Tag Archives: Puerto Rico

Taking Risks

I’ve been thinking about risk lately and what it means.

I think it’s different for everyone and rightly so. I for one take risks that some people don’t just because of my exposure to it. Take flying for example. I’d have no problem hopping in a small Cessna and taking off into the sky. For others who haven’t had the flight experience they wouldn’t do it, it would be too risky.

Then there is financial risk. Some people have way more experience than I do in the stock market and don’t even flinch when they move a large amount of cash around. Or gambling, I haven’t ever won anything at a casino so when I see people betting $10 a hand at blackjack I just don’t understand it. I can’t do that.

We have been thinking about another property in PR. It’s a bit riskier than what we are used to due to price and the fact that we want to use it to start our own business. We do have some experience with running our own small businesses and can see possibilities and want to give it a try. Here is the catch though; give up our comfortable life to do it? What if everything goes bad? OMG OMG OMG. We both have good jobs and the living is fairly easy except for what challenges we hold ourselves to.

I haven’t really ever failed at anything I’ve tried to do in life (except putting down linoleum in the basement which turned out better because we went with tile instead). So even the things that I have failed at turned out…better. Isn’t that odd? I used to think landing at a strange airport with no plans in mind was ‘risky’ but now that I’ve done that (a few times) its no big deal. Experience helps us feel more comfortable about taking risks.

I want to make a trip out to PR again here in a month or two to look around. I think that I am ready to expand my experience in life again and become more comfortable with being an entrepreneur. Besides IF we were to fail just think of how much more experience we would have when we try again! I am already very comfortable with Puerto Rico due to the fact I’ve been there a few times. I know what to expect.

I encourage others to comment about any risks you’ve taken and how it turned out in the end.

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Lares Puerto Rico Property Update

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View of the property

Well we saw that the Lares, Puerto Rico property was back up and listed for sale online. The price had gone up in the listing by $15,000. We had gotten our deposit back after a year + of waiting on the title. She was free to try and sell it to another buyer and we are free to look around again. So it was not a bad thing at all to see it listed.

I decided to call Alwilda just to see how things were going. I asked her how the title was coming along? She replied “I have sold the property”. I was kind of surprised, but knowing how badly she wants to move I was happy for her. “Bien! Bien!” I said, “When will you be able to move?”. She said that she is selling the property in June to some Canadians.

There are a few things that struck me odd about that.

I’ve looked up lots of information over this last year and its kind of hard to pin down, but I don’t believe she can sell the property until it is listed in the title registry. I’ve seen information online that even says that a notary has to sign for the deed and the first thing they have to do is verify is that the title is properly filed in the registry. This one isn’t listed, which is why we couldn’t buy it. Carlos (her lawyer & also a notary AND ex-son in-law) kept telling us that if we paid with cash, then we would be able to buy the property…Yeah….right. I have a bridge to sell you.

The other odd thing is that she is selling it in June which means to me she hasn’t sold it. Maybe they are looking into it the same as Cassie and I did? To visit and make a decision.

I don’t know the people that are buying the property but if they are reading this (they might stumble across this), be careful. There are some odd laws in the books down there. William is the one who owned the entire plot broke off and sold the 25 acres to Alwilda. William has children who may have legal right to the land when he dies (Spanish inheritance laws). When we applied for the loan thru the bank, the bank was saying “no way” due to the title issues. Some of the best advice I received from a realtor was to go thru the big well known institutions and reputable places. They are protecting themselves in the deal and as a result you get that protection. Which is why even if you have cash to buy something outright its not always the best route. You lose a lot of protection so you better be sure you know what you’re doing. That’s my opinion anyway.

Estrella, Alwilda and me, plus Pirulo (the dog)

It’s a beauitful property deep in the mountains of Lares and if we could have bought it legit, I think we would have. However, I think we are just going to look for a place closer to the beaches and wish Alwida the best of luck. We do feel like we kind of missed out, but it is probably for the best for both parties. We will continue to stay in touch with her and visit when we are in Puerto Rico next.

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Back to Colorado from Puerto Rico

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We arrived back at DIA in Denver at about 8:00pm to cold weather. We were just starting to get used to the time difference, so it felt like it was 11pm to us (Puerto Rican time) -the weather difference was easy to get used to! 🙂 The flight was uneventful, but as we went from Puerto Rico to Miami and then Miami to Denver we saw a definite shift in people, and we knew we were back in plain, sterile, straight (roads) and fairly uneventful Colorado.

We were trying to describe the difference of Puerto Rico and Colorado to people. It’s kind of like being in a dream world and then waking up in boring reality (or Greality -Greeley- in our case). Another way to describe it is going to Toon Town (PR) in Roger Rabbit and back to the regular world, or going back to the black and white part in the Wizard of Oz after seeing the Emerald City (Colorado is very drab right now with virtually no color and Puerto Rico is just covered in color and life). It is an awesome difference where there is something new and unknown around every corner, but I suppose it is also nice to have a boring routine to go back to as well- like warm water in the sinks and showers, and where time actually means something concrete and not vague.

Our last few days in Puerto Rico we met up with Nick and Miri again after trying to see another movie that the theatre accidentally forgot to start (again time is something very vague there). We also met with Dios Dado and he took us to Lago Dos Bocas near Utuado and we took the free boat ride across the lake.

Orocovis town center plaza

He then drove us to Orocovis where we had Longostino (sp?) for lunch. It was real criollo Puerto Rican food, and very good. Orocovis is the dead center of the island.

Now that we are back, it is bittersweet. We were just starting to get the swing of that lifestyle and now we have to readjust. We still have a lot of pictures and stories that we’ll post in the coming days though. We left on pretty good terms with Awilda, all things considered, and we still may buy it. In Puerto Rico, you never know anything for certain.

At the beach in Puerto Rico

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Puerto Rican Jibaro Life

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This has been such an adventure. Its been filled with drama, suspense, action and relaxation all mixed in together.

On Saturday night we tried to go out salsa dancing. A snap right? Wrong. We went to Mayaguez because it is the biggest city on the west coast, but no one knew of any salsa clubs, or dance clubs in general. So, instead we went to the Holiday Inn and Tropical Casino and lost $17 dollars on roulette and slots (big spenders I know!), and then went to the Mayaguez mall to walk around. Later that evening we watched a movie called “Taken”. It was fun and with subtitles in Spanish. Unfortunately for me when the villain Russians would talk, the subtitles were in Spanish and I didn’t know what was going on unless I asked Cassie to translate them.

We stayed at home yesterday instead of going boating. I think since we pulled back from the deal Alwilda didn’t want to bother her daughter Lilly to take us boating. So we hung out and just slept in the hammock, read and ate a bit of food. Mid-day we started to hear some noise from across the bridge. Sounded like a party?

Cassie being the adventerous type wanted to go and check it out. So after some coaxing she talked me into it. I knew that I wouldn’t understand much of what was said, but hey…why not?

We (Cassie) talked to some of the local folks (who they call jibaros or country people). Apparently every Sunday they have this fair right at the bottom of the bridge. We were wondering what this little shack was used for…well…its for selling beer! This is where the locals come to sell their horses, cars and whatever else might be around. They kept running the horses up and down the street. It was kind of cool, I could imagine that this was most likely going on for 100 years or more? Of course without the cars; but the horses and beer were most likely present. We went for a walk out on the road and found some ‘morir y vivir’ (dying and living plants). These are so fricken cool! I didn’t know plants could do this. When you touch them they shrivel up as if they are dying, then come back a few minutes later. Its some kind of defense mechanism so they dont get eaten.

We have decided to spend the few remaining days of our vacation on the beach and eating good food. We drove into Rincon. We stopped in at the Tamboo Tavern for lunch. Cassie didn’t like her fish wrap too much, but I enjoyed mine and the rest of hers 😉 Then we went to the beach and just laid there for a few hours. It was sunny with a sprinkle of rain. It felt really good.