Weathering the Storm and After

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Survivors
A man from the Puerto Rico Telephone Company personally came out to find us and make sure we were ok!

Wow, where to begin. I suppose right here, right now. We are again at a little hot spot with Wifi. It’s a liquor store called Bonet and the loud hum of the generator reminds us of the state we are still in. There are hopeful signs all around that the system is booting up! I see people buying bags of ice; something unheard of in the last two weeks.

The lines to the gas stations have gone from kilometers long with 12 hour waits down to a line of about 5 cars and 20 minutes. We now feel a little more mobile. When you are uncertain if you can fill your car or your generator you tend to want to stay at home. Part of the reason many people didn’t hear from us for so long. The cell phones are starting to work and we saw the energy company for the first time in Rincon. But we are still in for a long haul before everything is restored. I take these little improvements as little joys.

Cabin from above
We can now see the wooden house from the other side of the property!

We passed the storm in the wooden house. There were a few moments that we didn’t know if that was the best decision, but by then it was too late to change our minds. Thankfully, we experienced no damage to the wooden house though we lost many, many trees and hearing them crack and creak all around us for the long 24-28 hours of howling wind and rain was enough to fray the nerves.

All we know

Throughout the storm we had absolutely no news. We listened to the one radio channel that was broadcasting throughout the storm, but they had no info either. We tried to recall the last information that we had seen before the storm started in order to calculate when it would be over. When the winds turned to the west we figured the storm was leaving the island. It was an endurance test. In fact, it still is an endurance test!

Britton Binoculars
Britton watching the destruction all around as it occurred

The worst of the damage was the complete destruction of the chicken coop. Those poor chickens were inside when a humongous tree fell over and one fell directly on the coop. But they lived!!

Chicken Coop RemnantsThe chicken coop is completely destroyed!

Sad chicken
Sad chicken

But just as I thought, the worst part of the storm is the aftermath. It has been hard to live without electricity, water, internet or cell phones. When the storm first happened, we couldn’t even leave the neighborhood because of the vast amount of trees that had fallen on the roads and on the power lines. If I had any power in Puerto Rico I would say BURY THE POWER lines! The roads were cleaned up within about 3 days, but the power lines will take a long time to repair. The power is needed for the cell phone towers as well as the water pumps, so everything goes back to energy. Thankfully we have a generator, a cistern and a safe place to stay. But we couldn’t get a hold of anyone back in the states. We were completely cut off from all communication. We went back to the tried and true: face to face connection!

Electrical Pole
A down pole in Stella

We left the property on the Saturday after to check out the damage and check in with some friends. We also had some great friends come and check on us! This is the time of the best and worst of humanity. Helpful hands and some exploitive ones too. Resources have become very important.

Water refill stationFEMA, Homeland Security and other branches are coordinating for things like generators and potable water

Where is the water? Where is the gasoline? Does anyone have power? A satellite phone? Are any banks open? Cash is king! And then there is the discomfort of extended camping conditions. It is very uncomfortable because we don’t even have fans. Britton has resorted to sleeping on the tile floors in order to try and stay somewhat cool. Warm food and cold drinks are huge luxuries.

Cooling down at night
Britton with the lantern and bug spray

Playing music on porch2
Trying to stay sane. Our days include chopping up trees, playing rummy and music on the porch

La Cambija Water supplyPeople gathering non-potable water from a natural spring in order to flush toilets, shower or washFila line for gas

Smooshed food shackA friend’s food shack got completely squished under a tree!

Rincon Down Town sign
Rincon used to be the mejor lugar para vivir….but now needs some work!

House gone

 

Chopping the travel palm

The internet is sort of blipping in and out right now as more people come to connect to the wifi so I better leave it at that. I have a few videos I will also try to upload in the upcoming days. We are doing well considering. We feel tough! I think we are much more prepared to go on the TV show Survivor now!

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We Are Alive! Post Maria

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We have very limited internet right now. I am currently at a hot spot in Rincon. A little liquor store drinking a cold beer for the first time in a long while. This is because we have not had ice or cold refrigeration in a while. It has been quite the survivor experience, but we are alive and well. We survived Hurricane Maria, in our wooden house! A scary experience for sure.

We couldn’t get a hold of anyone for nearly 2 weeks and I have so much to say, but I am afraid that if I don’t get this out I won’t get anything out. Thank you for the love and concern. We are ok. There is no electricity or water and very little communication out of the island though it is improving. It is uncomfortable, but we are grateful and resetting. The power of mother nature and humanity is strong. Destruction and creation.

Everything is in limited supply. The lines for groceries and gas are long, but spirits are high and patient. We are very thankful for rainwater. It’s a strange time. The littlest things that we normally take for granted are now luxuries. Thank you for thinking of us and for all the friends and strangers who have come out to find out if we are alive. I hope to update soon!

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Ave María and Huracán

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Ave María is a religious expression that is commonly used in Puerto Rico. It’s sort of like Ay, Caramba or Mother Mary please help us and in this case it’s: Really, there’s another hurricane headed right for us?!

Religion, science, camaraderie and legends all try to help us make sense out of the craziness that life throws at us it seems.

Hurricane Maria
The projected path of Hurricane María could be anywhere in the red

After the last hurricane, we’ve decided not to move out of the wooden cabin to the concrete cabana for María. It’s actually far less windy in our little protected valley of the cabin. The worst part of Hurricane Irma wasn’t the hurricane, it was waiting for the power and water to come back. So we again got more gas for the generator and are again filling up the water cistern.

The stores are out of drinking water again. I asked a woman at the grocery store why they don’t just fill up their bottles from the last storm with tap or rain water like we are going to do. And she seemed a little confused. “Pues, las usamos y luego las botamos…Well, we use them and then throw them away!” Hmm. I guess I have a harder time just throwing stuff away, especially knowing how useful they are. It’s pretty simple to sanitize them!

Guacamole
Is it a coincidence that avocados are so abundant this time of year and guacamole is so easy to prepare even in a hurricane?

We also learned from the last storm that it is open game on junk food! Calories don’t count if you have to live without water, internet or electricity, right?! In Econo, not only was all the water gone, but also all of the Chef Boyardee, an apparent hurricane favorite!

In addition we heard a cool legend story that the Tainos (natives of the island before Columbus) apparently believed. Hopefully I don’t screw it up too much:

El Yunque better

There were two twin brothers. One was named Yukiyu (which was later translated as Yunque the same a the national park near San Juan) and the other was Huracán. Yukiyu was the good god who cared for Borinken (the island of Puerto Rico) and all of its inhabitants and was especially present in the mountain areas. Huracán was the evil brother who was always jealous that the islands loved Yukiyu more and so he would try to come around nearly every year to destroy Yukiyu and his beloved ones. He and Yukiyu fight and most times Yukiyu wins. Therefore you must give thanks to him by being kind to the land. But this battle rages on to this day.

Wood
Some of our old wood is being repurposed as hurricane boards

Some people get really worked up about these storms and many others are pretty calm about it. You can tell who are the (calm and collected) veterans and who (ahem, lots of gringos) are the newbie scaredy-cats. We are trying not to be as freaked out about this one as the last even if the storm is super hyped. There is a real psychological screwiness to watching the models as they descend RIGHT OVER YOU! It makes even the calmest person get a little agitated.

Generator
In our neighborhood…hooking up a new generator and propane delivery

We are learning from our neighbors who have lived here their whole lives and have survived many tropical storms and hurricanes. We figure, they know much more than we do about living through a major storm. Some people are boarding up windows, but mainly just those with full glass fronts. We stopped and talked with Julio, our 86 year-old neighbor who must weigh about 100 lbs, and Berto who’s in his 50’s to see how they were doing for the storm. Berto said he was tying some things down with rope and that they better tie up Julio so he wouldn’t blow away! haha!

Window Prep
One neighbor is weaving plastic trash bags through the window to cut down on the water spray

I am trying my best to be calm because I know the odds and I know what we can do during and after. The storm seems to be moving north and losing some steam and the only real danger is directly in the eye. Anyway, there’s only so much you can do and the worst case scenario (afterward everything is ravaged and there’s no water or electricity for weeks and weeks), we just take a month-long (or longer) vacation to visit family in CO before dealing with the mess. Don’t sweat the small stuff as they say, and it’s all small stuff.

We’ve learned a lot throughout this very active hurricane season and feel even more connected with this land, people and culture by going through this. We are all in this together!

Also, just FYI, we were contacted by Channel 31 (which is also Channel 2 News) out of Denver last night and did a Facetime interview with them explaining our connection to Colorado and Puerto Rico and what we are going through with Irma and María. The segment should air sometime tonight around 9pm local Colorado time. Let us know if you see it!

Ave María, please be good to us! And Yukiyu, please convince Huracán to leave us unharmed (and preferably with power and water quickly too)!

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Dominican Yolas

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An interesting part of living in Puerto Rico is that we are front and center of Caribbean geopolitics. A recent case in point was when we came upon a yola near Sandy Beach in Rincón. A yola is a small boat usually from the Dominican Republic that is used primarily to transport fleeing people who immigrate (illegally) to Puerto Rico and then potentially to the mainland US. Sometimes they are Haitians who have fled to DR and then from DR they come to PR. It is sort of a follow-the-money game where people leave the poorer country for the richer; much as many Puerto Ricans are leaving the island to the US proper for better job opportunities.

IMG_1032
With a yola on the beach

These are fairly common sights, but this was the first time I saw one recently vacated. There was still clothing strewn about and the remnants of a small fire, probably the people who were waiting for them to arrive. They paint the boat blue and throw a blue tarp over top in order to blend in with the ocean and not be spotted. Sometimes people come over without any plan at all and just run through the jungle looking for water to drink and clothing to wear.

puerto-rico, Dominican Republic
Eastern DR to West PR is less than 100 miles, but through pretty rough seas

I can only imagine the feeling of desperation there must be for someone to make the decision to leave everything they know and take a treacherous 2-3 day journey on a boat like this with nothing certain awaiting them! It reminded me of when we saw the stranded people out on Desecheo that didn’t quite make it to Rincón.

Yola cut
The motor was removed shortly after arriving and the side of the boat was cut (by police presumably) so that it would be harder to re-use

This was a successful journey for these Dominicans. It’s not always the case that all of them end up alive at the end of the trip.

Puerto Ricans call the whole country of the Dominican Republic Santo Domingo, not just the capital. And in terms of relations of Puerto Ricans with people from Santo Domingo, there is a tolerance, but also a sort of feeling of superiority due to the citizenship status and also wealth. While Puerto Rico is not rich by US standards, in comparison to a poor undocumented yola newcomer, any Boricua has it far better by most measures.

Here is a short video about the yola that washed up on shore.

 

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