This morning we went back in history. 1900 to be exact. The year our great grandfather, Luciano Rodriguez was baptized. We returned to the cathedral today to see if we could find any other information on him and our family and to see if there were any documents that we could find.
The church office was amazing. They were able to locate his exact record of baptism within a huge book full of hundreds of baptism records. Each book was broken down by a series of years. It's unbelievable that they still had them intact even after the earthquake that had destroyed many buildings in the plaza.
Inside the church office they also had remains of some of the old flooring, tiles, and paintings that our great grandfather and great great grandparents would have known to be in the cathedral.
Pictures just don't do justice of the beauty that this catherdal holds. To us, it's much more than a building. It's where our history lives and will live on.
We weren't able to take the original document (obviously) since hundreds of years are in that book... and they protect it like it's their first born! But the staff was amazing and wrote everything down for us so that we could take it home and share it with all of you; our friends and our family.
After our adventure in Mayaguez, we headed to the beach! We ended up going snorkeling as a spur of the moment kind of thing. We swam right over coral reefs, gorg tropical fish, and barracuda. Yes. You read that right. Barracuda. One was five feet long... Headed my way... I went and hid with the fishies! Our captain of the tour was so great at showing us all the beautiful elements of the island. There is so much beauty here.
The ocean was so choppy at the second snorkeling location and I was hesitant to get in because of how large the waves were. I knew they would come crashing down on me and the current was strong. But, I was brave and I jumped in with my cute little flippers and my floatie and swam with the fishies again.
The ocean kind of teaches you something. It might be choppy. And maybe a little rough around the edges, but it's what's inside the ocean that has the true beauty. Don't get me wrong. The gorgeous, turquoise waters are breathtaking, but underneath the surface, now that's true beauty. And that goes for us all. We're all a little choppy at times, but it's our beauty inside that truly matters.
xx,
Kristen
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