We drove up into the mountains to experience two events that were filled with wonder and surprise - both man made, one literally dug out of the distant past and one gazing into the future.

A recent archeological discovery of ancient tablets and remains of a civilization that had lived at least hundreds of years ago was discovered on a site located south of San Juan. Managed by the US government the site, a plaza like encampment, held dozens of petroglyphs and graves. The remains were probably from the Pre-Columbian civilizations of the Taino and Pre-Taino. Lucky for us we were granted access to explore the site with the head chief investigator of the Army Corp of Engineers – Chris Esplenade. This tour was even more special once we learned that the site would be covered over within a few weeks due to a lack of funding to continue the exploration and to maintain the integrity of the site.

The second wonder was a visit to the Arecibo Observatory, site of the world’s largest radiotelescope. It is one of the most important international centers of research in radio astronomy, and we should add, one of the …

My family is African Puerto Rican and my husband is African American from South Carolina. This summer, we decided to take our children on a "Find your Puerto Rican Roots" tour of Puerto Rico.

This was an exciting adventure for not only for myself, who has family in Puerto Rico, but also for my husband who was able to learn more about the African history of the island, and my teenage children who loved El Morro, relaxing on the beaches, hiking thru the El Yunque tropical rain forest, and jet skiing in Vieques.

We actually rented an apartment in Fajardo, which is about 1 hour from San Juan. With GPS in hand, we rented a car and traveled ALL OVER the island. Because we had the children, we did not get to enjoy the night life, but we still had a wonderful time. Here are some highlights I recommend for a great African American family vacation in Puerto Rico. These are in no particular order.....

* Visit El Morro in San Juan

*Shopping in Old San Juan (tip: leave grumpy husbands and teenage boys at the hotel who don't know how to shop till …

Me and the kids (10 and 7 years old) took our first trip to San Juan this past July. My goal was to travel to an island that didn't require a passport. Puerto Rico was the perfect choice because it's a U.S. Territory. The excitement began once we boarded the plane in Atlanta. Hearing the flight attendants giving announcements in both English and Spanish was thrilling. Upon arriving in SJU the first thing I noticed was the humidity! We quickly because acclimated and arrived after a short drive to our hotel, Caribe Hilton. I choose this hotel because it was considered "family friendly". Our room wasnt quite ready, so, at the hotel's suggestion we had gone to the changing area to don our swim gear and headed to the pool to cool off.

We had a great room on the 10th floor which gave a great view of the pool/bar area and the hotel's own private beach. Too, the view of the Atlantic Ocean was spectacular and calming at the same time.

I must admit while we were there we spent most of the time at the pool, which was at the kid's insistence. I would …