Sunrise, Sunset

During the four days we spent with Eric before he left Chase would get up early to learn the ropes before the heat of the day set in.

One of the most important things at this time, with the drought thoroughly entrenched, was watering the orchard and garden, and thankfully, Chase took primary control over that one while I got to sleep in.

So at the crack of dawn Chase would go down to the orchard and spend an hour or so watering the trees. It's a painstaking procedure, as each tree needs to be watered by hand,  enough so as to break through the bone-dry surface (heard of an irrigations system?), and at a rough estimate there's about forty trees to get through. Working for just an hour a morning he can't possibly get through the whole orchard in a day so instead he does a row each day until the whole orchard is watered and then the cycle starts again. Fun. Soon enough, he figured to take a book with him down there to curb his boredom.

Chase would eat breakfast somewhere during the sun's arrival with Eric who also got up persistently early. One morning they ate in town at the local bakery, which Chase informed me was pretty good (and, of course, I look forward to trying it), and another morning they left me some of their mornings tidbits, including some freshly sliced guanábana. Remember this spindly fruit, the soursop, that I mentioned grew on the property in the last post? This is what it's flesh looks like, which looks somewhat like coconut don't you think?

The flesh is soft and juicy, but stringy. According to Wikipedia, it "consists of an edible, white pulp and a core of indigestible, black seeds..." and  "...its flavor has been described as a combination of strawberry and pineapple with sour citrus flavor notes contrasting with an underlying creamy flavor reminiscent of coconut or banana"; sounds a lot like a product label, doesn't it? But it did have an interesting taste, it wasn't quite the flavour explosion that wikipedia promised but it's subtle flavour was creamy with a hint of banana.

It was way to stringy for me to eat so I just sucked the juice out of it, which, when I looked it up it said it was best juiced than eaten raw anyway because its pockets of soft flesh bounded by fibrous membranes make it difficult to eat [1]. Once juiced it's also supposed to be great in candies, sorbets, and ice cream (I found an interesting recipe for ice-cream here). It also seems it's a bit of a Wonder Fruit too, having all kinds of medicinal properties from: antibacterial, antiparasitic, antispasmodic, astringent, hypotensive, insecticide, sedative, and cytotoxic[2]."

By mid-morning, another pattern started to emerge: with all his chores done for the day Chase would take his book to relax in the hammock. After a couple of hours, having not seen him for a while, I'd go out to see what he was doing and find him sound asleep, the book abandoned across his chest.

But I don't blame him, if there was a good spot to fall asleep, this was it; underneath the shade of the vines growing over the pergola the temperature was instantly 10⁰F cooler, whilst a hint of a light breeze would waft in through the branches, making it almost pleasant. And when you're not sleeping you can gaze lazily out between the gap in the luminiscent foilage and be beguiled by the dream-like view.

From this vantage point, it really could be paradise.

If you weren't layered up to your ears in Deet.

And eventually the heat of the day will push its way through till it's no longer comfortable even here.

Yes, it's not just warm here, it's hot; and it's hard to believe the hottest part of the year is yet to come. By mid-morning, although my day is only just beginning, the enveloping heat starts to invade the apartment and I will begin to feel so lethargic that I can't bring myself to do much at all. I know I should get up early, but hey, I was sort of on "holiday". Besides, there really wasn't any work for me to do here and it was hard to get motivated to do much else.

Meanwhile, I didn't see too much of Eric during the day unless we went into town. I'd usually hear him and Chase discussing something early in the morning while I was still snoozing in bed, but otherwise he'd be upstairs, almost non-existent. Chase said he was up there playing sodoku on his Kindle or trawling the internet. Not really the deeds of a man that was leaving this huge handful of a property to house-sitters for 6 months, but we shrugged and assumed he knew what he was doing.

So we went into town with Eric a couple of times so he could show us a few other things we needed to be able to find. Apart from the dump and the Vet he also took us to the Tuesday farmer's market. That's where we encountered that strange but familiar Aussie accent for the first time since leaving the home-country at the beginning of April.

First of all I smiled from that warm feeling that floods you on hearing that familiar sound in a world so unfamiliar. Then I laughed, because hearing it in this isolated context I could really grasp the absurd, nasal stretch of every word with that comical up swing at the end of each sentence. It really is a funny accent.

But lastly, I cringed, as did Chase; fellow Aussie's abroad, in general experience, weren't usually people you wanted to run into. Furthermore, they were encroaching on our own frontier experience. It seems you can never be the only Aussie in a place; after meeting that one in Luquillo I thought at least Vieques would be free of them! I mean, it should have be an oddity that even we would find ourselves here on this little-known island, let alone more of us. It's definitely not a place that's on the Aussie radar.

We tried to ignore them but we ran into them again at the supermarket, and it was now inevitable that we should meet. But as it turns out they were quite nice and friendly. They are a semi-retired couple from the south coast of New South Wales, and what's more, they are also house-sitting here for 6 months. While I was surprised at first I began to realise it would only be natural to meet other house-sitters in a place like this, with many foreigners migrating back and forth between the States, and soon I was feeling less reluctance to know them and more relief that these people were going to be here, in the same boat we were, hopefully feeling as anxious about the place as we were, for the next 6 months. As they didn't have a mobile phone or know their home number we gave them ours and would anxiously await to hear from them in the coming weeks.

But back to the farmer's market. It wasn't quite your traditional farmer's market with local farmers selling their wares directly to the people, but it was kind of neat. The one produce stall was a big U-shaped set-up of fruit and veg which wasn't locally grown, not even from the mainland of Puerto Rico but seemed to come, like everything else, from the United States. There were two other stalls beside that one, one was a lady selling plants, and the other was a friendly couple with a bread which they did make themselves. In fact, the star-fruit Chase had spent the morning picking was traded for a nice loaf of home made bread to go with dinner.

Speaking of dinner, Eric prepared or provided all our dinners while he was there, which was very nice of him, and not only that, he turns out to be a pretty good cook. One night he made something particularly Puerto Rican-esque for us, which at first startled me - Goat Stew.

But I tackled it like a champ and it was actually really tasty and not only that, the Caribbean version supplements green bananas for the starch in the meal. You cook it down like the rest of the vegetables in the pot, and you know what? It holds it's shape and tastes just like potato!

Sitting upstairs at Eric's dining table at the end of the day with a glass of wine in our hands was extremely relaxing. I might get used to this yet. Persistently, our eyes would draw to the open sky in front of us, and it was right now at this time of day in particular when I could understand best why Eric wanted to bring the view into his house: it provided a spectacular sunset show. While most of the time the clouds would encroach on what would otherwise be the blazing orange of the sun being swallowed up by the Sierra de Luquillo mountains, it didn't matter, the pattern and intense colour spattered across the sky was mesmerising.

Chase and I on our last night with Eric

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.