Author Archives: Britton

Power On Power Off (Random Updates)

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Cassie was taking a shower this morning and the light went out.  Hmmm.  It’s the first of the month and the previous owner had scheduled the shut off, but we should have averted that by getting everything moved into our name.  It is also ‘power outage Wednesday”.   It’s tough to figure out which one would have caused the outage??? lol  We confirmed with a local at the coffee shop that his power is out too, so we remain hopeful that is our case too. 

That reminds me of the story of finding how to turn on the power and where the heck to go!  When we were on our quest to get the power in our name we stumbled upon a long time local “Cindy”.  We were talking to her and she drew us a treasure map. 


Treasure map

We followed the map and did find exactly what we needed.  The power company!!!


Reminds us of the Darma Inititave in the TV series Lost.

Today we woke up and laid around for a bit listening to the sounds of the jungle.  I usually sleep on top of the covers but the last few nights have been getting kind of cold!  Something I didn’t expect.  When it is hot I’ve found that leaving the windows open and a fan is all I need to stay cool.  

Since the windows are open nearly all the time we started getting quite a few mosquitos.  We went to home depot and bought some materials so I could  put up some screens and since then we’ve been good.  We do have an occasional bug visitor, but not like we had before the screens.


Making Screens

So far that is about the only improvement that we’ve made.  We’ve been tempted to paint but stopped short of actually doing it.   We kind of want to relax, we both work 40hrs + (with my new job 50hrs) a week.  Plus we have our rentals and various other endeavors that keep us very busy.  Our goal was to buy the place and we are pretty happy with achieving that.  Also we are happy that the place is as livable as it is!  The kitchen sink needs to be hooked up, the roof needs to be sealed but otherwise we’ve been pretty comfortable.  That was somewhat unexpected.   We could have made do in the wood house, but I think the shower would have needed to be completely redone.  I may have opted to just convert it to an outdoor shower under the deck.   So many ideas.

We have occupied a lot of our time with trips to the beach.  It seems like the obvious thing to do.  

We also got caught in the rain a few times. It usually only lasts about 30 minutes then the sun comes out again. Very refreshing!  Here is a video of us “trapped” under some trees.

The Lost Ghosts of Paradise

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I woke up today to the sweet smell of decomposing mangos.  It’s a thick sweet smell. 

We got up and showered (in cold cool water) and decided to check out the wood house.  We went thru some books that the lady left behind.  Interesting story about the house.  We are beginning to pick up little bits and pieces of the story from items around the house and from things locals are telling us. 

Apparently the lady that owned the house before us (Kathy) died after having a car accident. In the house. And her dog too!  In a hammock in the house no less…..  I wasn’t sure if it was the hammock we asked them to leave there or not, but I took it down just in case.   It seemed….I dunno…Creepy! 


It still looks exactly like this in 2011

Anyhow we were told that she moved down here in the late 80s and lived all thru the 90s.  She was a ‘trust fund baby’ so she didn’t have to work.  From what we can gather she watched movies (VCR) and read quite a few books.  The books and movies are still in the house along with other 80s era items.  Her dishes are still dirty in the sink and the calendar is stuck on september 2001 when she died. 

It’s like the place has been lost in time.   You can just imagine her hanging out, listening to Jimmy Buffet and driving her Jeep to the Calypso resturant with her dog.  The dog in the picture we saw looks like a yellow lab or retriever.  The locals still remember her even though she died 10 years ago.  Not all of their memories are fond however and in fact it sounds like she had a drinking problem and anger issues.  I suppose when you don’t have to work and have money your other issues can get magnified. 


Looking toward the house from the acreage down below

I can’t help but think about that vivid dream I had.   I have this strange feeling that Jack (Cassie’s dad) is helping us from the otherside.  We did ask him to and it is definitely something he would do.   He loved making deals and he liked to help people.  I have a feeling that he met her and once he found out she was from Puerto Rico he saw an opportunity.  The house feels just ‘recently’ vacated in a spiritual sense.   I think he could have made a deal.  She didn’t need the house anymore and she was ‘stuck’ between worlds.  Jack would have offered to help her progress on the other side and ensured that his daughter could take the place. 

And if that’s not what is going on, I think we have a good plot for a story (movie / book ).  Puerto Rico is definitely enchanted.   Sometimes it feels like we are in wonderland.   We were driving down the road and saw a guy raking leaves in a Santa suit.  No, seriously… A Santa suit in the middle of the tropical fricken jungle.


You can’t make this up

We’ve seen some strange stuff and decided we have to take pictures for you to believe it. Otherwise, you would never in your wildest imagination begin to understand the weird, movie-like setting of this island. It’s a cross between Lost, Alice in Wonderland, and Oz all rolled into one, except I don’t THINK we’re dreaming this.


With the book at Banana Dang in Rincon

One of the books we found in Kathy’s things was the book Jonathon Livingston Seagull. It’s the perfect book…and we read it in one sitting at the beach today.

Getting Set Up in Rincon

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It’s been difficult to update due to the problems with our internet server back in Colorado.  It seems the power went out there and the internet has been spotty.  It appears to be working better for now so I figured we’d post up some pictures.

We’ve been doing errands to get set up with our house in Rincon.  We got the water turned on and we have the electrcity on and in our names too!  The water we were able to do online, but the electric we went into Aguadilla to the AEE offices.  Everyone has been very friendly and helpful with us.


Water Guy Leaving.

The timing of the water being turned on was awesome.  We were just about to leave and go to the beach where they have a public shower to hose off with when I heard a truck.  We spoke to him…Well Cassie did.  He waited for us to check the house and ensure nothing was leaking before leaving.  He was super nice.

Cassie and “Water Guy”

Then we headed up to the Puntas Bakery and I put a few hours of work in.  It is nice that I am able to work remote and help out.  It means I don’t burn as much vacation time and they get to have a part time worker when they are really busy. 

The bakery is pretty good for breakfast and it is just up the road from the house.  You can usually spot someone sleeping in the middle of the day in Puerto Rico.


What a life!

Hopefully the blog stays steady for a while.  It’s one of those things where you just never know what will happen when you leave.  The webserver has been difficult but thanks to my sister and mother in law it is functional.  It’s frustrating.  Kind of like when you try to run in a dream and you just cant..lol.

We have been staying in this small concrete studio apt that is also on the property.  It works out perfectly -our air mattress, a bathroom (now complete with water!), and electricity to watch a few shows we brought with us on the laptop before falling asleep!


Concrete Studio

One of the huge royal palms in the “backyard” 4 acres

We’ve got a lot of interesting stories building up due to internet being sparse and our blog being down.  Hopefully we’ve got steady access and can update more frequently now!

Step One Complete: We Bought a House in Rincon Puerto Rico

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When Cassie and I first set out to buy a property in Puerto Rico we knew it’d be an adventure, we knew that it wouldn’t be possible to know how it would turn out and we also knew it would be a great accomplishment.

Step one was to: Buy a property

Well that has been completed.  We were right though.  It has been an adventure, it wouldn’t be possible to know how this turned out and it is a huge accomplishment. 

We started out South of Lares pretty deep in the jungle/interior of Puerto Rico. We waited a year for the property to be correctly registered and it didn’t happen. During that first time trying to purchase something we always found ourselves leaving the property and driving to Rincon. Nearly every day. It took an hour+ to drive there, then we’d drive back late at night.   We backed out of that deal and started looking again.

On our second attempt we came looking for something further west. We looked in Atalaya and Aguadilla. We stayed at a place just off the 413 in Rincon for that trip. We really liked a place in Atalaya we looked at but the price was just too much for me.   We passed and someone else bought it.  We felt like we had to start all over…again.

On our third I found a property north of San Sebastian. This was much further West than Lares and only about 30 mintues to the beach / Rincon. We negotiated an offer which we could afford and it was accepted. We felt pretty good about this deal. It had land, a house and was closer to all the action.

Then the unexpected happened. We found a property that was not only in Rincon, but we could afford to buy it. The price had always been a limiting factor for us living in Rincon! So it seems like it is a good fit for us.  We finished up the deal just yesterday and purchased it.  It is a bag of mixed emotions.  Everything from overwhelming joy due to us finally completing step 1 of our goal to a bit of fear and panic about what is next.  Do we fix up the wood house?  Do we not worry about it because we may want to tear it down and build a house of our choosing? 

This seems to be a logical thing for us.  We always have something going on and like to have something to do.  This project will keep us busy for years to come. 

There is a concrete studio apartment bulit there as well.  I think we will get the water turned on and make that livable for now.  It will give us a place to stay while we are here, it is nice already inside (just needs paint and maybe some plumbing).   We aren’t really sure what to do with the larger wood house, but I guess we have plenty of time to figure it out.


Stairway in Wood House

Cassie on the Deck

At this time it looks like step 2 will be to figure out what step 3 is.  It is different to dream about something than to actually do it.  When you actually do it, you feel all kinds of things you don’t in the dream.  You see things in reality that don’t exist in the dream(good and bad).  One of my favorite analogies of life is that it is like a rollercoster:

The world is like a ride in an amusement park and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and around and around and it has thrills and chills and it’s very brightly coloured and it’s very loud. And it’s fun – for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question; is this real? Or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, and they say, “Hey, don’t worry, don’t be afraid, ever, because… this is just a ride.”