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!!!