{"id":7988,"date":"2018-06-11T11:27:54","date_gmt":"2018-06-11T15:27:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/?p=7988"},"modified":"2018-06-11T11:27:54","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T15:27:54","slug":"storm-karin-c-takes-students-puerto-rico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/storm-karin-c-takes-students-puerto-rico","title":{"rendered":"After the storm: Karin C. takes her students to Puerto Rico"},"content":{"rendered":"

Karin C. is a foreign language teacher from Pennsylvania, and an experienced traveler: She\u2019s been taking students abroad every other year for 26 years, usually to Spanish-speaking countries. And while she\u2019s taken students on our <\/span>Puerto Rico tour<\/span><\/a> before to experience the culture, nature, and language, this year was a bit different. <\/span><\/p>\n

In September of 2017, Hurricane Maria, a Category 5 storm, caused devastating damage to the country, wiping out power in most of Puerto Rico and costing <\/span>thousands<\/span><\/a> of lives.<\/span><\/p>\n

Efforts to rebuild are moving along, albeit <\/span>slowly<\/span><\/a>, and tourists\u2014an essential source of revenue for the island\u2014are also <\/span>making their way back<\/span><\/a>, giving the country a much-needed economic boost.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the reasons why Karin decided to take her students to Puerto Rico anyway, seven months after the storm. Once a few itinerary changes were made, she took her students on a tour that was even more impactful than she\u2019d anticipated.<\/span><\/p>\n

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For one, Karin and her students saw some of the effects of the hurricane first-hand. \u201cWe had dinner one night in an area that only had two locations open\u2014our restaurant and a grocery store,\u201d she said. \u201cThe town around it was dark, and some houses even had signs in front of that said \u2018no electricity\u2019 and a few that said \u2018no running water.\u2019\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It was eye-opening for the students: \u201cThe kids thought it was sad and surprising after so many months.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

While they saw the effects of the hurricane, Karin says they experienced \u201cnothing that had any great impact on our tour,\u201d she said. \u201cOld San Juan was completely up and running and we saw many cruise ships resuming their stops there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Her students had an excellent time, too: \u201cMy kids’ favorite day was the snorkel trip. They also loved Cueva Ventana, touring Old San Juan, and our Salsa dancing lessons. The food was great as well…They had a ball.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And education-wise, the trip was a great success: \u201cMy students did a really nice job speaking Spanish, and our guide continually encouraged them to do so,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted them to take away the appreciation for a different culture and language, immerse themselves into each experience, and become avid travelers with a desire to be comfortable getting out there and finding new places with new learning experiences. I believe most did that. \u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Karin encourages anyone who wants to take their students to Puerto Rico to do it, now more than ever. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost every Puerto Rican native thanked us for coming,\u201d Karin said. \u201cIt makes a HUGE impact on their economy.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Are you interested in giving your students a unique and beneficial cultural experience like Karin did? Get information on activities, pricing, customization options, and more for our\u00a0<\/span>tour to Puerto Rico<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karin C. is a foreign language teacher from Pennsylvania, and an experienced traveler: She\u2019s been taking students abroad every other year for 26 years, usually to Spanish-speaking countries. And while she\u2019s taken students on our Puerto Rico tour before to experience the culture, nature, and language, this year was a bit different. In September of Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[58,213,128,425],"class_list":["post-7988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teachers","tag-educational-travel","tag-puerto-rico","tag-student-travel","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7988"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7994,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7988\/revisions\/7994"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.explorica.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}