Storm and the Caribbean

Extry! Extry! Extry! This is Ye Olde Time Newsy, bringing you reports of George Stewart’s “Storm”, a decent book, although it goes on about the storm Maria’s precipitation a bit too long. However, the accounts of snow in the Donner Pass are quite interesting, as the blizzards there pile the snow up to a depth of SEVERAL FEET in a storm, oftentimes. (In New York City, a “big” blizzard is, like, about fifteen to twenty inches, if even that much!)

We went to the Caribbean. We saw San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as Roseau and vicinity, Dominica, Oranjestad and a resort district, Aruba, and Willemstad and the Hato caves, Curacao. San Juan is a large city with bland modern “Mexican” architecture, although its Old Town (which we visited) has a different – and much more enchanting – cityscape and architectural style. I would recommend looking into the forts, which provide an interesting maze of scenery in their own right. Dominica, the rustic “Yellowstone of the Caribbean”, has yet to develop much of a tourist industry – thus, many tourists have to “rough it” – in other words, engage in “ecotourism”. (This refers to, essentially, heading out into the woods, letting out a whoop or two, and setting up camp or hiking or rafting or going bike-riding or whatever one does in the woods, since there are few resorts around for the purpose of sleeping on the beaches in the sun.) Nonetheless, Roseau is also on the isle, and it’s a charming and somewhat sleepy little town (note, however, that my description is colored by the fact that it was Boxing Day upon my visit). Further along, we hit upon Aruba, which had a nice chunk of urban gentrification in downtown Oranjestad to photograph for the Bloustein School, and Curacao, with its picturesque Dutch buildings (which made me wonder what New York might've looked like under the Dutch) and interesting urban landscapes at Willemstad. The Hato Caves reminded me of the formations at Yellowstone’s Mammoth Hot Springs.