Swimming and Diving team blogs from Puerto Rico

Written by Kansas senior captain Sarah Hettenbach

Senior captain Sarah Hettenbach describes her teammates' experiences during their first two days in Puerto Rico

Jan. 4, 2012

Mayaguez, Puerto Rico -

The Kansas Jayhawk swimming and diving team is currently on their eight day training trip to Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. Every two days, a senior swimmer will blog about their experience in the Spanish speaking territory.

Blog #1 (Tues. Jan. 3 -- Wed. Jan. 4)

"Hóla from sunny Puerto Rico!! We landed yesterday (Tuesday) in San Juan and made our way via bus to our home base for the trip, Rincon. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by lots of palm trees and smiling faces at our hotel, which is literally right on the beach. Before our trip, we had been warned by our coach, Clark Campbell about the possibility of iguanas of varying sizes, so after hitting an enormous pothole while on the bus, (senior) Kath Liggett said, 'Did we just hit an iguana?!' which made everyone on the team laugh.

This morning (Wednesday), after eating breakfast we headed to the pool in Mayaguez, about 20 minutes away. The bus ride to and from the pool was unique to say the least! Besides seeing a lot of jungle-like scenery, we also saw some roadside salesmanship. The best product were the blue jeans that were for sale on the side of the road, but that would definitely not allow much time to try on your purchase! The pool was very nice and had both a short course and long course one as well as a full tower for the divers to practice on. It is great being able to train outside in the sun and fresh air even in the middle of January!

After practice we headed back to Rincon, grabbed some lunch at the hotel and headed out to get some more sun on the beach. (I have a feeling that we will be some of the most tan people on campus when classes start back up!) A few of us played 'beach baseball', using some driftwood as a bat and a coconut as the ball. Another group of people rented the banana boat and rode around on it for a while, only falling off a few times! And of course lots of pictures were taken, including one with an 1988 KU alumni! It seems you truly can find a Jayhawk anywhere you go. Thinking back during my previous training trips, I don’t think there has been one where we haven’t run across someone that graduated from KU, who greeted us with a Rock Chalk!

So far, it has been a great start to our trip, with more adventures still to come. Be sure to check back with kuthletics.com for more blog entries from my fellow seniors!"

The Kansas swimming & diving team is training at the RUM Natatorium in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.