I suppose I could go on ad nauseum about the plight of the automobile industry, but since everyone else is doing that just now,
I thought it might be of interest to you at some point, to know what driving is like in Puerto Rico.

First, let me say that the population is friendly and helpful, until they get into a car. Just as we found in Panama last year
(See Blog #62 below), they are dreadful drivers with absolutely no sense of road craft or discipline.  
This does not say that we didn't enjoy our holiday - far from it, but it was really necessary to use superior driving experience
to survive a road trip anywhere.  Unlike our experience in Costa Rica, the roads in PR are very good.
Obviously American in design, many of them are low cost toll roads which almost circle the island.
The problem lies I think, in the fact that this small island has four million inhabitants all of whom have a car of some sort
and live near the coast, since the centre of the island is mountainous and quite spectacular.
In consequence, traffic congestion is everywhere, there is no escaping from it.

The magnificent old city of San Juan has one major artery going into it and since it sits on a promontory, there is only one way out.
Parking is very difficult, the narrow streets are jammed with cars, somewhat reminiscent of Paris, without the sidewalk parking
that makes Frenchmen so unique.

Another problem lies in the fact that drivers hog the left lane, well below the speed limit and will not move over, even for
ambulances and police cars. The explanation one gets is that heavy trucks have destroyed the right lane and it's a much
smoother ride on the left. This may have been true at one time, but the modern toll roads are not rough in any lane and yet,
with three lanes available, the traffic still spreads itself across all three lanes.
 
Which leads to the coffee can muffler boys in their old or new, Hondas (yes, they're everywhere these days!) weaving and
dodging through traffic and you'd better watch your mirrors, because here they come!

On the other hand, passing on the right and cutting back in produces no flashing headlights or horn honking. It seems to be
accepted practice that if you're in a hurry, you pass right and cut left. There is a huge police presence, but speeding is almost
impossible and weaving through traffic is acceptable, so what they do all day is beyond my comprehension.
They also run with the gumball machine flashing for no apparent reason - go figure!

Now we get to the problem of signage. Even on the toll roads, signage is vague and usually comes up right at the intersection,
while you're following a truck. As I know from personal experience, making a misturn off the thruway and down into the barrio
can take forever to undo.

The side roads, up into the mountains, have three digit numbers. Fine, you see the road signposted off the thruway, then posted
for a couple of miles, then all signage disappears and you come to a fork in the road. If you go the wrong way you can go for
many miles in the wrong direction and find it impossible to recover. You can waste hours stopping constantly to ask for directions.
( Most PRs are fluently bilingual and very helpful). I've thought about this and it seems that a laptop and Google maps, blown up
to large scale might be the only way for tourists to be independent while travelling on back roads.

By the way, PR is half pregnant when it comes to measurement. Gasoline is sold in litres (42c while we were there!), distances
are given in kilometres, but speed limits are in miles per hour, so the speedometer in the car is also in miles per hour.
Traffic itself divides into two groups. Porsche Cayennes at one end and 20 year old Mitsubishis at the other. Of course it's the
broken down old cars that run in the left lane, well below the speed limit.

Mitsubishi has sold very well in PR and so has Toyotas' Scion cars and boxy carryalls.
Scions have to be some of the ugliest vehicles anywhere on the planet, unless you think the very similar Honda Element
deserves that title.

The 2009 4 cylinder Camry we drove was perfectly adequate for the job. The four cylinder engine climbed mountains quite well
and fuel economy was good. However,  this Toyota had some irritating and disappointing features that I will tell you about next week.

In summary: A fine holiday, with good beaches, many things to see and do, friendly people, one of the finest ancient old cities
outside of Europe and stable, predictable weather. Of the Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico has to bo one of the best, just so
long as your driving attitude is long on patience and slow to anger.