing fell on me, but that’s all right, “keep on, and keep it on” I said. 

-My friend Ale was in a good mood today and during the shift we decide to embark a journey to the beach after work.

-Got out of work, got home.

- Climbed to the rooftop and smoke a ‘ciggy’ with my sister Carlita and a “weird” guy.   

-The day was “piña colada” perfect… no clouds, no forecast of any bad weather. 

-Heading down stairs to meet with Ale and Vulcán (the dog) were here to pick me up.

-Step 3: Tourist mode.

-We drove around Condado for like 5 minutes and there was no parking.

- Suddenly, my invoice says: “Hey, I’m a tourist”.

-Found a parking in front of the Stop n Go and I was like:

-Ca@#$ look – Parking Spot”

- Ale parked and then we bought a few beers in the Stop n Go, and head out to the beach behind La Concha Resort.

…so we got to the beach, the day was still picture perfect.

-From where we were standing, we noticed and talk about how the umbrellas were white, multicolored and blue and divided in sections.

-Every color section of umbrellas had their own vibes and crowd.  White umbrellas: mostly families, colored umbrellas: party people, no umbrella zone: towels and people, blue umbrellas: more families.  We came out to the conclusion that it the colors represented the levels of happiness. 

-When we got to our level of happiness (our spot), we met some of our own (“tourists”), they asked us for directions.  Inevitably we looked more as locals than tourists.  We gave them the directions they needed.

-Ale got into the water, Vulcan was playing with some other dogs and I was chillin’ in the sand just tanning. 

-I kept reminding myself that I was a tourist.

-So, I was tanning and all of a sudden we saw this metal detector guy…so that was cool. I think he was a tourists also.

-Like around 3pm, we see our old friend Frank with his boogie board.  “There are no waves man” he said and sat with us.

 -By the time we ended talking with Frank, this chair rental’s guy, asked us:

“Hey would you like a tanning chair:” and I replied:

“No dude, estoy bien”. Maybe he thought we were tourist or just needed a chair.   

-So a couple of minutes went by, Ale came out of the water, and I said to him that I was hungry.  But we cannot go anywhere near because dogs aren’t aloud.

-So I was like, well let’s leave in 15 minutes

-Step 4: Back to reality: already at my house, showered and has a new plan.  Went to the library and hot some books.

I was constantly reminding myself that I was a tourist.  But the fact is that I was not a tourist, I was pretending to be a tourist based on what I think and perceived of what is a tourist.  Maybe, if a decided to be as a tourist again, I would to hang out with them and get a glimpse of their experience here in the island.