This post is mostly photos. I stayed in San Juan over the weekend to visit the Island’s first hackathon to get a sense of what life is like down there.
Tech Summit PR
Imagine a beautiful island…
... and a huge tech event! Awesome combination :)  The Puerto Rico Convention Center was host to TechSummitPR, and alongside that event was the hackathon. You can see below beyond the guy standing in a suit are some folks sitting down. In fact, you can watch the trailer for the documentary to see the great energy in the place. There were over 200 hackers, most of them male. I counted about 5 female hackers including yours truly. Most of the people I talked to were either PHP or Python developers. Onto the fun stuff, my outfit! I wore a summery maxi dress with flip flops because it was so hot (mid to upper 80's) and humid. My hair seems to like the heat and humidity (thank goodness!). Pinned back my bangs for distraction free coding. I, along with a colleague, made a python and javascript web application that turns spreadsheet data from the government (education statistics) and produced an interactive report interface.
The t-shirt you see below is from the local company ICOMM, who graciously hired me to help promote their brand in exchange for helping pay some of the airfare. Overall, I was quite impressed with the showing of company booths at the event. The entire floor was covered with booths. Each booth were quite lavish compared to academic and open source conferences. In fact, I was sitting on some classy ottomans for my photo and the green matched my dress! _
These items produce an effect like so:
 There are many great places with free wi-fi and outlets to hang out and co-work in San Juan. My preference is at the PR Tea Co., however there are many adorable in Old San Juan coffee shops such as The Poet's Passage and Café Cuatro Sombras.
And for food? Not even 5 minute walk and you can get a hearty meal at Cafe Manolin. If you want something fancier, you could eat at Verde Mesa, Waffle Era Tea Room, or La Madre. There are also numerous bakeries and fro-yo places if you have a sweet tooth. Everywhere were examples of great design, including inside the bar La Taberna Lúpulo! It is a wonderfully charming place to spend your days. Be sure to bring mosquito repellent.    