Greetings! I am back in San Francisco after a few days on the road with Magale and Nelly and Robert and Nichole and Eva and Doreles and Janelee and Pedro! We visited Magale{s mother and brother and family in a little rural town not even on my Lonely Planet MAP. We stayed in their lovely house. They have a huge farm with guavas, cattle, bananas, plantain, papayas, peppers... of course Magale{s mother had a HUGE feast ready for us. Her beans are the best Ive ever eaten. I just love rice and beans. We picked up a bunch of pork enroute. Same number of people in the car just add STUFF for 10 people. So many mosquitos they would not stop bitingme even even in the middle of the day. so i was coated in OFF the most toxic type i could find.
Probably the highlight of the trip was going to a cock fight training. They train and groom the cocks ¨roosters every day. Yes every day. Magale{s brother has 7 of them at about 5,000 DR dollars or pesos each. divide by 34 so about 150.00 each EACH. they toy with the cocks with another cock and if the trainee gets pecked it gets coated in orange juice . they even give the cocks a type of steroid....amazing. i have photos of all of it. i do plan to go to a cock fight. banned in the USA for good reason. the spurrs are clipped off the cocks and fake ones make of hard plastic or metal are put on about 1 inch long so the birds fight....close to the death. fights are REGULAR occurances every day in fact in the evening and big money is spent on each fight.
I also met a neighbor and her family. her daughter is pregnant, 8 months pregnant at 14 years old. she had a 25 year old boyfriend who promised her...the world and it worked. now she is going to have a baby with no support financially or with a father for the baby and no rules either so no punishment for the man. i visited their basically mud shack next to the river which spilled over within this year and flooded their place. the water was up to their waists. i am going to send Amber a frizbee. we played outside for a longtime and i will try to send her baby girl a present too.
sadly they live in SUCH a rural location that there is NO MAIL. Wow! So I will send it to family in Yonkers, NY to bring when they come.
FinallyI have decided NOT to go to Haiti for a number of reasons but mostly because I am afraid. Usually I do not let fear stop me but I think if and when I do go to Haiti I will go with someone from there OR with an organized trip. Im not keen on organized anything but I dont feel like traveling in fear and the US Govt warning is VERY VERY harsh at the moment and I figured it aint worth it. I thought there would be more families in DR with Haitian workers but much to my dismay there are not.
My friend Duncan from Franklin, MA met me for 10 days and he offered to rent us a car which is basically a requirement to see any of Puerto Rico. We took full advantage of it as well. The first night he arrived and met me in San Juan. We stayed at Casa del Caribe in Condado, the touristy section of San Juan.
Nice beach, lots of sushirestaurants and just a skip to Old San Juan. We were there during the Celebration of San Sabastian so the streets were filled with over 300,000 people with musicians and lots of young people and lots of partying and wonderful street food.
We toured Old San Juan, El Morro, The Fort.
We visited the Bacardi Factory which was an interesting story about the symbol of the Bat being their logo.
The owner's wife noticed bats in the ceiling of the storage facility in Cuba and decided
to give it a fruit bat because i
t symbolized health, happiness and family. Lots of free rum samples and the mojito (ru
m, club soda, mint, and sugar and lime) s probably my favorite.
We then picked up our rental car last minute. I totally forgot they closed at 5:30 pm
and we barely made it. Pheww just in time for this brand
new 4 door white Toyota Yaris with 1500 miles on it. We drove to Rio Grande to stay at this Wyndam Resort package I picked up for 4 days/3 nites. It was SPECTACULAR and normally 3-400.00 per night. so a nice splash right off
the bat.
I must admit the beds we slept in were THE MOST comfortable beds we have ever slept in. We had a room facing the El Yunque National Forest mountains but.....were upgraded to a grand ocean
view overlooking to pool and palms and lovely surf.
We met a nice family fromNY, went to town to get food, mostly mangos and there was this great line of PR local food stalls on Loquillo Beach just east of our resort hotel. We ate there frequently, crab, rice and eans, pina colada, and tacos filled with (camarones) shrimp or juelo(crab) . great great place.
Unfortunately, Duncan really hurt his food on a Jacuzzi so was a bit immobilized at first but it worked out since we were at this ritzy hotel.
Then we headed to Fajardo. We stayed at the Anchor Inn, run by a French woman.
Black/red decor nothing to write home about but we went on this Bioluminescent Bay tour. It is in Las Cabezas de San Juan nature Reserve. These are microorganisms that glow like little fireflies MILLIONS AND TRILLIONS OF THEM. The best time to see them is when it is darkest so just before new moon so we timed it PERFECTLY. There are only 10 of these places around the world and 3 of them are in
Puerto Rico. They have now banned swimming in the lagoons that have these microorganisms but....we
kayaked through them and swished our hands in the water and ........watched FISH and skates swimming, and flying fish jumping out of the water illuminated by all of these little sparkles. It was absolutely
amazing. It was in a lagoon surrounded by mangroves and with a 3-4 km waterway entrance/exit so no manatees or boats allowed. Amazing just amazing. $47.00 pp.
South coast of PR
We would have liked to go to Culebra or Vieques Islands but since we had the rental car we decided to stick with the off
beaten trek and travel around the island. So we drove through El Yunque National Forest
and along the eastern coast. We bought mangos LOTS OF MANGOS. Delicious and $2.00 each same is in Maine
but.....quite ripened. Bill gave me a Swiss Army knife as a going away present and can I just say that that has been
soooooo handy so far this trip. I use it to cut fruit and use my Frisbee as a plate. Fantastic. I think Duncan thought I was
crazy initially when he saw how little I packed and what I brought but I am quite sure he has grown to appreciate my
backpackers sense.
Anyway we made it along Rte.3 heading west mostly eating
food from street vendors which is cheapest and most delicious. I saw 5 star fruit for $1.00 on the side of the road and we
stopped to buy them. The woman had on a Maine State prison t-shirt. Go figure. She and her husband moved to
PR 20 years ago from the US and never left. they make and repair sails. Anyway she told us of a cheap hotel west of Santa Isabel for $28.00/nite. Turned out to be for US military to visit with acquaintances shall we say.
We found a place and it was $28.00/6hrs. We decided to
look around the area and came across Motel Marebella which was $32.00 for 12 hours
Monday-Wednesday so we got a deal. The way this motel works is you pull into the
parking garage and close the door. And then pay through the little window with your credit
card. Very private and very regulated time wise. Lots of mirrors so it was quite a hoot for Duncan and I to experience and we wondered how this type of business would do on the continental US?
For dinner that night we had fruitos naturales frappes. I had a coconut/pineapple one and he had a strawberry coconut one. DELICOUS indeedy!
We spent the AM in Ponce, with lots of historical buildings, a castle and a famous baseball
team. We took a trolley tour of the city which was a nice way to see it AND had crescents at a little pastry shop in the morning.
La Playuela Beach
Unfortunately things did
n’t work out as I had hoped to stay with David Fishman, a
high school classmate from Gould. He and his partner have a guesthouse in Guanica and
not only were full but their house was too. And I had also hoped perhaps to stay with Nan Bradshaw and her sister in S
an German but...that didn’t work out either so.....Duncan and I carried on on our own. We took all of the off beaten
little roads, jikka jikka (south African term for driving around) to spots that looked interesting. So we decided to visit the southwest corner of PR Cabo Roho and las salinas (salt flats) and a lighthouse with an adjacent beach called La Playuela or some call it Playa (beach) Sucia.
The water was PERFECT temperature and clear as
glass and the brightest most beautiful turquoise blue you ever have seen. We swam an
d played Frisbee for a few hours and this nice PR family gave us each a beer. Best beer we had on the whole trip. Many people we met like this beach better than those on Culebra so I do hope one day to make a comparison.
Eugene and Jimmy
We continued driving along the west coast and visited many more beaches and fishing/beach communities including Combate Beach, Boqueron and Joyuda. We ended up staying in Boqueron in Panador Boqueron. We shared a Caribbean langusta (lobster) 1.5 lbs PLUS fixings for $36.00 gulp!!!! at Galloways a cool pub/restaurant right on the water.
Then we settled into our hotel room, made some rum and guava juice drinks and walked the beach and down town little area. I was wearing my PERRY MAINE shirt and we ended up talking to a bunch of Americans (semi retired) sailors. Eugene from VT who spends 6 mos in the Carib on his 54 foot power boat gave me the contact phone number of a good friend of his in DR so that was great. And one of the guys has been living on the beach doing carpentry work and fixing boats for 20 years. He is from Machias, Maine and named Jimmy. Didnt catch his last name.
The beach here was beautiful. Just beautiful. Lots of retired Americans walking the beach and settling down reading books and drinking their .25 cent coffees. Nice atmosphere. Puerto Ricans are VERY friendly and FUN people we found.
Ferry and Rincon
We headed north through Mayaguez and since we went right by the ferry terminal we decided to stop. Great idea. I bought my ticket to and from DR for $198.00 return NO CHANGE DATE or $100 to change gulp. You must by two way ticket to DR or have flight out of DR for customs. And $10 cash to get into DR (Dominican Republic) and $20.00 cash to get back TO PR. Yikes! The ferry leaves at 8pm on Monday Jan 26 and I will return on Tuesday mar 3. I thought Grace was planning to meet me in PR on Mar 4 so I went ahead and booked return for Mar 3. Unfortunately she is not able to get away from work but I think this will work out nicely. I hope to visit with Bart, maybe see David and these new friends in San Juan before I head home.
Well then we spent an afternoon in Rincon visiting different beaches in search of surfers. It was soooooo cool to watch them surf. I have never really watched it. When we were in Rio del Mar we had really really nice waves for body surfing but the waves off of Rincon are HUGE. We did find a beach to swim at and I caught a little crab on the beach. The men and women who surf have PERFECT yes PERFECT physiques and no wonder. What an amazing sport. I am too afraid to ever try it but I must admit I enjoyed watching them "catch the best waves" and admire the bods.
Central PR
Duncan was not keen at first to go inland but I convinced him that maybe a few hours driving through the rain forest would be a nice change from all the beaches and swimming. PR is so amazingly diverse in just a few hours drive it is incredible for an island of 3 million people and about 100 miles long by 40 miles wide. The roads and stop lights however make it MUCH longer....
so in a down pour we headed inland. lush rain forest. bamboo everywhere, lots of fruit trees, oranges (chinas), mangos, grapefruit, bananas......amazing. And the roads.......well Duncan hates heights so he really did well driving through these windy windy did i say windy roads. We ended up at a little place $40 on top of a pizza place in Utuado. Nothing fancy but a good price. we ended up visiting a wonderful Patricia's Hacienda a coffee plantation owned by a man in Ponce and in 2007 was recognized as THE best coffee in PR. Louis the care tender made us fresh coffee and then his buddy Bart arrived and used to work in Connecticut so we had a nice visit. He is 72. Same age as my father. he couldn’t have been more friendly and hospitable. Louis gave us a grand tour of the coffee plantation/factory and Bart interpreted. Bart has several horses, farms, dances, drinks homemade rum and is just a really nice man. He said on my way back from DR I could stay with him. I cannot wait! I plan to do so.
So Duncan and I bought FRESHLY ground coffee at $12.00/lb to bring home as prezzies to share with our coffee drinking friends. I may drink this though. Yummy and no preservatives or additives. All handpicked and processed. The view from the factory was spectacular looking through he rainforest and out to the ocean. absolutely amazing. It was so amazing that it took my breath away and brought huge tears to my eyes.
I hope to return mar 3 and go dancing with Bart! He said he'd fetch me in Mayaguez.
So we make our way through winding roads along the Ruta Panamoramica which goes the entire length of PR. We traveled about 1/3 of it which took several hours, nerves of steel, a good car and good luck but .......back to the beach we headed. Duncan really liked La Playuela Beach so for his last farewell we went back but prepared with pork and rice and fried banana for food, a dozen Medalla light cervazas (beers), good sun block, Frisbee and back to our tree. And....there were our friends the Blancos and all their kids, grandkids and friends with coolers and coldest beers ever. We greeted them, drank beer with them visited, compared the NY Yankees to the Red Sox and had a grand time. We played lots of Frisbee in the Caribbean sea which was delightful.
So then I hear this voice and turn around and behind a few bushes are Nan and Dean Bradshaw and her sister Kathy and husband. This is THEIR favorite beach. Go figure. We had a nice little visit and I hope to catch up with them for a beach day on Monday before I head to DR. We will see if that works out or not!
We then watched teh sunset over the Caribbean Sea and headed east to sleep, repack and have Duncan headed out on time and in the right direction in am. He left me in Ponce to carry on...........not sure when I can add a blog again. But thanks for reading.
Dear All, WOW OH WOW! Dominican Republic is my type of country. Lots of great street food and dancing. Oh my goodness. Everyone dances 7 days a week here and all night. It is amazing. From Mayaquez I walked 3 miles in 91 degrees weather to the ferry terminal. En route a bird pooped on my head so I decided that was a sign of good luck. While trying to find the sleeping chairs on the Deck 6 of the Ferry I met 2 PR from Springfield, MA Grace home town. THe ONLY punctuation that works on this keyboard is . nothing else works. ok so their friend Magale is a hairdresser adn was visitinig them at their home in PR and invited them for a week to her home in San Francisco DR. Well they invited me along so along I went. I also met another mother and 18 year old daughter from Santa Domingo who invited me to stay with them so...I think I will meet them on Sunday. I am spending a week with Magale, her friends, her two daughters, daughter in law, 3 grandkids and we are eating, drinking, dancing, and touring around the north of the country. Pretty nice of them to include me actually. Yesterday we had bread and mayo for breakfast with coffee then we went to an aunts house for a HUGE feast of rice and beans and meat and salad and bread pudding and choc cake for dessert. then we drove to Santiego and Moca to look around. The countryside is HUGE mountains with falleys of rice fields, sugar cane fields, banana fields, and people ont he side of the road with woven rugs but they are blankets for horses actually. When we first arrived we drove aroudn Santa Domingo which is GORGEOUS and huge hotels right on the water. Larimar is a mineral rock that is oNLY mined in DR so I hope to pick up a ring or something. Prices are similar to US so it is not really inexpensive. Well for large ticket items. Yesterday I had designs painted on my toenails for 1.50 US. USDollar 1.00 is equivelent of 34 DR pesos so you need a calculator to figure stuff out plus I can oly count to ten. Magale{s daughter Doreles is a lawyer AND is a host of a sex education tv show with a doctor who invited me to stay with her for 1 to 3 months to teach her english. i said maybe my mom would be interested so she may come. ive hardly taken any photos because we were driving around. we ate at a side road restaurant last nite for 860.00 dr or about 25 us dollars we had 2 platters of MEAT JUST MEAT liver, beef and pork with tostadas on the side mashed plaintain fried bits and beer lots of beer El Presidente served in a large bottle for 3.00. it was neat. the meat is on a large platter and you take what you like with your fork and they put lime all over it. it was delicious. best liver i have ever eaten. ok...we are all yes ALL off to see Magale{s mother in the north rainforest where exactly im not sure. we have a honda crx with 3 in the front seat 4 in the back seat and 3 more in back 7 adults and 43 kids in one car PLUS luggage. i cant wait to see how this works. stay well oh.........it is 90 degrees and SUNNY SUNNY did I say SUNNY with intermittent rain showers here and there and TROPICAL fruit at your finger tips everywhere. when i come home we will make tropical fruit frappes. fruit, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, ice, cinnamon, vanilla. oh my goodness delicious! muchos besos )many kisses, Georgie oh oh oh on the ferry hterew were shows. live DR music and dancing and a show like my Mom and I saw in Cuba with all the frilly scantily dressed women. shaking maracas and giving them to men to shake in thea udience while they shook their booties that were bare inside fishnet stalkings and silver sequined gstrings .................wow is right!
I made it to Mayaguez but my public transportation cost me $50.00. What a nightmare. The good news is that the tourist information center here is THE BEST. Blanca R. Rivera Mercado and I have become fast friends. She gave me a grand tour of Mayaguez and took me to the market as well and showed me the best places to eat true Puerto Rican fare. I am going to walk to the Porto (ferry ) this afternoon and eat some good food enroute as well. Blanca is practicing her English and speaks very well actually. She encouraged me to correct her as she talked about the architecture and culture of Mayaguez. She is building a house in Cabo Rojo near Boqueron which is a nice beach area. She believes I am very strong to quit my job and decide to travel alone for a few months. She likes my type of travelling as well-with a backpack and keeping money as local as possible for the people. She said that PR has 32 varieties of mangos, 32 imagine! But the season is in the summer months. I have baby bananas and coconut for my journey by ferry. Wish me luck. The crossing between Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic is very rough water acutally but the ferry is a large one so it should be ok.
Dear All, Wow! I couldnt figure out how to access my blog at this library in Ponce from Google but Debra Bailey put it on my www.kendallfarmcottages.com and I accessed it from there, yay! Thanks Debra. My friend Duncan left today! Adios Duncan. I hoped to travel to San Germain today to meet up with Nan Bradshaw but NO PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION ON Sat & Sunday so hopefully I can catch them in the morning! We've been driving around in a car which was just fabulous and now I am going through withdrawals that my friend and my mode of transportation are gone. I spent much of the day talking with Diana, the front desk clerk at the Hotel I am staying in Ponce central. Today is a BIG baseball game and if Ponce wins they will be the best in all of Puerto Rico so a big street party is taking place. it is also the celebration of January 25 when many firefighters died fighting a fire that destroyed much of Ponce in 1800s.
I met a really sweet dog. Gave him the rest of my pork from my food last night and now whenever I walk through the park he greets me and follows me. I would take him home if I could. Very sweet disposition. skinny and covered in fleas. poor thing.
ok Duncan said he'd post some news from the last week weve been on the road. not easy to find internet access especially free and functioning access. im off to DR tomorrow! Cheers, Georgie
Hello everyone! So much to do and so little time and.....finding a cyber cafe doesnt seem to be my priority. So far we have had 80 degree weather. A few showers in the past few days but it feels good. My flight from Boston was streamlined to a T. I arrived at 859 am for my flight at 2pm which was not going to get in until 1130 pm which is a bit dodgy to arrive so late. I went up to the desk and she checked me into the 930 am flight that was NOW boarding so I walked right through security the gate and onto the plane in 15 minutes and they put my backpack in a big bag. Everyone's luggage was wet practically except mine. Anyway I stayed at Casa del Caribe in Condado which was a frizbee toss from a giant beach. The area reminded me of Cancun but just not as much glam and glitz but expensive. PR is like USA as far as prices however you can get lots of delicious pollo (chicken) cooked on the streets and other delicious fried meat pies etc. It is the Festival of San Sabastian so the streets in Old San Juan have 300,000 people on them from Thursday - Sunday. I met Duncan at the airport on Friday and we made our way out into the jungle of people and live bands. It was absolutely positively THE wildest street party I have ever attended. Mardi Gras, Bourbon Street........nothing to compare......... fun fun festive and again good food beautifully dressed young people and wonderful music of the Caribbean. We visited El Morro a HUGE fort in Old San Juan and walked the streets with gorgeous houses and cast iron balconies draped with tropical orchids. Now we are at the "Wyndam vacation package" for 4 days at http://www.wyndhamriomar.com/
I have never stayed at this fancy of a hotel. We have a view on the 6th of 7 floors of the rainforest (no way for me to get photos onto this system) and maybe if we are lucky we will be upgraded to an ocean view on the 7th floor. We will see. But for 3 days we have perfect sandy beach, bars by the pool, many pools, jacuzzis, and we visited the Bacardi Factory yesterday. largest rum producer in the world. drank our share of different rum cocktails, Cuba Libre (rum and coke w/lime) and Mojitos (rum, sugar, mint, lime juice and club soda) my favorite. So we bought a bottle and joined a family of 17 from Long Island, NY who are here for a week and an African American man from DC who wanted to get away from DC because of the inauguration... and a refueling pilot from Ohio. The two men were having disputes with their girlfriend/wives and joined us at out little outdoor party. Very cool. Sadly Duncan ripped several layers of skin off the bottom of his foot getting into the jacuzzi so I am off to the store to find some medicine for him and then we will have our mango and pizza for bfast and hit the beach! Besos galore, Georgie PS I am not sure how often I will be posting on this journey so...just give it a check when you have a chance and I hope you are warm and well at home.
Wow, what a beautiful day. Sweet Dr. Bill left me a message asking how The First Day of the Rest of My New Life was going...cute eh! This is my first day home after resigning from my job. Today the snow has fallen all day. It is the fluffiest puffiest snow I have ever seen. Kendall Farm is more beautiful than ever. I think my home keeps getting more and more beautiful to me. It is good however that I am spending the day on my own because I am feeling all kinds of emotions. I feel fearful about the country and my economic state for 2009 but also excited, exhilerated actually about my plan to open a small biz this summer. And of course absolutely petrified about making The Red Sleigh successful.
Though the iceboating is over and I was not able to get out there as much as I would have liked, my friend Peter had a chance to sail most good days ANd go night sailing. I have done that a few times myself and it is a really different sensation--bright night sky and only the wind and the sound of the blades on the ice. So although the snow is spectacular I am sorry I missed the final window of opportunity to sail before my trip.
Today I walked to Wildflower Cottage and fixed some plastic frames that we put over the windows. Squash followed right along over to the cottage. Squash decided to climb the ladder. What a riot. He did it three times. He sat on the upper rungs facing front with his back paws balancing him from behind. So I was there of course to fix the frames that protect the screens. What did Squash do? Of course he decided to jump from the ladder to the window to the ground and ripped the screen, the whole purpose of my trek. My favorite little brat :)
Hope you are enjoying the snow and your favorite little brat(s).
What did you do on New Year's Eve day? My friend Peter graciously fixed our iceboat just in time for a glorious run across the lake on New Year's Eve day. The ice on Boyden Lake is just beautiful. I think there is 16+ " out there with no ruts from vehicles and miraculously no holes. I think Peter and Greg sailed all day even after dark they were out there. Ice boating is addictive. It is like sugar or love. When it is good it is reallllllly good and you cannot get enough of it but the window of opportunity is short so you must take advantage of it. We do. Peter and Greg are talented sailors. They whiz across the lake in seconds.
NYE night I waitressed at The Hansom House. We had sixty dinner reservations. The restaurant was so beautifully decorated with lovely holiday centerpieces on the tables and an array of differently designed Christmas bulbs suspended from the ceilings. It is like walking into a fairy wonderland especially when it is cold and snowy outside and the fire is warm inside. It is just delightful. My Mom helped decorate me for the occasion in sparkling pants and a headband and I wore an antique pin from my Grandma K's collection. At midnight there were 15 of us, friends and family gathered together to ring in the new year. We drank champagne, wore our party hats, made lots of noise with our noise makers, toasted and hugged all around. It was a Dennysvill Cheers episode. It was such a fun night I was so happy to be part of it.
