- In this episode of "Fly Brother," we explore La Isla del Encanto, Puerto Rico.

We start off with a transformative experience in and around El Yunque Rainforest with my friends, Jen and Yancy.

Then we transcend time and space in Ponce with my homies, Janid and Orlando, before finally amping up the vibranium in mystical Loiza, and the mayor Dona Julia, (speaks in foreign language) Sheila Osorio.

It's all enchantment (speaks in a foreign language).

Let's get fly.

(upbeat music) I'm Ernest White II, storyteller, explorer.

I feel like Indiana Jones.

I believe in connecting across backgrounds and boundaries.

(upbeat music continues) Join me and my friends, (upbeat music continues) and discover that no matter the background, no matter the history, the whole world is our tribe.

(upbeat music continues) Come with me.

(upbeat music continues) "Fly Brother."

- [Announcer] Major funding for this program is provided by.

- [Mayor Baraka] This is Mayor Ras J. Baraka.

Welcome to Newark.

(bright music) We are Newark, one family.

Brick City.

- [Announcer] Courageous Conversation Global Foundation, promoting racial justice, interracial understanding, and human healing.

Additional funding provided by the following.

- Puerto Rico, the isle of enchantment serves up a lively buffet of bustling cities, multifaceted culture, classic architecture, and tropical rainforests ringed by miles and miles of sandy beaches.

One precious stone in Puerto Rico's enchanted crown is the Pearl of the South, Ponce.

This port city of nearly 140,000 people on the southern coast of the island sparkles with architectural gems from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Ponce (speaks in a foreign language) the Pearl of the South of Puerto Rico.

Founded by the great grandson of the famous or infamous Juan Ponce de Leon, it's a city full of history and culture with some of the Caribbean's best museums, a soaring cathedral, a Japanese zen garden, and a hillside castle built with the profits from the distillation of rum.

And what better place to get to know Ponce than from right here at the Plaza Las Delicias, the Plaza of the Delights.

(bright music) The most striking structure in Ponce, however, is the 100-foot-tall Cruceta Del Vigia or Watchman's Cross, inaugurated in 1984 and standing sentry over the city.

And in the shadow of the cross lies a tranquil Japanese garden, the only one in Puerto Rico, where my good friend, storyteller Janid Ortiz, brings me in the middle of an unexpected thunderstorm to connect more deeply with the island and with myself.

- Inhale.

Again, inhaling.

Love and light, positive energy, and exhaling.

Namaste.

- Namaste.

So Janid, Puerto Rico is known as La Isla del Encanto.

What does that mean to you?

- It's a magical place.

There's so much history here, so much art.

Our culture is like so strong, and you can feel that.

- I'm a big believer in the romance of life, zen, and experiences like this.

So, thank you - [Janid] Exactly.

- for just being one of those guides here.

(laughs) - Ah, no, thank you for visiting us and witnessing what we have to offer.

- Thank you so much.

- Oh, my gosh.

- [Ernest] Yes.

(both laughing) Coming to Puerto Rico, I certainly didn't expect to find a Japanese zen garden.

But even more unexpected was finding a Harlem Globetrotter.

Native Ponceno Orlando Melendez, known as 'El Gato,' teaches me a few moves as we go one on one, Globetrotter to globetrotter.

Yes.

- When I started, I didn't know how to do tricks, right?

So I started getting together with the other guys that had a year's experience, so I learned how to do the basics.

So when you see the basics of Globetrotter tricks, it is the basics of basketball.

So you start doing stuff like this, right?

- [Ernest] Mm.

- Right?

And then you start doing stuff like this.

And then you keep adding to that momentum.

So this is the basics.

You're going to go around the back, between the legs, between the legs, and you're going to try a pass with the elbow.

That's one.

You turn around and that's your pass.

- Okay.

- Okay.

Which one do you want?

- I thought we were just going to spin it on my finger.

- No.

That's later.

(laughs) (both laughing) All right.

You ready?

- All right.

- All right.

Go around the back.

Aha.

Between the leg.

All right.

There you go.

That's much better.

(laughs) You add stuff like this.

- All the flavor.

- All the flavor.

- But you got to get the foundational ingredients first.

- The swag of, especially I add a little bit of Southside dancing sometimes.

You see me going like this, and go like that.

And people go crazy, especially when I'm in New York or something like that, right?

(Ernest laughs) So I'm going to teach you how to spin.

Right?

You're going to put your finger up.

Don't be nervous.

- Don't be nervous.

He says.

- Don't be nervous.

All right.

And I'm just going to drop it right there.

There you go.

Ah.

- [Ernest] Oh oh oh.

(Orlando laughing) - [Ernest] There you go, bro.

- [Orlando] There you go.

(laughs) And the key is like, when you focus on something else, - That's when it falls.

- [Orlando] You spins better.

It spin better.

- [Ernest] Okay.

- You know, it's like the waitress or the waiter.

They don't never look at the tray because they going to start balancing the drinks, right?

- [Ernest] Ah, sure, sure.

- So they look at the point where they're going.

- Where they're going.

- Yep.

So that's how spin works.

- Okay.

- Focus on the camera.

'Cause your expression is awesome.

(Ernest laughs) There you go.

Focus on the camera, focus on the camera.

Keep it right there.

Don't look at it.

Ah, you see that.

And see, you just spun the ball.

- Well, so let me ask you this.

Now, you've played almost an entire year of games every year when you've played over 200, you've been to 74 countries.

What, out of all of that traveling though, what brings you back home constantly?

What makes Puerto Rico?

(thunder rumbling) - That.

(laughs) (both laughing) - What keeps Puerto Rico foremost in your heart?

- Well, the culture, it's a mix of all these places that I've been, you know.

You have European in our blood, you have the Indian, the native Indian that you can find all the way down from United States all the way down to Chile and Argentina.

- [Ernest] Canada.

- Canada.

Like the combination.

That African heritage as well.

You know, you have all that here in Puerto Rico.

And one of the things about that is ah, okay, I've been to countries that, "Okay, I got that in San Juan."

Or you're going, "Oh, hey, that is in Loiza right there," when you go to like an African village.

- Sure.

- And someone in South Africa.

- You see the world here in Puerto Rico.

- You see every culture still, in a little bit of more back in time than other places.

And that's why I love Puerto Rico, you know.

It's my home.

It's where I'm born.

It's where I fell in love.

I got my family here.

This is my place.

And when people come here, hey, it's like a whole world tour in a 35 mile by 100 mile island.

- Yeah.

Puerto Rico is one of the world's oldest colonies.

The indigenous Taino people inhabited the island Boriken when Columbus landed here in 1493.

Spain controlled the region, importing enslaved Africans to replace the decimated Tainos on its sugar and coffee plantations over the centuries, until it lost the Spanish-American War in 1898.

The islands became a US territory, Puerto Ricans were granted US citizenship in 1917.

But they still don't have the right to vote in federal elections or have voting representation in Congress.

While the debate over statehood goes on, Puerto Rico welcomes her fellow Americans and the world to discover a tropical paradise steeped in history, music, landscapes, and (speaks in a foreign language) food.

In Puerto Rico, there's always something cooking.

And at Bacoa Finca y Fogon, near the town of Juncos at the edge of the rainforest, its organic and sustainable takes on traditional Puerto Rican cuisine, and accompanied by my friends, attorney and author, Jennifer Ruiz, and wellbeing culture change wizard, Yancy Wright, we get a taste of the cultural and culinary enchantment of Puerto Rico.

- Here, we have a nice pork chop and I have a tamarind demi-glace.

This is fried rabbit, Southern style, and chao fan.

- How'd you know?

(all laughing) - The Salmorejo, alcapurrias, capurrias is another dough food from the African heritage.

This one are open face.

Normally, alcapurrias tends to be like a tamale, - [Ernest] Okay.

- but, and then fried, but this one are open face and they are made with good vegetables, which are malanga and apio.

Apio is the family from the celery root.

But the one that we grow in the Caribbean tends to be more natural sweetness.

The celery root from the US, it's more like neutral.

So this one is more in the sweet side.

The crab salmorejo which is called (speaks in a foreign language) is nothing but a, very Loiza, very from the African part.

So it's nothing but real crab meat.

- Sure.

- Cooked with sofrito and coconut milk and coconut water.

- I love that you're bringing the three foundational cultures of Puerto Rico together in this table, right?

- And at the end of the day, we believe, I mean, it's the best representation, I mean, of our history.

- [Ernest] Sure.

- [Raul] We cannot forget where we come from.

- [Ernest] Absolutely.

- That's what we do also in the kitchen.

You know, everything in the kitchen is a very wood fire everything, which is very from the past.

- Absolutely, man.

Well, I would like to connect with this food.

So Raul, (speaks in a foreign language).

(Raul speaks in a foreign language) Ahum.

(Ernest laughs) - Where should we start?

(camera clicking) (bright music) I love these.

This is my favorite.

(upbeat music) - [Jennifer] My goodness.

Delicious.

- [Ernest] I love the presentation.

- Mm hmm.

I like that the plates are lemony.

I feel like they're happy plates.

(upbeat music) - To friendship, connection, and the enchantment of Puerto Rico.

- [All] Cheers.

- Salud.

Next, we head into the woods for a one-of-a-kind field trip.

(bright music) The US National Forest System has but one tropical rainforest, Puerto Rico's El Yunque.

Every year, tradewinds bring 160 billion gallons of water to this lush landscape, nourishing tropical plant life from tiny orchids to giant ferns.

There's also rare birds like the Puerto Rican parrot, and, of course, the island's unofficial mascot, the Coqui frog.

(whistles) You can hike, you can swim, but whatever you do, you better bring an umbrella because it is a rainforest after all.

And there's not a single day that goes by without you getting drenched.

(bright music) Yancy, El Yunque is such an important part of the ecosystem here on the islands, in the Caribbean, in the world.

Like, what's your take on how ecosystems are a part of the community just like we all are?

- The way I see it is that there is no separation between a human and between what we're experiencing here.

It's just that most humans have forgotten that we're part of this.

And so how community works here, out here, is that there is no waste.

- [Ernest] Sure.

- Everything is providing nutrient, sustenance for each other.

For example, like even these wild flowers, you can eat them.

They're actually an amazing immune booster.

It's called Bidens alba.

But these grow wild all over the place.

- Mm.

(Yancy laughs) (bell dings) - And they help support your immune system.

Like literally.

Whether it's the leaves or the flowers.

But what's beautiful is it's not asking you for money.

- No, it's not.

- It's just saying, "Hey, here I am."

Or even right here, this is a stinging nettle, like that's a natural, I mean, this plant is super powerful and potent, but it helps relax people without making them tired.

- You know what, Yancy, thank you for bringing us out here.

You know, it's not necessarily the first place I think when I come to Puerto Rico, is I want to go to a rainforest.

But there's so much to learn here, and I appreciate you being that guide.

(upbeat music) El Yunque sprawls over 28,000 acres, a beautiful primordial environment hearkening back to the days when the native Taino people etched petroglyphs into the rocks.

(upbeat music continues) The symphony of nature surrounding us inspires a certain (speaks in a foreign language).

Woo!

El Yunque.

And even a dance or too.

(bright upbeat music) When in Puerto Rico.

(bright upbeat music continues) (bell dings) In the nearby municipality of Rio Grande, in the island's northeast, Yancy takes us on a tour of his transformational retreat space, Casa Alternavida.

- [Yancy] Thanks for coming.

I'm excited to have you here.

- [Ernest] No doubt, man.

(laughs) - [Yancy] Come on in.

- [Ernest] Thank you.

- This is our second floor living room.

We have technically four floors.

But this space is unique in that it had been abandoned for about seven years.

- Wow.

- And had no windows, no doors, was just a structure.

And so we took it through a pretty significant transformation process.

And I went through a little bit of a transformation process.

- As you do when you're transforming spaces.

But this is an amazing space here.

- Thank you.

- So tell me, what's the story behind it?

What's the story behind the transformation?

- Hmm.

Well, really what we want to do is create a space that's unique for people to transform.

- Okay.

- For people to feel the safe space to explore personal growth stuff, for them to feel comfortable, you know, for if there's a deep conversation happening, that people can actually sit down and get some movement going, you know.

Like how often are you having a deep conversation, but you're stationary?

- You know, Puerto Rico, to me, is this mythic place, where there's all kinds of magic happening all the time.

And that's what I see transformation as, you know, a form of magic, a form of alchemy.

And you've had those kinds of experiences here as you talk about this being a transformative space, but also a transformative journey for yourself.

Why is that?

Why do you think that is here in this space, in this space and place particularly?

- I just notice a deep connection to the nature, the natural world.

And the longer I've been here, the more connected I feel to making a difference through creation, through creating and communing with nature.

In other words, this project was all about creating a space to connect people, when they're here, to themselves better, but then also to the natural world.

So every room, every space is designed like this where you have a lot of outdoor connectivity, where you can see the butterflies going by, you can see the dragonfly over there, the mangoes, the fresh mangoes out the trees.

There's a vibrance.

There's so much vitality here.

- [Ernest] Sure.

- And we don't have that in many other places in the world.

(bright music) - Along the northern coastline, near the town of Arecibo, is the Cueva del Indio, a limestone cavern etched by the pounding surf of the Caribbean Sea, and blessed with drawings from the indigenous Taino people.

And it's here where we get the chance to talk with Jennifer about what makes Puerto Rico so enchanting.

(bright upbeat music) (bell dings) So this is such a surreal, beautiful, like other worldly landscape.

It's like the moon right here on the water.

What made you think to bring us here?

- So I actually used to come here with my family when I was growing up.

I was born here on the island, but lived in Philadelphia.

And so I would come about once every two years or so during summer vacations.

And this was a favorite spot of ours, because it's so magical, because having grown up in the city, it really just reminds you that there's so much more.

And being able to see the cliffs and the water, it's just a really special place.

- It is, it is special.

I don't think I've ever seen such like turquoise blue water.

It's enchanting like so many other places in Puerto Rico.

Like what is enchanting to you about Puerto Rico?

- I think Puerto Rico is a really unique island.

It has so much history, so much culture.

And you can see that in a lot of other places, but there's a life here, a sort of energy that you feel when you get to the island, and that people have a nostalgia for.

There's actually a song called "En Mi Viejo San Juan," that talks about somebody that moved away from the island and just dreamt of constantly coming back.

So for me, that always resonated with me because the island felt like this magical place that held so many different secrets and wonders.

So I appreciate being here.

- Now, as someone who knows the place intimately, how are you still discovering La Isla del Encanto?

- Well, it always amazes me how much there is to see here on the island.

It's such a small place, but it's filled with so many different experiences and activities.

I've been exploring different caves like this one, there's more than 2,000 on the island, a lot of which are still undiscovered.

I've been going to hidden beaches, different swings.

So I've really been enjoying getting off the beaten path, staying outside of the Metro area, and finding these little gems that people didn't even know existed.

- Sure, sure.

You know, everybody needs a little magic in their lives.

- We provide that here in Puerto Rico.

- All right.

(speaks in a foreign language) - Vamos.

- Vamos.

(laughs) (bright upbeat music) (jaunty music) The Oceanside town of Loiza is a source of Puerto Rico's rich African heritage and culture reflected throughout the island but reinforced and regenerated here.

Mayor Julia Nazario takes us to one of her favorite places in town, Cueva Escondida.

What makes this place so special?

- [Mayor Julia] I like this place because I can listen the voice of the ocean.

That is wonderful for me.

I can be here hours, listen it.

- [Ernest] You know, we've been saying our entire time here that Puerto Rico is La Isla del Encanto, the isle of enchantment.

What does that mean to you?

- [Mayor Julia] Puerto Rico is La Isla del Encanto and Loiza is the treasure of Puerto Rico.

(laughs) - [Ernest] It's the treasure.

Yes, it is very special.

With all of the culture, all of the history, and the living history, the living kind of continuous power that this place has, you know, as it vibrates, not only through the island, but throughout the world, with Puerto Rican music, and Puerto Rican kind of that magic, it starts here, huh?

- Yes, start here.

In Loiza, our population, our Black peoples that are very (speaks in a foreign language).

- [Ernest] Proud.

- [Mayor Julia] Being proud of the African heritage.

- [Ernest] Sure, sure.

And that's amazing.

We're here to see some vibranium.

(laughs) All right.

Thank you.

(bright music) Just a half hour drive east of San Juan, with beaches running along the northern edge of town, Loiza is known for its food, art, music, and dance that stem directly from the traditions of Puerto Rico's African and indigenous population through the centuries.

And it is on the beach in Loiza where we learn about the Afro Puerto Rican music and dance style called Bomba.

(lively percussion music) Catalyzed by cadences carried over the ocean by enslaved Africans starting in the 1500s, Bomba encompasses various rhythms and movements reflecting the enduring creativity and spirit of a people.

(lively percussion music) And educator Sheila Osorio instructs all seekers of connection and creation in the ways of the drum.

(lively percussion music) (lively percussion music continues) - Sheila, thank you so much for creating the opportunity for me to join in the circle, to honor the drums, and to really just be a part of the magic.

(speaking in a foreign language) (Sheila speaking in a foreign language) (Ernest laughing) (lively percussion music) - [Ernest] Bomba.

Espiritu.

Alma.

Encanto.

In Puerto Rico, the enchantment never ends.

(lively percussion music) - [Announcer] Major funding for this program is provided by.

- [Mayor Baraka] This is Mayor Ras J. Baraka.

Welcome to Newark.

(bright music) We are Newark, one family.

Brick City.

- [Announcer] Courageous Conversation Global Foundation, promoting racial justice, interracial understanding, and human healing.

Additional funding provided by the following.

To join the "Fly Brother" Travel Community, or to order your own copy of this episode, visit FlyBrother.com.

(bright violin music)