Welcome (?) to America

We’ve left the Caribbean and since our return ticket is from Miami, we decided to do a couple of weeks of Florida sightseeing, in the most comfortable way possible. House with three bedrooms, private swimming pool, rental car. And it was in deed the most easy transfer from Puerto Rico to Orlando. Except for the flight itself.

Knowing how to keep her happy on the move…

We blogged earlier about the harsh security measures travelling to Puerto Rico, and now it was even worse. First I was stopped in security by a woman suddenly wiping my hands with a cloth without explanation. I asked what she did and she said it was random finger print checks. I learned later by googeling that they do random swipes for explosive matter. Lied to right in the face. Then entering the flight, with F, I asked for an extension seat belt that are used for infants. They didn’t provide that, the flight attendant said, “your hands are the best protection”. ?????? I didn’t intend to simply hold her so I put her in the Babybjörn on my stomach. No no, you cannot do that, that is against the rules, she said. I didn’t accept that, so she went and got the manager. He repeated it was not allowed. Well, I said, if they didn’t provide the belt I would keep her there because it is not safe at all to just hold her. He insisted that it was against the rules (and by now the whole plane was listening to us arguing) and I asked him to explain why, which he couldn’t. Just repeated it was against the rules, and if I did not remove her “we cannot have you on this flight”. They were ready to throw us off the plane! So I agreed, took F out, but as soon as the crew were seated for take off and landing I sneaked her in again.

On the road to our new home, we saw the Disney influence right away:

And it was pouring rain. We stopped for some ribs at this place, having looked very hard to avoid the fast food chains.

We were very happy with our house, especially the pool. And it can be used even though it’s raining, the water is 29 degrees, and the air is about 27.

Searching for treasures in the pool

As always, the first day is always about settling in and going grocery shopping. Wal Mart is close and we told E she could choose one toy in the store. She quickly found what she wanted. We did not buy the hat, though…

Our own little cowgirl

Our own personal shopper?

F makes sure she gets porridge in the morning (even though someone in the store commented that she doesn’t seem to need much more food…)

And we made sure we got supplies to have a touch of Swedish Midsummer celebration, with an American touch.

Sleep walking in Puerto Rico part II

We had two nights in San Juan scheduled, and since I am a ridiculous sucker for the Marriott (and had points saved up after all my Brussels trips at work, yey), we decided to be pampered with some luxury almost for free. A double room on the 12th floor, overlooking the ocean, people carrying our luggage and a lavish breakfast buffe.

Happy happy joy joy

Though, the kids did NOT sleep more than 2 hours in row, so we were sooooo tired, but managed to have a fabulous time anyway.

We took the boat from Vieques, and were picked up on the pier by B’s surfer. We’ve had a few bad taxi experiences so we just paid him the same they charge, and got a nice chat on the way.

No – I didn’t turn blond, it’s surfer girl friend

We started by touring the neighborhood, a very stylish beach walk with all the latest fashion boutiques etc. We quickly found wonderful coffee and this:

Such lovely ice cream the camera man does not get any attention

After E went swimming in a fountain (left her ONE second out of sight…..) we tried the typical self portrait

Kids don’t seem too interested…

We ended the evening with sushi, soooooo good!

No chicken in sight

The next morning – after very little sleep, we wanted to see the famous Old San Juan. Old San Juan is surrounded by stone walls, ending in two fortresses on the east and the west side.We chose sightseeing the easy way – on our asses. First the free tram, and then horse carriage! It was such a beautiful place. We instantly fell in love with it!

At one of the two fortresses in Old San Juan, tired parent and not so tired child

Colorful houses and blue cobble stone streets

It’s not dust on the lens, it is kites! They sell kites for 1 dollar at the entrance of the park.

We had lunch at an Italian restaurant, and had anti pasti and red wine (if you haven’t had it for 5 months it tastes goooooooood)

Red red wine

After some new-gained energy we continued on foot. We found a street called “princess street” and it was so romantic. At the end of it was a fountain that we played in and around until the police came and told us it was not allowed.

Paris? Barcelona? San Juan!

Is it a real Banksy ?

Then we visited the cathedral, which was not too impressive but very exciting for E’s newly awakened religious interest. And F just had to get some ants out of her pants.

This one was hard to explain

Then B went for a treat in this place, and came out with a nice one in his pocket and one in his mouth.

Looking good

Then we decided that we wanted to do some adult stuff – go to the famous art museum. Skilled as we are now, we timed it with F’s nap and put on a video for E on the mp3 player. That bought us 1,5 hours to stroll around the lovely museum.

Now happy adult and soon sleeping kid

When quiet time was over we visited the kids area at the museum, a whole floor where they could indulge themselves.

To fully complete the day we decided on Mediterranean dinner at a nice Turkish restaurant

Then it was time to pack all the stuff again, for the very last flight before heading home – next stop Orlando!

A little bit of everything

Time to leave Vieques, this wonderful island. So, to squeeze out the last of it – here is a little bit of everything to sum it all up.

They do like their wheels! And they definitely don’t need to be new and shiny! When we rented our car the guy didn’t bother checking the outside, there were so many scratches anyway…

Nice wheels from the fifties

Caribbean time…

Not all are against the military… (notice the dogs too?)

Having told you about Puerto Rican beach life, our last trip to the beach we saw some real beach camps. And all of a sudden the karaoke van showed up, and then the party started for real. By the way, putting the towel directly onto the sand like Europeans do – we’ve NEVER seen it here. Portable chairs, it is. With cup holder, what else.

Domino table, BBQ, chairs, coolers, music, food…you name it and some more

Karaoke van. The guy just parks and walks to a suitable crowd with the microphone

Girls enjoying the beach

And here you can see the example with the baby in the crib.

To give you a taste of Puerto Rican houses; they are mostly one floor and completely covered with bars. Afraid of intruders, it seems. Or maybe horses? We forgot to close our front gate one night, and in the morning we had three horses in our back yard. It seems the grass is greener on the other side.

…and the wildlife. Not only the wild horses, but also these fellows:

This approx. 1,5 meter iguana was munching mangoes in our back yard, just next to us! It visited a few times, totally awesome to watch. We will not share the film of the sequence after this pic, when I was trying to scare it off slightly so that we could get the running on film, which is really fun to watch. The thing didn’t move an inch and just stared at me. We heard later that iguana claws easily can cause humans 60 stitches. Oops.

Oh roosters – you should wake up with the sun, NOT at 2 am! Our back yard.

Quiz of the day – there are three animals on this picture, the “poo-bird” (we’ve named it that because it always walks after horses and cows), a wild horse and an iguana on the grass on right side of the horse. See them??

And the beaches, oh the beaches… We’ve already dedicated a whole blog post to them, and could easily do 100 more.

Now off to San Juan and then Florida!

Bunker hunting

Vieques has a very interesting history of US naval presence between 1941 and 2003. The island was divided in three parts, where only the middle one, one third, was accessible to Vieques residents, and the other two used for naval training and bomb training / testing. After massive protests from locals, the navy left the island. Some of the land was given back to the people, but most of it was turned into natural reserves that you cannot visit. “Not really what we signed up for when we wanted the navy out – we didn’t get our island back” said our rental car guy, “but nature is better than bombing”. Others say that the reserve is just a cover up, since the bombings and ammunition stored on the island included a lot of contaminants, like heavy metals and uranium. Debate is still ongoing around increased cancer risk on the island because of the navy trials. Also, a lot of unexploded ammunition is left. B’s surf guide said the navy leaving was just bad, because they took away jobs for the locals, and now many Vieques residents are on welfare. Every story has many sides. Us, we decided to go look at some of the military remains, where access is now allowed.

Old guard post on the former border to the previous military zone

Some parts are still not accessible

Mosquito pier – a construction initiated by the US navy during World War II to connect Vieques to main island Puerto Rico to restrict access as part of the defense of the Caribbean and especially of the Panama Canal. It was never finished, hence it is a pier today

Old military storages

Abandoned and “certified empty”

One now used as a TV graveyard

Passing through the land that was given back to Vieques in 2001 you see it divided into slots and slowly being built. It looked like small vacations homes.

After a lot of driving one’s got to run off some ants in the pants, and a visit to the play ground was appropriate

And to cool off with a nice bath – with no real bath tub the cooler in the shower works just as well.

And – of course this post is made especially for my dad!