Puerto Rico is part of the USA and no passport is needed.
They are not a state, but an unincorporated territory, as are several other countries in the world. Panama was, the Philippines were, Samoa still is, and we still maintain military bases (deemed to be American soil politically - why McCain could run for president) on the Philippines (as well as other places in the world where soldiers need no passport to be stationed).
That no passport is needed is not a good criteria - I needed no passport to visit Mexico or Canada (1984).
quote:Puerto Rico ... officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (Spanish: Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, literally, "Associated Free State of Puerto Rico"), is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
The relationship between Puerto Rico and the United States dates back to the Spanish-American War, in which Spain, under the terms of the Treaty of Paris of 1898, ceded the island to the United States. Puerto Ricans became U.S. citizens in 1917, and the United States Congress legislates many aspects of Puerto Rican life.[14] However, the islanders may not vote in U.S. presidential elections.[15][16] Since 1947, Puerto Ricans have been able to elect their own governor. Its official languages are Spanish and English, with Spanish being the primary language. The island's current political status, including the possibility of statehood or independence, is widely debated in Puerto Rico. A referendum on statehood, independence, or continuance of the status quo will be held on November 6, 2012.
Seems they do a referendum every election cycle.
So they are borderline between states and foreign countries, and they certainly are different cultures from the ones in our mainland states. Hawaii is also different but a state (Hawaii 5-0 is a reference to their being the 50th state). Alaska is just out there (Palin comes from a different planet imho).
And they can have athletes represent them in the Olympics (to nod at the topic ... )
It is exposure to different cultures that is important not how much planet land mass you have covered, yes?
And a great example of the cultural differences the US affords us.
Long long ago and far far away I used to go down to Puerto Rico pretty often and take a cab ride over the mountains and through the rain forest to a little village next to where the company I worked for was building a resort. I'd stay in the upstairs apartment of a family who's home looked out across the Caribbean and grapefruit trees. We'd pick a few fruits, squeeze them into glasses, fill with Don Q and watch the stars rise.
There were two little kids living there and in the afternoons I'd play catch with them as they practiced their limited English and I my limited Spanish. They were having Pollo Sofrito and the little girl ran to get the pollo to show me. She returned with a brown paper bag and smiling opened it to proudly show me the loser of last nights cock-fight.
The Puerto Rican rain forest is so different from the California rain forests or those in Oregon and Washington just as the swamps of Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi are unlike the Great Dismal, just as the Alleghenies are unlike the Sierra Madras or the Rockies or the Cascades.
Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!
My point is that traveling to Puerto Rico is not traveling outside of the United States as you assert. Puerto Rico has a different relationship with the US than Samoa does. Puerto Ricans are US citizens and have been since 1917.
That no passport is needed is not a good criteria - I needed no passport to visit Mexico or Canada (1984).
Now this comment is just stupid. You do need one to go to Mexico and Canada now. Immigrants to the US prior to WWI rarely had a passport. But that also has absolutely nothing to do with the discussion either.
Any Puerto Rican, either in Puerto icoR or on the mainland will proudly proclaim to you that when you come to Puerto Rico you are visiting part of the USA.
My father is a Puertorriqueno, and like all Puerto Ricans we are a little sensitive on this subject.
Facts don't lie or have an agenda. Facts are just facts
"God did it" is not an argument. It is an excuse for intellectual laziness.
I very much want the USA to do very badly at the Olympics, and it's all NBC's fault.
I found myself on their website on Friday, whilst trying to find somewhere I could stream the archery qualifications, and was distracted by the headline 'Have Russia and China closed the gap?'
Now, four years ago, that might have been a valid question, but given that China got 15 more gold medals than the USA in Beijing, now it just looks like the most appalling arrogance.
That aside - the road races were both good - lot of drama at the end, and I've been enjoying the swimming and archery. I can't get into Judo for the life of me, though. I can't quite figure out what's going on.
During the Olympics, I usually feel like the coverage here is overly saturated in American pride and patriotism. It bothers me that the general American public has pretty much no interest in most of the events and doesn't even know how many of them are played or scored, but still has a profound interest in the USA winning lots of medals.
We like to boast a lot about our successes in the Olympics, but, since we don't even acknowledge the existence of these events outside of the Olympics, it comes off as trying to take collective credit for what a very tiny special-interest group in our society accomplished pretty much without our support.
It's far more impressive, in my mind, that countries like Latvia or Botswana can even scrounge up a couple of athletes from their tiny populations to compete on a world stage. I'm particularly impressed by the African nations, who usually have neither the populations, the national solidarity nor the infrastructure to consistently produce good athletes.
I'm much more interested in seeing those athletes succeed than in seeing another American take another medal.
I've been to Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico, England, Scotland, France, Netherlands, Luxembourg (saw my first tour de france there), Belgium, Russia, and Alaska ...
Your traveling list is impressive, but curiously, I notice it is rather heavy on the caucasoid side. Have you also noticed? Is it coincidental, or are you simply not interested in Africa or Asia?
I am not implying anything, please do not get defensive, I am just trying to ask in a most gentle way. Just from your posts, you SEEM more broadly connected to different cultures, more worldly. So much so that the ommisions of Africa and Asia seem to stand out.
Your traveling list is impressive, but curiously, I notice it is rather heavy on the caucasoid side. Have you also noticed? Is it coincidental, or are you simply not interested in Africa or Asia?
It's more a matter of opportunities that came my way from various people and organizations and business. Almost had an opportunity to go to Tokyo and was sad to lose that.
I had hoped to get in the Peace Corp back in the 70's but they wouldn't take us as they could not place my wife and I in the same locations.
I also would love to get down Greece and Turkey way, perhaps island hoping in a sailboat, and around the southern Mediterranean coasts. And I would love to do the Yucatan penn ruins (and do some snorkeling in the gulf there), maybe Cuba.
But time and cancer may be against me here (if I have to be near here for periodic checkups and treatments it limits time to spend traveling. But the bucket list is there.
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