Q1 Feature: Focus on Puerto Rico

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Photos: From the canyoning adventure, rapelling down a cliff, behind the waterfalls with the team, leaping into the water. From the helicopter tour that a Kellogg alum took us on (gratis, thanks Carlos!). From the kayaking trip and the ATV trip that preceded it.

80 degrees in the sun. 70′ish perhaps in the shade. 5 days with some of your best friends on an island paradise. If this is not an ideal post-finals, winter time getaway I dont know what is. I just returned from sunny San Juan where 13 Kellogg MBA students and 1 MBA spouse descended on the Carribean paradise. Over 4 nights and 5 days we ATV’d on a dust beaten track through the rainforest, swam in a tropical river, had our faces painted like the ancient Native Indians, kayaked into the bio-luminscent bay, rapelled down a precarious looking canyon, zip-lined down a couple hundred feet, hiked up a dense forest, jumped scores of feet off crazy ledges into a waterfall-fed pool and even swam headlong into a second raging waterfall.

A relaxed start: Of course the trip started on a benign note. Day 1 started with a relaxing chat by the pool side and a dip in the hot tub. The air was still a little too chill for our liking but havng just escaped sub 30’s in Boston how could I complain? That night the boys ran a bare-foot race on the smooth sand by the beach. Day 1 was spent catching a few notes on the finals we had just finished and exchanging notes on our travels into the island. We then headed to downtown San Juan for dinner at The Parrot Club, which somehow kept reminding me of old-time Havana from the movies. 14 of us packed into a 7-seater minivan for a ride that said close like a rush hour Mumbai commuter train. A short drive later we burst into old San Juan, a lively little place that seemed to come alive at night. The Parrot Club was rich in color and flavor. I discovered the moffango, a rich fried plantain dish that reminded me a lot of South Asian cuisine. The introduction to the island cuisine was also a lesson in how different Puerto Rican food was from its Latin cousins like Mexican or even Brazilian food. There was a certain East meets West element to the food that came alive in the interesting combinations and side dishes. The day ended with a leisurely stroll around the old town and another cab ride back to the hotel. Thankfully we found 2 cabs this time!

UBS welcomes us: Day 2 started with breakfast on the rooftop – the blue ocean and clear sky providing a picture postcard perfect backfrop to our food and drink. Did I mention that we were all dressed in our snazziest suits for we were headed into downtown San Juan for a meeting with the UBS team? Thanks to Kreena and Elana, we had an opportunity to meet with Francisco Rodriguez-Carlos the Managing Director of UBS PR and members of his team. The meeting started with an overview of the PR economy by Sergio Marxuach, the Policy Director and General Counsel of Puerto Rico’s leading think tank. Over an hour or so we learnt about the unique challenges and opportunities for this island economy. Did you know that all things being same, the women of Puerto Rico were far more industrious and economically productive than the men? Don’t ask me how but there was realms of data to back up this interesting factoid. Our team asked some fantastic questions and brainstormed ideas on how the local economy could revive itself in the face of both local and global challenges. We also met with Alexandro Ballester and Francisco Landevar, two Kellogg alums from different years. We would soon meet Alexandro and his gracious wife at their beach home for an unforgetful wine tasting event. The UBS trip ended with a call to action from Francisco-R, where he asked us to come up with 25 fresh-eyes ideas to revive the Puerto Rican economy. Nothing says B-school like a call to action like that, and we walked out of the building with a billion ideas buzzing around our heads! We then headed back to the historic El San Juan hotel and changed into our jungle fatigues (okay, they looked like fatigues) for our jungle adventures to come.

A quick change later the group re-assembled in the lobby and hopped into a couple cabs. Did I mention that almost all the cab rides were defined by the $5 a head pricing model? The cabbies seem to have found a sweet spot of pricing for mainland tourists – charging $5 a head for large groups even for distances where the meter would run not more than $10 or $20. Do the math and you can you see why they just loved our groups of 7 clammering into a cab!

Backcountry ATV: Back to the ATV story now. We drove down what looked like a typical US highway with some big differences! Brightly colored homes, families toiling in the farms, little kids running around and the medley of little shops and crooked lightposts … the countryside reminded me more of South Asian or South American villages than a typical American country side. We landed at a hacienda (estate) where we got a quick overview of ATVing before we headed our way. The first 20 minutes were spent just trying to figure out how to navigate the heavy metal. Then I realized that the secret to successful ATVing was in not focusing on the road. Bear with me for a moment here as I share a life lesson that I took away. As long as I focused on the bumps and rocks on the path ahead of us (and there were MANY of them!) I found myself accelerating or decelerating out of sync with the demands of the road. I found myself going off road more than I should have and the ride was defined by fits of starts and stops. Bobby who rode just behind me was patience personified and even offered to let me ride tandem with him – thanks Bobby but this was a challenge I was just going to conquer! Like I said earlier, the initial phase ended as soon as I realized the secret. The aha moment was when I decided that I would not focus on the road as much as I would focus on the journey. I completely ignored the road (except when there were obvious hazards) and decided to focus on the journey – trusting that the machine I was on would take past the bumps and worts on the road. The rest as they say was easy and fun! So that was my life lesson #1 for this trip

Midnight Kayaking: After the ATV ride done we sat in the rustic portico of the main building at the estate and ordered food and drinks for all. The cheese and veggie quessedia was a perfect compliment to the setting sun and old world setting we were in. Nothing like farm fresh food! About an hour later we clambered back into the waiting bus and made our way to the bio-luminiscent bay. We reached the docks around 7ish and were told that the kayaks would be back in about an hour. That was a good ruse to check out the local bar / coffee shop. The local espresso coffee was a welcome wake up beverage that I would soon realize had a vital impact on the hours to come. A couple cups of coffee later I was ready for a “5 minute” excursion into the bay. Of course what the guide called a 5 minute trip soon became a 20 minute exercise in hitting the pain threshold and trying hard to overcome it. While kayaking itself does not bother me, a combination of the need to reach the group in time and the pitch dark surroundings showed me the limitations of my back. In any case we made our way out to the bay and learnt about how single celled bioluminscent dinoflagellates caused the water to shimmer and sparkle as we rowed our way into the dark waters. It was fascinating to learn how this bay was one of very few around the world where these glamour creatures of natures are relatively well protected for generations to come to enjoy one of nature’s very best shows! For those who have not seen this show think of it as pixie dust that comes alive in water when you cause friction in the water … even a quick ruffling of the water can cause these little gems of nature to come alive like fireflies and create a sparkle. I admit that words cannot sufficiently describe the sheer beauty of these little creatures. I only hope that such places are preserved for years to come and do not become mere relics in tomorrow’s museums! Talking of tomorrow, the day-night adventure ended “tomorrow” with the bus reaching the hotel back at 1 a.m. We had to be back in a bus at 5:45 a.m. the next day. Ouch, that was going to be one painfully short sleep.

An early start to reach the canyons: Day 3 started with the alarm buzzing at 5 a.m. 3.5 hours of sleep aided and induced by Tylenol was perhaps not going to be enough for the day ahead but there was little choice. The group scrambled down in ones and twos and grabbed lunch boxes that Donnell had arranged for all of us. It was quite a sight to see our sleepy selves pick breakfast and lunch boxes before even the sun had had a chance to rise. In any case we were soon climbing aboard the bus that would take us for our highlight of the day – canyoning. Aventures Puerto Rico is supposed to be one of the world’s best ‘canyoning guide’ companies. They sure proved that they were one of the best if not the best by the time the day was out. Having done Outward Bound many years ago I went in expecting something at that level but soon found out that my physical and mental limits were going to be tested like never before. And boy was that fun.

We reached the canyon after a quick pitstop at a breakfast joint where we were fitted out with helmets, backpacks and life jackets. Rosanno’s warning that everything we carried would become wet seemed too bold to be true. How wet could one become on a hike anyways? We would soon find out. We reached the point on the mountain from where the adventure would begin. The adventure started with a steep descent down a marshy hill side. The sticky, gooey clay made the descent particularly challenging and gave us an early treat of the day to come. Looking back it was clearly a smart move to get us started on a rough note – for the limits of mental strength were soon to be tested like none before!

Canyoning 101, no make that 201 or more: Once we reached a clearing in the woods we got a quick lesson in using the carbiners. A quick drill later we were soon shepherded to the starting line. In ones and twos we were soon edging along a canyon wall … the stable platform of rock beneath our feet soon gave way to oddly spaced out metal bars screwed into the rock face. A few feet later we were walking across a short gap between rocks with only the blue sky above us and the raging waters of a river below us. The look on our face would have said it all – I have no doubt that most of us were wondering how insane we had to be do this. In any case the power of peer pressure combined with the collective will of a group saw us cross this chasm and move further along … until we got to the point of rapelling down the canyon wall. Did I mention that along the way we crossed a sign that not to subtly hinted “Point of No Return”. A short rapelling down we then walked again across the rock face – this time the foot hold becoming increasingly defined by their absence! The knee pads that we had been outfitted in back at the breakfast joint came in more than handy. Hugging the rock face with our knee pads, and in parallel moving the carbiners ahead we inched our way to another landing ledge where another instructor waited for us. We were then latched on to a zip line and each of us went down a fascinating zip line only to dive full-body into the cool river below us. Emerging from the water we sat on a ledge before we were asked to swim upstream to the raging waterfall. A short swim upstream later – with the awesome power of team work – with friends pulling each other upstream to battle the raging waters, we reached a little enclave behind the waterfall. The sheer force of the water made some of us stand in awe and respect and revere Mother Nature at Her best. Soon we had to move on and we walked into the waterfall waiting for Her to push us out of the way and back into the bay below. Another short swim later we clambered upon another rock to drink hot chocolate that Anibal was making for us with a chef hat on. These guys have a quite sense of humor!