Category Archives: Challenges

Guess What I Found?!

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“Guess what I found?” has been our newest game. It is kind of like the chance card on Monopoly. This could be something beneficial or not so much.

For instance, one of our first “guess what I found” moments was when I found the passionfruit flowers and fruit. Then another one was finding this creepy centipede in the palm trees.

Centipede

We have heard that Puerto Rico has no venomous snakes or spiders, but that you do have to watch out for these guys! Also, the ants are intense! Tiny little ants that feel like someone just threw a bunch of needles at your feet. We have been having a hard time feeding Kitty because only about 5 minutes after we set his food down the ants swarm his dish like a petri dish. And if you try to move it they start biting you! We are definitely going to have to find a solution for that!

As for Kitty himself, he spends almost his entire day as a lump under the covers of the bed.

Lump in the bed

He’s lump, he’s lump, he’s lump, he’s in our bed.

Kitty is definitely still freaked out. He comes out for a couple of hours a day, but if he hears the leaves rustle or any loud sound, he scurries back under the covers to hide. I took him out with me up on top of the cabana just to show him that there really is nothing to be afraid of, but I don’t think he believed me.

Kitty and Cassie
Kitty and me under the big mango tree

We are still doing quite a bit of work on the landscaping and have finally been able to drive the car into the courtyard after clearing away some massive weed trees that grew about three inches thick in just those past nine months. Britton bought a bow saw (thanks Matt for the recommendation) and hacked those things down.

BK and the sierra

I am bringing out a lot of Spanish vocabulary I haven’t had to use much in an office setting. Saw=Sierra, Wire=Alambre, Piedra de afilar= Sharpening stone, etc. Good practice using Spanish in our new daily life when we say “guess what I found” in the hardware stores.

A lot of you are worried we are working too much. Don’t worry. We also know how to play! We have gotten out and met some people too. We visited a few friends and played a little poker. We are planning on going to a concert event in Aguadilla this Saturday and we have taken lots of naps and eaten lots of “guest-what-I-found” delicious fruits from our property, the Econo or Edwards Grocery Stores or from the fruit vendors parked on the side of the road.

Quenepas
Not sure what these are…quenepas? They are from the property but mostly a huge seed inside

We have had a couple of other “guess what I found” moments. Britton was up on the top of the cabana with the laptop to transfer some pictures. He yelled down to me, “guess what I found?!” and I yelled back, “Um, cat poop?” and we laughed because apparently the roof of the cabana had been used by the local cats as a poop hot spot…but it turned out to be an ACTUAL hot spot. We found open WIFI on our roof! So great! I am standing here on top of the roof overlooking the wooden house and ocean writing this!

The not-so-great thing is what we did NOT find in our bags….our camera battery charger. I think we left it plugged into the wall in our kitchen in Greeley! Ugh. Once our battery runs out we won’t be able to take more pictures or videos, so we are going on a quest to try and find one (Mom if you read this can you check in our Greeley house?).

So daily we have little wins and little challenges. It has been the perfect balance. We still have a few things we need to sort out like the zafacones for the Rincon trash pick up are apparently all out, so we have to haul out any trash we make.

All in all, every day has been an adventure with new finds around every corner.

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Kitty and the Kumquat Tree

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This trip was a bit different than our other trips to Puerto Rico.  We had lots more to take and we aren’t coming back (for at least a while).  The voyage out to Rincon started in DIA with lots and lots of boxes.  We had prepared for Kitty’s trip by getting him up to date on shots, then getting a health certificate from our veterinarian.  All needlessly.  Nobody checked on him at DIA or flying into BQN.  Better safe than sorry I suppose.

Airport
Almost Everything We Own

We also took our Kumquat tree that we had kept as a houseplant in Colorado.  We have read that they are fairly rare in PR, plus it was an extra challenge.  Can you take plants to Puerto Rico?  How do you pack them?  Will security be ok with it?  All of these questions became fairly easily answered.  You can take plants, pack them however you wish but a shopping bag would work nicely and security was fine. (Thanks Charlotte and Anthony for sticking around just in case!)

Kumquat and Kitty Cat
Kitty All Doped Up and the Kumquat Tree

The flight went well, nothing too out of the ordinary.  We arrived in Aguadilla, loaded up our rental car and set off for the property.  At 1am as that is what time United flights arrive and depart from Aguadilla (BQN).

We arrived at the house around 2am.  It was dark and overgrown, this has been the norm since we almost always have to come back to CO after cutting the jungle back.  Here is a short video of our arrival!

The vines grow over the gate and the trees grow over the driveway.  We can’t park the car in the yard until everything is cut down.  It is quite the undertaking and usually requires around 6 to 8 hours before the car can be parked.

10 minutes later, after our arrival we were still at it..lol

It will take a while to “dig out” but we have our cabin opened up, kitty is starting to come out from under the blankets and eat, drink and pee which is a good sign.  He is pretty freaked out though, as he should be!  This is quite a radical difference from what he is used to.   All in all we have arrived safely, with all of our tattered and dented luggage!

Scared kitty

Kitty Hiding

We did a lot our first day too! We found the post office and got two of our flat rate boxes and we started working on the huge battle against the jungle that has overtaken the yard and house in the last nine months.

We had a couple of awesome and not so awesome finds in the yard as well.

Passion flower

Passionflower

One of the many vines growing everywhere is passionflower/fruit! And the hibiscus and starfruit trees are doing great in spite of the vines all over them.

orange hibiscus

Hibiscus

The not so great thing is that we think the bees are back….Good thing we brought our bee hats and veils! We might have to just get comfortable removing them.

more bees
More bees??! Maybe they are just swarming??

Cassie pulling vines

Even Cassie got into the vine pulling/yard clean up!

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Aren’t You Afraid of Hurricanes?

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This is another common question we get from people when we tell them that we are moving to the Caribbean.

This seems a strange question coming from people in Colorado. Right this instant we are experiencing massive rains and flooding that is causing severe devastation especially to areas near the rivers. Roads are closed down, some people are stranded and some areas are shutting down municipal water service due to possible contamination. Some of our friends and former next door neighbors live(d) in one of the trailers in Riverside Park in Evans shown in this video. Their home and car have been completely damaged and are probably unsalvageable. They had to swim inside their home in shoulder deep water to just scrape together a few of their floating belongings.

River2
This is a river about 1 mile north of our house. Thankfully we are still high and dry

While this is definitely one of the wildest weather rides we’ve had in a while, it is not isolated. Colorado has some of the most extreme climates ever. In just the last 6 months alone we have had raging wildfires, huge hail storms that demolished whole cars, sides of houses and rooves (one of which was a rental of ours), extreme heat that caused schools to close, tornados touching down with winds in excess of 50 MPH and snow blizzards with temperatures 20 to 30 degrees below 0 F! And again this is just in the last 6 months mind you!

Evans2
This is the baseball field in Evans near Riverside

So it seems sort of bizarre when people from Colorado ask us if we are afraid of hurricanes in Puerto Rico. I’d say coming from Colorado we are probably more prepared for extreme, bipolar weather than most. When people ask this it is interesting that they do not see where they live as being an extreme climate sort of place. We (humans) tend to exaggerate risk when it is outside of our control, and minimize it when we are more familiar.

I am sure a hurricane would be a crazy intense thing to go through, but just like these crazy and intense things in Colorado, we would get through it. It will be tough to clean up and deal with the aftermath of these and future disasters, but life WILL go on. People will pull through as we always seem to do. We need to help each other out in times like these. We need to show our very best side. If there is any silver lining in these huge natural disasters it is at the very least, this.

flooding in evans
This photo was taken by an aerial news reporter and shows the trailer homes floating in the flooded river

There is no sense in being afraid of future possible calamities. They are bound to happen whether you are afraid or not, so you might as well face them head on. We will continue to do our best to be prepared and avoid high risks, but life is full of disasters of one kind or another around every bend. We must be flexible and adaptable. We must be compassionate and community-oriented. We must be calm and not panic or exaggerate. We are from Colorado after all, right?! We can get through anything. So if you ask, I might remind you of this and say, no, we are definitely not afraid of hurricanes.

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Nearly Cleared Out

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Because I have been continuing to work up to the end, Britton has had the bulk of the responsibility for clearing out the house. Fortunately for me, and unfortunately for the state of Colorado, we have been having heavy rains for the last 4 days or so and on Friday, they released us from work to close the county (where I work). We have not been affected by the rains or flooded very much in Greeley, but some areas nearby are crazy including parts of I-25! Especially hit were the mountain canyons.

Anyhow, this gave me some time to help with Britton in the clean-out  of a few more areas of the house. It’s looking pretty good, though there is STILL more to go. Check it out:

Britton sold his Honda last week and so is down to just his bicycle when I am at work.

98 Civic Ex Side
Bye old Civic with 296k miles!

IMG_3606
Britton’s current form of transportation and a bike box to ship it

We have also sold the washer and dryer and the bed and nightstand are going to my mom, so we really don’t have hardly any large items left except my car.

Now is the hard part of packing and trying to get it to all fit in just a few boxes and bags. Can you believe it only NINE more days!?

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