Being the opposite isn’t all bad, in fact it is very pretty here when it snows and both Cassie and I have very fond memories of growing up here during the winter.  When it snows I get flooded with those memories like playing tackle football in the street after a good snow with neighborhood friends, sledding, building snow forts and having snow ball fights,etc.   It’s not all bad to be the opposite of Hawaii or Puerto Rico. But it is a lot colder!!

When I got up for work on Friday I was met with a sign from the universe.   On the back of my car I have one of those Rincon 413 Road to Happiness window stickers on my rear windshield (you see them often in Rincon).  It reminds me of our goals from time to time and has given me mental energy when I need it most.  Like when I am working on a rental after work and on weekends, it’s a reminder that I am doing all this extra work for a reason.  Well I think the universe gave me a sign that I am on the right path.  It was around 0 degrees Fahrenheit on this day.

Scraping Windows Occurs EVERY Morning These Days

Ahhh yes, the daily routine of getting out of a warm bed taking a HOT shower then getting into a freezing cold car.  Scrape the windows so you can see out, start it up and get it warmed up.  Once warm you can defrost the rest of the windows with the heater and the rear defroster.   Sometimes when you pull away from it’s parking spot you can feel the tires breaking their ice bond to the pavement.   At highway speeds sometimes the frost is hard to keep off even with the heater on high!  You always want to have a big coat, hat and gloves in your car too in case you break down.  Wouldn’t want to freeze to death.

Me and a 3ft long Icicle I found

I can’t imagine a lot of people scraping windows in Puerto Rico or Hawaii..lol.  Although the humidity when it rains might be considered the closest in comparison.  I’ve had the windows fog up in PR when it’s raining.

Speaking of heaters every house here has a large one, the furnace.  It’s most likely the most essential thing a house needs here.  Without it, you could freeze to death but your plumbing would definitely freeze and break.  In Puerto Rico it’s not uncommon to have un-buried water lines sitting right on top of the ground.   You’d NEVER do that here!

There are lots of things that make Greeley the exact opposite of tropical locations and that’s ok.  It’s just different and we want to try out the tropics for a while.

We thought it would be funny to take a picture by one of Greeley’s welcome signs. It looks a lot like the one they put in the show, except it doesn’t actually say, Greeley: The exact opposite of Hawaii.

Cassie and Cartman in Greeley

We hope everything is ok with it after Hurricane Irene slid past. We have no idea what three months in the rainy season of the tropics could produce by way of plant growth or if there is a (new) leak in the roof or any other number of things. The good thing is that it is so far away that there is really not much that we can do about it anyway…

Thanks to the Kruses for stopping by from time to time to check on the place and make sure it is still standing.

Now we are thinking when we should go down again. Probably sometime during the wintry months…Over the holidays when we have lots of days off work, perhaps? Over Britton’s birthday which is in the middle of January? In the midst of the worst month: February? Quizas.

The house/property

Having the curse/blessing of efficiency and productivity even when at rest or on vacation we’re also starting to plan what we want to accomplish with the property while we are there next. I think we’ll at least finish the studio cabana but probably also start cleaning out the wooden house. Maybe even get rid of the rest of the bees since they only had enough time to take one of the four colonies when we were there last. 

The other reason I’ve been thinking of Puerto Rico is I’ve started reading Esmeralda Santiago’s newest book Conquistadora which is all about Puerto Rico in the mid 1800′s. I read When I was Puerto Rican and loved it and this newest one, while a fictional novel and not a memoir is also pulling me in. It is so rich with detail and a great story of a Spanish woman named Ana’s desire to make a life in Puerto Rico as her ancestor conquistadors did. So of course it makes me miss la Isla del Encanto. When I finish the book, I’ll write a short review here, but so far it’s really enthralling!

We’ve also been thinking of when we want to make our permanent jump across the pond to move to and live in Rincon. I think we’ve decided that we want to pay off one more rental property and save up a nice round number of dollars- the amount dependent on what we want to do with the property. We figure this will take less than 2 years.  Or if Britton manages to take his job because of an expansion in his company to Puerto Rico it might be even sooner! All in all we are still thinking of Puerto Rico as much as ever, just the type of thoughts have changed from if  and can we to when and how!

A few weeks ago while I was sleeping Jack  (Cassie’s Dad who recently passed) came to me in a dream.  We were in Puerto Rico on a sunny day on top of a hill.  It was on the west side of the island and I could see the ocean from where we were.  I don’t remember all the details about it but a few things stood out. 

1. Jack was waiting for us in Puerto Rico or already had a place.
2. The house reminded me of playground equipment for some reason.
3. The place had an ocean view.

When I woke up I told Cassie about the dream.  I had been waiting for Jack to visit me in my dreams and he finally did!  I remember telling him something like: “Well if you already had a place in Puerto Rico why didn’t you tell us!!! This would have been so much easier!”

Fast forward a week…Maybe a week and a half.  A Realitor calls me while I am at work.  I met him in PR when I was down there last time and we looked at a property.  He said that the sellers of the property wanted to extend an offer/price.  They knocked $270,000 off of their inital asking price!   Well I told him that I’d have to ask Cassie, but I am pretty sure we would make a deal. 

Here are a few pictures of the place.  I have some video to upload later on too.  There is a main wood house, a small studio concrete guesthouse and 4 acres of land.

This place meets nearly all of Cassie and my criteria.  It is a perfect compromise really.  It has some land to move around/build on, it’s located in Rincon and it’s affordable.   We really like Rincon because it will be an easier transition to move to, there is the possibility of making our own rental/vacation home business there, and there is a lot of great events and things going on. When I looked at this place before I didn’t take it too seriously because they were asking so much.

The house is a wood treated place which is good and bad.  It’s good because we will have a place to stay while we are down there.  It’s bad becasue we are planning to eventually take it down and put up a concrete house of our choosing.  I like this though because it is more of a ‘pay as you go’ option.  We don’t have to take out a major loan, we can design it how we want it and it has something we can use now.

Both of us are SUPER excited about it, and even more certain that it is the right decision.  The down side is that we have a contract on the other place near Isabela.  We are going to break the news to that realitor soon that we had something totally unexpected come up that will prevent us from purchasing that property.   There isn’t much money on the line so it is something that Cassie and I are willing to let go and chalk up to the cost of the other place.

This place in Rincon is going to require a lot of work and improvements to make it what we want.  That’s fine though.  We are looking forward to the challenge (as we’ve done before with our rentals)! And in the mean time, we can enjoy the sunset over the ocean from our literal dream home in the tropics- which will make it all the more worthwhile.

When we got to Rincon we saw a couple of properties. One was near Corcega beach and another that is up in the hills a ways. We went with the real estate agent that Nick and Miri recommended, Steve, of Island West Realty. The properties were both pretty nice, but a little higher than we would like (230k and 180k). One of them was within walking distance to the beach and the other had an ocean view. We want something with enough land that we could garden and feel somewhat secluded from neighbors because a lot of the houses are only about 10 feet from the crazy roads. Steve had a lot of information about the island’s history, tax codes, and politics that we didn’t know before. He was also kind of like a tour guide showing us where all the rich and famous people come, where to get this and that, and how it has changed over the years. He seemed to know everyone. We told him to keep an eye out for properties, and he gave us the contact info for insurance agents, lawyers and other agents he recommends. Then, of course, we went to the beach.

Tomorrow we are going to San Juan with Awilda to help her deliver her pasteles and to visit with Carlos, the lawyer who is trying to figure out the title problems with the place in Lares. I think we are going to ask for our deposit back at the meeting, so we’ll see how that flies.

Later that afternoon Britton and I thought we would go to the beach since we were here anyway, so we went to Steps and Tres Palmas beach to watch some of the surfers. The beach is pretty rough since it has a coral reef breaker, so after hanging out there for a while, we went back to the main baleanario and swam for a while. Now we are back at Surf’s Up, but Nick and Miri told us that we can get free Wi-Fi at the Rincon main square which will come in handy I am sure. Anyway, we have been having a great time and Miri also gave us the name of a real estate agent to talk to as well so we might do that in the coming days too. We have been playing it day by day, but I think we need to get back to Awilda because she picked some gandules and wants to have us try arroz con gandules with her and Estrella tonight.

A Few Days after Christmas 2007 in Hatillo, PR

At the LOUD Hatillo, PR Mask Festival Parade

At the Arecibo, Puerto Rico Radio Telescope Observatory

For those of you on a warm tropical island and those covered in snow, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Feliz Navidad a todos!

And in Jimmy Buffet’s own words:

Ho, ho, ho and a bottle of rum
Santa’s run off to the Caribbean
He thinks about boat drinks and fun in the sun
Ho, ho, ho and a bottle of rum

Click below for song:
Ho Ho Ho and a Bottle of Rum

At a Beach in Rincon, PR

Christmas Island by Jimmy Buffet