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In Puerto Rico
Step into the world of writers and photographers as they tell you about the best, worst, and quirkiest places and adventures they encountered in the field.
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By
Linda Gómez
Photographs by
Amy Toensing
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In the plaza of this mountain town, traditional songs mix with the aroma of rich coffee.
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Read or print the full article.
There’s a mythical air to Adjuntas, a coffee town in the Valley of the Sleeping Giant high in the mountains of Puerto Rico. Still, it was a surprise when Yúbert Rodríguez, a fifth-generation Adjunteño, pointed to a nearby mountain and said, “My land is at the top of Olympus. Want to see where the gods live?”
The 50-year-old schoolteacher drove up a steep road into the tropical forest, then hiked past gigantic ferns and philodendrons to a small grotto full of orchids and bromeliads where a spring burbled beneath smooth flat stones. He bought the land as a young man to preserve it, and without felling a single tree he has created a garden that would make Eden blush. “The Indians called spots like this yuquiyu, a place where you feel the presence of God,” he said. “These mountains are full of them. To protect and nurture one is a sacred joy.”
Love of the land and its customs runs deep in Adjuntas, where folks say their families have lived “since forever” and formal good manners rule daily life. You smell it in the surrounding barrios, where whole pigs are spit-roasted at roadside stands, and taste it where visitors are offered shots of pitorro, an illegal moonshine made from sugarcane and buried in the earth for a year. You see it in the elegant Paso Fino horses paraded through town on holidays, and you feel it sitting in the large, gracefully landscaped plaza, with its amphitheater, fountains, courtyards, and stone benches.
Three blocks from the square, in the big pink-and-white house called Casa Pueblo, love of the land motivated locals to oppose a massive strip-mining operation in the eighties and nineties. The mountains surrounding Adjuntas are rich with gold, silver, copper, and zinc, and the Puerto Rican government had reserved roughly 55 square miles (150 square kilometers) for mineral exploitation. International mining companies sought to extract ore from open pits.
“Ecologically it would have been disastrous,” said Alexis Massol, the 57-year-old founder of Casa Pueblo. “People understood and fought to protect the land despite the promise of jobs and money.” Casa Pueblo evolved from an anti-mining coalition to a community group active in environmental, cultural, and educational affairs. “We were trying to figure out how to pay for our projects and be self-sufficient,” recalled Massol, “when an old jíbaro, a hillbilly, pointed to the mountains and said, ‘There lies the answer!’”
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What are the advantages and disadvantages of statehood for Puerto Rico and the United States? Are you for or against it? Join the discussion.
¿Cúales son las ventajas y las desventajas de convertirse en estado para Puerto Rico y para los Estados Unidos? ¿Están a favor o en contra? Únase a la discusión.
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| In More to Explore the National Geographic magazine team shares some of its best sources and other information. Special thanks to the Research Division. |
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The zip code 00601 is the lowest assigned to any geographic place in the United States or its territories and belongs to Adjuntas, Puerto Rico. The "006" designation indicates state or territory, in this case Puerto Rico, and "01" indicates municipality, which is always assigned alphabetically. Postal historians are uncertain why in 1963, when most ZIP or “Zoning Improvement Plan” codes were assigned, the designation 00101 was not assigned to Adjuntas. Lower zip code numbers do exist—such as 00501—but they are reserved for agencies such as the IRS, not municipalities. Another important factor in assigning zip codes is that they ascend numerically from east to west. Ketchikan, Alaska holds the highest zip code of 99950.
—Nora Gallagher
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Adjuntas, Puerto Rico
welcome.topuertorico.org/city/adjuntas.shtml
Visit this comprehensive website of the small but culturally rich town of Adjuntas and discover why it has become known to locals as the “city of the sleeping giant.” Also browse for recipes of typical dishes such as “alcapurrias,” made of fried plantains.
Music from Puerto Rico
www.geocities.com/TheTropics/3684/music.html
Listen to the traditional music of Puerto Rico, including the improvised art of décima featured in the zip code story on Adjuntas.
zipinfo.com
www.zipinfo.com/search/zipcode.htm
Enter a zip code or city and find its time zone, area code, county name, congressional district, and latitude and longitude.
ZIPFind Central
www.link-usa.com/zipcode/
Calculate the distance between two zip codes.
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Rouse, Irving. The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. Yale University Press, 1992.
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Miller, Mark. “Island of Delights,” National Geographic Traveler (November December 1997), 54-69.
Wise, Jayne. “Puerto Rico Alfresco,” National Geographic Traveler (March/April 1992), 126-127.
Burstein, Daniel. “Old San Juan,” National Geographic Traveler (Autumn 1986), 111-119.
Richards, Bill. “The Uncertain State of Puerto Rico,” National Geographic (April 1983), 516-543.
McDowell, Bart. “Puerto Rico’s Seven-league Bootstraps,” National Geographic (December 1962), 755-793.
Nicholas, William H. “Growing Pains Beset Puerto Rico,” National Geographic (April 1951), 419-460.
Long, E. John. “Puerto Rico: Watchdog of the Caribbean: Venerable Domain Under American Flag Has New Role as West Indian Stronghold and Sentinel of the Panama Canal,” National Geographic (December 1939), 697-738.
La Gorce, John Oliver. “Porto Rico, the Gate of Riches: Amazing Prosperity Has Been the Lot of Ponce de León’s Isle Under American Administration,” National Geographic (December 1924), 599-651.
Hill, Robert T. “Porto Rico or Puerto Rico?” National Geographic (December 1899), 516-517.
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