Rincón, el mejor lugar para vivir. The best place to live!
Harvesting mandarin tangerines from our own trees!
This Saturday we had another nice day. The winter fruit is in season and we’ve been steadily cleaning out the cabana and moving over everything to the cabin where we are now living. We jammed with the band and then later that evening we went downtown to the Rincón plaza where there was a huge party going on! It was the mayor’s (alcalde) inauguration (re-election) party!
A huge party right on the street in front of the Alcaldía!
In addition to this huge street party it was our friends Naomi and Sage’s 3rd year anniversary since opening Rincón Beer Company (RBC). In the last three years RBC and the Art Walk (as well as a vibrant and growing Sunday Farmers Market) have synergistically worked together to revitalize the downtown area. Now there are over 4 bars and many restaurants in the downtown area that otherwise was dying a slow death. When RBC came on the scene in the plaza people thought they were crazy because there was virtually no night life downtown and now it is the hip, happening place to be! Way to go, guys!
Naomi and Sage at RBC’s 3rd Anniversary Party
It is pretty cool to see Rincón grow through the years and to be part of the carnival that never seems to stop.
Our normal morning routine is to wake up, make some coffee and zone out on the internet for a bit until we start our daily do-ings. Lately however our internet setup hasn’t been working!! So my routine started to include walking over to the other side of the property and checking out our wireless bridge.
I can usually check segments of our network from the cabin, but lately the cabin has been completely cut off! Climbing the Pole
The higher the wireless router inside this little box on the utility pole, the better signal we get from our neighbor’s router that we share with.
The Problem
Pretty much every day there is rat poop on top of the box, with some leftover parcha or starfruit. So I know the rats have been hanging out on top of the box. But these wires are inside of the cage I built! They can’t be getting inside?!
Another Possible Hacker
I saw this one on top of the goods one day too. But again, it is waayyyy too large to get into the box and be able to chew the wires up! So probably not the one I am looking for.
It wasn’t until the other day I finally saw the culprit!
Ah Ha!!! (click to enlarge)
There has been a small lizard living inside the box and eating the cables every night! The power cables are pretty chewed up but power cables shock them once they eat all the insulation, so he stops. With the Ethernet cables however, he just chews right thru them.
I’ve mended the Ethernet cable probably 5 or 6 times now. I covered it in some really thick waterproofing tape and that seems to be working for the moment. I also will be hunting this little pest. He is fast and I found myself chasing him with a stick the other day! It was really quite humorous.
The other idea I had was to electrify the wire cage so that it isn’t such a nice spot for critters to sit and hang out. I don’t think it will take much to do, but something I’ll have to figure out! Maybe in the next revision?!
Life just keeps trucking. Sometimes there’s more exciting things than others, but I always try to have my camera ready. Here are a few snapshots of recent moments of our life here in Puerto Rico.
A fun stop in Boquerón (notice the bicycle with coconuts!)
A beautiful beach scene in Aguadilla
A cool treehouse in Aguadilla! I need to do some more exploring of this! It’s amazing!
Because I do love to climb trees!
The finca is producing lots of food! Especially bananas and papayas right now!
And also cool stuff like turmeric (curcuma) and ginger
I did a fun photoshoot with my friend Laura at the Lighthouse Ruins in Aguadilla
And we are super proud of our chef friend Tommy’s new Poke Shack venture in Rincón!
With local caught tuna and many other fresh local ingredients!
It has been a bit rainy lately but that means gorgeous rainbows!
And still lots of fun times!
Oh and check out this cool stick bug I found on the screen door of the cabana!
Just as in the states, it is currently political season here in Puerto Rico. The politics of Puerto Rico is a bit different than in the states, but in one way it is very similar: it is nuts!
Caravanas clogging the roads
Just as a quick primer on Puerto Rico politics, here’s a few things to know.
There are two main parties: 1) Populares (also known as PPD- Partido Popular Democrático) and 2) PNP (Partido Nuevo Progresista) which they pronounce in passing in Spanish as Pay-Nay-Pay. The distant 3rd party is PIP (Partido Independentista Puertorriqueño).
Popular is Red. Popular is symbolized by “la pava” which is the old jíbaro hat.
PPD: Pan, Tierra, Libertad = Bread (food), Land and Liberty
PNP is Blue. Symbolized by “la palma” the palm tree.
PNP: Estadidad, Seguridad, Progreso =Statehood, Security and Progress
PIP Independents are green. The main platform is to become independent from the United States.
But basically it is a 2 party system. The main platform for all the parties is identity in relation to the US. They are trying to answer the question of whether or not to stay a commonwealth of the US or become a state (or in the case of PIP to become an independent country). The red populares favor commonwealth status quo and the blue PNPs want statehood. PNPs are aligned somewhat with the Republican party at the national level though overall Puerto Ricans in general are politically liberal. The PNP governor candidate (of the party aligned with the Republicans) in fact is a liberal Democrat at the national level.
So while Puerto Ricans who are all US citizens (including us transplants) have all been disenfranchised and cannot vote for president of the United States, politics is still serious business here and everyone has an opinion on the state of things. Puerto Ricans also love to party. So what better way to connect the pastimes of complaining about politics and hanging out than having huge rallies and caravans!? We’ve passed by a few rallies and they are interesting. There’s often free food like lechón, live music and the candidate making long-winded speeches promising the world.
At a political rally in Rincon. Live music, fun…and politics?
But it really is the caravanas that you will not forget if you happen to visit Puerto Rico during a major election year such as this one. They are basically long loud parades with huge speakertrucks, buses full of people waving flags, people walking and yelling, fireworks, long lines of cars honking and lights flashing. If you are part of the caravan it might be kind of fun, but if you get stuck in one unsuspectingly, it can be downright nuts and you WILL be late to wherever you were planning on going! I got stuck behind a caravan one night and it was sooo loud and wild I had to pull over just to calm down and let it pass.
Here’s a compilation (above) of a few of the caravanas we have been exposed to this year. This is not all of them, but just ones with videos…I am not sure where the tradition of caravans came from. Perhaps from a time before television or radio where the only way to get your news was from people actually going around and telling others about it. It seems a little absurd this day and age, but it’s also kind of interesting as a cultural remnant.
Thankfully political season will be over after Tuesday and we can all take a deep breath and appreciate the coquis and driving to your destination without becoming a car in a carnival parade once again.
