Believe it or not, this blog has never paid a visit to the 51st U.S. state known as Puerto Rico. And I’ve been writing about one-of-a-kind attractions for five years – my sincerest apologies! I guess this next place just slipped my notice.
In the mountains of central Puerto Rico is a museum shaped like the contents displayed inside, which we’ve seen before (Ukraine’s Pysanka Museum comes to mind). According to the native Taíno religion, zemí (cemí) is a god, spirit or ancestor that are physically represented as sculptural objects. Known as “amuletic zemís”, which are usually depicted as a three-point stone with one side of the stone having a human or animal head with the opposite side having hunched legs or “frog’s legs”. The Cemi Museum, which opened in 1989, preserves artifacts related to Taíno culture with a small display of cemis and pieces of pottery and tools as well as a carved, pointed wooden tongue depressor that was used in ritual vomiting ceremonies. There is also a mural with examples of the petroglyphs created by the Taíno people.
