Amy Toensing

National Geographic: Puerto Rico

A woman flaunts the colors of the Puerto Rican flag in her parade costume during Carnival celebrations in Ponce on the southern coast of the island.
   
A woman sways to bomba music at El Ambbique bar in Loiza. The heavily percussive music originated more than two centuries ago with enslaved Africans brought to Puerto Rico to work the sugar plantations.
   
Jose Victor Colon is one of the recent home owners in the federally subsidized Portal de la Reina development n Santa Isabel. Such housing, affordable and close to the interstate, is drawing young families away from Puerto Rico's small towns.
     
  
Small mountain towns like Adjuntas, where kids can wonder the main square after school and on weekends, are depopulating as the younger generation moves to the larger cities like San Juan in search of work and the urban lifestyle.
   
Little girls' dresses hang on a laundry line on a porch in Utuado.
   
Women watch a polo match at a ranch outside of San Juan polo. Most Puerto Ricans live a far less lavish lifestyle; per capita income is less than $9,000.
     
  
About four million people crowd the 100-mile-long island, one of the most densely populated places in the world.
   
Strolling alone at dusk isn't risky, really, just relaxing. "There's very little crime here," says a local lawyer. "Adjuntas is too small. Everyone knows each other here."
   
Locals hang out at the El Andino bar November 17, 2000 in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.
     
  
On a warm Friday night in the highlands of Puerto Rico, the songs and laughter flow as easily as the beer at the El Andino bar in Adjuntas, Puerto Rico.
   
A family preps a chicken for the pot outside their mountain home in Adjuntas, a mountain town near the center of the island.
   
A heroin addict shoots up in a crack house on November 14, 2001 in the La Perla neighborhood in Old San Juan Puerto Rico. The owners of this crack house pay the police to stay away so heroin addicts can use drugs without worrying about being arrested.
     
  
Heroin addicts help each other shoot up in a crack house in Loiza Aldea. The owners of this crack house pay the police to stay away so addicts can use drugs without worrying about being arrested. Admittance is one dollar.
   
The moon and streetlights illuminate a beach outside of San Juan.
   
A personal sound track of guitar, maracas, and waves accompanies the evening in Aguadilla, at Puerto Rico's northwestern edge. From drum-and-guitar jibaro folk songs to invigorating salsa rhythms to the classical cello of Pablo Casals, music is everywhere on the island.
     
  
Mother and daughter embrace in the surf outside San Juan. The beaches are popular weekend destinations for Puerto Rican families.
   
Sisters keep cool in a yard pool in their front yard outside San Juan.
   
A young man and his Paso Fino horse cool in the waters off Aguadilla, on the western coast of, Puerto Rico.