We have been having fun traversing the jungles on trails by foot and car, collecting fruit and checking out all the crazy animals and plants. We took a walk/hike with Awilda to see one half of the property today. We have also been going to the beach. We went to Rincon and watched the sunset yesterday and had dinner, then we went to Cabo Rojo today, swam and ate dinner at a restaurant right on the water. We were also attacked by mosquitos! I think I slapped like 10 in about 2 minutes! I have never seen so many mosquitos. In most places in Puerto Rico I have never really even seen a mosquito at all. But it was a very beautiful day. We are having a lot of fun, and it is nice to fall asleep to the coquis and wake up to the birds (and a rooster far down the road).
Here is a video of us on the back road to the property:
We arrived here without really any delays or problems. Our flights were on time and we arrived in San Juan around 8pm on Wednesday evening. We sat next to a nice man on the plane named Dios Dado who invited us to visit him in Vega Baja sometime during our stay. We got our rental car after the car saleman dude tried to talk us into $10 a/day more for liability insurance. We called our insurance agent and three of our friends who work in insurance while were waiting in the lobby to finally find out that no, we didn’t need it. So thanks everyone who saved us $150!
We then got lost and wound up in Guaynabo City when we were trying to get on the 2 or the 22 to get out of the Metro area. Finally we did and drove to Arecibo where we stayed at The Villa Real Hotel and arrived there at about midnight Puerto Rico time, which is 3 hours later than Colorado. We basically had the choice of sleeping in our car or in that hotel. I am not sure which would have been better! The hotel was cheap, but awful. The sheets were gross, the floors sticky and the shower had NO hot water. But we were tired and we fell asleep pretty easily even though it was really noisy outside.
Avoid this Hotel!
The next morning we drove to Lares and proceeded to get very lost. Lost in the jungle, for sure. At least it was daytime though. Even though Cassie had been there before, she couldn’t remember how to get there and we kept losing cell reception with Awilda who was trying to talk us through it. Finally after going around in circles and nearly winding up in Las Marias, we arrived at the property.
The Lares Property from above
There are a lot of flowers and plants. Here is a coffee (cafe robustica) plant that is in bloom. They smell really really nice!
There are a lot of poor people that live in the mountains around the property. They seem to be happy and definitely aren’t freezing or starving. They just dont have new clothes and some people dont have teeth. The property is very beauitful and there is a lot of food just spilling off the trees and onto the ground. Most people in here have satelliteTV for entertainment. The small guest house is nice. I think they did a lot of cleanup before we got there (sweeping, grass cutting and wiping things down). The water in the shower is a lot warmer than at the hotel we stayed at. Cassie didn’t scream this time when she got in the water.
Crossing the suspension bridge to the property
Today we went for a drive to San Sebastion and Rincon. So far this is the first chance we’ve had at getting online. We are at the Surfs Up coffee shop in Rincon. We stopped at the beach for a while. We may look at some properties near the beach while we are here too. It took a little less than an hour to get to a beach, but when we got there we realized we would like to spend a lot of time there. The title still hasn’t gone thru on the property we are looking at so we still have an option of buying something else if we prefer. Not sure at this point.
Our black chicken has been acting weird lately. She has tucked her tail feathers down and won’t walk very much. We noticed she had kind of a poopy butt. She is totally complacent and doesn’t run at all when we get close. She has always been friendlier than the white one, but not that friendly. So, we looked it up on the internet and it says she could be “egg bound” meaning that she can’t get an egg out of her duct. It could either be too soft and the muscles aren’t working to push it out, or it could be too big and hard and just won’t fit. We are not sure, but we felt her stomach (from the outside) and it feels like there could be an egg in there.
The calm chicken in the tub
Some of the articles say to lube up and stick a finger or two up her and help push the egg out, but, um, no we are not that desperate. Another article said to give her a warm bath. That we could do. We put her in the bathtub and filled the water about half-way. She didn’t flap or anything, like I said she was completely complacent. We had to get over to Britton’s parent’s house for his birthday, so we left her there for about an hour. I was worried she might drown (poultry are not known for their smarts, like turkeys that can drown looking at the rain). But when we came back, she was fine. Somehow, she must have kicked out the plug though because all the water was drained. Still no egg.
Since it has been snowing and is really cold again at night (low teens), we didn’t want to put her out there all wet, so we gave her a nice primping with the towel and then blow-dried her! Does anyone know what else we could do? Should we stick a finger up there? Would it even help? Some articles said that could cause the egg to break and the shards could rupture her insides! Yuck. So, again, no.
Blow drying the chicken
Well, we hope she’ll be ok while we’re gone in Puerto Rico. My mom’s going to come over and check on them. Hopefully she finds an egg or two and not a dead chicken.
