At the end of one of my stories about Vieques, I mentioned that its “quirkiness is it’s magic”. This is so true! Vieques is a quirky little place, full of colour, vibrancy and life. There is color everywhere you look. The turquoise ocean the blue skies the white puffy clouds, even the iguana’s are bright green, and buildings of every color you can think of.
I am sure you have seen enough pictures of the amazing beaches, coconut palms and sunsets. There is a lot more to this place than that. Though that seems to feature highly in our priorities, and why not? we are, after all, on a Caribbean Island. So, I wont bore you with the same old, here is a slightly different look at Vieques.
Check out this rainbow of houses.
There it is – Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo and Violet – all present and accounted for.
As we walk around this quirky little place we are never short of amazement at the next colour combination we come across.
We have the Brights……
And the Pastels……..
And then all these awesome combinations…..
And this is just a small example of what is here.
How many different colours can you see in this scene? Love it!
Even the masks are all colours!
Our time here is almost up. We leave in 9 days! It is so hard to believe that it is over six months already, it has gone super fast! We have been really busy, it hasn’t all been hanging out at the beach! We have both put in many hours volunteering to various places. Chris has done many days with Kim, watering gardens when it was really dry and weed-wacking when the rain came and made it all grow again. I have helped at the kids art camp during the summer holidays and done some admin for Our Big Fat Caribbean Rescue, which is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of Vieques’ animals, during their free Neuter and Spay clinics.
Both Chris and I have been walking the dogs at the Humane Society most weeks – Friday, our favorite day of the week! We have been very creative in the kitchen, creating wonderful dishes with the, often, lack of available ingredients. We have immensely enjoyed our social gatherings, and sharing all these wonderful culinary creations with dear friends, whom we are going to sorely miss!
We have had our own property here to caretake for, there has been gardening, painting, building and maintenance to carry on with. I have been going to Zumba and Aqua Aerobics a couple of times a week. We did several trips to the big island for various supplies, and had our fabulous yet disastrous visa trip to the Dominican Republic AND had pretty bad storm (Fiona wasn’t quite a hurricane as she went past us) – No wonder the time has gone fast!
This says it all!!
So where to from here?
Boston (USA) – Jakarta (Indonesia) – Penang (Malaysia) – Hua Hin (Thailand) – Chennai (India) – NZ all by Febuary 2023!
We are here on this tiny island as if in a time warp. The time goes by so fast. One minute it’s the weekend and then the next it is Friday night again, how does that happen? We have 6 weeks left of this house sit, we have been here for over 5 months already!
I sit here on my deck chair under a coconut trees shade, at Caracas beach. This is one of our favourite places on the island. Not because it is the most beautiful, there are some spectacular beaches, I think it is because we have the best memories here. Last time we only had bike power for getting around and this was the best beach we could reach by bike – still a 9 km cycle over the spine of the island. We were so much fitter then! And it is just as memorable now. The water is as clear as crystal, gently lapping on the perfectly white sand. The sky is deep blue and the clouds are so white.
Playa Caracas
Today is very quiet. It is Sunday, it is usually “Sunday Fun-day”, where crowds of friends and family gather for a day at the beach. Bringing with them BBQ’s, hammocks, cooler boxes groaning with food and alcohol, chairs, tables and gazebos and music. That’s what we are missing today – Music! The thump thump thump of the Puerto Rican rhythm. It is very distinctive and very conspicuous in its absence.
This is the off season. Not many tourists come to the island at this time of the year and a lot of the businesses close down for a month – 6 weeks. Holiday rentals shut down, restaurants and bars, some tour operators, it is very quite. The supermarket and the roads reflect this. The fruit truck doesn’t have as much to offer at the moment. We didn’t notice this the last time here as we had just had Hurricane Irma, it was a very different place then.
It is so hot! I have just been reading through my story of the last time here. It got to “feels like” 46°C then! It hasn’t got to that this time – well not that I have captured! So hot though. You can’t have a cold shower because the water out of the cold tap is always warm. I am sweating buckets every day! It drips off my chin and runs in my eyes, and that is just going outside to the washing line! The temperatures are so consistent, 27deg – 31deg every day! When we have a bit of rain we celebrate! But then if it rains for more than a day, everything starts to feel damp, your clothes, bed sheets, cushions even the floor. And my hair!! Humidity frizz! I would like to make it a new fashion statement, but no one in their right mind would want this! So, the best thing for it is to get into the ocean. The water temperature is 29.3°C – I just looked it up. Slightly cooler than the air temperature. Though I would like to challenge this. We have a hot tub – yes, it’s true!! here at the house and it is constantly sitting at 32°C and that is with no heating, just the ambient temperature and I am sure the ocean is warmer than that tub.
Disease-causing organisms??
We are smack bang in the middle of hurricane season, in fact the peak of hurricane season was on Saturday. It has been really quiet this year, so much so that, for the first time in 25 years, there have been no named storms during August. But we are still feeling a bit nervous to be honest! There are lots of different web pages and Facebook groups that we keep an eye on as we know that there is always a bit of notice if there is something coming our way that we need be aware of. We have been collecting water and have bought extra canned and dried foods just in case we do lose power. It was 5 years ago this week that Irma came through, caused 10 days of power outage then 4 days later Maria made an appearance and…… well…… that was power, and water gone for quite some time. We have bought a GPS tracker which can also send messages through the satellite system if standard communication is lost. We have done a couple of tests and it works well. Having all communication gone was one of the hardest things to cope with. We were alive a relatively well, but family on the other side of the world did not know this. Tough times, don’t really want to go through that again!
For our Hurricane story and photos, check out the link below
There has been a lot of Sahara dust most of the time we have been here. They say that this dust, which blows all the way from the deserts of Africa, helps to ward off hurricanes. It chokes out the systems, and they don’t have enough moisture to keep going, then a hurricane can’t form. Though the dust is a pain in the butt-ocks, makes it hazy and the windows get filthy, we like the idea of it being our “hurricane angel”
Being on a rock of 135m2, sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, makes for interesting weather conditions. I studied weather for my skippers licence a million years ago, we had to recognise and understand clouds, and what they represented for predicting weather……… Well, I didn’t do too well in that section! I can hardly tell one cloud from the other. But I do remember there being the “castle clouds” the Altocumulus Castellanus clouds. I have always wanted to see them; they don’t seem to form in NZ. Here on Vieques there are clouds every day and we often see the Castle Clouds. We don’t usually get just a plain blue sky, like at home, and these clouds here are the whitest I have ever seen. The sky here is amazing, moody and bright, the sunsets and sunrises, the rainbows and clouds are so vibrant and brilliant.
Altocumulus Castellanus clouds take their name from their resemblance to turrets of castles and are often a warning of thunderstorms
Things can be difficult here, but we are all in the same boat. Everyone can’t get that special ingredient to make that dish they want, and that’s after trips to 3 different stores in the hope 1 will have it, and then you pay the earth for it. I needed cream the other day and had a route mapped out of the stores I would try, if I couldn’t get it after store number 6, we would go without. I got it at store number 3!! So glad too because it was for Betsy’s amazing bread pudding!!
Perfect with caramelised banana and whipped cream
Everyone has to wait for months for contractors or parts for broken cars, so many cars are in poor condition because of it. The power goes out and the water slows down for no apparent reason at times, this affects everyone, one Barrio at a time it seems. The fire ants and mosquitos are pretty unbearable, but everyone has them. Oh, the heat and the sweat – we all sweat buckets, it is never offensive and everyone has a sweat rash somewhere! It doesn’t seem to matter here, everyone just gets on with it, you just adjust that recipe or menu to suit what you find at the store, you hold your car together with duct tape. It is just part of the charm of Vieques!
It’s quirkiness is its magic, and we all love it!
It’s a great life here and we feel so privileged to have had not one, but two chances to experience life as a local on Vieques, Puerto Rico. 6 weeks to go and we will be very sad to leave.
We often get asked – What do you do all day? Six months in one house sit, on a tiny island, just the two of you? We always try to involve ourselves in the community in the new places we find ourselves in, its the best way to meet people and experience life as the locals do, get to know the real people and get an insight to their culture and lifestyle. We never seem to run out of things to do. This trip is proving to be very social, more so than the last time here and we are loving it!
It cant be vacation every day!! Or can it…….
EVERY DAY IS SATURDAY, AND EVERY NIGHT IS FRIDAY NIGHT!
So I had a look back on my photos of the last week, and this is what it looked like……
Monday Lunes
Chris is off helping our Kiwi friend, Kim, with yard maintenance. He usually does this 2 or 3 mornings a week. Theses mornings usually start with coffee and end with Medalla.
1700 on Monday you will find me in the town square trying to do Zumba with these awesome girls. This Kiwi does not have the moves these cool chicks have, I put it down to the language barrier!
Our Zumba instructor is a Purple Heart recipient Veteran, who has a truly inspirational story. Check out her book, released last month!
We get pretty good supplies of fruit and veg by way of the veggie truck which comes every Tuesday and Friday from the main island. Good to get there early though. Every week we spend about the same amount of money, no matter what we buy – there are no prices to go by and the till is only for storing cash, they use a plain old calculator to add it all up – love it!
Its time for a hair cut! Chris completely trusted me with the clippers and off it came. So much cooler! I didnt do too bad a job even though I have absolutely no hair cutting skills.
Wednesday Miércoles
While Chris works with Kim, I go to Water Aerobics. So nice being in the water and such a lovey group of ladies to hang out with at the hotel pool, 5 minutes walk from home.
Also while the lads are away, I tend to get busy in the kitchen.
Most of the bread we can get here is a bit on the sweet side and doesnt have much in the way of texture – great for burgers and hotdogs, but that’s about it. So I have learnt to make Focaccia Bread, and it is delicious. I made some tomato relish today, so tonight all we had for dinner was cheese, bread and relish – perfect! This was following our mandatory stop at El Yate on the walk home from Morales, the super market.
Thursday Jueves
We have a few projects to go on with, so today we finish off a bit of painting.
Oh Boy it is so hot now. 30 – 31 degC every day and today the “feels like” is 38!
But that’s no problem – there are many many beaches, so we go for an afternoon swim at Sun Bay with Kim.
Friday Viernes
Every Friday morning we walk the dogs from the Vieques Humane Society. The dogs love it and the soon get to know us. Today we put some travel cages together for them – and we earnt our volunteer tee-shirts!
We have been getting right into cooking and have tried some really nice recipes with mangos. Green Mango salad, mango cake and mango sauce. Chris has perfected pork ribs – which we cant get enough of! Banana bread, Thai noodle salad with lemongrass from the garden and home made pesto and hummus, perfect with the focaccia bread! BUT, tonight is Sushi night.
Chris and Kim perfect home made sushi while I go jump around in the square with the girls doing Zumba, please note Kims hair cut …… Yours truly’s handy work last week, staggers me they trusted me with a pair of scissors!
Saturday Sábado
A bit of yard maintenance at home this morning
Keeping the gardens watered is a daily job, its a nice way to start the day. We try to get this done before anything else, while it is a bit cooler – ie 28deg rather than 30deg – believe me it makes a difference!
Catching up with emails and news from home – nice hair cut by the way!
Saturday afternoon we are lucky enough to be invited to a Moria and Kevins for a swim and Bar-B-Q. A wonderful afternoon chilling by the pool with awesome people and the BEST grilled food cooked outside! We still sometimes pinch ourselves to be sure this is real! Perfection!
Lazy start to the day. There is always a cuddle from our lovely Allie
Sunday is “Fun-Day” they say. This is the day on Vieques where everyone goes to the beach. They go for the whole day, cooler box full of booze and food, music, umbrellas and chairs, to just hang out and enjoy. So this afternoon was Caracas – So beautiful!
So that is the week that was. We always have lots to do and lots of people to hang out with. And the weeks are sure flying by!
Sunday night sunset from out balcony, Beautiful way to round out the week, Thank you Vieques!
We have returned to the little island of Vieques which is off the east coast off the main island of Puerto Rico. We had a strong desire to come back to this unique little place. We had left in such a hurry after Hurricane Maria, we didn’t get a chance to say goodbye or thank you to our friends. So, unfinished business, I guess you could say.
We are doing the same 6 month housesit we did in 2017.
It was so good to see Bob and Lou again. They surprised us with a gathering of people to meet and connect with, introduced us to Pickleball and the awesome group of Pickleball players, so we are hitting the ground running this time. In 2017, this was Bob and Lou’s second season here. Five years on and they know so much more about the island and know so many more people, add that to our experience and the people we met then, we are in for an awesome 6 months!
It feels like we have never been away, but there is a different feel to the island. The same wonderful people, but somehow, much more friendly, much more relaxed with each other. Our favourite part of travelling is meeting people from other cultures, making friends in different languages and crossing that “foreigner” barrier.
Hurricane Maria almost wiped this island out. In the aftermath the people came together, they supported each other and helped each other, there was an incredible bond, a bond of survival. The need to purely survive continued for months and months. Things finally came back to a kind of normal, but, it seems, the people have not lost that special bond, that appreciation of each other, knowing that we are all in it together and we really are one big family. We feel right at home! Reuniting with friends we had become close with has brought tears to our eyes at times, and catching up with friends we had not known so well, but connected with all the same has been a joyous thing!
So what else is the same? Well it’s the same heat. It is almost summer time here and the temperatures are so consistent. They only fluctuate about 3°C in a 24 hour period. 27°C – 30°C every day at the moment. (80°F – 86°F) The humidity is sitting at about 75% but we know it will increase as the summer goes on. The maximum temperature will probably only reach to 31°C but we remember the “feels like 42°” (107°F) temperature VERY well. We would freeze a small wet towel in the shape of a C shaped sausage, and use this to put around the backs of our necks to try to cool down. We feel we are better acclimatised this time with being in Queensland for a while before getting here. And we know what to expect. News flash! We have Air conditioning in the bedroom! We feel so lucky to have this, what a treat!
The same beautiful clear water! The colour of Bombay Sapphire Gin. Water temperature is currently 27.6 °C. Gently lapping the white sand under the blue sky. The beaches are wonderful. The tradition of spending all day Sunday at the beach with a bunch of friends and family, eating loads of food, drinking loads of alcohol and listening to music, is alive a well! I believe there are 40 beaches here, that’s a lot of parties
The same beautiful views – but now even bigger! The island is looking really good, really fresh and tidy. A lot of trees came down in the hurricane which opened up views all over the island. We say to ourselves “could we see that from here before?” well, we couldn’t! All the vegetation has recovered, but where there were big trees knocked down, there are now small trees, so the views are amazing. There are a lot of freshly painted buildings. Still the run down places and falling down properties, but overall the whole island is looking great.
The same old horses! There seems to be more horses around. Vieques is known for its wild horses all over the island. I read once that they are as much a part of the island as the sand and sea. You have to be very careful when driving as they don’t know the road rules and they don’t seem to be afraid of being right in town. It has been very dry here the last few months and we were told that they are looking for water and food, so therefore, there are more around. There are a lot of foals around at the moment, so beautiful. It is a co-habitation which has been going on for generations.
The same strong cocktails. A plastic cup, five different spirits, a dash of coke, lots of ice – yip it’s the Vieques Pain Killer! Only need one ……. Or two….. before you fall off your bike! Good old Medalla though, is still the same, cold and wet and bubbly – BUT new colour can! This is only temporary as they raise awareness of the coral reefs – but oh how I love the current colour!
The same abundant Mosquitos!The town clock still has different times on all four faces
It is pretty great to be back! We are already in week 6, the time is really going to fly. Many adventures to come!
April 2022. We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico at 1am after a journey we felt would never end! We often get asked, how long does it take to get here from New Zealand. In some countries, New Zealand is quite the “unknown entity”
It must be true! Google said so!
It is always a good topic of conversation to explain just how far away we live. We left for this trip from Brisbane, Australia, rather than New Zealand, but all that did was add another hour and a half onto the journey. With COVID still causing difficulties with travel, we were advised to be at the airport 4 hours before take off.
My awesome cousins Steve and Shelley were up at sparrow’s fart with us and Steve drove us the hour to the airport. The airport was not very busy and we had all our paperwork in hand. The day before we had been to the doctor who preformed a Rapid Antigen Test, then wrote a letter to verify we had taken the test and it was negative. We were so worried that we might contract COVID in that last week which would have grounded us completely and we wouldn’t have been able to fly. But we didn’t and here we are checking in on the biggest trip we had been on for 2 years. The check in guy was great and said that the flight was only half full and he would put us in a 4 seat row to ourselves – perfect! Before COVID the planes we always chocker block full, so this is a nice change – especially as this first leg, Brisbane to Los Angeles, is 13.5 hours!
4 seats to ourselves!
We do get to sleep a bit on the plane, spread out on our 4 set row. Our Steward was awesome, extra mini pies and red wine in the middle of the night…. Thank you!…
Still pretty tired on arrival at Los Angeles, half way! We clear immigration and customs here. All week I had been concerned that we had forgotten something, that we had maybe not done something right. All this “stuff” for COVID, declarations, attestations, certificates, tests, contact addresses etc etc But no, all done, all correct, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES!
A four hour wait in LA then five hour flight to Miami. Now this flight was a different story altogether! Jam packed full and we were sitting apart. I was in the middle of three and Chris had the window seat a few rows behind me. Not to worry, 5 hours is nothing compared to the 14 we had just done.
We arrive in Miami, the three hour wait turned into four, and off we go to San Juan. It is now 1am and we arrive to an Island wide power cut! The city is basically in darkness. We arrive at our accommodation to candle light, is this a joke? This is exactly how we left 4 ½ years ago. So we cant say we didn’t feel right at home! There had been an explosion and fire at the power plant earlier in the evening which caused power outages for a couple of days. By now we were so tired we just fell into bed and had a great sleep – WE MADE IT!
21 hours flying, 11 hours waiting at airports plus traveling to and from the airports. So that’s the answer
32+ hour journey
slightly longer as we came from Brisbane, the usual flight time from Auckland, NZ to LA is 12 hours.
We spent 2 days re acquainting ourselves with the historic town of Old San Juan. Such a beautiful place. We just wandered around, drank in the sights, the sounds and smells. Its lovely and warm, 28°C. Its so good to be back!
In April Chris and I took off on our House Sitting adventure of 2017. I resigned from my job at Coastguard and Chris took 1 year leave without pay from his position as Deputy Harbourmaster. We were not sure how it would all turn out. Over the years we have house-sat but not for extended periods of time, so going away for a whole year was all very new and exciting. We had been chosen to do 6 months house sitting on a little island called Vieques in Puerto Rico. WOW! Can you imagine! 6 months in the Caribbean? How wonderful!! So this was the start point, for what turned out to be and amazing year.
Its quite a long way from New Zealand!
We didn’t know exactly where Puerto Rico was, other than in the Caribbean. But this is one of the wonderful things about what we do, the geography lesson we are getting along the way. So we find out that Puerto Rico is, in fact, part of The States – well, who knew! But what this meant was, we, as New Zealand passport holders, would have to apply for a visa to enter the USA for more than 3 months. After researching online, we start the application process, wondering if we will be successful. We better be – we have a house sit booked!! Many many pages of questions – occupations, homes, children, spouses, have you been involved in human trafficking? Have you ever been involved in bomb manufacturing or weapons? Have you ever been involved in trading in body parts? Pages and pages! We get it all sent away and make an appointment for an interview at the US Embassy in Auckland. Not on the same day of course! So we each take a trip to the big smoke. I went first.
You have to go through a screening search for weapons, bags taken off you and searched, you could only hold your paperwork, nothing else, no wallet, no phone. I sat and watched what others were doing and could hear bits of some of the conversations. Not all VISA’s were granted that day. My turn. I step up to the window to a very tall man – it may have actually been higher on his side of the window, he was a bit intimidating, dressed in what looked like military uniform. He said to me “so why do you want to go to the Untied States?” In my slightly nervous state, I blurted out “I don’t want to, I want to go to Puerto Rico for 6 months” this raised an eyebrow and he asked me again, “why” so I told him I was going to be house sitting,
At friends?
No, I don’t know the people,
So they are strangers?
Yes,
So you are going to stay at someones house, in a foreign country, but you don’t know who they are?
Yes,
But how does that work?.
I explained about house sitting and the web sites you apply with and he thought it was a hell of a good idea!
YOUR VISA IS GRANTED!
Chris had his visa granted the next week – just as well!! We now both have 10 year, multiple entry visas. Yahoo – LETS GO!
So we pack up and rent out the house, put furniture into storage, boat onto a mooring, car to a friends farm and off we go. We stayed away from NZ for 10 months all together. We weren’t sure how it would all go, how long we would be away for, whether we would still be talking to each other after being together 24/7 for so long, if we would have enough money to survive, etc etc. We had the security of Chris’s job to go back to after 12 months, so lets just give it a go! Life is too short not to! We hear so many say they will do such and such once they retire, or once the mortgage is paid off, or just one more year of work to save that bit more money, and then something happens and it is too late. We decided to bite the bullet and go for it, while we are still able to.
Puerto Rico here we come. And what a wonderful place!
Our lovely home owners met us at the ferry of the small Island of Vieques just off the East coast of mainland Puerto Rico. We loved these two immediately! They showed us around and orientated us with their little piece of paradise. After 2 days they left us in charge.
This was not a very big island, 32km by 7km. In the time we were there I think we covered almost every part of the island that was accessible.
Still today, there are unexploded bombs
In 1941 the United States Navy seized two thirds of the island, evicting a lot of local sugar farmers in the process. After WWII the Navy continued their hold on the land and it was used for military exercises and as a firing range and testing ground for munitions. This went on for decades. The Vieques people didn’t like it of course and after protesting for what would have seemed like a life time for some, the Navy withdrew for good in 2003.
Feels like 46!!!
It was summer in Puerto Rico, so temperatures around 30 – 32 every day. This is not overly hot as far as temperatures go, but the humidity was 100% and all weather apps would tell you the “feels like” temp was in the 40’s. It was a heat that drained you the minute you got up in the morning. We wondered if out fitness had suffered with not working, but figured that it was the heat making our bodies feel heavy and sluggish.
But this didn’t stop us from cycling all over the island and finding all the amazing beaches. Picture a Caribbean Island – white sand, blue sky, palm trees, gentle breeze and turquoise water as clear as gin – that was it – THE perfect Caribbean Island, with beaches what WOW you with the wonder of their perfection. We would pinch ourselves to believe that this was real, how lucky we were to be here!!
Mango season. We would always take a bag with us on our walks, just in case we come across a mango tree which had dropped fruit on “our” side of the fence. You had to be quick though as they would rot quickly or the wild horses would get at them first. So many trees, loaded with mangos, but behind peoples fences. The smell of the ripe fruit lying on the ground was heady. We were on the middle of the island one day coming back from Esperanza and came across a great tree with a few fruit on the path. We stopped to collect a couple. Next minute, an old lady started shouting at us in Spanish. Oh crap! We quickly tried to remember what the Spanish word for “sorry” was and approached her, ready for a telling off. But she had more mangos in her hand and wanted to give them to us and offered us even more! So lovely. Instead of “sorry” we said “gracias” many times!
Puerto Ricans have a great social life. They really know how to party. At the beaches during the weekends they arrive in droves, carting Bar-B-Q’s, cooler boxes, tables, gazebos, hammocks, etc etc and set up for the day. Mothers fathers, babies and grandparents and everything in between, all there to spend the day together having fun. They have cooler boxes full of beer AND spirits, and lots of it! They put fires on in the fire pits and put slow cook meals on as well as traditional Bar-B-Q food. Get the music going and party on. The water is so warm, the adults would gather in the water in groups, chat and drink, call out to the kids to get them another beer. Music wafting over the ocean. Eat loads of food, have a sleep, do it all again! The atmosphere was so good, all just having a great time, enjoying being together in this wonderful place.
For my birthday, Chris took us in a hired golf cart to La Chiva Beach and we had a day at the beach “Puerto Rican style” The family situated quite close to us started sharing their food with us and we got chatting. The whole lot of them sang Happy Birthday, they were so friendly and welcoming. It was getting dark by the time we all packed up to go home – The most perfect day.
We had no pets to look after in this house sit so we volunteered at the Vieques Humane Society and walked some of the shelter Satos (dogs) every Friday. We also helped out at the VHS thrift shop each week. We met and got to know some beautiful dogs and are so glad to know they have been re-housed to forever homes. The VHS do a great job!
We loved Vieques! We had a bit of bad luck after 4 months on the island with Hurricane Irma and Maria and were evacuated to USA October 2017 – That is another story, check it out here…
But that hasn’t put us off, we would be back in a flash. We were booked to do this house sit again this year, 2020, but it was cancelled due to COVID 19. Vieques went into lockdown early March, so we were unable to get there. They have done really well to have kept the virus out, big congratulations to the island people for being strong and standing united.
So what now? 5 months gone and we are displaced in The States, Check out my next story – the second half of this year long house sitting adventure, coming soon………
Keeping spirits up! Our dear friend Rhonda, heating up our Army Rations!
15 October 2017,
We still can the believe it how we ended up leaving. Chris’s brother Kevin and sister Maureen were starting to get very worried about us so contacted the Foreign Office in NZ. They were wonderful! They contacted the NZ Embassy in Washington DC, who also tried to contact us with no luck, so it got escalated up to the US State department, still no-one could reach us.
Collecting coconuts from the neighbours
Nearly our turn for the phone call to Washington
Day 15, we are getting the odd moment of signal on my cell phone. I managed to listen to my voice messages and found a message from Oliver from NZ Embassy in Washington. I had also received a txt from Leigh-Ann saying that Kevin was trying to get us evacuated. And that was it, no more signal! We went up to the square and got in the line for the sat phone and called Washington. During this call she took all our details and said she would email the State Department to say we were safe at the moment but quite keen to leave. I said I would ring them again at the same time the next day to find out any update. We are neighbours with the coordinator for the red cross so we talked to her, she talked to the comms guy and they arranged for us to come back in the morning to make this call from the Emergency Control Centre, on their Sat phone, no waiting in the queue. The fact that the State Department was involved, made us pretty special!!
So we called in the morning (Wednesday) to find they had been calling and txting, nothing getting through, desperately trying to let us know we had been booked on a flight that afternoon, get to San Juan by 1:15. It is currently 10:45! No, we cant make it! It is an hour ferry ride (even if one is leaving NOW) then another hour car ride to San Juan (we have heard that the publicos are not running) so no way we could make it. Got off the phone and told the Red Cross rep this and she said yes you can make it!! We will take you to the airport, there is a flight going to San Juan at noon, we will get you on that. So we called the embassy back and told them that we will do our best to make that flight, please don’t cancel us! And we did it! We raced home, packed our bags and shut the door. Hilda took us to the airport on Vieques, we were the only 2 on this special flight to San Juan.
Our beautiful island looked like it had been on fire, all the foliage was dead
Vieques airport was like a plane graveyard, planes had been tossed around like toys during the storm.
At San Juan we checked in with Tourism Puerto Rico who were accounting for all the passengers for the humanitarian flight, then lined up for 3 hours to get our boarding pass. There were families with small children there who were sleeping at the airport, who knows how long they had been there, they got on the flight too, we were so pleased. So off we go, we were heading to Newark! Where’s that? New Jersey, ok cool…………….. so……….where’s New Jersey?? No idea!
The flight was put on by United. The crew and Pilots were volunteers. We had the full service on the plane – luxury – real food! Our Steward really looked after us, we had a couple of glasses of wine with our dinner then our Stewardess brought us over a bottle of wine to take with us to the hotel! She said we needed it! Unbelievable! The crew were all so wonderful. There were a lot of people on that flight who, clearly, had never been on a plane before and there were many who needed assistance to get around. Everyone was so kind and patient. Red Cross were handing out food, soft toys and care packages of toiletries etc when we got off the plane. There were quite a few media interviewing people. We were booked into a hotel and transferred there.
Newark Airport on arrival
We weren’t sure what we were going to do with ourselves after this but we were now able to make contact with the outside world at last. It was 2am by now. We emailed Bob and Lou and they replied in the morning to come up to them. So we went back to the airport and went to the United desk. The night before, people on our flight were being ticketed to further destinations, we hardly really knew where we were, let alone that we could have gone further. (we possibly could have gotten all the way to NZ if we had known to ask) We were just so grateful at this point to be where we were. The lady at the counter started saying we were too late, we couldn’t go further on the government. We hadn’t expected that we would, we were happy to buy a ticket.
But then she had a rethink and said she would talk to here supervisor, next minute, we are on a flight to Portland! She said it wasn’t fair for us to be stranded in New Jersey, all the other passengers got to go where they needed to go, so we did too! So there we were heading north, Bob came and picked us up and we felt very safe! What a journey. We didn’t realise quite how much this event had affected us. We spent 10 days with Bob and Lou, that was probably 8 days longer than we thought we would stay. But we needed that down time to gather our thoughts and get over it, actually I don’t even know how to describe how I felt/feel. I didn’t appreciate how difficult it was. At the time it was just what was happening and you just had to get on with it. Though we were feeling very thankful and relieved to now be safe, I was filled with a great sense of guilt, we were able to leave, we had a place to go. The people of Vieques didn’t, we left a lot of good friends without being able to say goodbye, it felt like abandoning a sinking ship.
Our lovely neighbour Alberto would leave plantains at our door step at times – the only fresh food we had for a while!
We are so very grateful to Kevin and Maureen, for initiating the “extraction” and persevering to see it through. We are so very thankful to Hilda and the Red Cross on Vieques for having the belief that she could get us to that flight on time! Oliver, then Angela at the NZ Embassy in Washington DC and Daniel from the US State Department, didn’t give up trying to contact us and communicated together to make it happen. Kevin said Alexandria and the team at The Foreign Office at home were great to deal with, so professional and caring. We are so thankful to Jae and the team at the Emergency Control Centre, who were so patient and accommodating of our need to make more than our 1 minute calls. A huge thank you to the crew air-side and on the ground of United Airlines, they ROCK!!
We left so many dear friends on Vieques, we feel so sad that we didn’t get to say good bye, but these are forever friends, we will always stay in touch. We survived a cat 5 hurricane, the most devastating storm (at the time) on record.!!
WOW!!
This blog is dedicated to our dear friend Rhonda who lost her short battle with cancer a little over a year following the hurricane. Vieques will not be the same without her beautiful smile and infectious love of life! Rest now beautiful, always in our hearts xx
We can now see the lighthouse from our home in Bravos
Maria
Email written0930 19 September 2019. We have been told the power will go off at 6 tonight , but it just went off for 5 minutes. So I thought I better get this out before it goes again. We are picking 6pm optimistic!We are ready for this! but it will be different to the last one. We were so lucky with the change of course with Irma, I don’t think so this time. For one thing all the models are agreeing with her course, unlike Irma. The National guard have arrived on the island, so hopefully no trouble here. Huge trouble on Tortola following Irma. Tempers are flaring here, everyone is very stressed and angry.Just to remind you, our house is concrete and very solid, flat roof and louver windows. It is very strong. If we have to we will move downstairs to the BnB as it has less windows and exposure to the weather. OK the power has been off and on a couple of times so will send this now. I have my cell phone but keeping it charged is a problem. They are thinking of cutting the water off at some point today as well. We have enough drinking water for about 8 days!
This email never got sent
The most terrifying night of my life!
The power has been off since mid-morning ad Rhonda arrived about 12, it is starting to get quite windy. It increases all day and by about 1930 it feels about the same as Irma. It is dark now, and we all decide that we should go to bed – maybe we can sleep through the worst of it – they said pre-dawn will be the worst.
We all did sleep, but the noise of the wind woke me after a couple of hours and I couldn’t lie there anymore. It is pitch black, Rhonda is asleep and so is Chris. I can’t see anything out the windows it’s too dark. The noise is getting louder and the windows are getting silted up on the outside. Water is starting to come in under the door at the back and the front porch. I am checking the windows constantly trying to see what’s going on outside. I can see blue and red flashing glows out there, the National Guard are patrolling, this is quite comforting. Checking checking, round and round the house, what can I do?
It is quieter and safest in the bunk room, we have pushed the 2 bunks up against the inside wall, furthest away from the 1 window in that room. A light out the back keeps coming on – we have no power! There must be someone out there! It is so dark outside but then the light comes on I can see that it is like looking through mist, its like the light is shining from under a blanket. I dismiss this thought but it keeps happening so I wake Chris up, terrified that someone is out there and needs help. Turns out to be a battery powered security light I didn’t even know we had.
1am, 2am, 3am, still awake, I try to rest, must have fallen asleep for a few minutes, I woke to Rhonda screaming, I jumped off the bunk into ankle deep water, my heart is racing and I am shaking, I get to Rhonda and she is OK just got a fright wit all the water. its 3:30am, we try bailing the water into the shower, more coming in than we can keep up with, the water from the front is meeting the water from the back! The noise now is deafening, I want to look out the windows, but Rhonda yells, keep away from the windows! She is right, they are buckling under the pressure and look like they will blow in and any moment. Roaring bangs and crashes outside, sounds like cars colliding, if you were outside now you probably wouldn’t survive.
Chris is up now and we are all bailing – this is useless, but we have to do something! It is like it is raining inside the house, water is coming in horizontally through every louver window gap, everything is soaked. The mud is coming in with the water, this is so frightening!
5am we give up, Rhonda and I go to the bunk room and huddle up in the corner praying the windows stay intact and the roof stays on. If that happened, we would just have to stay covered as much as we can and ride it out, we realise now that there would be nowhere to go, and no safe way to get there, its all for one at this stage. Chris lies on the couch, safe from the front doors at least, I must have drifted off.
Before
6am its just getting light, the wind seems to be dying down a bit, it is still raining. I try to see out the window through the mud caked on the glass. It looks like a war zone, Pam and Kim’s roof terrace has gone, I can see our gate down the driveway, roofing iron everywhere. As it gets lighter and the wind gets less we can open the doors and start sweeping the water and mud out. Rhonda’s car is written off, looks like it has been in a high speed collision. The roof of the yellow house flew into the car and ended up in the orange houses yard. Trees, branches, fences, power poles, all down, we now have a full view of the Atlantic Ocean. Its hard to comprehend what I am seeing.
Iron gate, no windage, unbelievable
This branch fell away from the housePam and Kim’s roof deck – goneRhonda’s car saved the bottom level of the house from flying iron
It was terrifying during the hurricane and then the aftermath was as bad. So many people lost everything. We can’t believe no-one was killed (during the storm on Vieques anyway) People are amazingly though, and so resilient. The community really did come together and help each other. We would meet at the square everyday to talk with people. This was the only way we have communication. At this stage we had no idea about anywhere else, not even the other side of our little island. The roads were blocked, the power was off, no phone coverage.
2 minute phone call on Mayors Sat phone
Army ration packs
The municipality were great and did everything that they could given their limited resources. By day 7 they were giving out Military ration packs of food and bottled water to everyone and holding a meeting at 2pm everyday to advise of the situation. Day 8 they offered a 2 minute satellite call for everyone. I took that opportunity to call Mum to get the word out that we were ok. I lined up for 2 hours but it was worth it.
Unlike Irma, it continued to rain and was overcast for 3 days, everything was so wet and could not get dry. It was incredible to see the destruction nature can cause. The trees which were still standing had no foliage and even worse – no bark!
We
had decided by now that we should try to leave but we were hearing that San
Juan airport was still not functional except for the military. So there was no
point in us going to the main land to then camp out at the airport for days, we
were safer where we were.
Roofing iron everywhereTop story of La Lan Chita on the road
We were quite worried about the crime which was increasing every day. Chris rigged up some traps around our house with our neighbour and devised a signal system if people were on the property. Chris had a picaxe on his side of the bed. It was so dark! A few homes had generators so had power but they were running out of fuel and the lines for the gas stations (on the days that fuel did come across on the ferry) were 5 hours long! There was a curfew in place from 6pm to 5am, this was policed by the National Guard who had come across to the island the day before Maria. We heard that someone had stolen the generator from the morgue at the hospital! At the end of day 4 the water stopped and that was it for 3 days. They got it going again for 1 day but they tried to steel the diesel that was running the generator which was running the pump, couldn’t get it so sabotaged the water system! No water again for another 3 days. You know, we had no power for 10 days following Irma and we were getting really grumpy with it. BUT this time, with no water! no power was easy!! It is the water which is critical and communication, that is essential also, we can live without power. Funny how it is all relative. We were collecting water from the roof to use to flush the toilet and try to hand wash clothes, we were showering in the driveway with the hose from the roof water. We are using paper plates so don’t have to do dishes.
Again the garbage has not been collected, lots of rotten food and everything is so wet, perfect breeding ground for flies and mosquitos, they are rampant, it is hideous. A doctor has said that there will disease outbreaks soon. And again we are struggling with the heat, no power, no water, no ice! We heard that they used all the spare parts to fix the power after Irma, so no way to fix the power this time and Vieques is feeling like the “forgotten Island” sitting at the bottom of the “help” list.(Vieques was still running on generators 12 months later!)
Sound traps around the house
Trying to get coolSo many lost so much
We remained on Vieques for 16 days post-Maria. We were evacuated by the US State Department together with the NZ Embassy in Washington. Its a great story of relief and sadness, of nations pulling together and people helping people. To be published soon!
Written September 2017. We survived! Friday 0630, about 48 hours after She started. We have no power so no internet and no news of the outside world. We have no idea how the rest of the islands got on or where she is up to now. We did hear that they were expecting land fall in the states at the weekend?? Today it is so hard to believe that this ever happened. Calm sea and no wind! She came and went! And it wasn’t nearly as bad as we were expecting!
There is not too much structural damage as far as we can see, mostly trees down and powerlines. The word on the street is that the hurricane hit Tortola and bounced north, so her path changed at the last minute before it got to us so that is why we were so well off. So we didn’t end up with the full force – thank goodness! As I said, it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, but it was still quite frightening at times.
Our local little sunset bar “Al’s” has been damaged. They lost all the roofing material and some Windows. They have a lot of water inside, a big clean up for them. Not sure when they will be open again. The supermarket was open yesterday! But the ferries are not running so they will run out of food pretty soon. Kim called in yesterday to see if we were ok. He took us in his car to the ice plant and we bought a couple of bags of ice. We stocked up on food and meals before the hurricane but with no power the fridge is now warm. The freezer is a bit cooler and we have put one bag in each of the freezers, so at least it can act a bit like a fridge. We loaded the downstairs one with stuff we would need later and haven’t opened it so it will be staying a bit more ” frozen” but the one upstairs is all defrosted. So we are eating our way through the freezer. It is working really well, we will have enough food for the next 3/4 days providing we can keep it relatively cool. We have no idea how long the power will be off. Some say 3 weeks and some think it will be back on fairly quickly.
The Ice plant. It was closed down one day because a fight broke out in the line, tempers are frayed!
No electricity. It is always surprising how much we rely on power! We are quite lost without the internet. I hate not being able to talk to the girls on a regular basis and I know Mum has been very worried, we still have use of our cell phone, but there is only limited credit so we are being careful. The phone and laptops will run out of powers soon and then we won’t even be able to send a txt. Hopefully power will be restored sooner rather than later. And gee we miss the fans! It is so hot sleeping without the fan going. There doesn’t seem to be much wind at the moment either. It is so calm just now which is making sleeping almost impossible. We did hear, before the power went off, that there is another tropical storm coming right behind Irma (Jose). There is no sign of it just now though. So we are fine! We survived! We will just carry on with our usual routine as much as we can. Hop on our bikes this morning and go walk the dogs, keep eating the freezer empty!
Cash only on the island at the moment, no power – no EFTPOS/Credit card machines, no ATM! So the bank gets robbed! We were lucky, we had cash – stashed in the freezer – its defrosted now though LOL!
Day 5. Still no power. Every day we have been hunting for ice and WiFi! Tsunami bar has a huge generator so here we sit! We are ok, getting quite frustrated with lack of information but that is really minimal to what other islands have had to deal with. Jose is tracking a long way from us now, so is not a threat!
Got to be in quick for a spot!
Day 7 now with no power. We have managed perfectly with our food provisions and haven’t had to throw much out. We have come to the end of our fresh food and will be starting on the canned goods. The supermarket has been open right through so we can buy more. Having said that though it has been pretty slim pickings in there, no fresh milk or bread, eggs, fresh produce. We have had some great support from the friends and neighbours. We have been driven up to the ice plant a couple of times and our lovely neighbour Alberto, has dropped us in a bag of ice twice now,!! So we have been able to keep things cool enough not to spoil. Everyone is in the same boat. Some homes have generators but not many. Everyone is looking to keep food cool and are coming to the end of what they have in stock. The ferry service started again a couple of days ago so things are looking up, the supermarket is slowly being restocked.
WiFi!
We still don’t know the extent of the devastation on our neighbouring islands and USA main land. No power, no internet! Everyone is heading to the Tsunami Bar, the one spot to re charge their devices and get contact with the outside world. We saw a clip of when Irma hit Florida, it looked terrible! We are all so incredible thankful for what we DIDN’T get. We do have a battery powered radio, but it is ALL in Spanish- not much use to us who can only say hello and goodbye, and 2 beers please!
Petrol is like gold! People are starting to run out of fuel but they did send a couple of tankers on a special ferry 2 days ago. But it’s amazing, the 3 gas stations seem to take turns at running out of fuel and not being able to run their generators. The queues for petrol must be 40 – 50 cars long.
The rubbish is collecting on the streets, the garbage truck hasn’t been for 2 weeks now, but I think that is probably just a Vieques problem rather than hurricane fall out. But there seems to be so much of it around. I imagine there has been a lot of spoilt food around. It is great to be able to be in contact again, even though it is in small snippets, compulsory trip to the pub each afternoon! Oh well……..
It is very dark! No lights around us. It gets dark about 7 / 7:30, we are powering through the candles but usually go to bed not long after dark. Oh boy we just can’t wait to get the fans going again, it has been very still for the last few days and the humidity is probably still 100%.
Electricity is restored 10 days post Irma. Just in time for the information to come through that another category 5 hurricane is heading our way – Maria. She will be here in 3 days. Easy! We have done this before, we know the drill, water, food, candles, grab bag etc etc. How bad can it be?? Look at Irma – We’ve got this!!! WRONG!
Part 3 – the most terrifying night on my life – next week!
Chris and I spent 2017 house sitting, 5 months in Puerto Rico and
5 months in South East Asia. House sitting exposes you to many wonderful
experiences, the people, the food, cultures, language etc etc Weather is one we
don’t think of so much. We have never felt so hot in Puerto Rico for example
and later this year we will possibly have snow as we are currently in Europe.
It is all part of the experience of traveling around our amazing planet and you
have to embrace all of the above. But, we have experienced a severe weather
episode, not 1 but 2 hurricanes back to back – Irma and Maria, September 2017 –
Puerto Rico. So while we get ourselves settled into life in France, I would
like to share our Hurricane story. Pre Irma, Post Irma and Pre Maria, Post
Maria then Our Evacuation, I hope you enjoy our story.
Pre-Irma
La Chiva, Vieques
Vieques, beautiful Island to the East of Puerto Rico Main Island.
34km X 5km.
Written early September 2017. We are good, getting our heads around preparation for Hurricane Irma who is destined to cross our path in a couple of days. The Island is in preparation mode, the ferry service is being suspended on Tuesday and all the ferries will be taken around to San Juan for safe keeping, the airport will probably close as well. We don’t really know what we are in for. We are being advised by locals to be prepared, get food provisions in and collect/buy lots of water. The power will more than likely be turned off, before it gets cut off by the weather – this is less damaging to the system apparently. The supermarkets get stocked up on a Tuesday and often by Monday it is slim pickings in there anyway, so with this mass “buy lots of food” there will be nothing on the shelves. Also heard though, that they start giving frozen/refrigerated stuff away, like ice cream etc, if it looks like the power will go out. Happy days!!
We may get a bit of water in through our back door so we are going
to make some sand bags up and Chris is going to dig a trench in preparation.
At the moment they don’t know for sure if it will hit us directly.
Some of the predicted paths show her coming right at us, some have her
tracking North. Even if she tracks north, we will still get some impact being
on the fringes. We will be ok here. we are in a really solid house.
We know enough people here now too that if it is total devastation, we
have places to go and people to take us there. We are certainly not
alone.
We have a water collection drum from the roof for the garden, so
that will be great. We have stocked up the freezer. We have gas cooking
both upstairs and downstairs in the apartment. Our gas tanks are a bit
exposed, if they blow away we have the downstairs ones as back up, we have
loads of candles and vodka! We think we are ready. So funny though, we
are off to the beach today! hard to believe what is coming.
Facebook post:
So we are in the path of hurricane Irma. She will hit in about 18 hours. Cat 5, record wind speed recorded with Jose right up Irma’s bum. 185 mph winds gusting to 225. We are well prepared – as much as hurricane virgins can be! Got the food, water, candles, torches, grab bag for evacuation. Our house is very secure, the power will be turned off, maybe even as soon as tonight. I will try to keep updated here for as long as I can. Xxx
During. This Hurricane was predicted as cat5, and they said it is the biggest in the area ever. So we were very concerned, in fact we are really scared. We have done lot of prep, we had several days to get prepared, so we feel we were in a good place. The wind started at 4am and got stronger and stronger. At times the wind is gusting so strong it makes us hold our breath… stop…. And wait… BREATH!! but it really isn’t as bad as we thought it would be. We have no power, so no news on what is actually happening out there. We have lots of food, we even have a roast chicken cooking, bottle of wine, candle light – its only 3:30 pm!! Giving us something to do to keep our minds off the howling wind outside. We cooked the roast in the oven downstairs as it has a manual temp dial. The one upstairs is all electric controls. We can manually light the hob, but not the oven. So Chris is the brave one! Up and down, in the rain, trying to stay on his feet, carrying trays of roast dinner! Late afternoon, she was getting a bit less intensity, or maybe we were just getting used the sound of the wind. We have been watching the palm trees and they are now blowing in the opposite direction – she must be passing! Blowing East, then North then West. When she swung around to the north we got water in the front doors and were on mop up duty for about an hour then she swung to the west and hammered the other side. We knew then that she was on her way! It was really fascinating seeing the change of wind direction as she progressed.
The house across from us has lost their veranda roof, it is still just hanging there from one corner, very lucky it didn’t go flying. There is no one home which is just as well, one of the uprights went through a window and they will have a lot of weather in there being on the west side.
So that was a Cat 5 hurricane – or was it? We didn’t know it at the time but there was worse to come, and…… is it the hurricane or the aftermath that is more dangerous?
Kiwis Do Fly 