Tag Archives: Puerto Rico

Coronavirus and the Lockdown in Puerto Rico


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The Coronavirus (Covid-19) has spread across the world igniting a global pandemic. Every country across the world has had to deal with this new virus that suddenly appeared on the map at the end of 2019/early 2020. Puerto Rico has not been spared in having to deal with this new reality.


Keep your distance!

This virus is not very dangerous to those under 65 and healthy. To most, it is self-limiting meaning you will recover without any outside medical help. In fact, many people will walk around completely asymptomatic and recover without ever even knowing they had it. Healthy children and young adults especially are at little risk for serious illness. Unfortunately, those same mild or asymptomatic people can pass it on to those at higher risk (older age, heart disease, diabetes, lung conditions, cancer) and in some cases it can result in their death. While these same groups are also at risk for other flus and illnesses doing the same, Covid-19 is much more deadly when it strikes.

So while the virus is not very serious to the vast majority of people it IS extremely contagious and spreads much more easily than many other viruses. Therefore it can circulate for a long time before hitting a vulnerable target. This means that 2 to 4 weeks before there is even a case or a death, the virus has hooked itself into a population. This delayed and seemingly sudden increase in illnesses would cause a huge strain on the medical system and result in many deaths (estimates of appx 1-3% of confirmed cases that were severe enough to be tested). But by the time most governments decide to act, it is already too late.


Beaches like the Balneario in Rincon are roped off

The whole world watched from afar as China and then Italy and many others grappled with it, hoping it would be contained there. But being as new and contagious as it was and not having many tests to monitor its spread, we quickly learned how very intricately we all are connected worldwide.

Puerto Rico was bound to see some cases if it didn’t get contained abroad because it is a premier travel destination. People from all around the world frequently visit via planes and cruise ships mainly. There was some talk in February about a cruise ship passenger who was known to have tested positive and then some other large events that would be easy transmitters. Finally in early March the first few cases were confirmed on the island.

On Thursday, March 12 the newly appointed governor of Puerto Rico, Wanda Vazquez, asked for all festivals and large events to be closed and to take personal precautions and take up moderate social distancing. She also enlisted the help of the National Guard. Then on Sunday March 15 with only about 4 hours notice to the whole island, apparently under some sort of guidance, she scolded Puerto Rico for not taking it serious (though there was no indication of that) and doubled down efforts and put the island into one of the world’s strictest most authoritarian lockdowns and by far the most extreme of any state in the US.

Most people (besides ‘essential services’) were only to leave for groceries, pharmacies, take out food, gasoline, hospitals/doctor’s office. A curfew of 9pm to 5am was enacted. A buying frenzy ensued similar to before a hurricane with everyone rushing to the grocery stores and buying everything they could. People who two days before walked around nonchalantly now  wore masks and squirted disinfectant on everything. Stores and businesses were stunned by the suddenness of the executive order. Literally overnight, the streets were emptied and patrolled by police and wide-eyed tourists and others were given warnings to get off the beaches or face fines. The friendly, relaxed, loud party island vibe became paranoid, fearful, quiet and policed.


Time to hang some hammocks because we will be home A LOT!

Puerto Rico has reason to be concerned. With an aged population like Italy and a struggling and overburdened medical system, it would not be able to handle the surge of patients that this outbreak will create. It also relies strongly on the US for support and the US has been one of the slowest countries to react to this pandemic. Though lockdowns work to slow down the spread, they are unsustainable because people cannot live cooped up for too long before needing more than just food and medicine not to mention what it will do to the economy (utter collapse) and people’s mental health. Lockdowns also don’t target the source of transmission. For instance, in Rincon we had our first case of a childcare teacher with respiratory conditions die after also contracting the virus. She was married to a police officer who came into more contact than nearly anyone in lockdown. Her son and husband also worked part time in the Econo grocery store, also potentially continuing to spread the virus.

The best practices world wide have been extensive testing. Those who are negative can go about their day in a somewhat restricted manner with moderate societal lockdown measures but for the most part are not limited. Those who are positive go into quarantine and receive care until they recover after which they are immune and no longer a threat and then also go about their lives. In places like Germany and South Korea, their extensive testing has helped them come through as shining stars while maintaining a remarkably stable society and economy.

Obviously Puerto Rico doesn’t have that option now until more tests become available or local labs develop them. So until then we will be waiting in limbo in a sort of house arrest scenario apparently until the rest of the world goes over the peak of the curve and there are more in recovery than new cases (some estimates of early May, but projections vary wildly) and/or we get more tests. The propaganda tells us that we are “stopping” the virus, but most health experts agree that it is likely not fully containable and that most if not all of us will get this virus at some point (or have already had it). What these actions are attempting to do is called ‘mitigation’. It is a last ditch effort when all other hope/plan is gone. The idea isn’t that it will stop it but rather slow it down enough so that the medical system is not inundated all at once, but rather can treat patients as they trickle in and are able get a ventilator to save some lives (known colloquially as the “flatten the curve” method).

Here on la isla there is a sense of solidarity and sacrifice that is heartwarming. People are willing to stay at home under extreme conditions for a month (or more) because it is for the better good. There hasn’t been much civil disobedience and we all feel in it together. But everyone is also counting the days when we can go back to normal. We miss the beaches, our freedom and our friends and family and no one knows how we are going to pay our bills or if there will even be an economy at all after all this is through. This has been especially tough for the small businesses that were barely making it before this in our super fragile economy in Puerto Rico.

As we approached the March 30th deadline for the lockdown order we began to have hope that this imprisonment and grey depressing world would lift up even if just a little. But just a few days before the order was to expire, the governor extended it another 2 weeks until April 12 which is Easter Sunday. It also included even more restrictions including which days you could drive based on the number on the license plate and with no one driving on Sundays and even earlier curfew of 7pm. A few days later, she did finally allow some exceptions such as a few hours for car/tire repair (that we desperately need) and some hardware stores.


Playing our own version of Naked and *not* Afraid

As for us, this has been very difficult. While we have no fear at all of the virus or illness personally since we are at extremely low risk (and healthy babies and children have little to no risk), we have been affected by the lockdown. Through this I am hit by the trauma from Hurricane Maria, my dad’s death from lung failure and my long scary stay in the hospital here. We have missed more farmer’s market days than even after Aeden was born and all bookings for the cabana have been cancelled. The disproportionate fear and paranoia of people (everyone looks like a ‘vector’) is something we are not used to and the patrolling police state is altogether dystopian. We thankfully have plenty of space on the finca and have been cleaning and clearing the land and the house. I still go through the stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance often and especially when I feel unrequited hope that this might be over sooner than later.

Compared with the slow and ambivalent reaction in the states, we are in much better shape here in Puerto Rico because our governor took swift and decisive action, albeit a little too late and with extreme Draconian measures. But at this point in time all we can do is wait. And wait. And wait. And then deal with the ever rumbling aftermath that this tidal wave washed over the world. Here in Puerto Rico, we’ll be ok. We have dealt with one disaster after another and people here are made of a resilient and caring cloth. We will get through this together, even if it means standing 6 feet apart.

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Lares Adventure to Haunted La Rambla and Cafe Lareño

This week for our adventure we headed to Lares. I had heard about a beautiful place that I just had to check out: La Rambla, also known as The Levy Mansion. There are so many legends and stories about this place, but some consensus says that it was at one point in time going to be a hotel/casino, but then became the island’s first bottled water company because of the sweet spring water that came from a blessed source: La Santa Rosa spring. But there is much more to this story, from a wonderful start to complete abandonment. What happened exactly is unclear, but there are some theories including the violent death of a beloved daughter.


At the Famous Original Lares Heladeria

We started our journey traveling with our friend Anthony from Rincon to the Lares Plaza where we stopped in at the Famous Lares Heladeria. It had been MANY years since we stopped in there, but not a whole lot had changed except, that a copy-cat shop opened up just a few doors down selling the strange concoction (rice and bean, garlic, sausage flavor among others) ice creams as well!


With friends at the new El Grito Heladeria also


Fun with friends in Lares!

Then we rambled on down to La Rambla. Even though it is marked as “No Trespassing” we asked around downtown and they said there was a boquete in the fence that everyone uses and no one cares as long as you are respectful of the area. So we walked from downtown a couple of blocks and spotted the beautiful mansion from the road.



Details of the house

The mansion and grounds were themselves amazing, but the area over the spring was something altogether magical! It was a great place for a photoshoot and I am glad I brought along a skirt to add a little elegance to the photos and to honor what an amazing place it is!

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(these two awesome photos above thanks to Anthony Perez)

Finally afterward, we met up with more friends drove up the hills and checked out the Cafe Lareño factory. It was not officially open to customers, but we met the very nice owner, Don Luis Alcover who showed us around and let us eat and drink a picnic lunch at his place. It was very interesting to see that much of the coffee doesn’t come from Puerto Rico, but rather Mexico! It is depulped, roasted, ground and packaged in Puerto Rico mainly. There were some premium bags of purely Puerto Rican coffee, but not many. I hope that the Puerto Rican coffee industry is able to get stronger and stronger over time.


With my friend Berkley and the owner of Cafe Lareño, Luis Alcover


In the rest area below the newly opened coffee shop (that was closed but available to us courtesy the owner)


A beautiful tour of the coffee grounds (haha pun intended)!


A wonderful day in Lares, Puerto Rico!

Check out the video for more about La Rambla and our awesome day!

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The Holiday Season in Puerto Rico 2019

The holidays are in full swing here in Puerto Rico this year. The festivities are on fire and it seems that every other day we have one party or another to attend. It has been so much fun! Thanksgiving with our neighbors, birthday parties, cookie exchanges, encendidos, parrandas, school parties and more. It has been non-stop. It is so true that Puerto Rico knows how to party and the winter Christmas season is the best for that!

   

When we haven’t been out having fun, we’ve been trying to take advantage of the extra time we have with Aeden in daycare and the fact that it has been so much cooler in order to expand the gardens. We recently planted over 35 new cultivars of heliconias and are so excited to see them grow! The cabana has been steadily booked with guests and so that keeps us busy with maintenance, tours and turnover. It’s been a very fufiling time in our lives. I’ve been trying to make more videos in order to capture the essence of life these days, sort of “vlog” style if you’d like to watch some other things that we’ve been up to. Here’s our channel: LIFETRANSPLANET YOUTUBE


Christmas Fun


Primer Cumpleanos for friend Nico’s Birthday Party


Holiday fun. At the beach, with a Norfolk pine (a tropical Christmas tree!) and surfer statue has been Santa-fied


Winter is the best time for a swim!


Or just visit the beach


There was a fun party at the lighthouse


We went out to the encendido in the Rincon Plaza – the best orchestra in Puerto Rico (Orquesta Sinfónica)!


Cows and geckos- normal sights


Had a fun stop at Tres Sirenas Inn


And an awesome farm called “Finca Brutal”



Thanksgiving with our neighbors was a lot of fun!


The beauty of this place still astounds me


More fun out and about



Some new additions to the garden and harvests


Preparing for a flower delivery and working outside in December!


Check out this GIANT heliconia called “Beefsteak” or Mariae. With our new friend Carlos

It’s been an active period of growth, literally, while we enjoy the holidays as well. We hope yours are going well also! Felicidades.

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My Favorite Waterfall (so far): Las Golondrinas

Thanks to an anonymous reader of this blog who encouraged us to look for the waterfall of Hacienda El Jibarito we went on the hunt again. This waterfall is named Las Golondrinas (the Swallows) and it far exceeded our expectations. I thought it was perhaps a small stream fall without a pond, but it was amazing! The trail to the fall in a bosque ecologico was relatively well-kept by the Hacienda and there were signs and trashcans along the way. It was a bit of a hike (maybe 10 minutes with a baby in tow), but we didn’t have to cross any water to get there. And when we arrived it took my breath away!


Ahhh-mazing

The water was cool and refreshing and the waterfall had a drop of about 80 feet or more into a deep 20-30 foot pond. There was a shallow area for kids to play and enough rocks to scramble. What’s more, we were the ONLY people there. Unlike Gozalandia which is incredibly beautiful with two falls on the property, the secret has not gotten out about Las Golondrinas and I hope it stays that way (except all of you reading this haha).


Aeden enjoyed playing at the water’s edge

There are 2 other “charcas” or ponds on this property, and we walked to one of them, but there was no real waterfall. I still want to see the third, but I have a feeling it just won’t compare to the cathedral feeling that Las Golondrinas had. A truly spiritual connection to the natural world. What’s more is that I had a sense of connection to millions of years ago because there was a huge deposit of ocean fossils all around. We couldn’t walk 5 feet without finding stones with ancient imprints.


The hike there wasn’t too bad, even carrying a baby

The waterfall was so perfect I had to share the secret with some friends. A couple of weeks after we went the first time, we took a caravan up and spent a wonderful afternoon just lounging about in the cool shade of the blue lagoon.


Thanks to Daisy for this picture!


Fun with friends!


Can’t beat freshwater falls with friends!


Taking a dip!


Thanks to Jessika for this picture!

Sometimes I still am surprised myself that this is my life. Straight out of some tropical adventure movie, the scenes and settings often still seem unreal to my midwestern brain. But here I am, in my new transplanted home, the land my long-awaited son was conceived and born from, La Isla del Encanto. And how many enchantments it truly holds!

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