Puerto Rico

Just came back from a 8 day trip to Puerto Rico. We were based at San Juan for the first 4 days and at Ponce for the remainder. A few highlights:

• Almost everyone was friendly and helpful. Even if they didn’t know the language they tried to help
• The whole island was a party town during the Christmas week. Weddings and processions in every city and town.
• Every receipt you buy with included sales tax is a lottery ticket. Lottery occurs twice a week and there guaranteed winners. Go to http://ivuloto.pr.gov/ for more information. Prices are exempt from IT and excise.
• There are so many beautiful beaches and other attractions. Reviews and recommendations are very subjective. For me La Playuela/Playa Sucia (Dirty beach) is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to with breathtaking views of limestone cliffs and reefs. 
• If you are traveling with young kids and can’t kayak in the night into mosquito bay,  La parguera is a great option. It may not be the brightest,  but I think touching and feeling the water is an important part of the experience. (Hope we don’t trouble these interesting organisms too much). I got stung by some small jellyfish while in the water, but the pain went away next morning.
• If traveling back to US, baggage will need to be screened by USDA. USDA closes their screening around 10.30PM and reopen only at 12 midnight.  Plan for additional time in peak seasons, if your return flight is in the early morning.
• We dined at the following restaurants and highly recommend them:
  • St Germain – Yummy and healthy  veggie options. Not something you can find easily
  • Piu Bello Gelato – Decent breakfast and dinner options. Hazelnut cookies gelato was delicious. 
  • El Turrumote – Had superb mozarella sticks, green pea hummus and mofongo. 

43 Things Tags: Puerto Rico,PR,San Juan,La parguera,bioluminescent bay,Ponce

One straw revolution

I read One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka almost an year ago. Still feeling the impact of the simplicity. A few gems from my reading :

• The yields from Natural, organic and chemical farming are comparable. however their effect on the soil is markedly different as well as the amount of work required at various stages.

Fukuoka mastered a method to grow rice without flooding the field and transplanting the seedlings.

straw from previous crops and mulch are spread over the field to stop weeds

Fukuoka’s sequence:

• Early October  - Clover is broadcast among rice. Winter grain in mid oct
• Early november – rice harvest, next year rice sown with straw laid across the field.  Same method for rye and barley

Natural or “do-nothing” farming can’t be applied at once. Proper understanding of the weather, soil, weeds, animals and other environmental factors is necessary to develop this

Modern agriculture has specialists focused on various aspects of it such as insecticide, soil fertility, crop specialist, etc. But fails to look at the big picture.

Four principles of natural farming:

• No cultivation
• No chemical fertilizer or prepared compost  (Fu grows a cover white clover and straw and a little poultry manure)
• No Weeding by tillage or herbicides
• No dependence on chemicals (Fu uses machine oil emulsion occasionally)

Alternative investments

A follow up to my earlier post on alternative investments:


Alternatives stay that way only until they are alternative to at least a majority of investors. A great quote from my investment guru Ben Graham from the article. “While enthusiasm may be necessary for great accomplishments elsewhere, on Wall Street it almost invariably leads to disaster.”



http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-14/hey-sec-a-modest-proposal-ban-alternative-investments.html