Puerto Rico Auto Transport

Oh, the beautiful beaches and wondrous atmosphere that is Puerto Rico. From its awe-inspiring sunsets to its many secluded beaches (hint, hint), you're going to love transporting your car to this wonderful island, filled with friendly people, good food, a wonderful night-life, and its many different flora and fauna will keep you up all night watching them sway in the warm Puerto Rican breeze. And don't forget the booze.

Before we begin on our adventure into what makes Puerto Rico really shine, let's depart on a small trench, if you will. Puerto Rico is very, very close to the deepest sub-marine depression in the entire North Atlantic. It's called the Puerto Rico Trench, and it runs roughly parallel to the island's northern coast and is about 75 miles off-shore. The trench is over 1,000 miles long and almost 60 miles wide, and the deepest point in the entire Atlantic Ocean, the Milwaukee Depth, lies inside the trench, reaching a mssive 27,493 ft!

Did you know that the Mona and Monito islands are located between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic (it's neighbor)? They are considered a national reserve by the Puerto Rican government, mainly due to its biologically diverse habitat. The islands are a critical habitat for many different animals, including endangered marine turtles, sea birds and some migratory birds as well. And now, off to the island itself on this little virtual, textual tour of Puerto Rico.

According to Ethnologue, a respected language journal, Spanish is the second language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese but ahead of English. Interesting to know that English is only third in the list of most important languages. See what you'll learn, just by taking this tour? Spanish itself is spoken by over 400 million people worldwide, but primarily in Spain (of course) and Latin America. It's the official language in 24 countries, and with over 323 million native speakers worldwide, Puerto Rico accounts for almost 4 million of them.

With these many diverse cultures speaking some form of Spanish, it's only natural to have different dialects around the world. When you visit Puerto Rico (for real), you'll notice a peculiar dialect being spoken. This is mainly due to the fact that the Puerto Rican people have incorporated thousands of native Taino words, adopted some pronunciation habits from different African dialects, and of course from the English influence on the island. Despite all these differences, however, most Puerto Ricans can communicate with other Spanish-speaking people with little trouble.

What's also interesting, now that I have your attention, is that when Puerto Rico was first occupied by the United States after the Spanish-American War, English was taught primarily in schools until the 1930's. The reason for this is that the United States, when it was still considering Puerto Rico for statehood, wanted to make things pretty uniform throughout the states. They wanted the children of Puerto Rico to be "stand-up American citizens" (which they are anyway) of American culture. However, there was strong resentment and rebellion against this, and in the early 1930's the United States decided to stop forcing English in public shools, and in 1991 a bill was passed that made Spanish the official language of Puerto Rico.

What's truly unique about Puerto Rico is that fact that there is so much stuff to see and do, and for such a tiny island you really get your money's worth! Gi investigate ancient indian ceremonial parks, or compare the two oldest Spanish Colonial churches, take a walk through its lush jungles, or you could go see the largest and most complez castle-like forts built in the New World. Or, you could just chill at your hotel, drink a beer and watch the people go about their lives, eat a glorious, native meal and settle down for a beautiful Puerto Rican sunset. It's your choice, and you don't have to choose wisely; you can do whatever you want.

One of the truly interesting things about Puerto Rico is that a lot of people don't even want to be there. Immigration to the United States from the province is even today very heavy, and the U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are more people of Puerto Rican descent living in the United States than actually live in Puerto Rico itself. But what makes them want to leave so bad? It's so beautiful there, with so much to see and do that it's hard to imagine leaving at all. Well, because so many people live there, things have gotten very crowded. The population density for the territory averages 1,000 people per square mile...that's more packed than Lambeau Field during the Superbowl!

Puerto Rico, today, is one of the tourist hot-spots, alongside Hawaii and the Virgin Islands, and is also a leading pharmaceutical and manufacturing center. However, despite all these huge draws to the territory, it's still having a hard time defining its true political status. Many people are for the incorporation of Puerto Rico into the United States as the 51st state, but still others are against it, opting instead for Commonwealth status. It's political makeup is divided along party lines, with almost half of the territory's denizens wishing for statehood, and the other almost-half opting instead to remain a Commonwealth. There is a third party, however, although like the United States it does not garner much support, only 3-5% of the votes for each national election. Puerto Rico is classified by the United States governent as an independent taxation authority, for all you economists and money-lovers on our tour today. While many people outside of the territory believe that they do not have to pay federal taxes, that is not the case. They do pay takes, most import/export takes, commodity takes, social security taxes...you get the idea. They pay what we pay, for the most part. While residents of Puerto Rico do not pay the federal income tax, they do pay Puerto Rican income taxes, and they also pay payroll taxes (things like Medicare and Social Security). Also, because they pay into Social Security, Puerto Rican citizens are eligible for Social Security benefits once they retire, but are excluded from the Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and the island actually recieves less than 15% of the Medicaid funding it would normally recieve if it were a U.S. state. Also, because Puerto Ricans are techincally U.S. citizens, they can fight in the ! U.S. military and are subject to the same rules and regulations once they enlist. In fact, Puerto Ricans have fought alongside their northern brothers in all U.S. wars since 1898, most notably WWII, Korea, Vietnam and Gulf Wars I and II.

For the rest of you who really don't care about tax codes and the like, here's some of the things that Puerto Rico is known for: It's greatest economic contribute was its sugar, really up until the 1940's. When the 40's came around, sugar was left in the field after "Operation Bootstrap," which encouraged the growth of an industrial sector by offering tax exemptions if you were to establish a factory in Puerto Rico. This shift has brought a lot of good to the country, however, supplying it with many jobs and exportable goods, making Puerto Rico one of the high income countries as classified by the World Bank. It's still subject to United States trade laws and restrictions, but even with these its economic conditions have flourished after the Great Depression. It's high gains in petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, and technology have made Puerto Rico climb the ranks from the "special" country in the eyes of the IRS and into the limelight as one of the industry leaders. It has to actually fight with more economically-depressed parts of the globe, where wage laws are not set and has even seen some of its U.! S. factories go that way, mainly to Asia and Latin America.

But even with all this economic success due to manufacturing, Puerto Rico has not turned its back on the people of other countries. Tourism is still huge, grossing almost $1.8 billion, and in 1999 almost 5 million people visited Puerto Rico, while nearly 1/3 of these are people who are just cruising the Carribbean. It's per capita GDP (gross domestic product) was estimated at a little over $19,000 in 2006, which is a huge jump from $14,500 just four years previous. Despite all this, it's still lower than the poorest of the U.S. states.

Even with all this information at your fingertips, it's just a fraction of what you can experience in Puerto Rico. When you decide to ship your car there, just remember that Magic Carpet Auto Transport is one of the few who can do it the fastest, the safest, and the cheapest. When you go to Puerto Rico, you want to enjoy your time, not waste it in some frivolous dispute with an auto transport company. That's why we're the best; we're reliable and we make sure that your car will arrive on time and in one piece.