Tag Archives: survivor

Island Birthday and Anniversary

What is so fun about living on a “vacation destination” is that you’re already here! So when we go out to celebrate something like my birthday or our (10th!!) anniversary, we didn’t have to go very far at all. We were just talking about how if we were in Colorado and planned a 10 year reunion trip to Puerto Rico in memory of our honeymoon that we took here, how much of a hassle that would be. Researching, buying tickets, getting time off, packing, arranging someone to take care of the house/animals, getting to the airport, getting screened, waiting, cramming in to the seats, waiting, cramming in again, getting unfamiliar food, finding a rental car and accommodations and then getting to the destination and fun that awaits. The reason for the trip!

Sand dollar sky
Sand dollar!

Instead, now that we live here we just get straight to the fun! We just get in our truck and head out to the beach, small island (like Desecheo that we went to last year), waterfall, cliff, cave, garden or new restaurant/club/bar/event of our choice. And we get to know these places and people who live here (friends!) much better than we would if it were just for a week or two.

Here’s how we spent a few special days on our “vacation” island we now call home.

Cassie Bday
Corcega  Beach on my Birthday

For my birthday this year, we decided to keep it low-key and just spend the day at the beach and then go out to a nice restaurant that we’ve been wanting to check out for some time. First we stopped by our favorite little food truck: Jack’s Shack which serves up local organic goodness. Then we headed to the beach. Even though it was a Saturday there weren’t very many people out and we enjoyed the long sandy beaches of the Corcega area in Rincón.

Spearfishing
Britton even did a little spearfishing, though he didn’t see much

We dressed up a little (hey just wearing clothes sometimes has become difficult with our new lifestyle) went out to Mahi Mahi in Añasco for dinner and I enjoyed, surprise!, the fresh caught mahi mahi AKA dorado. Then we went out to the little ice cream parlor in town called Tip Top. They even make some of their own ice creams with things like local mangos and tamarind.

Mahi Mahi Tip Top
Mahi Mahi and Tip Top

Ice cream
Mmmm ice cream in the Rincón Plaza!

Our friend Ariana also shares the same birthday as I do and planned another get-together at Borinquen Beach in Aguadilla as we did last year. Everyone brought something to the potluck and we were enjoying the day but the sky looked a little foreboding. People took a swim out to the rock caves and munched and talked. Then it started to rain a little…and then it dumped! We all huddled under the tiny little tent and laughed and thought that it felt like we were on Survivor, living outside in a torrential downpour. Everyone was soaked. We all shared towels and hugged each other for warmth. And it truly was just so much fun.

Survivor birthday edition
Borinquen Survivors!

Next up was our anniversary. Ten years is a pretty big deal and we had thought that maybe if the cabin was finished we might throw a party, but that was just not in the cards.

10 years yep
2005-2015! Where has the time gone?!

So Britton and I decided to just enjoy another day at the beach and out and about. We spend a lot of time at our property (we love it!), so when we leave it always feels extra special. I wanted to go to a beach we either hadn’t been to or hadn’t been in a while. Maybe Table Rock? Crashboat? But we decided upon Tres Hermanos in Añasco.

This is a HUGE public beach with a nearly equally large parking lot. The whole thing is fenced in so cars can’t drive right up to the beach but you can park along the road and there are little pedestrian entrances all over so you, or your horse, can walk right in.

IMG_0097
Tres Hermanos fence and horse tied with a hose

It was a cloudy day, but no rain. We hung out and swam for a while and took a walk to see this old boat. From a distance we thought it was possibly a ditched Yola from the Dominican Republic, but it wasn’t.

Boat and Anasco 3 Hermanos beach

This beach is really cool because you can see the Rincón peninsula from a distance and it gives you that depth that you really do live on an island! Plus, there are tons of coconut palms!

Bird flying
Pelican (I think?) soaring the palm-lined skies

Anniversary 10 years
The obligate selfie at the beach on our anniversary!

Since it happened to be a Thursday, later that evening we also went out to the Art Walk in the Rincón Plaza, had dinner at De Bocas and saw a few friends. Art Walk is always the social event of the week!

Me and Jessika
With my creative friend Jessika at the Art Walk

We love our never-ending summer vacation and on special days like these are reminded even more so how fortunate we really are to live here.

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (1)
  • Awesome (16)
  • Interesting (0)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)

I’m a Modern Man?

When Cassie and I were at the Midway airport in Chicago, we saw a couple that stuck out.  They didn’t ‘fit’ into the normal picture.  They appeared to be an older Mexican couple.  The man wore a cowboy hat and boots, the woman in a dress.

We were at the gate watching and the airline didn’t let them on the plane.  They closed the door and the couple looked very confused.  It was apparent that they did not speak English and were out of sorts.

Cassie went over to try and help the couple and the airline folks translate.  She found out that they were actually from Guatemala and not only didn’t speak much English but were hardly literate. They were scared and lost without anyone to help them. They were on their way to New York City to visit family and had somehow gotten standby tickets, but they did not know what that meant and had felt abandoned at the airport. As standby passengers, since the plane had filled up, they didn’t get on.

This couple had more or less left directly from their finca and this was their first flight or trip out of Guatemala ever. They needed to get a hold of their family in NY and let them know that they would be on another flight (once Cassie helped them get straightened out with a confirmed ticket).  I handed them my phone to use.  Cassie looked at me and said something like, “Um…I think you should probably dial it for them.”

Samsung_Galaxy - Copy

Modern Man Tool

Rethinking my action I agreed.  They would have never seen many cell phones, let alone the new touch screen smart phone.  I dialed the number, handed it to Miguel and he looked at it like it was an alien spaceship.  The phone is enough like an actual phone so he could hold it up to his ear and talk.  I think that puts him somewhere technology wise in the 1930s or 1950s. It was clear that this modern life was not comfortable in the least to this couple. 

Fast forward to Cassie and my daily life….

We have been watching a lot of Survivor type shows that take place in tropical locations.  The most recent we have been watching is Naked and Afraid.  We started to watch them simply because they took place in the Tropics.  Like most things, these shows have changed our worldview a bit in ways that we didn’t expect.

When you see people trying to survive without all the modern conveniences of society and try to live off food from the ocean, or the jungle you see that humans, for the most part are not able to live outside of society for very long.  We can’t drink water, we can’t find food, fire is hard to start without matches and being wet sucks.

In the Naked and Afraid show it is surprising how even survival specialists who teach classes on the subject, fail when it comes to actually surviving in the wild!

I have been contrasting this with the life that I live in a corporate world that consists of driving, sitting in front of a computer screen working with abstract ideas and concepts, eating pre-made pre-packaged food and taking walks for exercise.  I can’t help but notice that I have been completely removed from nature.  I, unlike the Guatemaltecos in the airport, have been raised in American schools in order to domesticate me to the society in which I was anticipated to exist.  I know how to form and stand in lines, how to type and to a lesser degree use hand writing (they have now stopped teaching cursive in a lot of schools). I understand all the various hoops one must jump through to do anything nowadays. I was trained to sit at a desk all day long and I know how to work within a diverse group to achieve a goal that has been given to me by a leader, teacher, manager or other figure of authority.

All of these modern skills are useful in my society.  They are what the corporation is looking for in their resources.  However these modern skills are almost useless in nature or on a finca.  I can’t start a fire without matches, I don’t know what things I can eat and making a sturdy shelter without a home depot would be a challenge.

Contrasting this with the Guatemalan couple, I would bet that they would do much better on the survival shows than even the so-called survival experts.  They aren’t as far removed from the natural world.  I am not exactly sure if one is better than the other, I just thought that the contrast was stark.

In our move to Puerto Rico, we are looking forward to a better balance between the two worlds.

This song helps to sum it up (snippet of lyrics below):

So I wait my turn, I’m a modern man
And the people behind me they can’t understand
Makes me feel like….
Something don’t feel right

They say we are the chosen few but we waste it
And that’s why we’re still waiting
On a number from the modern man
Maybe when you’re older you will understand why you don’t feel right
Why you can’t sleep at night no
In line for a number but you don’t understand like a modern man

What do you think of this post?
  • WOW (1)
  • Awesome (3)
  • Interesting (2)
  • Useful (0)
  • Bummer (0)
  • Whoa (0)