Shopping for Chili's

Shopping:

 

The weekends, it’s what we all live for right? Some of us stay home and enjoy the quiet and some of us fill every second with crazy things. I like to think we are in the second group. Yes, the crazy group.

 

Our weekend started with driving to Bayamon. We went to a mega box store called Cost Co. The purpose was to buy tires for my car. I am not sure why, but my car has tires that are very difficult to find in PR. This store was the only place that had the tires in Puerto Rico. It was a good day for a drive so off we went.

 

If you look on a map Bayamon is about three inches away from Mayaguez. So it should not have taken us three hours to get there. But the stop lights, traffic and curvy roads turn a quick three inch trip into a really long day trip. Plus we are still in the honeymoon stage or happy exploring stage so it’s still fun to drive and see all the crazy things you see here.

 

The drive was uneventful and we arrived at around12:00. They installed our tires and after buying a few other items we really did not need we were off. I actually saw someone in the checkout line buying a pallet of toilet paper and two full carts of canned Chili with beans.

 

I’ll bet you were trying to think of something funny to say also, huh? The only thing I could come up with was, “I hope that is enough toilet paper?” I didn’t say that out loud at least I hope I didn’t. Sometimes my words just spill out. I even surprise myself. 

 

We stopped for dinner at Chili’s in Barceloneta. Barceloneta is a coastal town on the northwest side of Puerto Rico. In its early days it was known for sugar cane and pineapple farming. It is also an old shipping port. Today it is known for its Pharmaceutical factories and outlet stores. Yep, outlet stores!  Guess where we went? Wait; guess where my lovely bride went. Liam and I wondered aimlessly around for hours kicking rocks. I really don’t think boys like to shop. I’ll bet there is research on this?

 

Anyway we left and made it home by six and decide we would go to the Mayaguez flea market at night. I know, shopping again and at night! What was I thinking? I must be crazy! The parking lot at the flea market was crowded but once inside it was virtually empty. I’m not sure where all those drivers went? It was weird. We only stayed a few minutes and left.

 

We continued our shopping adventure and went to Baskin Robbins. Did I mention that no one should ever order from a drive through in Puerto Rico? It’s true! Don’t do it. They always get it wrong and it has nothing to do with the language barrier. I think they sit in the back and deliberately do this so they will have something to laugh about later. We ended up stuck in that parking lot for over thirty minutes because of an impromptu Puerto Rican classic car show. These classic cars were everywhere with the loudest radios on the planet. All the hoods were open. The engines were bright and shiny and revving loud too. All the girls were in Bikinis. Ok, that last part wasn’t true.  We escaped without having to show off our car and made it home by10:00 and this was only Friday.

Our day in Maricao

Random

Random Horse

Is it worth watching?

I saw a commercial for a car company a few years back that started off with, Someday your life will flash before your eyes. Make it worth watching! It really makes you stop and think, doesn’t it? Maybe that’s what started this crazy journey? I feel sorry for my lovely bride at times. She could have had a normal quiet life in the mid-west of the US. Instead she married a knucklehead who wants to live everywhere in the world. She really has put up with a lot form me. I blame that commercial every chance I get. We have lived in Arizona, Washington DC, Wisconsin, Alaska and now Puerto Rico. It’s hard to believe we have held hands for over twenty years. She really is my best friend and my soul mate. I love her more than she will ever know.

Puerto Rico has become an incredible experience and a wonderful home. We have met wonderful people in every city we go and in every place we stop. On Sunday, we met two fantastic people in La Paraguara. They also moved to Puerto Rico to experience a different life. One of them told me that life is too short not to experience as much as you can, “You only get one shot!” That must have echoed in my head for several minutes. I wonder if he saw the same commercial.

La Paraguara is a unique seaside town on the south west side of Puerto Rico. The ocean is calm and the beaches are covered with immense mangrove forests. The town overlooks over thirty small islands with beautiful white sand beaches. As you drive over the hill into La Paraguara you find yourself in awe of the view. It is breathtaking. This town also offers tours to several small islands and trips to two separate Bio luminescent bays. Of course it has the normal tourist trap stores, bars and restaurants. It is far less commercial than other towns. The University of Puerto Rico has a research facility on one of those small islands. It would be a great place to live. The climate is very different. It is a lot less humid and more like a desert. It is one of my favorite towns so far.

Now back to that commercial. It has really caused a lot of thought provoking discussions in our house. I don’t even know what type of car it advertises. It doesn’t really matter. We always end up with this. Memories are all we really have. The money, houses, cars and other unbelievable items we continue to carry throughout our lives somehow fade. In the end, memories of family and friends are what we treasure most. Of course, I like the sights, museums and monuments but I always start off with, remember when we went to? Think about it. Most of your most memorable trips are because of the people that went with you or the people you met.

I will remember La Paraguara because of the two people we met there. They were both very positive and fun. They shared their adventure and stories. They welcomed us into their town and even had dinner with us. It is not coincidental that our thoughts of the town match how we feel about them.

Ex-Con

The Ex-con:

Well another weekend in paradise has passed. At least this is what we keep telling ourselves. The normal frustrations still occur but I think we are finally letting the craziness go by the wayside. Life in the Caribbean is truly incredible. We try every weekend to fill every moment with something fun and interesting for the kids. This weekend included a trip to Ponce, La Guancha, and La Parguara. We saw Japanese gardens, the Don Q mansion, a haunted house filled with scary creatures. We even saw some unbelievably big fish and crazy Pelicans with attitude.  Yes, those pelicans had more attitude than my kids. We also squeezed in a day of windsurfing.

On Friday, Jenn and I looked at a penthouse condo on a mountain top in La Paraguara. It has a beautiful 180 degree view of the southern Caribbean Sea. This condo is on the sixth floor of a building built into the side of a mountain. The building is not free standing and was designed to be part of the mountain.  It’s a little small but for the right price we can down size to have that view. After living on the ocean in Alaska we were very spoiled by the view we had. Besides the housing market here is still in the toilet here. So the price should be extremely negotiable? We plan on going back to see it again this weekend to discuss the possibility of changing the floor plan. If it works out we may be living in a new home very soon.

On Saturday, we started our normal weekend adventure a little late. This time it wasn’t as easy to wake the kids and get them moving. Surprised? I was. I will agree it was a long tiring week. But we were able to leave the house by 10:00. We headed east on highway 2 to La Guancha. La Guancha is a seaside port where the fish swim up to the docks and shore line. These are not normal fish. They are the size of dolphins. They look like large carp and are called, Sabalos. They are a protected fish and are hand fed from the docks. The Pelicans are all over the place and are fighting for their share of the food. I think they are a little jealous and that might be why they have so much aggressiveness/attitude? The Pelicans can stare you down like an ex-con. It’s a bit intimidating. We left after being run off by a few angry pelicans.

By now my hostages (My Lovely Bride, Maddie and Liam) were also hungry. I know, right? They stared me down like a pelican. I was instructed by Maddie to find a PF Chang’s Chinese restaurant. I was surprised that Jenn also wanted the same restaurant. Usually we all end up in some lengthy debate.  After driving all over Ponce I found the restaurant and we had a wonderful meal. After lunch my hostages were eager for the next leg of our weekend adventure.

We drove up to the DON Q Rum Mansion. I know what you’re thinking driving, alcohol, kids, and a mansion. This has the makings of a realty show. Ok, I thought that too. But the mansion was donated to the City of Ponce many years ago. The city gives tours and holds events in the mansion. It looks like a castle you would see on the Spanish Riviera. It is used as a haunted house for three weeks before Halloween. We have been to several haunted houses, but we have never seen anything like this. The line to enter was over two hours long but I will admit it was worth it. It was by far one of the scariest haunted houses we have ever been too.  I knew the Screams or Boooo’s would be in Spanish. So I was convinced they would not be able to scare us because we don’t fully understand Spanish yet. But I was so wrong. The Spanish screams and Boooo’s were scarier. We had a wonderful day in Ponce and La Guancha except for the ex-con part.

The next day we spent trying to use our yard sale find. We bought a windsurfer and a kayak for $75.00 each. Yes, I know that’s a pretty darn good deal. We drove to the closet beach and jumped right in. I was surprised Liam got right up and took off sailing. That boy has water skills. Then the wind changed and we couldn’t sail the board back. It wasn’t much fun walking along the beach all the way back to the car carrying a heavy windsurfer. But Liam carried it back like a champ. Someone had to supervise and provide encouragement, right? He stared at me like a pelican all the way back to the car.

The cave

The morning started out slow. I didn’t tell the kids what the plans were for the day. We always try to do something fun and different every weekend. I woke the kids and said today’s adventure is a surprise and to just go with it. No complaining.

That works, right? Telling kids not to complain?

We were up and out by 8:00 am. I was surprised too. But I really think my kids really like these weekend adventures. Or maybe the hang time with Dad? Or maybe they like telling their friends they actually did something over the weekend?

We drove down to Cabo Rojo, PR and meet some friends. They had invited us to go hiking with them. I had a long list of items to gather before we left. The kids did not understand why they needed long sleeves and jeans to go hiking in 100 degree weather. I kept saying just go with the flow. But I will admit it was way too hot for that type of clothing. In the back of her mind she must have thought her dad was crazy. We arrived and geared up with helmets, lights and knee pads. This is where she probably thought we all were nuts. I ended up having to tell the kids the plans as I knew they would not carry that gear over a mile to the cavern.

Our friends explained the adventure and warned us of what to expect. They said we will see bats, rats, roaches and crazy looking underground bugs. They said we will see formations that are over 10,000 years old. We might even see a snake or two. Ok, I will admit I almost backed out. They continued with, we will have to crawl on our stomachs through mud and guano (Bat Poop) for great distances. We will have to squeeze through small openings. It will be hard to breathe at times. But you will see things you have never seen before.

Sounds like fun, right? At this point my 17 year old daughter should have been running back to the car. She just smiled and rolled her eyes.  

We hiked for about a half hour and had to climb over an eight foot fence. We found the entrance and my kids came alive. They were ready to see the underground world. Plus the thought of, “it might be cooler in there!” was echoing in their heads. We geared up and crawled into the darkness.

We followed as many of the passages as we could. We crawled just like they said we would. The bats flew all around us making all kinds of horror movie type sounds. We saw a bug called a scorpion spider. I think these were scarier than the bats. It was almost as big as my hand.

As we hiked through the cavern we became increasing thirsty. Yes, that’s it. We did not bring enough water. We drank most of it before we even reached the cavern. This was the one precious item I should have doubled up on. It was 100 degrees and we were wearing jeans and long sleeves with back packs, helmets and knee pads. The cave was 81 degrees so we really didn’t notice it until sat down for a break. Thank goodness our friends were well prepared. They filled our jugs and keep us going.

We explored the entire cave and even found the spot that the pirate Roberto Cofresi hid his treasure. We left the cave and went swimming in the ocean. We had to get the Guana off, right?

It was another fantastic Guana filled weekend in Puerto Rico.

Avocados.

The Gold Covered Avocado:

I have never been more surprised than I have been this past weekend.

The day started with an 18 wheeler stopping in the left lane of the highway. Yes, this happened on the highway. This driver stopped on the FREAKING Highway and walked across to the other side of the highway to buy one AVOCADO!!!! ONE AVOCADO!!!! By the way, avocados only cost about a dollar. Sometimes you can get several for that price. So, these were not gold covered avocados or limited edition avocados. There was no need to endanger every one’s life for these avocados. Of course he also had to have the ten minute conversation about politics, relatives, dinner or whatever. I’m sure his conversation was super important too. The screeching to a stop or the honking cars didn’t seem to bother them. This truck ended up blocking both east and west bound traffic. He brought all traffic to a dead stop for over ten minutes. I really don’t get it. I have been told not to be too surprised by this. This is a fairly normal occurrence.

Then at the Plaza, a nice older lady decided to allow her friend to exit the vehicle from the middle of the road. Yes, it happened to me twice today. This entire scene appeared to be in slow motion. There were parked cars on both sides of the road. This sweet little old lady tried her very best to get out of the car. She waddled very slowly over to the curb and went into the Farmicia. She quickly waddled back out of the farmacia frantically waving her arms. I guess she forgot her phone. Ok, I can handle that. She then slowly waddled back to the curb and turned again and waddled back to the car in the middle of the street. Again the tis entire scene appeared to be in slow motion. She must have forgotten something else? Ok, my patience was wearing thin. The cars behind me started honking. She was actually running this time screaming and waving her arms. It was nice to see her move faster but everything still appeared to be in slow motion. She forgot her purse this time. The traffic continued to back up. The honking did not seem to bother anyone except me. She continued to get her purse and then proceeded to have that ten minute conversation about politics, relatives, dinner or whatever in the middle of the road. After about ten minutes a parking space opened up and they moved over. I was so amazed by their lack of concern. I have been told not to be too surprised by this. This is a fairly normal occurrence.

I really thought nothing else could frustrate me today. I was wrong. It started raining on my way home. The wipers were in turbo mode. Lighting was dancing around everywhere. It was actually beautiful. I could actually see a rainbow in the far off distance. Then the power went out and then the stop lights went out.

In a normal place everyone would slow down and be more cautious, not here. I have 23 stop lights on my way home. I had made it through about 10 of them. The next 13 lights I knew were going to be fun. Each intersection from that point on had some form of accident. One was really bad. And believe it or not, during this storm someone tried to cross the highway with a bunch of horses. If you can, try to imagine this: Cars traveling at 60+ mph, horses everywhere, no street lights, no stop lights and rain coming down so heavy that you can barely see out the window even with turbo wipers. It was a horrible scene.

Yes, I made it home. I am not sure about the horses or the knucklehead that was leading the horses. But I was glad to walk in my front door that night.

I really wish they would sell Mojitos or Margaritas at the street corners instead of gold covered avocados.