The House on the Hill - Our New Home

My earlier posts talked about the correspondence we'd had with Eric, the home-owner, before we came to Vieques. You might recall in that post that I said we'd be staying in a guest apartment to which I had thought something like, wow, a whole apartment to ourselves, must be quite a nice place. Normally, if anything, we stay in a guest room when we house-sit, so for the place to have a completely separate living quarters, my imagination ignited.

I had also included in that post a panoramic photo that Eric sent to us which contained two houses planted in the middle of a hilly green landscape (re-posted above), of which beneath he had written, "the one in the middle is where you'll be staying."

What did that mean? He didn't say "that's where we are" or something like that. I focused in on that 'you'.

Chase was dismissive of the comment, but for me it fueled the fire, proving the assumptions that I had formed that the guesthouse was completely separate from the main house. Not only that, it also meant that the grand mansion, or hacienda, to the left was HIS house, and that the other one, not as fancy but still prominent, would be ours! I also assumed that we'd be able to come and go from that big hacienda of theirs and enjoy whatever extra comfort it had to offer.

View to our neighbour's hacienda from the orchard - much further
away than I thought

So, I thought I was set, because no matter how primitive the rest of the island was going to be, it wouldn't matter, because I was going to be in house-sitter heaven.

Well, that big hacienda? Of course, that's the neighbour's house, as Chase and any sensible person would've realised from the beginning.

The house in the middle is Eric's house plus the guesthouse. The whole thing is built into a hill and the guest house is tucked underneath the main house.

And while it's all quite nice and comfortable, it's no mansion. But it wasn't built to be one (vis-à-vis the house next door); it was just built to be this guy's refuge from the world at large, and obviously for him it suits perfectly.

The owner, Eric, is quite eccentric, as artists are known to be, and in this manner he has built for himself and his wife (who is already back in New York) a strangely befitting island house. He was quite boastful about how he built a lot of things himself and how he watched over the whole process because the Viequense aren't really reliable. It sounds like a real nightmare to get something built out here and to get it built well. Most materials have to be shipped out here because there's not much choice here and things can get mucked up in the process. It's pretty cool but I do think he made it out to sound grander than it was; though I guess to every man the saying is true, a house is his castle, and when you've had major input it really does becomes your baby.

In the upstairs main living quarters, in his uncanny design, roller doors replace any windows - and walls for that matter - on the three sides pointing towards the view. When the doors are up the living area completely opens out to the elements - no screens or balconies, and the view melds into the furnishings. In the back is the kitchen, bathroom, laundry and a bedroom. There's also a loft containing another bed and Eric's work area. It's quite an interesting design, who would've thought roller doors on a house? Not only that, it's a pretty good alternative to bars on the windows - nobody's going to be breaking into that one.

In keeping with the tropical vibe, the floors are tiled and the walls are whitewashed concrete with dark wood doors, frames and rafters. His 3-D art adorns most walls, but my favourite is a huge painting as you walk in the door with a brilliant splash of burning red popping out of it. He also has a lot of antique furniture and bit's and pieces that fill out the space and make it quirky.

Our apartment is much smaller, but still roomy and it's quite cute really, but a little dull compared to upstairs. The rooms flow into one another through cased openings making it feel much larger and the living room and kitchen at the front contain large french doors (screened and glass). The bedroom in the back is open to the living room and to a small closet area which leads to the bathroom - the only room with doors - and back to the kitchen. The first thing I noticed was the TV (but expectedly, no reception) and a DVD player. There was also a bookshelf bursting with books and we were also connected to the internet - my saviour! Surely there would be enough here to satisfy my boredom.

This was ultimately quite comfortable and very adequate for us; really, what more could one ask for? But I was a little disappointed (and I'm not talking about my earlier mix-up with the houses). The problem was, we were regulated to the guesthouse - just the guesthouse. Upstairs, and its contents, would be off-limits during our stay.

Part of the fun of house-sitting is getting to live in someone's nice house and pretend it's yours for a while, and while I shouldn't grumble, it's free, we are still working for our rent - looking after the property. And in that respect, I feel more like free labour than house-sitters.

But while I was urked at first I'm over it now, especially considering we found a few things about upstairs that wouldn't make it comfortable for us. For one, there's no air-conditioning, and there is actually an air-conditioning unit in the wall of our apartment (though it doesn't work very well, it's still available if we need it). And while with the roller doors up you can get an awesome breeze flowing through, with no screens, I wouldn't like all the bugs and mosquitos coming in, especially at night, and it still gets pretty hot up there in the afternoon with the sun blazing straight at it as it sets.

I do understand a little of where he's coming from, he has people do this every year and he's had a number of people that I guess have been a little less than trustworthy. And it could've been worse. There is a little dusty old tin casita on the property - that could've been our home!

But forget all that, the best part of this place, without a doubt, is the view. From up here you look down over the property and out over what seems is all of Vieques and to the sea beyond. On clear days, you can see the outline of the mountains of the Sierra de Luquillo range on the mainland, and it really is impressive.

The second - or equal - best part is the dogs.

Finally some dogs to take care of after a plethora of cats (the last being four at once!) to house-sit. But I was pretty apprehensive at first, it was three rottweilers. And it took me longer than the average person to realise what three rottweilers means: these weren't just pets - they were guard dogs...

But I hung on to the fact that Eric had said they were "loveable" in his ad, and turns out he was right. The best surprise was that they weren't all big, one had recently died and they had a new little dog - Jasper, a stray they found in Colorado (what a contrast). She is a wiry miniature doberman-type mutt and she is cute and full of mischief - just the way I like them. The other two dogs are huge, and scary looking, but luckily they took to us. Oprah is getting on and isn't as agile anymore, she usually hangs out by herself, but Auggie is strong and likes a lot of attention. The first thing he did when he came over to me was practically push me over as he sat his big hefty hind on my foot!

Auggie getting the love from Chase, Oprah lying down, and Jasper getting into everyone's business in the front

The property is quite large, 14 acres, but only about 7 are useable, and it would be really nice if it wasn't parched like the rest of the land on this island. I felt like I was out at my sister's husband's family farm in Cobar instead of on a tropical island orchard, except where that was flat, this was hilly, and in place of gum trees there were tangled vines and tropical fruit trees. But the orange and yellow that tinged the surroundings and the dust that kicked up at your heels as you walked, that was just the same.

The photo above is taken from the bottom of a small steep slope that drops off not far from the front of the house. At the far end in the photo the orchard curves down the hill to the left on a long steep section that ends at the bottom of the driveway by the gate. We took a wander down there on our first day and I had my first encounter with ant-hills on the island. Luckily they weren't fire ants - which I hear are so much worse, no, just regular old stinging ants, but it was enough to ensure my absense from the orchard from here on out.

The orchard consists mostly of lime trees, quite a few, along with a three or four starfruit trees and a couple of cashew and olive trees. The cashew trees were the most interesting - and most useless, things growing. I didn't know that a cashew grew at the bottom of a big red apple-like fruit, and just one per apple. It's also encased in a hard, poisonous shell. Eric was telling us there was a whole process of roasting the nut to get the shell off and remove the poison. No wonder they were so expensive to buy! Funnily enough Eric was trying to roast them himself. I think I'd leave it to the professionals, the same with the olives, but I guess he was enjoying the novelty of it. There was also a guanabana, sometimes called guyabano, tree which was a completely new fruit for me. In English it's called a soursop tree, which some people might be more familiar with.
The orchard would need to be mowed regularly and the trees watered when it didn't rain, which, considering the state of things, was going to be quite often at present. This wouldn't be a fun task as we had to water each tree by hand with the hose, and the mowing would be quite a precarious task. On such a steep hill you need to mow backwards, otherwise you could lose control.

L-R, T-B: guanabana, pineapple, chillies & cashews

Up by the house was also a small vegetable garden full of blooming cherry tomatoes and rows of basil. There was also rocket (arugula), chinese cabbage, eggplant and some fine looking red chillies (not that I'd be having anything to do with those). An attempt at a bean vine wasn't doing too well, Eric thinks the iguanas got into them, but the lettuce was still going strong near them. I just wished there was some coriander (cilantro), that's my favourite, and is a key ingredient to my guacamole.

Speaking of, where was the avocado tree he'd told us about? There were a bunch of fruit trees speckled across the property. I saw two large mango trees. They already had mangoes dripping off of the branches and I was salivating just looking at them, but they were too small and hard to eat just yet. The banana trees and papaya trees were accounted for, we were looking forward to those; and then there was the pomegranates down by the gate and a passionfruit vine climbing the pergola in the courtyard, which weren't much use to us, we're not really a fan of either, but it was nice to have them. There was even a pineapple sitting plump in the middle of a clump of fronds like it didn't really belong there, for some reason I thought they grew like coconuts.

Then we saw the avocado tree - a little bitty thing, still an infant, almost inconspicuous. That wasn't even worth mentioning! There wasn't going to be any fruit from that for a couple of years. No guacamole. Oh well, we had tonnes of other fruit to fill us up with.


Bananas; mangoes and basil; mangoes with a view; and papaya trees

The courtyard, just outside our door, is a really nice little area and a great place for entertaining or just relaxing. The pergola as I mentioned above is covered a passionfruit vine on one end and the other with a Puerto Rican climber that blooms with lovely purple flowers in two tones. Underneath is a picnic table and hammock which catches a wonderful breeze. There's also a BBQ area with a home-made brick grill. This is all fringed by a tropical garden and punctuated by three big palm trees.

 So our only pertinent duties will be to keep the main areas mowed up, and if we didn't do it regularly it'd get away on us. Eric seemed jaded by his last lot of sitters not keeping up with things. If only we could've made him see that we would be his best house-sitters ever things could've started out a lot easier. The other tasks would be maintaining the garden and caring for the dogs. Oprah has a bunch of medicine she needs to take but the other two will be easy to look after.

Of course, for most of this when I say "we" I mean "Chase". Chase of course would be doing the mowing and the trimming and fixing anything that needed fixing. I could help with feeding the dogs and the vegetable garden, but the rest was him. My job wasn't much more than hanging out - and writing, hopefully.

 With that in mind I was a little anxious. I was already balking at writing and things were stirring deep within me, even though I tried to suppress them. It was different here, really different, like a completely foreign world, and it was awfully primitive.

Chase was set though, he thrives in the wilderness. He had plenty of work to keep him busy it seeemed - in between naps in the hammock.

Old San Juan - A Graceful Old Lady

This has to be one of the most charming Old Towns I've ever been to.

I won't say "the best" because I know there's a lot of competition for that title. For starters, Stockholm's Gamla Stan is a great one, Prague also is enchanting. But it's been a long time since I've been to Stockholm and time being a fickle thing, has blurred it in my memory. And Prague? Beautiful, yes, but for me, she's a bit too exuberant; too many architectural styles competing for attention crammed together. It's also not so well maintained. Madrid, the capital of the colonial homeland, didn't hold a candle to Old San Juan either, though that's more of what I had expected when I went there. And sure, there's plenty of other old towns I haven't been to yet, but something about this old town has just me won over.

It's the profusion of colour abounding in Old San Juan that initially sucks you in, and the clean-cut architecture. The buildings aren't particularly intricate, but their simple design and bold colours are striking. There are a handful of lavish buildings that are majestic and tastefully done. Other than that, only now and then is there a hint of ornateness in the window trim or the balcony to set it off. Most buildings are only 2 or 3 stories high but they still seem to loom above you. Matched with the opaque blue cobblestone streets, winding down the steep hilly slopes in a mirage of colour it produces an Alice-in-Wonderland type awe. You turn a corner expecting to find the hide of the white rabbit dashing around the next corner.

Of course the magic of this city lies also in it's deep history. It's some 460 years old and is the second oldest European city in the Americas. It still contains a large portion of the wall that once surrounded the entire city.  It's 7-square-block area has evolved into a charming residential and commercial district including more than 400 carefully restored 16th- and 17th-century Spanish colonial buildings which are accented by parks, plazas, churches and 2 forts at either end of the city. A wise visionary back in the 1940s cautioned the government against modernising the district. The preservation of these buildings and laws requiring new buildings to incorporate the same architectural elements has allowed this city to flourish into the 21st Century. It was declared a world heritage site in 1983.

(Left: The cobblestones are adoquine, a blue stone cast from furnace slag; they were brought over as ballast on Spanish ships and time and moisture have lent them their characteristic colour)
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Old San Juan was built at the far west end of a small, narrow island in the bay of San Juan, commanding the entrance to the harbour. It wasn't till the end of the 19th century that the city even expanded outside it's walls, when the east side of the wall was removed to incorporate Puerta de Tierra, the rest of this tiny island (now housing most of Puerto Rico's government institutions, including the Capitol and Supreme Court). The metropolis of San Juan is now a large gritty sprawl like any urban city with a large low socio-economic demographic and roughly half the island's population living in this area.


The grey building closest on the left has the garden

  

We had the good fortune of staying right in the middle of Old San Juan with a couchsurfer named Ali who is now also a good friend. He had a cute, tiny aparment on the top floor (3rd floor). It had high ceilings, and proportionate-sized doors and windows. Wooden doors containing levered shutters opened up to slight balconies, and even the main door had the same type doors with no glass or gauze, just straight out to the elements. It made for a nice cross-breeze but was trouble when it rained hard! Directly opposite us across the street,the top floor contained just the facade of the building below, and through hollow windows you could see plants growing and strings of vines folding out down the edge of the window panes. It looked fantastical. But actually it was really a mid-city vegetable garden; a kind of coop garden for kids to grow their own vegetables. Wow, I thought, what a progressive idea in an age-old city.

We felt remarkably safe in this city - though admittedly it was the tourist area - but we wanted to find out what the locals had to say. Our constant questions of "is San Juan safe" were always met with a mention of La Perla, the slum area on the rocky north coast of the city wall. Ali, our couchsurfing host and a native Puerto Rican said that this area developed during a time when the workers, slaves and non-white servants lived outside the city walls. They would be let in to work during the day and thrown out in the evening, and there, by the side of the wall, their settlement grew. It is still an ad-hoc village housing the outcasts of society, now synonomous with drug trafficking and crime. It is the only place that is off-limits in San Juan, and the rumour is that not even Police will go in.

Arguably one might say we didn't see the real San Juan, and no, we probably didn't really. We hardly ventured outside the walls except to arrive and leave! Yet we saw the San Juan of yesterday, the one that tells it's story and captures it's essence, the San Juan that lingers in peoples memories. We also had some unique experiences thanks to our host, Ali, who among other things, introduced us to some local haunts, and those I will tell you about in the next post.

Aerial view of La Perla (from Wikipedia)

Bienvenido a Puerto Rico: The Island of Enchantment

It's a name most people have heard of but not one that many know much about. Where is it? What's the language? What's it's history and culture? What's the landscape like? Is it safe? These are things people have asked me about Puerto Rico, (when they're not confusing it with Costa Rica), and while the first couple of questions I could answer straight away, the others were a lot more difficulty to define accurately. So it was time to brush up.

The more I read the more I learned what a busy island it really is and has been. It's not just some isolated, remote, backward country, floating somewhere in the Caribbean. It's civilised yet poor, though not as poor as it's central american and Carribean neighbours. Like Miami, the Bahamas and Mexico, it's shores have been compromised by blatant commercialism and truck-loads of tourists. It has a very vibrant history and has played a signifacant role in the history of the Carribean, especially during the Spanish - American wars. It has a melting pot of cultural influences from a confluence of neighbouring and far off lands (including Spanish, Amer-indian, African, and North American). Not just an island, it is an archipelago that inlcudes the main island of PR and a series of smaller islands, including Vieques, where we'll be stationed.

San Juan

Christopher Columbus discovered Puerto Rico in 1493 and named the island San Juan de Bautista. In 1508 his lieutenant Juan Ponce de Leon took control of the island and became the first governor. In 1521, Ponce de Leon laid the foundations of the capital city of San Juan, one of the very first towns built in the Americas.

Throughout the colonial period, the Dutch, the French, and the British made multiple attempts to take control of Puerto Rico, but were ultimately unsuccessful. Puerto Rico plays a strategic role as the gateway to the Carribean, the Spanish set up forts here to protect it's colonies in this area; if you took Puerto Rico you took possession of the Caribbean. Under Spanish rule (which lasted over 400 years) the indigenous population (called Tainos) was forced into slavery and nearly wiped out due to European infectious diseases and brutal force. Finally, the Spanish were defeated in 1898 by the Americans in the Spanish-American War and relinquished control of Puerto Rico, as well as the Phillipines and Guam. The Americans wanted to secure naval bases in strategic locations and had much interest in the Caribbean. The US still retains Guam and PR as territories but the Phillipines gained independence after World War II.

The Puerto Ricans hailed the coming of the Americans, thinking they would free them from the Spanish and pave the way for Independence. Alas, 113 years later and no one knows where the country stands. It is presently an unincorporated territory of the US and whilst the culture remains anchored to the spanish custom, Puerto Ricans are US citizens (though they can not vote in US elections) and US Congress legislates many aspects of Puerto Rican life.

So what now? Will it become independent? Or will it become the 51st State? These are questions Puerto Ricans want answered; they feel as if they are sitting in limbo and opinion seems divided. There are some strong Nationalists who feel cheated by the Americans, and there are those that understand the benefits that being part of America can do for the country - which no doubt, has allowed it to be one of the wealthiest of the Central American/Caribbean nations.

The narrow coastal plain rises into green (low) hills and mountains central and south. A few small rivers and lakes dot the landscape. The climate is usually hot and humid, with some lower temperatures found in the higher elevations. Like most Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico is subject to an occasional hurricane warning (May - October)...Compared to other islands in the Caribbean, Puerto Rico has a high standard of living with a vibrant industrialized economy. (World Atlas)

Puerto Rico has some interesting gems outside the splendour of the colonial cities. The island is mostly mountainous with the main range, the Cadiello Central Range, dividing the island between the  north and south coastal regions. The only tropical rainforest that the US can lay claim to is in El Yunque National forest on the East side, and the karst region in the north contains the third-largest cave system in the world. Of course, there's miles of beaches as well and the surrounding reefs are a diver's paradise. Like many other Caribbean islands, Puerto Rico is the crest of an extinct submarine volcano. Beyond the vibrant shallow waters surrounding the island, about 45 mi (72 km) north, lies the Puerto Rico Trench, at over 28,000 feet (8,500 meters) one of the world's deepest chasms. Uh-oh.

 Interesting Facts:

• the world famous drink, the Piña Colada was invented in a house on Fortaleza Street in Old San Juan
• San Juan is the largest home-based cruise port in the world
• there are more Puerto Ricans living in the rest of the United States than in the island of Puerto Rico itself?
• travel within the United States includes Puerto Rico, and no U.S. passport is necessary
• Puerto Rico uses the American Dollar
• the Plaza Las Americas mall in San Juan is the most profitable mall per square foot in the world (woohoo!)
• Puerto Rico has never had a civil war
• the Common Coquí, or Coquí, a frog native to Puerto Rico, is a very important aspect of Puerto Rican culture and it has become an unofficial territorial symbol of Puerto Rico