Glen Urquhart School Puerto Rico
April 6, 2025
On day one of our Puerto Rico trip, we went on a tour of Old San Juan. We got immersed in the Puerto Rican culture, getting to see the landscape, monuments, and some shopping. We got to see the Princess Passage, which relates to the person that the structures were built for many years ago. One of the first things we saw was a fountain that represents some important aspects of Puerto Rico like music and agriculture. On the tour, we also learned about Juan Ponce de León and his family. In the end we all got ice cream and got to explore the city. After the tour, we arrived to the Big Yellow House, our home base for the first 3 nights. We went over community expectations, had an amazing Puerto Rican dinner, and turned in for the night. Overall we had fun hanging out around the house and getting to experience Puerto Rico first hand. It was a great way to kick off the trip!!
By: Mia, Charlotte, Libby, Cubby & Charlie H.
April 7, 2025
We started off the day with a great breakfast and headed to the work site to begin our service day. During our community service, we learned how to be quick, resourceful and support each other. We all had designated jobs that worked together in a well-oiled manner. We took a break from the work and had a terrific lunch made by María, one of the community members. Then we headed back to the work site to finish our service work for today. Once back at the Big Yellow House we had a fun time at the beach followed by a very relaxing afternoon after a hard day of work. Lastly, after dinner, we reviewed our goals and expectations for the trip and watched a documentary about Puerto Rico to end our night and finish off a day full of learning.
By: Nora, Aine, Cian, Lane & Leo
April 8, 2025
Today is Graham’s birthday. We started our day with a delicious pancake breakfast. We then packed our bags and went to the construction site. When we arrived we got straight to work after the safety demonstration and started making concrete. There were multiple teams of people doing different things like shoveling and passing buckets of rocks and sand to pouring concrete to build the walls. After a few hours of hard work we headed to María’s house for lunch. She made us chicken, rice, and beans. We then had a community talk and thanked María, William, Angel, and Eggy for their hospitality and kindness. After we said our goodbyes we headed back to the Big Yellow House; then walked to the beach and swam in the beautiful Puerto Rican ocean. Once back at the house we took showers, packed, and had a delicious dinner and ice cream to celebrate Graham. We wrapped up our night with a community reflection to discuss our Puerto Rico experience and feelings about the past two days.
By: Penny, Lyla, Emily, Augie & Richie
April 9, 2025
Today we drove to Luqullio from the Big Yellow House. Then we got straight to work and started clearing the paths near the beach. We used shears to trim back plants that were invading the path and raked leftover palm prongs from the ground. After that we had a good lunch and we went back to work picking up trash from a shady spot on the beach. Then we took an interesting and educational paddle trip down a river, going through a mangrove forest and stopping by the beach to learn about turtles. Finally, we ate dinner and made our way over to the square where we had a salsa lesson full of fun.
By: Asher, Lydi, Sydney, Sera, & Aly
April 10, 2025
We started our day at Casa Coral and had a delicious breakfast consisting of pancakes, bacon, fruit and much more. After that we took a quick walk to get to our bus which took us into the mountains all the way to a swimming hole. Once there we swam and sat in the hot sun rays of Puerto Rico. After a lot of screaming and fun swimming we got our stuff back on and took the short hike back to the bus. Then the bus took us Luquillo kiosks where we ate our lunch and did some light souvenir shopping. From there we walked to the beach where we stayed for an hour, tanning and playing games. Back at Casa Coral we got to hangout as a group while vibing out to music and playing cards. Later we had dinner filled with scrumptious pizza, followed by a beautiful bioluminescent kayak ride and then went to sleep.
By: Gwen, Tristan, Owen, Graham & Charlie E.
