porta del sol, puerto rico

New home

spacedock911 — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 20:48:21 +0000

We haven’t posted to this journal in quite a while. We returned to Michigan in August more convinced than ever that we wanted to move to the amazingly beautiful northwest corner of Puerto Rico.

Since then a lot has happened. Through a long series of negotiations, we BOUGHT Ola Lola’s Garden Bar in December, 2006. We (or for the time being, I) am living the dream: we own a bar on a tropical island. We have a website – www.ola-lola’s.com and a new blog at http://ola-lolas.blogspot.com. (We started new blog because we are now “locals” here instead of “travelers.”

The new blog chronicles not only our experiences starting a new home and restarting a business, but also our travels in our new homeland. We’ll continue to update this blog as appropriate for travel, but feel free to visit www.ola-lolas.com and the new blog as well. Buenas dias.

Sancocho

spacedock911 — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 08:41:26 +0000

“Sancocho?”
“No sancocho,” Lydia replied. “Sancocho está agotoda.”
“Sold out? No!”

“Si. Agotoda.”
“Sancocho el lunes proximo?”

“Si. Proximo. Next Moanday.” She said it with a big forward hopping gesture of her arm.

Sancocho is something between a stew and a sopa (soup). Usually it has chunks of biftec (beef steak), sometimes corn sometimes still on the cob, potato, sometimes sweet potato all in a thick broth. It’s wonderful.

But at El Rincon, a little familaria on Carr. 110, sancocho is the lunch special on Mondays. That’s the only time they make it and when it’s gone, it’s gone. It was our bad luck to come in just after Lydia served the last bowls of this week’s sancocho to three hombres. We waited eight months for this.

I don’t know if it was some cosmic karma – after all, they live here and can get sancocho every week – but their big red pick up truck, parked next to us in the sloping parking lot, had a flat rear tire.

We ate lunch at El Rincon anyway. I had a very tender biftec con arroz blanco y cebollo (onion). Elaine had a wonderful lasagna con pollo. Chicken is not something we usually think of in lasagna but it was delicious. With salads for both of us and sodas to drink, our whole bill was about $11.

We did go back on Monday. I had sancocho. But Elaine was so impressed with the lasagna con pollo she had that again.

Ola Lola’s Garden Bar

spacedock911 — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:59:58 +0000

It’s tiny. It sits on a corner in an out of the way spot on the way back to Shacks Beach. If you don’t know it’s there, the only way you’ll find it by accident is if you’re going to Tropical Trailrides or one of the rentals along Playa Shacks. In just a few months drive-bys and word-of-of-mouth made Ola Lola’s a popular local watering hole.

Lola herself is a character, an expat Americano with a PhD in marine biology and “an eccentric by choice” who writes children’s books about marine life. One of her books about the sex life of a coral has been translated into Japanese and Chinese among other languages.

Her beer list is international with beers from Argentina (‘cause a local requested it), Japan (because she likes all things Japanese and plans to make Japan her next move), as well as the usual Corona, Coors Light, Heineken, and the local Medalla. She serves good wine, some she makes herself, in a place where wine – especially fine wine – is an afterthought. She makes a mean rum punch and the self-described “best margarita in the world.” (Is there a bar anywhere that doesn’t serve the “best margarita in the world?”)

Lola likes local. She serves cheese from a local cheesemaker right up the road. With the cheese she serves these incredible olives she packs and pickles herself in vinegar she makes herself. On Sunday night she has musica by local performers, guys who are carpenters and day labors but love music.

The clientele at Lola’s is as much a character as Lola. Last night a big wedding party packed the place after leaving the fancy resort up the road.

“Lola’s drinks are cheaper and better,” one guest said. A rum-and-coke (otherwise known as a Cuba Libre) is 3 USD at Lola’s, 6 USD at the resort. A Heineken is $2.50 at Lola’s, 5 bucks up the road.

The well-heeled wedding party sat cheek-by-jowl with four or five local day workers drinking a cold Medalla (the cheapest beer on the menu) on credit against tomorrow morning’s wages. A woman came in after work having passed countless other bars to get to Lola’s “’cause I like it here.”

Ola Lola’s is for sale. Lola want’s to move to Japan by New Year’s. We are thinking of buying the place. Would that be the ultimate expat cliché? Buying bar to move to another country. Maybe I can win it in a poker game.

Colors of Puerto Rico

spacedock911 — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 18:02:04 +0000

Today is one of those magic days. The view out my front door is alive with all the colors of the tropics.

It started even before sunrise in the soft platnum grey light of dawn. The sun rises around the point just out of sight but catches the tips of the trees and the boats moored just off shore.

Late afternoon now. The sun is out and there’s hardly a cloud in the sky.

The green of grass is more yellow than the darker dreen of the coconut palm leaves beyond. The dark palms form a frame for the lighter, bluer green of the ocean where the bottom is sand. Where the ocean floor is reef, the green darkens to olive and then to brown. Beyond the reef the deep ocean water is deep, almost cobalt blue, but flecked with the white wave caps.

The horizon is a sharp knife cut where the ocean blue meets the paler, hot, washed-out blue of the mid-afternoon sky. A different, brighter blue slashes across the sky as a kite surfer makes his way in and out, to and from the beach. One soon becomes two as another kite surfer, this one with a huge yellow, white and black sail takes off from the beach. Now another, this time orange and grey and black. And still another, blue and orange and yellow. Cutting back and forth. Grabbing “big air,” their black wet suits silhoutted against the sky.

Lookin’ at you from Blue Hole off Shacks Beach

spacedock911 — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 15:44:14 +0000

Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.

Lobster tales

spacedock911 — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 15:41:46 +0000

Two fisherman came in from a diving trip with a couple of spiny lobsters for sale. Ten dollar each, which was probably to much. But oh, my god. Dinner last night was the freshest lobster I’ve ever eaten.

To fix it, first cut the tail shell lengthwise on both the top and the bottom. Our guide told us never to use a knife, only kitchen shears. No kitchen shears available but part of the fun of travel is “making do.” All we had was a little pair of sewing scissors. We weren’t sure they would work, but what the heck.

Turns out the spiny lobster’s armor plating is really pretty brittle. Even our little sewing scissors cut it relatively easily.

From there use a knife to cut along the joint where the body and the tail meet because the tail meat actually extends up into the body. Once the body and the tail are separated, cut through the tail meat where you cut the tail shell, separating the two halves of the tail. From there it’s easy to see and remove the digestive tract. The tail haves are ready for the grill.

With the grill set for low heat, put the tails on the grill meat side up, shell side down. Spoon melted butter on the meat and sprinkle with parsley flakes. Occasionally baste with more butter as the tails cook. They are done when the tops are gently browned. Squeeze fresh lemon juice on them as you remove them from the grill. Serve with more drawn (melted) butter and lemon. A salad, fresh bread toasted on the grill and cold beer complete an incredible fresh lobster dinner.

Do all this with someone you love, on a little deck overlooking the ocean as the sun sets and it is an unforgettable evening.

Into Blue Hole

spacedock911 — Thu, 10 Aug 2006 01:37:19 +0000

Off Shacks Beach there is a place known as Blue Hole.

From the deck of the rental houses along the beach the “highway” through the reef to get to it is visible, obvious. From the ground or in the water, you have to take your cues from the reef itself.

Start on the beach east of all the rental units on a little ledge of rock (not reef). In the water you snorkel out northwest, keeping clear sand below you and reef on both sides. A hundred-and-fifty to two hundred meters out, you run into a reef wall. At low tide there is less than a meter of water over the reef here. Swim over the 2 meters or so of reef and…

You go over the edge into Blue Hole. The reef wall becomes a cliff and the ocean bottom drops away 10 meters or more below you. The water is a deep, uniquely ocean blue. When it’s clear, you can practically count the grains of sand on the bottom.

But the reef’s edges are where the interesting things happen. Fish – scores of them – feed along the reef. Blue tang, bluehead wrass, yellowtail damsel fish. Fan coral wave in the current. Two giant brain coral dominate one corner of the Hole (this is your brain on drugs; this is your brain on the reef)

To experienced divers/snorkelers/travelers this is redundant, but I’ll say it anyway – the reef is a living thing, a living being. DON’T TOUCH IT. Don’t hang on it, don’t stand on it, don’t kick it with a fin. Watch it and all the vibrant, beautiful life that lives on it and near it, but please, please don’t touch the reef. Off my soapbox now.

Kite surfing at Shacks Beach, Puerto Rico

spacedock911 — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 22:54:04 +0000

Shacks Beach, where we’re staying on the island’s northwest corner, has a reputation as one of the finest kite surfing beaches in the Caribbean/Atlantic. Today it lived up to that reputation with winds out tof the east at 18-22 mph. A couple of kite surfers took full advantage of the wind and spent a good part of the afternoon grabbing big air out on the ocean.

It was great for kite surfing but lousy for snorkeling. Those winds really roughed up the ocean and churned up the bottom, making visibility pretty bad. The east wind also pushed some pretty stong east-to-west currents. So we didn’t make it out to Blue Hole today. Maybe manana.

Arañitas con pulpo and mofongo con pollo

spacedock911 — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 00:48:00 +0000

3:00 pm

Isla Verde, San Juan, Puerto Rico

We’re here. Eight months and six thousand miles but the wait was worth it.

Seal of approval

spacedock911 — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 21:28:28 +0000

8.06.06
6:00 am
In the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek International Airport

The TSA guards allowed us to keep our shoes on as we passed through the security check point.

Something about my shoes set of some unseen sensor and they made my remove my shoes. After passing my shoes throught the X-ray machine, they still weren’t convinced my shoes were not a threat to “friendly skies.” My shoes were pulled aside for “further testing.” A magnetic wand was passed over them; they were wiped with some cloth that that was then put in some machine to read the residue of all the places these nearly new shoes have traveled.

At last convinced my shoes were not lethal, the TSA guard handed them back with a quick flash of a smile and a perfuntory “have a good trip.” My shoes now proudly display a sticker that says “Q.C. Passed.”