Getting Settled

We've been in Puerto Rico for two weeks now. Thankfully it was much easier to find a place to live and move in this time around. We all decided to go a little above the budget we had decided on to get a place directly on the beach. Matt had a special birthday this year 12.12.12 and we celebrated with good friends and good food.

Yancy and Laura bought Matt a couple of shirts as a present. I am so glad this one is too small, it fits me perfect :-) Fiebru Puerto Rican slang denominator for the Drag Racing enthusiast. Also used when referring to a person that is very involved in a hobby or pastime.

Matt commutes to work by skateboard and if he is lucky sometimes by kiteboard!

Coolest footprint in the sand I've ever seen.

Caye Caulker Adventure

Every year we have kited downwind to another island Caye Caulker which is about 17 miles southeast from the place we stay. We have told dad that he has been ready for at least a year so we decided we were going to do it. Before we left we made arrangements to meet up with my friend Wanda who recently moved to Placencia on the main land of Belize.

We packed up some bare essentials in a few random water proof camera housings and bags we had and took off around 11am and barely made it to town! The wind forecast was good to go but they aren't always reliable. Madre' met us in town on her bike "just in case". Thank goodness she was there waiting for us to help us get in. Matt and I wrapped up our gear and ran to the water taxi and barely made the one departing to Caye Caulker.

Once there we walked to the kite school KiteXplorer and dropped off our things and asked where we should try and get a room. Phil the co-owner told us about Ocean Pearl hotel right behind the school. As we were walking there we ran into Wanda and her fiance' Devin (small island). They were on their way to the Lazy Lizard bar to get some beer and snacks. We told them we would meet them there and went to the hotel. We sat around for 20 minutes waiting for someone to help us. As we were waiting we read all the signs posted and rooms were only $25 US/night for the room, private, bath, TV and fan. If you wanted to splurge you could pay an extra $15 US for AC!

We were really hungry so we decided to go to the bar as we thought the receptionist was at lunch. Wanda and I did a lot of catching up while Devin and Matt got to know one another. The wind started to pick up and there was a guy out there practicing. Matt spurred us into gear and we went to get our stuff. While Matt started I went to the hotel to get a room, success! Wanda and Devin went to talk to one of Devin's friends and we had a great time on the water.

We went and took a shower and went back to the bar just in time for happy hour. I told the bar tender that I wanted a rum and pineapple and she said "ok a pantyripa", sure why not ;-) Matt happened to recognize her from last year and asked her if she gave him some aleeve out of her purse last year, she laughed and said "yes I remember, I have everything in my purse!" Matt told her how thankful he was because he was hurting after the long downwinder.

On the way to meet up with one of Devin's friends Ellis and his girlfriend, we stopped in a wood carver's booth and Matt had his eye on a mask that was mostly in its natural form with a face. The guy who carved it told us that he was going to finish it up that night. Once we were all together we went into this random bar and ran into Gino, Derek, and Drummer Dan (from San Pedro). They were getting ready to play, very cool! We all decided we needed some food so Ellis suggested a great restaurant that sold local grub. After dinner we went back to the bar where the band was playing to watch them for a bit.

The next day we met up with W&D and had breakfast. The wind was forecast to build for the next couple of days. After breakfast we walked to the kite launch to see what people were putting up. All the young French guys that were staying at our hotel were putting up 10 meters. We only had a 12m and 14m so Matt took the 12m and I took video of him. I was a bit nervous for him but I new he would be safe. Not long after he was out he tapped his head to come in. His kite was flat!!! Matt spent a hour or two fixing it running back and forth to the kite school asking for supplies. Thankfully he packed some fix it tape with us and just needed scissors.

He went back out and had a great time. We think the other kiters were pretty surprised he got it back up and running in time for another session. We were getting hungry and got ready for dinner, tonight we decided on Italian (just because we walked past the restaurant last night and saw some delicious looking pastas). Dinner was so good and we walked back through town to go and see the political party that was going on. On our way through we stopped off to see the mask and the carver recognised Matt and said "I told you I would get it done". He was obviously very proud.

Matt asked how much and he pointed to the old man in the corner. The old man told us that it was $30 US. We all thought that was a decent price but if you know Matt you know he loves to negotiate. He said "will you take $20?" expecting him to rebut with $25. The old man got all bent out of shape telling us he's got to eat and don't insult him! We were all blown away and said ok and walked on. The carver was shaking his head and giving the old man evil eye behind his back. We felt bad for the carver but couldn't stand for the old mans attitude.

The political party was extremely loud and pretty boring so we kept walking. We ended up going into a gift shop and found a few goodies for some friends back home. Devin suggested we go to a club that  they had a good time at the last time they were there. I&I Reggae Bar was great, all the seats and tables were hanging from the roof and trellis. It was pitch dark outside and we were on the roof, if it had been daytime we probably could have seen the whole island from up there. I was ready to call it a night and watch some TV.

In the morning we decided to catch the early water taxi back to San Pedro because the wind was howling and Matt wouldn't even have been able to take the 12m out! Back in San Pedro we walked through town and asked how much for a taxi North of the bridge and they told us $35 BZ (2:1 ratio). We knew they had to pay a hefty bridge fee so we decided to walk over the bridge and see if we could hitch a ride on a golf cart or flag down a taxi. We were in the middle of resituating our stuff North of the bridge and a taxi drove up. Matt asked him how much and he said $15BZ ($7.50 US) we gladly took it! We would still love to kite to Caye Caulker and are keeping an eye out on the forecast.

Matt Gets a Student

Our new friend Anand has been dieing to have a kiteboarding lesson and Matt was feeling up to teaching. Nitta his wife and I watched on and I got a few snap shots. Anand had great kite skills even though the wind was not always cooperating!

Back in Belize

We only have a week left and I haven't done any blogging! Guess I was to busy kiting ;-) Its been another great trip. Except for the first week Matt had to lay low because his back was in an "episode". He was kind enough to take pictures of me and dad kiting even though it was killing him that he wasn't out there with us!

We've only been snorkeling and fishing once because its been so windy. Today a cold front came in and brought some rain so I decided to get on with the blog. We've seen some renters come and go but there was a group of 3 from North Carolina area and one of the girls has done some kiting and was interested in doing some more but she left before Matt's back got better. She did come back from a bar one day and was talking to us about a story the bar tender told her of some kiter on New Years Day (last year) that...I interrupted her and said "It was probably him (pointing to Matt)".

She started laughing and said "What did you do (with concerned motherly voice)?" I told her that on New Years day the Palapa Bar was having live music and bloody marys so we got on our kites and kited down there. Well Scott the owner wanted to give Matt a bloody mary so he jumped up and caught one that Scott threw him in a plastic bottle. She was blown away that it was Matt. We all had a good laugh.

¡Adiós Puerto Rico!

I never wrote about getting home from Puerto Rico because it was so stressful I didn't want to think about it again. In actuality it makes a great story so here goes.

We packed up and pawned our stuff off to our friends and neighbors. We got our deposit back from the realtor and said goodbye to everyone. The day before our flight we called the airline to discuss the dogs traveling to Texas because there was a massive heat wave sitting in the southern states and we new the girls would not be able to fly (anywhere over 85 degrees dogs are not allowed to fly to or from). They suggested we change our flight to Chicago instead. We paid the fee and went to bed.

When we got to the airport in the morning we were told that Chicago's flights had been canceled because they were having massive thunderstorms and the airport had to shut down. We were starting to stress inside trying not to show it. We told the person at the desk that we had just moved out of our apartment and we returned our car and had no where to go. They put us and the girls up in the airport hotel and gave us vouchers for dinner and breakfast in the morning. We couldn't have been more thankful because we found out later that the airlines are not obligated to "put people up" because of the weather.

I think we were leaving around 3pm so we asked the hotel for a late checkout. We were glued to the weather channel because the heat in San Juan was rising steadily. Matt went down to the front counter to see if we could check in early and the lady said no because of the dogs but to come back in an hour to see if the temperature will go down. It was currently at 90 degrees at the airport.

We checked out and got all of our luggage and dog crates into the airport and sat down to wait. Matt went to the counter again and the same lady snapped at him and said "that we couldn't check in and that we would have to change our flight again". Matt went and stood in line to talk to another person and when he got up to the lady he explained our situation and asked her to check the temperature. She said "its 84 degrees who told you you couldn't check in?" Matt pointed the lady out and she said "come with me". They walked back over to the lady who snapped at Matt and the lady who seemed in charge asked why she told Matt he could not check in? She looked at Matt and said "I never told him he couldn't check in". Matt was flabbergasted and the nice lady checked us in. We had less than an hour to have the dogs kennels check out, their paper work done and our bags checked in. I was so happy I was almost in tears!

The girls were on their way and we booked it to our gate. When we got to Chicago we asked 3 different people if we picked up our dogs and got one no and two yes'. The 4th person was adamant that we did not pick up our dogs. We felt like she knew what she was talking about and went through customs. In Seattle the girls were carted out to us Kristah whining to get out as soon as she saw us and Sin's was as happy as a clam, Matt took them out while I got the rest of our bags. Our neighbor Brynn picked us up and I was soooooooo happy to see her and be home.

To say the least Puerto Rico was amazing, including all the friends we made. We can't wait to visit again and will recommend anyone to visit as well!