The Truck is Stuck and Other Car Related Adventures!

Our first car related adventure was all about trying to figure out how to get a driver's license. We were told to expect it to take all day, and had heard various chatter about the requirements so we figured we better start investigating - we also heard that the car sticker (which is similar to a car tab) includes collision/injury insurance but is only good if you have a valid license. What does it all mean? We still aren't sure... We headed out to Aguadilla to find CESCO (Puerto Rican DMV). We went there instead of Mayaguez because Crash Boat Beach is there and we wanted to have some fun time. Just our luck, the system was down and there were no lines! That meant I could bumble along with my labored spanish and get the forms. The forms we hoped would enlighten us and they sort of did. We need the take the drivers written exam and an acutal driver's test. Where do we get the english verison of the drivers test? At the Pharmacy of course. We also need fotos - ?Donde busceamos la tienda por fotos? They told me to go to the barber shop. "No, no, no necesito una pelo corto...necesito fotos " They kept telling me to go to the barbershop and I kept telling them I didn't want my hair cut. We got photos at the barber shop! They sent us to the glass doors down the hall for a $1 and a $10 stamp needed for the licensing paperwork. We collect that. Now we have to get the medical exam...yes a medical exam. For $10 and no waiting they fill out a form that literally had "piernas, brazos, manos" on it which means "legs. arms, hands" and I told them I had contacts and they made up that I had 20/25 vision. So for less than a co-pay we had the last part of the form completed so all we have to do is study and drive. We are hoping we just have to stay in the lines! It'll have to be on another day...
This next adventure happened after our successful day at the beach (the following day).

This is a photo of Jeff chainsawing a banana tree on our upper driveway. After bringing my desk to the top of the house so we could get it in he decided against my advice (my advice is always "do what the locals do"-- Eddie the gas guy drove around our tree so he was pointed in the right direction) to back down the hill. Well he went off the driveway, broke the water pipe and got stuck! Just 5 minutes earlier he had called our friend (and previous owner of our house) to see if he had recycling that need to be taken in. Now he was stuck. After spinning tires and burning rubber the thought was to cut the dam bananas and gently back the truck onto the flat area before he tips it into the gully. But he keeps spinning and spinning... and it gets more and more stuck.

What a surprise. He shuts the water main off and we stack up palm leaves for traction. Not gonna work.

The truck is now two tires off and this is not good. Lucky for us Hamilton decides to rescue us. But his truck is 2 wheel drive also. (just cut the damn bananas) They don't want to cut the bananas so they concoct this "I'll pull you out" scenario which fortunately for us works out just fine.

I am very happy I convinced Jeff we didn't need a new truck...and we are extremely thankful that Hamilton came by to help us out! We had a little beer and the guys were off to recycle! Jeff would have to stop at our local supermarket "Mr. Special" to pick up some pvc pipe to fix the water. Everything here is very practical - water lines are where you can see them so when they break you fix it easily (under 5 minutes this time), supermarkets have pvc pipe and glue, paint, pipe fittings and other hardware-store-type things. It all just works out great... what's gonna happen tomorrow? Hmmmm