Monday in Puerto Rico


Monday, we didn't actually do that much. Karen needed to get some books about PR and had been disappointed that so little was available at the Arecibo Light House. San Juan is a monster to get around, and the only other Borders we had heard of was at the Mayaguez Mall. If you look here you get an idea of about where it is on the island. Since we spent a lot of time in the car or in the Borders I don't actually have a lot of photos of the trip. So let me show you about the house...

This is where Martin and I slept, after it had finally been finished fixing by the roofers. We had to spend an hour cleaning out all the debris and moving trash out, sweeping, etc. A couple of nights later, we had to re-clean it out, mop everything and rearrange furniture and put bowls on the floor, because the roof apparently still leaked. Even with all the problems, I still preferred the roof house. It was just prettier. Here's the bedroom of the roof house.





This is the other side of the room...





It doesn't seem like much, until you realize that after having the tropical sun wake you up, streaming through the windows, you stand up and this is what you see from those windows...





Bathroom. Turns out the entire building had no hot water heater. Each of the showers, ours and the one in the house, had this odd little thing you plugged into the wall to heat up the water. It was uncomfortable showering with water that goes through an electrical device. You always kind of expected a short. The one upstairs kept tripping the breaker so suddenly there'd be not hot water at all unless someone went out of the shower and (sopping wet?) played with the fuses. On the bright side, this was a tropical island. The cold water wasn't actually that cold.



So let's check out our front room then! This is the kitchen area. The fridge actually stopped working after 1 day, but there you go.





...and the other half of the room. The TV didn't actually work, but it still made the living room look more right.





I warned you... it sounds like I'm complaining. If I was paying for the place, I probably would have been. But let's get a look out of that window over by the tv, shall we?



There! Everything is okay again! FYI, every single palm tree you see in my pictures have actual coconuts growing on them. None of these neutered skinny little things you get in L.A. The coconuts were like a plague, you found them everywhere. More on that later. Let's step outside, shall we? Karen and Michelle will be expecting us downstairs soon.

This is the view from the upstairs front door.



Over on the right is that horse we were petting earlier. He'll be petted again, rest assured, but I won't make you watch it next time.

This is the view from the upstairs patio/outside area, looking to the east.



This is the view toward the north.



...and the view to the West. Familiar enough with this stretch of sand, yet? There will be more. ^_^



So let's head down the stairs to the main living areas. Here are the stairs and the yard. The stairs on the right lead up to the back patio with the stairs that take you down to the beach.



...the stairs that are right below this shot.



This is what the back patio looked like. I enjoyed the chairs a lot. I read Japanese Schoolgirl Inferno in that closer chair. Jason had given it to me and it is AWESOME beach reading, highly suggested.



The rest of the back patio. This shows where we would rest our drinks on the railing and watch the ocean at night before going to bed.



Here's some guy, just walking down the beach with a harpoon and a bag of Lord Knows What. I thought it was pretty cool/weird/interesting. "La la la, heading out with my harpoon now..."





I suppose we have to go back indoors eventually, though, eh? Living room...



More living room.



Yet more living room. I hope the house tour isn't boring you. I wanted shots of everything so I could always remember it all. Anything I don't have a photo of I tend to forget, regardless of how memorable it might be. I also wanted you to really know what everything was like so you could picture it better. I like it when other people show photos of everything, so I figure I ought to do the same.



So, do you want your eggs fresh or frozen this morning? o_0 Apparently we set the fridge too high.



Okay, I lied, there is ONE more shot of the actual day. On our way to Mayaguez we saw the Big Giant Head. Have a Big Giant Head.



So, went to Mayaguez. We had lunch at some Puerto Rican Food Fast Food place whose name escapes me. Then we went to Borders. I didn't buy any books, but I had some sort of extravagant beverage. Karen got a lot of books. Michelle wandered. Martin got an awesome Borders Puerto Rico travel mug. Then we headed home. Each trip to and from there took us about 3 hours, taking the coast road. That night Martin fried up some of Goya's Bacalaitos Mix. Bacalaitos are a codfish fritter that is apparently a traditional thing. We had a mix that said "Just add water and fry." It sounds awful but it was actually quite good. You may want to buy some sometime.

What was Tuesday like? Click and find out.