LA PARGUERA , PUERTO RICO

3-30 TO 4-9

MON 3-30…Cameron dropped me off at 6:30AM at the Redmond airport for the one way flight to San Juan Puerto, Rico. Quick layover in LA, then on to Miami. Arrive around 8PM and have a 10 Hr. plus or minus lay over in Miami, will not leave the airport to get a room, just not enough time, so will spend the night in the airport.

TUES 3-31…Very long night in the airport. Very cold, the air conditioners were really pumping out very cold air. I slept on the floor. There were very few people in the airport. Flight left on time. Arrived in San Juan approximately 9:10AM. Chrissie has a friend from Hermiston named Lindsay who married into a Puerto Rican family and they just moved back to the Island. Carlos, her husband I believe works for Ricky Martin the singer. He made arrangements for a guy named Christian to pick me up and take me to La Parguera. He was there waiting for me. Unfortunately Christian did not speak any English nor did his wife who was with him. I have him $100 for gas and another $100 when we got there. He took me to Gina and John’s Boats. Gina had the key for the place that I “thought” I would be staying in.

Unfortunately the house/situation just wouldn’t work for me, for a variety of reasons. Gina took me to a friend of hers who has a little Guest House/Hotel and fortunately, in spite of the fact the Easter Weekend is the busiest weekend in La Parguera, she had one room available for $50 a night and I took it. It was easily within walking distance to down town.

WENS 4-1…I got fairly good night’s sleep. Here there are little eating places and bars all over the place. There is a bar right next door to the hotel and it closes at 11PM on weeknights and 2AM on weekends. Not the quietest place. Lots of dogs and of course there are chickens and roosters all over the place. One is not going to have trouble getting up early in the mornings. I walked all over the town and met a few people. One in particularly named Freddie, speaks good English and worked on the little Island here that has the Research Center on it. He was the Maintenance Foreman for 28 years and retired from there.

THURS 4-2…..I went back to Freddie early Thurs AM and asked Freddie if he would drive me around, to help me get familiar with the layout of the town and surrounding area and look for a place to rent. He said he would and would pick me up at 10 that morning up at the Hotel. Freddie took me all around and even took me over to a place called Combate, which is another small beach/fishing community. With it being Easter Weekend both La Parguera and Combate were packed with people, so I am not getting the better of first impressions. However, he also took me up to on the side hill, looking out over La Parguera and showed me a very nice 6 unit apartment building that was surprising appealing. I called the owner, a Doc Pedro Ruiz and he made plans to meet me there Friday about 9AM. I have obviously been going out for dinner and to eat, not cheap by any means, but if one will stay out of town and hit the little food places that are all over, it is not that spendy to eat. Linda who owns the hotel gave me a Fish Lausanne and fresh bread for dinner tonight and it was delicious.

FRI 4-3….I was at the apartment/the Doc’s at 9:00AM. He showed me the place. He does not rent the apartments out long term, because he doesn’t want to be bothered. He lives in one of them on the 3rd floor. He does have the other one on the 3rd floor rented out for 6 months, but he says the people never come, he has seen them 1 time. He does however rent them out on the weekends. Only one was rented out for the Easter Weekend. Once we met and spent some time together it turns out:

He is divorced. He lives here because he likes the peace and quiet, hence the reason for not renting the apartments out. It has a great view of the bay. It has a swimming pool and a gym with equipment under the Gazebo next to the pool. Units are completely furnished. The place is very quiet, very clean and even though I was against living in an apartment we agreed for me to rent the place for $700 per month for 6 months. The utilities will be about $100 per month. Since I was alone he figured I wouldn’t be a bother to him, so I took the unit right under his. The building is all concrete, so there is no transmission of noise. It is 2 bedroom, 1 bath, nice size kitchen and living room with a very nice balcony that has a roll up and down shade cover. As you can see, the view is stupendous.

Doc Ruiz took me down to the little grocery store in town and introduced me around and I was able to get a few things for the refrigerator and food.

SAT 4-4…. Doc Ruiz, Tito is his nickname has turned out to be like a mother hen. He is going the extra miles to see that I am comfortable and settling in. He has offered to take me to town today, to get groceries and get a few things for the apartment. He has a nice house on 5 acres in Lajas, which La Parguera is part of. He obviously has some money, he has a brand new $150,000 Porsche sitting in a garage and another one with only 13,000 miles on it also in the garage. He says he doesn’t drive them at all, just likes having them. I bought a few things at Sam’s Club and then some things at K Mart.

SUN 5-5….Unfortunately, I have gotten sick, felt it coming on last night. It is this upper respitory infection I have never been able to 100% get rid of. Not good. This is the 3rd time.

MON 4-6…SICK

TUES 4-7….SICK

WENS 4-8….SICK but Tito and I had made plans to go to Lajas to get the contract signed at his Lawyers. Which by the way the attorney was not available. I am getting on to the fact, that one does not get in a hurry here nor can you really make definitive plans. Everything has to be done by an attorney down here. While we were in town I got a PO Box and also got a bank account opened at the main bank in the country. Also loaded up on groceries again, which now has been the 4th time on going to the grocery store. I am adequately stocked up on food now. Tito also bought me a new set of King Sheets; the bedroom has 2 single beds, pushed them together and have been sleeping well. I had him pick me up a fan for the apartment. I do sleep with a wall air conditioner on low at night, not so much to have it cool, but to drown out the dogs barking at night, there are way too many dogs barking, constantly it seems. But I am sensitive to that sort of background noise anyway. The apartment has a TV/Dish but I have turned it on only twice to watch the news, same old thing, I just might unhook it and put it in the closet in the 2nd bedroom.

I have spent some time at the pool, which has always been one of my favorite past times.