911

Yesterday we got to try out the Puerto Rican health care system – spending the day in the emergency room. The morning started with E falling from the hammock onto the tiled floor, landing flat on her back hitting her head and shoulder. Since she was somewhat disoriented after the fall and in obvious pain, we decided to go to the hospital.

Having been through a few unexpected situations and experiencing that we function quite well under crisis, though none involving our kids, I was completely taken by surprise by the wealth of emotions and stress that appear when your child is in pain. B held the poor crying child, trying to keep her awake and asking questions to see if she was alert, while I called our landlord to get directions to the hospital and managed to pack a bag (baby food, water, diapers, insurance papers…), though running a few extra circles in the house.

The hospital was only a few minutes away and we got admitted right away. Not everyone spoke English but someone who did was always helpful to translate.They checked her vitals and they were ok. Her new doll got the same treatment.

They decided to take x rays of her head and spine, and put a collar on her in the meantime. X rays didn’t open until 30 minutes later, so we waited and decided to get something to eat. All we could find was a vending machine, so here is our nutritious lunch:

She did eat a little, and we could see her getting more awake, and we calmed down slightly. Waiting for the x ray I got to fill out some papers and pay cash in advance before the pictures could be taken.

Waiting for x ray in a slightly better mood

Though, taking x rays was not fun. They wanted to take 7 pictures, a few of them involving her to lie down, something she did NOT appreciate. I was in the waiting room with F while B was in the x ray room, practically having to force the poor screaming girl onto the x ray bench. Heartbreaking.

Then the wait wasn’t too long, and the doctor came out to tell us that nothing was wrong, phew! Though she gave us a prescription of pain killers that E will take for a week, since she is in pain. After some insurance paper work we could check out, 4,5 hours after we arrived. There is only one pharmacy on the island, so we delivered our prescription and came back an hour later to pick it up.

Arriving home we put the little one in front of her favorite DVD until she simply said she wanted to go to sleep.

After the kids went to bed B and I fell exhausted into the sofa with some take away food and reflected on the situation. Despite all the emotions we got though the day, E is ok, and that is all that matters.

B slept in her room since she could not get out of bed herself because of the pain, and that was good because she woke up a couple of times, but fell asleep again. This morning she is still in pain but under the circumstances she’s ok. So, the next few days will be quiet. Without hammocking.

Meanwhile, for the other little one life goes on, and that, of course, includes some mango munching.

No kayaking and a lot of kids

Last night I had another kayaking trip scheduled to the Bioluminescent bay in Vieques. It is the same deal as the Puerto Rico one, but it’s supposed to be better. Me and 8 other, jumped in a van taking us to the bay, and suddenly blue lights and sirens appeared. The driver excused himself to go talk to the police and left us in the van speculating wildly why we were stopped. Speeding? Unsecured kayaks? Hmm… He came back and said the police wanted to see some paperwork so we had to return to the office. A very strict police woman counted us when we exited the van at the office and placed us in a line. She told us she came from the environmental police, and we were not arrested (good!). She explained the company did not have a license to do tours at the Bio Bay – it is a nature reserve and there are strict rules. They haven’t had a license since 2008. We had the right to get our money refunded. The driver said the owner was on her way with refunds. During the wait I got to know a few of the others. We quickly decided that IF she actually did show up with our cash, we would spend it at the bar next door. 1,5 hour later – with cash in hand, that is exactly what we did. And tonight, the same company is taking some other tourists to the bay, let’s see if they get to kayak or drink pina coladas. We learned that there are 8 companies which do Bio tours on the island, 4 of which have license. So – we’ll try another night.

At the other side of the spectrum – both kids are finally sleeping, hence also parents and combined with this wonderful place we are all feeling great. So, as an homage to the two little wild ones – we decided to try to get some portraits of the two together. Here is a sample of  the best we (they) could do. And some other ones. Enjoy!

We’re hot on the princess theme, not so much on clothes

Go Puerto Rico! In our back yard

No – we didn’t glue her arms to her ears…

At Sun Bay beach

Some tame horses for a change

The cooler is a perfect bath tub in our back yard

Yey for the beach! (F has just learned how to wave…)

 

Isn’t that the most ridiculous floating device you’ve seen? And it’s brilliant!

Still hooked on horses!

“Relaxing” in the hammock

And when asking them to smile to the camera…

Until next time!

Beach hunting

The free tourist map of Vieques is a cartoon drawing pointing out lots of public or hidden beaches. So, with our new wheels and map in hand we decided to go beach hunting. First, we started by the public beach Sun Bay – the one we never got to on foot.

It It is the most turquoise water we have seen so far – and of course the wild horses adds a certain exotic touch!

Then we decided to drive until the road ends, on the eastern end of the island. Here is a picture showing the contradiction we find in Vieques, here is a really strong US (hippie)expat presence with American restaurants, art galleries and yoga studios frequented by the surf boys and Puerto Rican families, all that mixed with the nature reserves, mangrove forests and wild horses everywhere you look.

Eventually the road ended and we drove on “roads” like these

And, all of a sudden we found this hidden pearl with the whitest sand we have ever witnessed.

A self portrait is of course essential

And then, we drove until the road ended on the western part of the island – and found this:

Then, it was time for the north shore beaches. But beach hunting makes you hungry, so we decided to have some picnic true Puerto Rican style with the cooler filled with lunch (probably slightly less fried contents than the usual PR cooler) I think you have to look long and hard to find more perfect picnic surroundings. We felt like we were in fantasyland surrounded by a fine beach, a picturesque old abandoned church and wild horses just 5 meters from us. We got to see two different packs of horses meet and watch the stallions fight over the territory, leading to one of the packs being chased away. Completely amazing.

Tonight we are just sitting on the sofa with stupid smiles on our faces (slightly more tanned than yesterday…) – what an extraordinary place we have found. Of course we also hear the wild horses passing on the street just outside. Klippeti klap, klippeti klap. I’ll have to pinch my arm.

You don’t have your own wheels???

In America (a colony of ) – the car is your best friend. We didn’t plan on renting a car on Vieques – after all the island is not large, and you can always take the publico (taxi). From our house in the village of Esperanza, you will get through the village on foot in 15 minutes, and the distance to the public beach Sun Bay is about the same. So, this was the plan – feet and taxis.
The second day, we decided to take the publico to the main village Isabella II (yeah, its named after a queen) to get some baby food and to visit the vegetable market. We started walking (Me with F on my stomach and B with E in the stroller) towards the “strip” where the publico’s stop, and stopped by the mini market for some drinks.

As promised – wild horses on the way to the mini market

The guy at the mini market is a chatty man and asked what our plans were, we told him, and he looked like he has seen snow in hell: You don’t have your own wheels??? Outside the store, after having moved a few meters, a pick up truck stops and an old guy with a very strong New York-Spanish accent and a “Vietnam veteran” cap said: Get in! I’ll give you a ride! Felipe (“Pepe”) didn’t have any plans for the day, so he took us to the veggie market, helped carry our harvest back to the pick up and continued to the super market. Then he gave B his number and told us to call him whenever we needed a ride.

We did our chores in the super market and had some nice goat stew for lunch. Then we wanted to try to catch the fish market as well before going back, and asked for directions. “Well, its down by the pier, but you don’t want to WALK there, its at least 10 minutes”. Well, we did, and got some nice lobster and fish.

Then – after just a few hours in Isabella II – we were completely drained. The thing about Vieques is that it is HOT. Oven-like bake temperature, indescribably exhausting. And we can take quite a lot by now! We just wanted to get a publico as quickly as possible. But where were they??? We didn’t see any, we called our two numbers, we got another number from a smoothie-making woman (she probably saved my life, by the way) but no answer. Finally, we managed to get another number and a taxi came.

Next day – still optimistic without wheels – we wanted to try the Sun Bay beach. Still same procedure, E in the stroller and me with F on stomach, now with umbrella. A few cars stopped on the way asking if we needed a ride, but it was an easy road, no hills – piece of cake compared to some earlier places. But my goodness, the heat! And – on top of it, E had a tantrum of some kind and screamed the whole way there. Arriving at lunch time, we discovered that all the restaurant offered was the fried, fried or fried, so the whole expedition resulted in us turning around and going home to eat, exhausted, and staying at home the rest of the day.

Chicken in our front yard

Chillin’ at home

And today there is a Suzuki parked in our driveway.

Whales, horses and more chickens

Our last day in Luquillo we woke up hearing a helicopter circle the building. The commotion was this:

A stranded whale! We ran down to watch. It was a baby sperm whale.

What to do with it?

News team

E not interested in looking into the camera of course

The right of the two towers, 17th floor, is our home

After a few hours the poor whale died and they dragged it further away along the beach to bury it there. B did have some comments on how it could have come to more use….

Monday we left Luquillo to stay 2 weeks on the Puerto Rican island Vieques. It is a 1,5 hour ferry ride east of the main island. With only 10 000 inhabitants it is supposed to be the “genuine” Puerto Rico.

Travelling “light” – you cannot see what the stroller conceals – it is NOT empty

When we got off the ferry and a guy shouted “taxi!” – we followed him. It turned out to be a “publico” – the Spanish version of the small minibuses that takes several passengers along set routes. B’s face turned green when he foresaw carrying all the luggage from a bus stop…. But, luckily the taxi could take us all the way to the house, which to the locals seem to call “Obis house”. Us and the Americans in the minivan thought it was hilarious, the locals didn’t quite follow our Star wars reference.´

First thing that really surprised us in Vieques was wild horses! They run on the roads, streets, even in town, in residential areas and E has to share the playground with a few of them too. A lot of locals ride too.

I haven’t been able to capture any wild ones on camera yet because we’ve been too busy picking up our jaws from the floor.

And there are roosters. We are back to waking up at 5 am to the sound of many a rooster. And they walk around our feet, whole little chicken families, in our back yard while we have breakfast. I cursed them this morning because of waking me up – E said“Mommy, please don’t kill the chickens – promise” (with reference to a Tobago incident resulting in one less rooster in the world)

Every day life in the Caribbean

And we managed to get a self portrait before leaving Luquillo. Behind us, the whale is buried.

Sleepwalking in Puerto Rico

All babies don’t sleep all night. F has done it twice in her 8 month old life. Which is fine – because she has always fallen asleep again quickly after a pat or two on the back or a little to drink – in give or take a few minutes. The past three weeks this has changed to give or take a couple of hours. Especially the hours between 04 and 06 seem to be the preferred awake hour. This is driving us somewhat crazy – so we are glad we are living the comfy life because we can live it practically sleep walking.

And I am proud to say that we’ve actually been able to stay quite active!

First – we both did a night kayak tour in the bioluminescent bay La Laguna Grande. This is a bay where small organisms glow when there is movement in the water. So when you put your hand in the water it looks like a 3D glowing sci fi-arm. Same with the paddles and the kayak. And you can see the fish hunting in the water because they make glowing trails when they move quickly. Getting to the bay is done by kayaking for about 30 minutes through a channel in the mangrove rainforest – in pitch black darkness. It was immensely cool!  

Didn’t bring the camera so this pic is stolen from someone else…

We’ve also visited the “famous” rainforest El Yunque. Well, we have now seen quite a few rainforests so we were not very impressed. But- this is the first one which is really touristy. This is good in the way that you find handrails and paths and shelter when rain falls, but also that you find a few other things like a million tourists and snack shops.

First the nice stuff:

Biggest differences from the other islands are traffic and road signs! In Puerto Rico they actually need to tell you that the road will turn…

E swimming the the rainforest river (almost – she thought it was too cold) and a tired dad…

And the not-so-rain forest – like stuff:

Would you like that snack fried or fried?

The reason the car dash board is showing in the picture is that B thought it was so embarrassing that he did not want to get out of the car…

And today B took a surfing lesson. He came home very surprised of all the upper body muscles he did not know he had. But the surf-boy gave him the best grade for a first-timer and he can proudly say he rode a few waves. Then we joined at the beach:

Energetic kids and tired parent

Puerto Rican parents would not dream of letting their child crawl in the sand (they would bring the play-pen to the beach so the kid would not touch sand) – so they watch us and laugh.

Happiest girl with very smooth new-peeled skin

We’ve also been eating – or not. This one was the worst thing I have ever tasted:

Burrito filled with “chicken” (read: dog food) and covered in “cheese”. It will haunt me at night.

So after this “meal” – we had to stop to buy me some more food

Yeah, and I am in the back seat entertaining screaming kids

Last but not least we’ve visited the beach just below the house which is a nature reserve where a river ends in the ocean. Just look at the beauty

Energetic kids and tired parent, take II.

So we drink coffee, do lots of sightseeing and love each other as much as possible to get through the sleep deprivation – luckily we know it will pass…