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 |
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 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.
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 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 |
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 |
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.