Category Archives: Tropical

Puerto Rico Trip To Do List

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We have finally picked the time we will be back down in Rincon/Puerto Rico: mid January 2012. We have quite a bit we would like to get done while we are there. We have been going back and forth on what to do with the current wood house that is there now. We vacillate between fixing it up and tearing it down to build something new. As of now, I think we are again leaning toward taking it down and rebuilding with the wood some sort of “tree house” or jungle structures in the area down below. We probably won’t get started on that with this trip, but we do have quite a few “to-dos” once we arrive. Here is our list so far (and who wanted it on the list):


Bananas in Puerto Rico (or are they plantains?)

* Plant banana trees (BK)
* Visit with ARC ENG -the architecture/engineering business in Rincon (CK)
* Visit the Rincon Treehouse place to talk about specifics (BK)
* Visit Mangosteen person in Mayaguez if we have enough time (CK)
* CRIM? We haven’t done this yet and probably should (neither really want to)
* Fix up kitchenette to have running water (BK)
* Get estimate for cost of our property ideas by local contractor
* Get hot running water rigged if possible (CK)
* Buy a heavy duty weed-wacker at Home Depot, as the property is probably very overgrown by now (BK)
*Take a surf lesson – if we have time (CK)
* Have a small little fire at night on the property (BK)
*Walk to the beach from property (CK)
* Get rest of bees removed from walls if possible (BK)
* Find closest hospital (just in case-ha) -CK
*Find thrift or 2nd hand stores in the area (CK)

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What Wii Have Been Doing

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As you probably know by now, Britton and I like to take walks and bike rides to stay active here in Colorado. In the winter, our desire to be outside decreases dramatically as the weather turns cold, grey, snowy and/or windy. Living in Colorado you’d think we would be ski-bums, but skiing and/or snowboarding is a full-day commitment (need to wake up at 4am to get to most of the mountain towns on time) and pretty expensive for just a day pass. Plus I just don’t really like cold weather sports that much. I tend to gravitate toward the lodge for hot cocoa and a warm fire.

Some days it is nice enough around here that we can get outside and do some fun activities on the weekends, but during the work week now that the time has changed, it is dark (and therefore extra cold) before we even get home from work.

So we were trying to think of something we could do together this winter to stay active. In the past we have taken salsa dancing lessons, walked around indoor plazas and have done push-ups, sit-ups and treadmill walking/jogging in our house, but we were trying think of something new and engaging.

One day we said, “Why not try the Wii?” We knew that they had gone down in price since they first came out a couple of years ago and that we could get it for even less if we looked on Craigslist. Sure enough, we found a Wii with the balance board, extra remotes and numchucks and four games for $100! Not bad for something that would have been about $600 new!

So we have been playing it just about every night since we got it three weeks ago. We are getting a lot better at it! On the Wii Fit game we really like the balance games like this soccer head-butt game. I also like the yoga and aerobics games too.

 

We also got Wii Sports Resort and so we turn on the fireplace and turn on some tropical music and then we can go wake-boarding, cruising, ping ponging and more at a tropical resort all in the comfort of our basement. I guess it will have to do until we go back to the real thing! 🙂

 

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A Rincon Treehouse Idea

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Cassie and I have been thinking about the place in Rincon a lot more lately since the weather in Colorado has turned cold and grey.   One of the decisions we have been tossing around is what to do with the wood house that is currently on the property.

We go back and forth between tearing it down and remodeling it.  It is a unique type of house for Puerto Rico seeings how it is made out of wood instead of concrete.  This creates some problems with bugs, rot and the chance of hurricane.  However it has a feeling to it that concrete doesn’t have.   A warmth if you will.

Well perhaps we can do both.  Tear it down AND remodel it.  We have 4 acres to work with so we figure we can move it from its current spot, which is the prime location for a house on the property, to a location down lower on the property where there is a palm tree oasis.


Me Among the Palms (where the ‘tree house’ would go)

We figure there is enough wood to make a sort of ‘tree house’ type of structure or a ‘Swiss family Robinson’ type place.   That is kind of what we have now, but then we would build a concrete villa where the wood house currently sits.

We can then rent out the wood house for people to stay at when they are on vacation.  The property has very little human created noise at night and the jungle really comes alive.  It sounds fantastic.

We both drew up an idea of what we were thinking for the ‘treehouse’.


Cassie’s Drawing


Britton’s Drawing

As you can see, we have similar ideas of what we would like. We also found this site about tree houses in Puerto Rico that are built on a single point. They call them “hooches”. We’d like to possibly talk with the owner of this one about their place. We have been toying around with this idea because it would allow us to keep the wood house AND build a more secure / substantial concrete villa.  We could connect the two places with a nice walking path.  This is one of the reasons we wanted to have a bit of land, so that we could let our imagination run a bit wild.

We like this idea because it “saves” the wooden house, gives us more room for the house of our dreams, and creates a pretty cool spot -a type of tropical tree house! That’s the type of option we really like -a win-win-win!

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Coffee Beans in Colorado?!

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Schnoodle with some of the various tropical plants in our house -coffee tree is furthest left

Coffee Tree
A Healthy Coffee Plant has Nice glossy dark green leaves

We have had a small coffee plant for the last few years.  In the summer we put it in the humid greenhouse and it grows well. Then in the winter we bring it inside, where it lives..but doesn’t exactly thrive.   But this year we watered it a little more and… it started to bloom.

Cassie played the role of the honey bee and pollinated some of the blossoms by hand by touching the pollen from flower to flower. We hadn’t thought much of it until just the other day when we saw….Green coffee berry beans!


Colorado Coffee Beans

We will continue to let them grow and I doubt we’d have enough even for a single cup of coffee, but it’s still fun and having tropical plants around us invokes thoughts of Puerto Rico.  Of course the coffee plants in PR are a hundred times more fragrant and bigger!  Perhaps if we have enough beans/seeds we will try to grow another tree or two here in CO.  When we get to PR we might plant a whole acre of them!

Coffee Flowers
Little pom-pom white scented puffs of flowers soon turn into the berries

This is a coffee bush in Puerto Rico (makes our Colorado coffee beans look silly)

UPDATE: Click on links to see the red coffee berries turn into beans and new coffee plant seedlings.

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