California 2 Puerto Rico

I know what you were thinking when you read the title to this post. Summer and Stefan are planning a surf trip? They live in a place people take surf trips to! Well, I’m not one to argue that point with you in the winter time, but come summer (rainy season), the swells hitting Rincon (created by the wintertime low pressure systems marching across the states) stop hitting the North West part of the island and Rincon goes from a bustling surf destination to a quiet, tropical paradise for snorkelers. Now, Summer and I both love snorkeling, but we also love surfing and deserve a vacation.

So, here I am, researching a surf trip that Summer and I can take this Summer. We want to go somewhere neither of us has been to yet. We are open to suggestions if you have any for us. The only pre-requisite for a destination is that it must have hi-speed Internet access. Either of us can take the time off from work, so we will be bringing our computers with us.

Here are a few Surf Trip Ideas
• Indonesia
• Nicaragua
• Panama
• Mainland Mexico
• Canary Islands (not Tenerife)

We have some really close friends that are going to Kandui Resort in Indo for two weeks in July. The resort looks absolutely insane. Aside from all the world class waves a short boat ride away from the island, they only allow a certain amount to surfers on the island at a time (limits the amount of people surfing) AND it has high speed Internet.

I have also been doing a bunch of research on Mainland Mexico, specifically Puerto Escondido. I found a cool vacation rental that has high speed Internet, close to the beach, the grocery stores and the waves there are insane. Also, we would be able to put our conversational Spanish to good use and it would be a very budget conscious trip, which is good. I’d like to blow the rest of my money on the house and our trip to Colorado in August.

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I haven’t really noticed exactly what was itching for the past two days (itching is a very common thing this time of year in Puerto Rico because of all the Pica Pica) but I have been scratching as needed. Yesterday, I realized that it wasn’t Pica Pica, that it is some sort of rash, but I don’t know what it is from: sea lice? allergy to another plant?

Have any of you seen this? Can you identify this itchy rash on my back?

The welts I have on my back are from Sea Lice! Crazy, sea lice bites me, but I have never had welts. I guess the sea lice in Puerto Rico is vicious!

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Without even getting into the DIY projects we have around the house (hanging fans, light fixtures, organizing tools) Summer being gone exemplifies to me that it definitely takes teamwork to take care of this house. Man, who’s idea was it to build such a big house?

Kuta and Monkey do a really good job scaring off our neighbors goats on the nightly basis. Don’t take this the wrong way though, the goats are fenced in and can’t come into our yard. But Kuta and Monkey know that they are dangerous beasts so they periodically run outside and bark at them (next to our window) through out the night to deter them from even trying to break out of their pen. Evil goats.

Cheech does a good job killing critters, making sure I don’t sleep all night (attacking face/crotch at the wee hours of the morning) and making sure the house doesn’t get flooded by emptying the toilets on a regular basis.

Team Work Gets the Job Done

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Before Summer took off for California, she started a book called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. Summer rarely starts just one book. But that’s another story. She left this book on the dresser in our bedroom and curiosity got the better of me so (Cheech is rubbing off on me) I picked it up and read the first 20 pages or so. It has some very real social commentary as well as some very real facts regarding American and their eating habits. The interesting angle the authors took on Americas Eating Habits doesn’t just bash us for eating poorly (fast food, processed food, preservatives, steroids), they bash us for eating food, fresh food, that has traveled halfway across the world to be on the shelves of our grocery stores.

At this point of the story, the Protagonist has just upped and moved her family from the rain starved Arizona desert to the South Eastern United States to an old farm she and her husband own. She went from aqueducts and canals keeping the green lawns of the golf courses (i love to play AZ and NV golf courses) bright green year around to running streams, seasons and a local economy that is mostly comprised of farmers.

Summer and I really want to be able to utilize our property and the beautiful year around weather of the tropics to grow food for our household. Granted, we don’t want a working farm that is going to supply us with all of our food, but we would like to subsidize certain things we would normally buy at the grocery store with things we are growing on our property. We also buy all of our produce from the guys selling local fruits/vegetables on the side of the road (I really like the guys stuff out on the 115 heading towards Mayaguez).

I am getting hungry just talking about this. I am going to make a salad. A salad that Summer and I grew

Just kidding, I’m heading to McDonald’s.

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You know how it goes. When the cat is away the mice will play! I decided to pack up the car and head to Las Vegas for some casino, restaurant and some social action. I saw the signs, but never found the big lights of the city. Rumor has it Las Vegas has high rises and spotlights that I thought I’d be able to see from a distance…no such luck. I didn’t find any casinos, or any high rises for that matter. I decided to head over to Mark’s Texas Hold ‘Em game instead, it was fun. I placed fifth.

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AAAAAACK! There are so many mosquitoes in my office today! I definitely have an itchy spot for every hour I have been down here today, not to mention the red slap marks I have all over my back and legs from trying to slap the little suckers.

Note to Self: Prioritize Air Conditioning for Offices and Master Bedroom before summer time and the real mosquito season is in full effect!

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Summer and I both lived alone before we met each other. I lived in a little one bedroom cottage in La Jolla and she lived in a 3 bedroom house in Carlsbad. She worked from home (except when she and Kuta would go to the post office with the daily shipment) and I commuted to downtown San Diego to my office. So, when we moved in together, we both had to get used to having a roommate again. Of course, living with you significant other is different than a run of the mill roommate, but once the honeymoon stage is over you need to get used to each others domestic shortcomings and step up to pick up each others slack (For example: I hate doing laundry and summer hates doing the dishes).

Domestic routines and chores have never been my strong point. I am either OCD clean, or a complete slob. When Summer left for California, my plan was to organize, scrub and set up a routine for both of us to follow so we won’t constantly feel like we are living in a construction zone (with dirty dishes and dirty laundry).

But now that I am here alone, I am finding myself unmotivated to complete this monumental task (3,000 sqft of house, tools and supplies), but not because I don’t feel like doing it, but because I miss my girl. Back to paragraph one, it was nice to have some alone time at the house, but that only lasted about a day, and now I am aching to have my chick back in Rincon at my side. We are such a team. It is rare to see either of us outside of the house unless we are together (not counting my ridiculously early dawn patrol surf session that usually start around 5:15am).

Last night, on my way to the poker home game we love to play (Summer taught me how to play Texas Hold ‘Em Poker), I caught a glimpse of the sunset. It was the nicest sunset I have seen down here in a long time and I really wanted to share the moment with Summer. I pulled the car over, walked down to the beach and fired off a photo to send to my girl (Hallmark doesn’t have anything on the sunsets Rincon is privy to on the nightly basis) telling her that I was thinking about her (no need to dwell on the I miss you part, it makes it harder on both of us). Then it hit me, how selfish am I being? Summer knows I love and miss her, but you guys deserve to see the Caribbean Sunset as much as she does!

So, if it were normal to ‘toast’ to a sunset with our blog instead of a drink, this would be normal;

I toast this beautiful Caribbean sunset to everyone reading our California 2 Puerto Rico blog. I hope you have/will find a love in your life like I have found mine and that you work actively every day to make your wants/desires/dreams a reality!

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Summer and I went to San Juan to have a nice little vacation before she had to hit the road for a few weeks to do some business back in San Diego. We like to stay at the El San Juan Casino in Isla Verde. We receive emails from them with specials, and when we see one that looks good and we’re looking for a break from the house and Rincon…we head to San Juan and enjoy the resort life for a day (sometimes two).

While we were wondering around (with no real place to go) we were checking out menus to see if anything ‘caught our fancy’ for a nice dinner out. We found a really good sushi restaurant in the El San Juan Hotel with great decor, great sushi and nice cold unfiltered sake! Before we headed in there for dinner, we walked past another restaurant in the same hotel that specialized in Northern Italian Cuisine. It was a little pricey, and we figured if they couldn’t spell Surf and Turf properly before they put a $75 price tag on it, they probably couldn’t cook it well either.

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Our Tomato plants live a hard life. They are forced to live in a cage and in that prison they call home, they are constantly under attack; the bugs, the iguanas, the lack of rain, the dogs, the topsoil…and now me. Yummy Tomatoes!

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It seems so long ago that we were trying to get a mortgage for this house that it is hard to believe it has almost been a year since we were approved. It really was a very difficult task getting our mortgage from a Puerto Rico bank. You see, because the house was under construction, no bank would give us a traditional mortgage. They all wanted to give us a Construction Loan (if at all) which would have racked up a 17% interest rate along with hazard insurance, progress reports to the bank and check lists which we would be required to complete on the monthly basis. It was serious stuff, and as this is our first construction venture, we weren’t ready for that type of commitment.

After much research, dozens of phone calls and emails, we got in touch with a Puerto Rico mortgage company which would grant us our loan (traditional, 30 year fixed rate at 6%) but they had a few stipulations to ensure we finished our house and didn’t take the money to the Bacardi factory in San Juan and drown out the noise of our newly purchased generator with rum. They required us to give them about 20% of the homes value in an interest baring CD account with them that they would hold for two years (we make the interest, but our money is tied up) and another 12% as collateral that we would finish the construction to their specifications. It was a bit of a shady situation, but after 6 months of trying for a mortgage (with impeccable credit and a large amount of money saved) we decided if we wanted to buy the Sector Vargas property we were going to have to trust the Puerto Rico mortgage company that would sell our mortgage to Banco Popular as soon as we closed the deal and they made their commisions.

Well, after giving the bank most of our cash/savings, we had to spend our present income on completing the house. This gave us a monthly budget (which we somehow managed to exceed on the regular basis) to complete our bathrooms, kitchen, flooring, electrical, plumbing, excavation etc. Well, come January, we had to hold off on dumping money into the house so we could pay taxes (we are both business owners so the tax man is always a bit of a mystery to us until our fiscal year is done).

Because we exceeded our monthly budget, I spent a good portion of my tax savings on the house, and realized that in order for me to make my taxes on time without penalty, the bank was going to have to issue us our Certificate of Occupancy which would lead to a refund of our initial deposit (about 12%). Summer knew we were going to make it just fine, but we hadn’t finished all of the required items on Banco Populars Popular Mortgage to-do list so I started going into the bank about a month ago telling them that the economy isn’t what it was and that I shouldn’t be required to complete all of the things they want me to do to the house. I talked them into sending an inspector out to the house, and with some well placed barking dogs, the inspector saw everything he needed to see to approve our Certificate of Occupancy!

Banco Popular / Popular Mortgage issued me a refund check on Friday, ten days after approving our Certificate of Occupancy.

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