Site one: Today we are off to Puerto Rico. We will be going to Cemi Museum. This building was once the site of the short lived Puerto Rican Nationalist movement who claimed independence from the United States on October 30, 1950. The revolutionaries were arrested, but this museum stands in honor of the brief stage in Puerto Rican history. The building that houses the museum is itself in the shape of a cemi. The museum is small, but it is nice. A cemi is a god, spirit or ancestor. It is also the name given to the religious symbol that is the physical representation of a god. This museum has pieces of pottery, some tools and other artifacts from daily Taino life.
When we first saw the outside we thought it was to small to be anything good, but when we got inside we changed our minds. They recommended we watch their twenty minute video they had which showed us everything they had to offer. Then we started walking around and we saw lots of old documents and lots of pottery. Every pottery sculpture had a learning description by it. We learned a lot of new things about Taino history and how they built things and did daily tasks. It was interesting to learn about these things that we had never known about before.
Site two: We are off to Antigua. We are going to Shirley Heights. Shirley Heights was created as a military post by the British, but today it's known as the best view in Antigua. The military complex is perched high up on the hill overlooking Nelson’s Dockyard. The overlook is part of the English Harbor historic district, a collection of buildings and historical sites dating back to when the British were supreme. The name Shirley Heights honors the British governor of the Leeward Islands at the same time as the American colonists were breaking ties with the motherland. On the weekends it is one of the most popular visited places.
We got there and had to wait in a huge line to get up onto the Shirley Heights. There was a fee to go up because you had to have a tour guide to go up. So we paid our fee to the guide and he then took us up there. When we got up there we were amazed at how far you could see. The view was absolutely amazing. We could see all the wildlife, bodies of water, and nature that was around it. The guide explained some of the things we could see and told us what everything was. Our hour was up so we had to go back down. This was an amazing experience and we would definitely do it again. You can't imagine the view until you are actually up there.
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