We just moved into our new place in Ocean Park, Puerto Rico. It is about five minutes walk to the beach. It’s not the nicest place, but it has potential. The only drawback is it did not come with a oven, microwave, bed or hot water. At least we do have plates, forks , knives and some cook ware fridge and A/C. We also have a porch. YES! We are located just a short bus ride to Old San Juan and the airport.
The shower has an electric heater on it. Those electric water heaters are popular around here, since this is the second time I have seen one in the couple weeks we have lived here. I guess hot water is not a necessary commodity. Since it is so warm year around.
As for the lack of oven/microwave, we went out and bought a single electric burner that plugs straight into the wall. I have never seen these things before and I wonder if they sell them in the states.
Right now we are using the pads from a futon that came with the place. It was not very comfortable. We are going to go over to Salvation Army today and get a mattress or something for a bit more padding.
Underneath the sign it said “El escalares para los gordo hombres”.
We got an apartment in Ocean Park (basically a suburb of San Juan) today. We move in tomorrow, It is a decent sized place with a nice little porch and about a 5 minute walk to San Juan beach. 425 a month for rent which isn’t bad at all. I will post more pictures when we move in.
While waiting for the owner to call us back we went to the beach.
Kite surfing is a cross between flying a really big kite and wake boarding. These guys can catch mad air by holding on to that giant kite and jumping from the waves. As you can tell. Here are some kite surfing links:
We are back in San Juan (Ilse Verde). This time we are staying at the Coqui Inn. Free donuts and coffee in the morning. Woo!
I better not drink too much. The pool is about 4 feet away from our door.
Last night we went to get some things from the local grocery store which is about 4 blocks away. We figured we would drive, and that was a bad choice. We found that there is no way to get back to here from the way we went. We got funneled onto a huge bridge which in turn leads to a 2.00$ toll. Then had to go through Santurce (the really bad area of San Juan), and I thought we were going to get shot. Basically it took us about an hour to go to the store, when it should have been 10 minutes.
I saw about 3 of these. Seriously, who steals a phone from a phone booth.
And I saw this at the KFC..
We drove out to Ponce yesterday which took over an hour. We saw some spectacular views of the mountains and rural areas of Puerto rico. Once arriving in Ponce we went to the Port of Ponce, which has a ferry that takes you to the island of muertos. But there were only one ferry that leaves at 8 am. We scratched that idea. Port of Ponce is located in a heavily industrial shipping area and we got this good one of a metal recycling center.
After we finally got back to Humacao, we realized that we had stopped at toll booths on the freeways six times and paid over five dollars in tolls. The tax system is minimal here and they just barely implemented a sales tax around 2003. So I guess someone has to pay for the roads and maintenance. Just beware to always carry cash here. There aren’t always exits before the tolls nor are there always ATM’s near the toll booths.
Back at the guest house we went for a walk down on the beach, we were the only ones there. There were a couple trails that lead into the rainforest. This place is truly amazing. And is a far cry from the all the tourism of Old San Juan.
Puerto Rico is more of a mix of Mexico (80%) and California (20%). And the only reason California comes to mind is because of the Walmarts/Wallgreens/Mcdonalds/Wendys/BurgerKings. People don’t really take care of their yards and their house’s are generally all run down. But they will have a brand new Toyota in the driveway. I guess it shows where peoples priorities are. From what we have seen the cost of living here is about the same as in Utah. Maybe a little lower, but not by much.
We are most likely going to drive back up to San Juan and find a place to live. Humacao is a bit too rural for our likings. And there is no public transportation here. I am pretty sure I will be able to find a job up there either in printing or in tourism.
