A Brief Overview Of Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico is a small mountainous island that is a self-governing unincorporated territory of the United States. Located in the Caribbean Sea and is part of the Mayor Antilles. It is in the tropics and has approximately 239 plants, 16 birds and 39 amphibians/reptiles which are mostly found in the main island. The total territorial area of Puerto Rico, including the two small neighboring islands that are politically depended to Puerto Rico, is approximately 3,435 square miles. Puerto Rico’s ecology is fascinating and diverse, from forest that have endangered species to caves, from invasions to modern times.
Roughly 142 million years old, geologically wise Puerto Rico is relatively young and most of its core of the Cordillera Central, an east-west trending spine of mountains that run without interruption. The Cordillera Central is characterized by jagged peaks and steep slopes that are prone to landslides. Most of the main island is mountainous with large coastal areas in the north and south. The highest elevation in Puerto Rico is called Cerro de Punta which is approximately 4,390 feet and is located in the Cordillera Central. Another peak is El Yunque, which is one of the highest peaks of the Sierra de Luquillo with an elevation of 3,494 feet. Coastal wise Puerto Rico has 17 man-made lakes and over 50 rivers, most of those originating in the Cordillera Central.
There are very impressive facts of Puerto Rico’s ecology. For example, El Yunque is home to a greater part of the coquís, an endangered very small frog, and more than 240 plant species, which 26 of them are common in Puerto Rico. It is almost a habitat for about 50 bird species, including the Puerto Rican Amazon, also known as “la cotorra puertorriqueña”, which is one of the top 10 endangered birds in the world. There are 240 species of trees; some are thousands of years old, 50 species of ferns, and 20 varieties of wild orchids and multitude of flowers. Thus El Yunque is widely recognized to have many species of vegetation and animals; the largest number of bird species can be found at The Guánica Forest, which is a dry forest, inhabits 700 plant species which 48 are endangered and 16 exist nowhere else. The most important cave in the west hemisphere is located in Puerto Rico.Río Camuy is also the third largest subterranean river in the world, and there are high quality sample of stalactites, stalagmites and bats.
Puerto Rico’s political geography is very complex. Since it is an unincorporated territory of the United States, it does not have any administrative divisions as characterized by the United States Government, but there are 78 municipalities. In the division of municipalities, there is another subdivision which is called “barrios” and those are again cut into sectors, suburbs, urbanizations, and ghettos. Every municipality has a municipal legislature and mayor which are elected and serve every 4 years. The first which is the largest municipality and the capital of Puerto Rico is San Juan, which was founded in 1521. There lays the fortress city, known as Old San Juan, back then it was impossible to be overtaken by any force, as seen by the fail attempts of Francis Drake, George Clifford, and General Balduino Enrico.
In this “fortress city” lies Castillo San Cristóbal, Castillo San Felipe del Morro, and Fortin San Juan de la Cruz known locally as El Cañuelo, bastions, powder houses, and three fourths of the city wall is still surrounding, thus some walls are decaying due to sea salt, lack of maintenance, and years of fighting as one can say. Other walls have been demolished to make areas more be accessible for people. Fort San Felipe del Morro in 1983 was declared a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. In World War I and II, Puerto Rico was a military strategic location, due to its extensive and peripheral view of the ocean.
Currently Puerto Rico’s economy has suffered budget cuts from United States. The economy has depended heavily on the tax incentives given to U.S. mainland companies and on federal transfers. There are important industries in which create profit for Puerto Rico, they include pharmaceuticals, electronics, textiles, petrochemicals, processed foods, clothing and textiles. Thus in the 1940s Puerto Rico’s economy was based on sugar production ,now a days, it has been lost out to dairy production and other livestock products as main source of income in the agricultural sector. Tourism is still an important source of income for the island.
Puerto Rico, an approximately 3,435 square mile, small mountainous island that is self-governing unincorporated territory of the United Stated and located in the Caribbean Sea and part of the Mayor Antilles with over 3 million in population is a remarkable one of a kind island. It can be said that Puerto Rico is a diamond in the rough, a paradise that has been lost. Puerto Rico inhabits a large variety of vegetation, species, natural resources and exciting history from its birth to present time.
