Merry Christmas from Puerto Rico and Not a Gandule in Sight

With our Maria tree loaded with xmas balls, our fake chickens and real cat in the background the day was as glorious as they all are here, but a little on the "cool" side - 72. It hasn't rained any real rain in weeks and weeks. Last year at this time had afternoon downpours!


The color of this photo makes the food look funky, but I made roast turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (hoard the fresh fruit if you can find it), gravy, candied yams with mini marshmallows on top, bread, stuffing, sugar cookies with almonds and a pecan bar I really didn't like that was made with walnuts because I couldn't find pecans! Anyway, a traditional meal for us. No rice, no gandules (my shrubs got scale and are pretty ratty looking). We did have some wonderful arroz con dulce that Hamilton and his wife brought over (previous home owners and friends) Canela, raisins and yum yum yum.

Our friend and neighbor Awilda came over for dinner. Her husband is in the national guard in Honduras right now. Her house is at the bottom of the driveway and is very well kept with the best christmas decorations!

Xmas brought us all the caving gear we need - harnesses, rope, crolls, racks, clips and clamps and ascenders and figure 8 rings etc. Stuff we are learning to use so we can rappel into bat shit filled holes in the ground and travel in darkness for miles! We are very excited. A HUGE thank you to Ivan for coming with us to the gear store (Adventuras Tierras) after rappelling practice. He prearranged some pricing that met and beat on line prices. He guided us through the choices of things that we really know little about. Just a note about Adventuras...they offer some really neat day trips. When we bought our house a couple years ago we did the canyoning trip where we rappelled, rock climbed, zip lined, dropped 50 feet into the water from a cable and it was a blast! Highly recommend them as safe and super fun!

Awilda took some shots of us together (we don't have many since one of us is usually doing the activity and the other is photo-ing). So take a look Washington State friends...5pm in Puerto Rico in December means skimpy clothes, bright sun and flip flops!!!

Xmas on the Island...

Xmas has been happening here since around November when we first saw xmas trees at Sam's Club. There was one tree outside in a kind of tree lot and the rest were in a refrigerated container. Not something we are used to seeing! After Thanksgiving the came the Ur ur ur ur early bird sale which started the shopping season off at around 5 or 6 am. When I first heard the ad on the radio it cracked me up because I understood it...it had rooster sounds and then some words that essentially meant "early bird" sale! Very funny! Then came the santa caps. Our neighbor lady was working in her yard (machete in hand as always) in 80+ degrees with a santa cap on. Here are a couple santa caps in action... the first was at an intersection with kids asking for donations for something (not sure what) and the second was in Mayaguez at Ricomini's "home of the jelly rolls" we are addicted to.

A few days ago we started just driving around to see what was up behind our house and in the general area. Then we took an evening stroll in our immediate neighborhood to look at xmas lights and decorated houses. There are some nice homes with very nice yards on our street and some of those yards have very unusual plants in them. One house has a strange gourd tree and a tree with some interesting hanging beads of fruit. This first house had lights everywhere and of course the xmas tree on the front porch. This house was decorated very nicely and I just love the lit up palm trees!

This pretty little house has really nice ironworks, a meticulous yard and poinsettias (which look like yucca plants to me) hanging under each arch. I like to stroll around looking for ideas for our yard and also to meet people who live nearby so we can at least take a walk and they will know we belong here.

We took an afternoon to tour our own city - San German. There is some wonderful architecture that is only seen by walking and on weekends there are fewer cars so it is easier to drive and park. The town has two plazas which is an unusual layout. There were xmas displays (trees) and the 3 Kings of course. 3 Kings day I think is January 6. One of the kings was taking a ride in the back of a truck to another location I think! It was odd to me that a xmas tree was in the plaza next to a live, beautiful tree that could have been but wasn't decorated!

The 3 Kings may be the inspiration for the creepy mascot that Burger King has. Kind of scary. So I had to include the creepy king head in some images just for fun!

The kings were very large (except the little statue in the first picture - bottom right) and kind of creepy looking.

One thing I love here is that there are colorful houses. In Washington everything was grisly grey, barf brown or some variation there of...here there is real color. Many people spend a lot of time on their porches and a lot of people have their xmas trees there.

Well that's it for xmas - we think - we haven't heard any fiestas today but boy there have been some loud ones. Lots of music and singing and instrument playing and fireworks going on for weeks now. I wonder what new year's eve and 3 Kings day will be like...musical I am sure!