wetlands/wrongroad(part2 )
(some background:)
…when i was growing up, there used to be a grazing pasture under a
coconut grove where urbanización san demetrio- a suburban-type housing
development- now sits….
there was a small steep rise, hardly tall enough to merit being called a
hill, & behind it, hidden from th road & th shore, a small lagoon lay
nestled among marshes- one of th few natural bodies of fresh water in
puerto rico:
apart from a lagoon in guánica i only recently noticed in a road map &
about which i’d like
to find out more, to my knowledge, there’s only laguna tortuguero in manatí
(th neighboring
town to th west of here) & laguna cartagena between lajas & cabo rojo in th
southwest corner
of th island. (guánica is just east of lajas, actually.) laguna cartagena
was completely drained
as ‘insalubrious’ in th late ’40’s, its rich silt bed plowed into farmland
w/ dramatic consequences: th lagoon was an important nesting ground for
migratory birds & as a consequence of massive habitat destruction, bird
populations have been decimated, their migratory patterns severely
disrupted. recently, i have heard there is a movement afoot to try to undo
th damage
by refilling th lagoon…
in vega baja, th marshes- known as ‘pollales’ (poyales?) here- survive
behind th housing project, but th little hill was flattened right into th
lagoon…
i’m just now beginning to realize that @ some time, th cibuco river estuary
& mangrove forest were most likely joined by these marshes (-& channels?
natural drainage ditches?) to laguna tortuguero in one big wetlands
system…low-lying wetlands alternate w/ dunes of very fine white sand
throughout th area: sand gets carted away by th truckload for construction,
wetlands
are drained…laguna tortuguero, for example, has a drainage ditch which
empties by th well-known surf break @ los tubos beach. (also th site for th
notorious ‘mar & sol’ rock music festival back in ‘72.) i grew up thinking
this was a natural feature, but sometime ago found
out it was dug out by th army corps of engineers: there used to be an army
base right next to
th lagoon, camp tortuguero, & i imagine they might have built mostly on
landfill …
…i remember once walking from vega baja to th beach, deciding to go ‘off
road’-
(christalía had just gotten on th plane back to nyc after a difficult week-
i was desperately holding on to a dying, if not already dead, relationship)
i imagine i’d borrowed somebody’s car & had returned it, because i rode a
‘público’
out from san juan & started to walk, mostly out of impatience w/ waiting
for a local
‘pisicorre’ plying th route from th town to th beach…maybe a relative or
two
zoomed by w/out seeing me, fueling my feelings of abandonment & self-pity.
on th straightway between th curve after th caribe china factory & barrio
los naranjos- on th edge of th main creek or channel i believe drains th
wetlands
towards th cibuco river- a fairly wide dirt road opened to my left. i
thought,
why not cut across? (a suivre…)