Our own artist in residence

BREAKING NEWS! La Finca’s own resident artist, James Ryburn, has unveiled not one but TWO of his original masterpieces!! I was lucky enough to obtain an exclusive interview with the man who many are calling, the island’s next Andy Warhol. He specializes in taking found objects and turning them into unique, one of a kind works of art. When asked where he gets his inspiration from, he explained “It often comes from the natural world around me. Here at la finca, you are surrounded by nature and it expresses itself in such a variety of ways. I simply look at what’s around me and try to interpret it onto my canvas.” Well, wherever his inspiration comes from, let’s hope this is just the first of many outstanding works of art to come from this amazing artist!

Keeping an eye on Tropical Storm Earl

It’s that time of year in the Caribbean - hurricane season. Things have been fairly quiet here for the most part except for that bit of rain and wind we had back in July but I guess we’re just now entering the height of hurricane season. Evidently, late August through September is prime time for hurricanes. Fortunately, hurricane Danielle took a sharp turn north so we weren’t affected by her at all but now it looks like Tropical Storm Earl (predicted to be upgraded to a hurricane in the next couple of days) will brush us before it heads north as well. We’ve been watching the computer models closely and it looks like were just on the outer edge of the high winds. As we all know, though, these things can change so we try to check out the NOAA website a few times a day. It’s an excellent website if you’re interested in checking it out:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/

As far as hurricane preparedness, we’re doing pretty good. Luckily, the local monthly Vieques magazine had a great article about getting ready for hurricanes in their August edition along with a comprehensive list of what you should have. We’ve been slowly accumulating all the necessary items and we’ve pretty much got the basics covered. Of course the one thing we can’t find here is the 18 gallon Rubbermaid tub to put everything in! That’s where Diane Greene comes in. She’s a local woman who has quite the successful gig going - she’s a main island shopper for anyone who needs something from the main island of Puerto Rico that can’t be found here. Apparently, years ago, she was able to obtain some sort of semi permanent pass for the cargo ferry that runs between here and there so consequently, she can drive her van on to the ferry every Monday. Nowadays, that isn’t so easy and if you’re thinking of trying to drive a car on, you have to make a reservations months in advance. Anyway, we just call Diane with a list of whatever we need and she goes over there and hits all the big stores - Home Depot, Walmart, Target, etc. - and delivers it to you. Her charge is 15% of the cost so I guess if she gets enough orders, that makes the trip worth her while.

So, we’re expecting to get our tub on Monday and then we’ll be able to load it up with all our supplies. Canned food, powdered milk, batteries, bleach, etc., etc. Also recommended in the article was a large bag of cat litter and a bucket - you can use your imagination on that one…..let’s hope we don’t have to go there. Two of the newer houses on the property, Casa Nueva and the Cabanita, are constructed of concrete and have strong wooden shutters that can be bolted closed over all the doors and windows so if a storm looks like it’s coming, we’ll be heading over there. The Manager’s Cabin, of course, is another story. Constructed of plywood and beams, my guess is that if a big enough storm came through, there would probably just be a pile of kindling left. Which means, of course, we need to collect everything we have of value here and lug it over to one of the other buildings. Since we don’t have that much here, that shouldn’t be too much of a problem - we’ll just load up the suitcases and backpacks we came with!

I must say, it is kind of wild to be sitting here on a lovely, sunny day knowing that out there in the Caribbean beyond our view is a huge storm churning away. I just checked the NOAA website again and now it looks like the storm is inching a little closer……argh. The worst of it should be between Monday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon so that’s what we’re preparing for at this point. We’ll keep you posted!

Those are mighty big palm trees!

As you’ve seen from previous pictures, we have a number of large palms around the property. Most of them are coconut palms, the most common type around the island that just sprout from a fallen coconut. There are also some other types that are really pretty with kind of frillier fronds. Not sure what kind they are, but they don’t produce any coconuts. It seems the coconut palms tend to shed their old fronds more regularly than the other types of palms and so when they finally fall off, we get to drag them off to a dumping ground on the other side of the property. Those suckers are big!! The picture with me holding one of them gives you an idea of how big they are - maybe about 20-30 feet long? Probably exaggerating, but you get the idea.....and, they aren’t light - I’d say they weight about 30 -35 lbs. What’s really frustrating is when one is just hanging there but not quite ready to fall off. I swear you can swing from that thing and it still won’t let go. Unfortunately, the branch cutter we have on the property doesn’t have an extender so we can only reach to a certain height. The landscape guys that come to mow the lawn, though, have the right equipment and they’ve agreed to do this for us.

Massage day at Casa La Lanchita

We decided to treat ourselves to a massage so we headed over to the place where she works. Apparently, a friend of hers owns a small hotel called Casa La Lanchita, which is in the town of Isabel situated on a hilltop overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. Talk about a perfect location! I spent time talking with the owner who is originally from Boston but lived in New York for many years before deciding to buy the hotel, which he’s owned for about 25 years. It was originally much smaller than it’s current incarnation, and he showed me pictures of what it looked like originally and the additions/renovations he’s made over the years. Apparently when hurricane Hugo blew through here back in 89 or there abouts, it actually helped him out because it cleared out some of the sea grape plants that were obstructing some of the view. At any rate, the view is stunning - there are multiple balconies from where you can see Vieques’ sister island, Culebra as well as other smaller island that you can only get to with a private boat. In addition, there is a spectacular view of the main island of Puerto Rico.

At some point, he added on an open air tower that you get to via a series of stairways and this is where the massage therapist, Ingrid Bergman - gotta love the name - does her massage. This being the first time I’ve gotten a massage in a warm, tropical climate, I didn’t realize that instead of draping a sheet over me and just exposing the areas she would work on, which is what I’m used to, she just offered a bath towel to lay across your….umm…..private area. Makes sense, right? It’s warm and pleasant so no need for a big sheet I figured. The only glitch is that as you’re laying there relaxing, a lovely sea breeze comes along and, WHOOPS - there goes the towel! Yes, I was laying there comfortably making small talk when all the sudden off flew the towel and my bum was exposed for all the world to see. Thank God for quick reflexes, though - I reached back and snatched the towel before it completely blew away and quickly tucked it back in place. Good ole Ingrid, though, didn’t miss a beat and just kept on chatting. I’m guessing this wasn’t the first time a bit of exposure has occurred in the massage tower. Does make it a bit hard to relax, though, when a stiff breeze blows through and you’re just hoping you‘re sufficiently tucked…….

Having survived my indecent exposure, I took some pictures around the property and Jim took some of me waving from the tower as well. I’ve probably been spoiled by the best massage therapist in the world…..Elaine…..so it didn’t quite compare to what I’m used to, but the break from the routine was certainly enjoyable.

Improvisation to the Rescue!

How do you stay cool in a hot humid bathroom without any ventilation? One might think you’d open the window but one would remember that that window does not have a screen on it so one would not do that at this point. Instead, Jim had a light bulb go off over his head and realized we could just pull the fan from the living room around the corner into the shower and voila! A fan to cool you while your otherwise occupied!

Later, we found on the property was a cool piece of driftwood with hooks in it. Not sure where hit came from because, so far, we haven’t seen that much driftwood on the beaches here and this one looked a lot like the wood we would find on the beaches around Seattle. At any rate, we’ve been needed a more creative way to store our pots since they were all hanging behind the sink and kind of in the way. So, we brought the driftwood in and found it would make a perfect pot rack - how cool is that????

Visitors to la finca

As I’ve probably mentioned before, there are a LOT of strays around the island, from horses to cats to dogs, but it seems dogs are what you see the most. We had a couple of sweet little dogs visit us over the last couple of weeks at the finca, each with very different endings. The cute little brown and white Jack Russell mix you see showed up and all the guests fell in love with him. He was clearly very well fed and used to being around people so we figured he probably had run away from home and we hoped that someone would come looking for him. Fortunately, we did get a call from his owner who didn’t live that far away and they were very relieved that he was at our place. Turns out his name is Chancho. While Chancho was here, we had a cool hermit crab show up which he was having fun getting to know and Jim snapped a picture of him as well.

Sadly, the brown lab mix you see showed up after we think he may have been hit by a car. He was definitely a stray, with mange all over him and a nasty wound on his neck which we weren’t sure whether it might have been caused by a car hitting him or if it was just a particularly nasty part of his mange. Anyway, he too was a real sweetheart but very timid. We called the Humane Society about him and one of their volunteers came by to pick him up. We’d like to think they’ll fix him up and he can be adopted but unfortunately, the opposite is probably what will happen to him. Heartbreaking, to be sure, but what can you do…….

Lastly, a herd of wild horses wandered up to our parking area and we woke up to them eating the grass around our parking area. A really cute group of horses that are very typical of the wild horses you see roaming around the island. That was a pretty neat way to start the day for sure!

Bite of Vieques

We had a wonderful visit with our friends who own la finca, Corky and Bill, who flew down here for a few days. We had a REALLY great time with them and it was such a breath of fresh air to get to hang out with friends. Unfortunately, the mosquitoes are still pretty aggressive at night and it appears they like Jim better than anyone. I keep telling him it’s because he’s so sweet but he insists they must like the taste of things that are sour. At any rate, we were sitting outside with them and Jim was just getting bitten left and right. We didn’t realize how bad it was until we got inside and saw what you see in the pictures. Calamine lotion here we come!! So now, we’re being much more careful about keeping him indoors at night until these little buggers dissipate. A couple of days later he was talking with the wife of the husband and wife team who do our landscaping and when she noticed his legs, she explained that what Puerto Rican’s do is make up a mixture of rubbing alcohol, mint oil and eucalyptus oil and this concoction does a great job of keeping the mosquitoes away. So we picked up the supplies and made up a spray bottle of it so we’ll keep you posted on how it works.

Who Says I Can't Landscape????

We were fortunate to have the plumbing guy come by who turned out to be quite knowledgeable about a number of things and, as it turned out, he used to live here as a caretaker many moons ago. Go figure! Anyway, we ended up walking the property with him and he has some excellent suggestions for things we could do around the property. One of them involved the beautiful Sago Palms, of which we have two at la finca. The ones we have, while quite lovely, were full of fronds that bent down all the way to the ground. He explained that these should really be trimmed up to look more like trees since, when they’re overgrown, they create areas underneath them that are very attractive to roaches and other “vermin”. So I tackled the one closest to the Manager’s Cabin and we think it turned out quite nicely. He was right though - as we cut away the lower fronds and raked up all the dead leaves and other detritus from underneath, man, the roaches when scuttling away!! Maybe they’ll stay away from the cabin from now on. It was actually kind of a fun project which I enjoyed. He actually gave us another excellent tip which I’ve been using since then and would highly recommend if you’re ever doing any major trimming in the yard - spread a tarp out, put all your branches or whatever on it, and then drag them all away in one fell swoop to wherever you’re dumping them. Worked like a charm! Please excuse the sweaty, no so pretty picture of me, but I was proud of how it came out.......

It had the promise of a lovely day. I woke up to pleasant sun and still comfortable temperatures, which is already a great way to start the day around here. As usual, Jim had gotten up before and like the angel that he is, had the freshly brewed coffee waiting downstairs. All seemed well with the world until I went to change the sheets (it was laundry day). As you may have seen from the previous pictures, we have a mosquito net over our bed which is ever so tightly tucked in on all sides and corners. In fact, when we go to bed at night, it’s quite the production - we call it the “la finca limbo” as we squeeze in under the netting. At any rate, I was changing the sheets the other morning and when I pulled off the top sheet there, tucked into the corner at the bottom of the fitted sheet was a scorpion. No kidding. It was about 2 inches long which is about as much as I could notice of it before my big baby screaming started. By the time Jim responded to my screeching with the killing broom, it was gone. So now we had a scorpion somewhere upstairs that we couldn’t find……lucky us! We tore that bed apart, pulled the mattress up with no sign of the creature so all we could assume is it scuttled out one of the cracks in the wall. Sorry there isn’t a picture for this one, but I was not quite composed enough to grab the camera. So now, in addition to the hermetically sealed bed, we turn every pillow over and lift the sheet up to inspect underneath so we can ensure we don’t have any extra bedmates……hmmm……get’s me to thinking……what would I do if I really did see something under the sheet???? There I would be, crouched beneath the tent, cautiously peering under the sheet and there would be the evil intruder clicking his little evil pinchers at me. After screeching like a parakeet, I’d probably jump back trying to get away only to get tangled up in the netting which, by this time would be tightly tucked under the mattress. There I’d be, all trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey which probably please the scorpion to no end. Might have to come up with a better method of inspecting the bed now that I think about it…….

hmmm……how much were those rooms at the W?????

Look Who Came Visit.....

“Hmmm…..that chirping sure sounds close” I thought to myself as we were sitting on the couch, reading our books and relaxing. The chirping certainly blended in well with symphony of tiny tree frogs that we hear every night outside, but this one was really standing out. Our front door is a metal door with louvers that open and close in the upper half and Jim ingeniously designed a screen for the louver part so that we could catch any breezes without any……ahem……multiple legged visitors. Well, we looked at the door and sure enough, there was a little something sitting on the inside of one of the louvers, and when we got closer, sure enough, it was a little tree frog.

We took one picture of the whole door so you can get an idea of the size of the little fella - probably no bigger than a quarter. It's sitting there on the inside of the door. We were really impressed with the zoom and I think we got some great pictures of it. The other pictures are of another little frog that was sticking his head out of the overfill drain (I guess that’s what you call it) in the sink the other night. It was cute - as we tried to get close for a good pictures, it would slowly draw it’s head back, thinking, I guess, that we might hurt it or something. Anyway, he left after awhile as well. Interesting that frogs don’t bother me as much as the bugs…….although, I did get a start the other day when I was trimming some bushes and one fell out of the branch I was cutting and landed on my head!!

Thanks for keeping up with us and we love reading all your comments!

Much love to everyone.......

David and Jim

W Stands For.......WONDERFUL!

In celebration of our first month here, we felt we were due a little bit of civilization to commemorate the occasion. As we may have mentioned to some of you, the W Hotel opened an exclusive beach resort here a few months ago and we thought that would be a perfect place to go and enjoy ourselves. Well, enjoy ourselves is a HUGE understatement - this place is SPECTACULAR!! We sat in the bar area which is open to the outside with a phenomenal, unobstructed view of the ocean. The resort is on the north side of the island so you’re technically looking out on the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Caribbean with a view of the main island of Puerto Rico in one direction and a view of Vieques’ sister island, Culebra, on the other. Fortunately, the W is only about a 10 minute drive from us ( we will definitely be going back!) so we arrived about 4:30 - perfect timing. The hotel has a fairly modern feel but with lots of organic material everywhere - all kinds of wood and ceramics as well as fabrics hanging from the ceiling that gently sway in the ocean breeze. So we stayed there for a couple of hours and enjoyed some of their signature cocktails as well as appetizers. The really cool thing was as sunset approached, the cocktail waitress walked around offering complimentary cocktails to everyone in honor of the sunset - which they do every evening between 6:15 and 6:45! Gotta love that. In addition, the air conditioning - we had to remind ourselves what that was - was blowing nicely with no mosquitoes to be found. As we lounged in the chairs looking out on the ocean with the refreshing breeze surrounding us, we were sure we were growing roots right there in our chairs - and frankly, at that moment, we would have been more than content to remain there indefinitely. Alas, though, all good things must come to an end (at least temporarily) but feeling fully recharged, we were happy to head back to la finca knowing this oasis of civilization was just around the corner anytime we needed a break from the “rustic” lifestyle.

If you want to see more about the hotel, check out their website:

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/whotels/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=3170

The pictures I took were from my cell phone so I appologize for the quality. Next time, we'll have to take the camera for sure. Not sure if we would ever be inclined to pay the price to stay in one of their rooms but oh, the ambience is ever so very nice - perfect for that occasional treat!

Finally - A Day At The Beach!

As you may have guessed, it’s been quite an adjustment getting used to our duties down here and we’ve been going at it pretty hard this last month. Well, we’ve been promising ourselves some time off and we finally made it to the beach! We decided to visit a beach we haven’t been to before called “Playa Preita” which means “Secret Beach” in Spanish. This was a Thursday afternoon and although it wasn’t a complete secret, there were only a few other people on the beach. If it weren’t for the large number of mosquitoes we had to swat away the whole time, it would have been an absolutely perfect afternoon! Well, that and the fact that Jim had rigged up the perfect umbrella for shade where he used duct tape to attach an old umbrella to a broken broom stick which didn’t work out quite as well as we hoped. It looked great before we headed out, but once there the breeze was a little strong and despite our best efforts at wedging it deep in the sand, it kept blowing over. I guess umbrellas have a broad stand for a reason, right? Oh well, a valiant effort never the less on his part and hopefully we can use it somewhere else.

Since the beach day, though, the mosquitoes seem to have tapered off so we’re hopeful we won’t have to continue to douse ourselves with mosquito repellent whenever we are outside for long periods of time. We did thoroughly enjoy getting away for a few hours and as time permits, we hope to explore some of the other beaches on the island as well. In addition, there is also a historic fort in Isabel that overlooks the ocean that we want to explore as well as an art gallery there that’s supposed to be really nice.

A Trip Into Town

We took the camera along with us the other day to snap some more pictures of what we see regularly so you guys can have an idea of what our day to day routine is like. The picture taken through the windshield should give you an idea of what the roads look like on the island - very narrow, and very lush with vegetation. We’ve gotten pretty good at sharing the road with oncoming traffic but at times, it still feels like a game of chicken!

In another picture, Jim is standing in front of the produce stand, which is a big deal for the island. Once a week on Tuesdays a produce truck comes over from the island and they set up their stand where they sell pretty decent fresh fruit and vegetables. It’s definitely better quality that what we can find in the grocery store here so we try to make it there every week. Also, there is often a woman there who sells her homemade bread as well, which is mighty tasty, I must say. We haven’t made our favorite break recipe since we’ve been down here so it’s kind of nice to have her products as an option. We hope to try baking some bread soon so we’ll see how that comes out.

The orange building is the grocery store we go to called Super Discuentos Morales (super discount grocery store I guess is how you would translate). It would be considered the largest grocery store on the island with probably 6 aisles in it and a separate cooler room where they keep all the meat, veggies and frozen food. It pretty much has the basics covered but - gasp! - they don’t carry chocolate chips! How can we make chocolate chip cookies without chocolate chips??? And who allowed this place to become an American territory anyway without carrying chocolate chips in the grocery store???? Okay, being a little over dramatic but it was surprising. We ended up making do with some sweet baking chocolate, chopping it up and adding to the cookie batter. Not bad, but not quite the same either.

The other pictures are of downtown Isabel where the post office is and where we so eagerly go on a regular basis. There are two towns on the island, Isabel and Esperanza. Isabel is the slightly larger of the two located on the north side of the island and it’s where all the day to day business is carried out - banking, going to the accountant to drop off bills, the post office, etc. Esperanza is on the south side of the island, a little bit smaller but where most of the restaurants are that we like to go to. So, for an island of approximately 10,000 people, that’s about all there is - besides the beaches of course. Well, there is an historic fort that we want to visit soon as well so we’ll keep you posted on that.

A Palm Tree Grows at La Finca

Just call me Mr. Greenjeans! As you probably have seen from the pictures, there are a fair number of palm trees around the property which drop their coconuts regularly. Well, apparently it doesn’t take long once they hit the ground to start to root and sprout a tree and there were four such coconuts that had fallen right near the Manager’s Cabin at some point before we got here. Now the Manager’s Cabin already has a lot of big trees around it and really doesn’t need any more plantings so I decided to dig them up sooner rather than later and plant them elsewhere around the property. The four plants that you see here are about 2-3 feet tall but I have no idea how fast they grow. Of course, I doubt they’ll get that huge over the next two months were here, but someday, I’m sure they’ll be lovely!