Area: 8900 sq km (3436 sq miles)
Population: 3.7 million
Capital city: San Juan (pop 1.5 million)
Language: Spanish, English
Religion: Roman Catholics (85%), Protestants
Government: Commonwealth of the United States
Puerto Rico may be part of the USA but its music and dance is a mixture of both Spanish and African rhythms. The country, as a result, is a mixture of very new and very old. It exhibits the open American way of life yet retains the more formal Spanish influences. This is reflected in the architecture, not just the contrast between the colonial and the modern in urban areas but also in the countryside, where older buildings sit side by side with concrete schools and dwellings. It is found in the cuisine, a plethora of fast food restaurants together with local cooking which has its roots in the hybrid culture of all the Caribbean and in the music, where rock music and salsa are played in beach resorts but in the hilly interior, Puerto Rican music can be heard. However, if you do not stray beyond the tourist areas on the coast, you will not experience the real Puerto Rico. Old volcanic mountains, long inactive, occupy a large part of the interior, with the highest peak, Cerro de Punta, at 1,338 m in the Cordillera Central. North of the Cordillera is the karst country where the limestone has been acted upon by water to produce a series of small steep hills (mogotes) and deep holes, both conical in shape. The mountains are surrounded by a coastal plain with the Atlantic shore beaches cooled all the year round by trade winds.
The population is 3.8 million, of which about 1.5 million live in San Juan, although about another two million Puerto Ricans live in the USA. Average life expectancy is 73.8 years and gdp per capita is US$12,212, the highest in Latin America, although not up to the level of mainland USA. The people are largely an amalgam of Amerindian, Taino-Arawak, Spanish and African. Most Puerto Ricans do not speak English and less than 30% speak it fluently. Puerto Ricans are sometimes referred to as Boricuas after the Indian name of the island. Second generation Puerto Ricans who were born in New York, but who have returned to the island, are called Nuyoricans. The people are very friendly and hospitable but there is crime, linked to drugs and unemployment.
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