Day 11:

Day 11:

Today started as normal with coffee and a visit from Charlie. We talked a little about the banana plantation and the future projects. His plan is to turn the rentals into more of an ECO tour spot. I will admit, bird watchers, hikers, mountain bikers and greenies would love it here. 

He asked if i wanted to tour the edge of the property to check for damage from the heavy rains the night before. The back part of the property( 1600 acres) is full of bananas and thick jungle. Charlie built what he called an escape route. He built a back exit from the property in case of disaster.  

It turned into a four wheeling nightmare. There were trees were down and landslides everywhere. We were able to drive over several trees but then we had to cut down a tree. Yes, cut down a tree in the jungle. I asked Charlie, if he had a chainsaw. He said, No! "

"I have a 

M A C H E T E!!!

And he pulled the biggest knife I have ever seen from the back seat of his truck. He stood in front of me holding the machete. All I could think about was the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. 

Crap, that was a big knife!!!!

He hacked at the tree until it fell apart and we pulled it off the road and away we went. 

I didn't mention that Charlie looked like a serial killer, did I ?

I made it back to the cabin safely. 

We then rounded up the kids and headed for the beach. Today was going to be a day without pressure! No talking about the house, no talking about anything that would cause stress. 

The beach was amazing. I am so proud of everyone. We all swam in the ocean for hours watching thousands of different kinds of fish. At one point I had followed a school of small bright blue fish to about 500 feet off shore. I looked up to see who was next to me and my family was back on the beach. I was alone in the big blue. While swimming I couldn't shake the thought of barracuda and sharks. I dont know? it could have had something to do with the video playing at the dive shop? And just then huge fish swam up to me. This fish was as big as a king Salmon. It surprised me and scared the day lights out of me. I thought it was a shark. My snorkel filled with water and panic set in. It wasn't good. I started to relax after I figured out that it was a small grouper or very large rock bass?

After that I stayed closer to the beach. 

We then gathered our skin diving stuff and headed back home just as the heavy rains and lightning started. When it rains in Puerto Rico, IT RAINS!!!!

We drove around for over an hour trying to find that Mexican restaurant from day four. We couldn't find it. That's right we put faith in the GPS again. When will I learn? We eventually found a different Mexican restaurant and had a very good dinner in Rincon. 

It was a good day. A few heart dropping moments including hitting a pot hole and water spraying up everywhere. It blocked all visibility covering the entire car with mud and water. It happened so fast. I didn't have time to turn on the wipers. i ended up facing on coming traffic nearly crashing into an on coming car. 

By the way, a pot hole here is sometimes as big as a car. 

Overall it was another great day !