Puerto Rico - Puerto Rico is where four centuries of Spanish Caribbean culture comes face to face with the American convenience store. This leads to some strange juxtapositions - parking lots and plazas, freeways and fountains, skyscrapers and shanties - but it's all apiece with the Caribbean's hybrid history.

Travellers who venture into the island's mountainous interior or explore its undeveloped coasts come across stately hill towns where the locals in the plaza seem to have been feeding the same pigeons for decades, and reefs where divers can see 30 species of fish in as many seconds.

Add to this a spirited capital that blends mod cons with unabashed beach bumming and a perplexing culture that is proud of its past yet unable to seize its independence and you have the ingredients for an intriguing adventure.