One might hope (if you work at the Puerto Rico Tourism Company) that blogs like this one will go unnoticed. In my opinion, trash is one of the biggest issues for Puerto Rico, largely because it would be so easy to solve. Pick it up!

Today's theme: Trash.

The country/pseudo state moves at a snail's pace in just about everything, and employs most of the population as government employees, yet roads and beaches and just about every available surface island wide is trash covered.

Maybe I do not yet have a big enough audience for anyone to take notice. Maybe citizens are not causing enough of a ruckus to get their mayors (and governor) to focus on this disgusting issue. After all, *someone* is throwing this garbage there in the first place. If the entire population is happy with turning Puerto Rico into a total wasteland, then I guess I'm among the minority complaining about it.

However, I am not prepared to give up just yet. I aim to create increasing public awareness, until it starts to get greater attention in the offices of the "higher ups". In fact, I think it's a complete embarrassment to the entire country if the Mayaguez 2010 games are held here on the West Coast and these streets are not in pristine condition for the thousands of visitors who will come, and leave with their lasting impressions.

Does a blogger lack credibility or a big enough audience to get your attention? Well, in my new series I'm calling "Puerto Rico in Print", I'm going to showcase what people are documenting about Puerto Rico in the print world.

Do you want to know what the world thinks about Puerto Rico? Pay attention. Are they wrong?

Here are some selected excerpts from "Let's Go Puerto Rico 3rd Edition", a travel guide. Source:

Let's Go Puerto Rico 3rd Edition

Page 129 - Describing a particular beaches as having "less trash".

page 276 - Describing beaches of the Northwest region:

Public beaches are often marred by heaps of garbage, sometimes just feet from garbage cans provided by coastal authorities, Playa Jobos and Playa Mar Chiq- uita stand out as particularly trash-covered...

page 290:

Trash, including quite a few abandoned cars, litters the roads, and stray or abandoned dogs loudly assert their ownership as cars drive by...

To be continued...

The Insider