Thanksgiving at an eco resort

On Thanksgiving, during a morning walk through nearly deserted Old San Juan, we learned that on Thanksgiving in Puerto Rico everything is closed: shops, restaurants, even fast food places.

We got a bit worried, because around noon we were leaving El Convento and San Juan, heading to an eco resort at El Junque - Puertorican rain forest.

Consequently, even roadstands, which usually serve tasty local fare, like lechon asado, pollo al carbon, etc. and an abundance of fruits and other snacks, were closed, so we arrived at Rio Grande Eco Resort quite hungry, but the resort manager immediately ordered the resort kitchen open and within less than 15 minutes we were served fresh fruits, juices, sallad, rolls and a - way too large, but tasty - cheese omelet with veggies.

I admit that we used most of the rolls to feed the turtles, having chosen a table on a patio, near the turtle pond.

After brunch wedecided to explore the resort. It is sprawling on 40 acres of an 300 years old former sugar plantation.


There is an abundance of hiking trails, a jogging path, a baseball court and a Rio Grande River runs through the resort.

The resort has aseveral family style two story "villas" - that can accomodate up to 8 people

and a few double rooms.

All villas have large balconies overlooking the resort's garden and its large and inviting pool

We barely have time to enjoy the river, nature trails and the pool, when the Thanksgiving buffet dinner was served at 5:30. It was a traditional American style Thanksgiving fare, albeit with a tropical twist.

'We did not have to worry about being hungry on Thanksgiving' mused Daughter when we lingered in the torch lit bamboo walk, casually mingling with the other guests 'I am as stuffed as the turkey'.

Enjoying El Convento

Daughter flew in from Atlanta yesterday afternoon and after driving through Isla Verde and Condado, we reached Old San Juan, where we booked a room in the converted convent, El Convento, now one of "the best small luxury hotels of the world".

El Convento has plenty of charm. The rooms look like they are taken from an old convent - which they are - and equipped with some modern amenities (Flat screen TV, Bose music box). Outside the rooms are long, charming corridors, open to patio El Nispero, where breakfasts and lunches are served

I, a newly minted Puerto Rico resident, loved the patio, shaded by a 200 year old nispero tree, but Daughter, an Atlanta dweller (= lots of trees, lots of shade, not much sun in most of the houses there), who is a sun worshipper extraordinaire, chose to make a - charming - nuisance of herself, and asked that all her meals - whether those from the patio or from the fabulous tapas and paella restaurant El Picoteo
be served on the hotel's garden terrace, a place with a nice view of the cathedral, the city and the sea and which had sun ALL day long. And the staff was mostly happy to oblige.

On the floor above the garden terrace there is another terrace with a cute swimming pool and jacuzzi and an even more magnicent view of the city and the sea. A great place to relax after Viejo San Juan sightseeing and shopping.

I moved today ... again

Again. To my second place in Puerto Rico. This apartment is a large - and a quite spartan- studio , but directly overlooking the ocean. It is located in a 4 unit apartment building: two one bedroom units on the ground floor and two studios - same size as the downstairs one bedroom units, just differently configured - upstairs. Large terrace with a table and chairs plus a hammock for ech unit, separate entrances, even separate stairs to each of the upstairs apartments. A huge lawn in front of the building with two coconut palms, some plastic chaises and stairs down to the beach. Nice. And far from any construction noise. Richt now all the other apartments are empty, but they are all reserved for the high season of December through April.

This move was pretty uneventful: no furniture to move, just a few personal belongings thrown into a large car and driven half a mile. Then unloaded. I can live with moves like this one :-)

Amazing results

I checked my blood sugar levels this morning and it was perfect - and I did not take a drop of insulin in 48 hours and only a half of my glucophage dose! In fact, after eating 3 dates equal to about 20 grams of sugar my blood sugar raised no higher than to 120!

Of course my semi fast for 2 1/5 days after my emergency room visit contributed to it undoubtedly, but I already ate a full living food lunch (raw lasagna, rollies, greens, sprouts, kale, tomato dressing) and a gourmet living food dinner last night (vegetarian sushi, raw green soup, raw vegan pizza) at 'Natural High' in Rincon and my results are close to miraculous.

And most of the credit for my diabetes reversal needs - undoubtedly - to go to living foods and Ann Wigmore's Natural Health Institute that propagates and teaches it!

Buying a car in Puerto Rico

It is a sad truth than when you live in Puerto Rico, outside of San Juan, which has some public communications in form of buses and a train, you need a car more than anything else (other than lodging, of course) .

It dawned on me already during my second day here, when I dropped off - at Aguadilla airport - my rental car, which took me from San Juan's airport to the west coast. The cost of a one day car rental from Hertz was $44 (with unlimited milage) + gas, the coast of a taxi ride from the nearest car rental to my new place ( less than 15 km) was $35!

It became even more obvious a few days later, when I wanted to visit a farmacy, a grocery store, etc. Puerto Rico - at least the part I live in (a rural area close to the beach between the municipalities of Rincon and Aguada) - is not walkable. The road is narrow, traffic fast and furious, no side walks of any kind + there is a new road or bridge construction going on on my way to anywhere, where driving alone is dangerous - since the part of the road that is open, is so narrow - and walking would be outright suicidal!

So for the last four weeks I was mostly stuck - and had to coordinate (read: beg) rides with colleagues who had cars and took pity on me - for the most pressing shopping trips.

Thus I soon started to look for a car, but first I had to make a decision of what type of car did I actually want, need, and was willing to purchase. Not having a car to take me to dealers I started looking at clasificadosonline.com, a good place to find a lots of things: real estate, rentals, cars, both new and used, appliances, furniture, even jobs, if you wanted – or needed – to be gainfully employed here.

Well, if I were going to do a lot of mountain driving, the safest bet would be a jeep or something similar, I thought… and almost fell for a cute 2-seater, Suzuki Sidekick. But they cost a pretty penny here and - not being sure how long I would stay in Puerto Rico I preferred to avoid spending so much money for something I might need for 6 months or so and the hassle of having to sell it if/ when I decided to leave. When I was in the midst of hesitating, one of the colleagues offer to lend me her old car for a week or so, so that I could be temporarily unstuck and could go see several possible choices.

I accepted – and – after finding out that she was no longer using that car, and no longer needed it, I asked if she would sell it to me. She hesitated a bit, insisted that the car go first to a mechanic, who would thoroughly check it out and fix whatever might need to be fixed, so that I could avoid any unpleasant surprises, agreed to sell it to me after I drove it, inspected and fixed, for another two weeks or so, to be dead sure that I really wanted to buy it.

And in that way I became a – so far tentative – owner of an old, but in decent working condition - Chevy Lumina – for $700!

P.S. I noticed that this blog post is frequently accessed by people searching for buying a car in Puerto Rico and - since this car purchase was a bust, I would like to refer them to the blog of my once neighbor, Chris, who successfully bought a short-term car at first attempt, while for me it took two. And you might also check out the dilemma you might be facing, when you buy a car in PR, what to do with it once you decide to leave the island.

Tuesday at an emergency room

Rebellion - there is always a price to pay for it, isn't there?

I was slightly rebelling yesterday against the institute's blended day: there are three of them every first week of the program to help new program participants cleanse their bodies, and one day the second week. They are appreciated by program participants, but for some staff they can get slightly boring with time, as it did for me yesterday, so I was rebelling: first eating almost nothing the entire day and in the evening going to supper at one of the nearby roadstands. Usually, I was told, the road stands in Puerto Rico offer tasty local fare, but I got yesterday far more than I bargained for : an e-coli, most likely in the spring sallad!

I was sick like a dog all night, so sick, I thought I was going to die. I was unable to leave the bed and thought - wise after the damage - that, especially considering that I live alone - I should have been far better prepared for an emergency. As it were, I was in a new place, and haven't yet recorded any of my new colleague's and new local friend's private phone numbers, so I had nobody to call for help, my apartment was locked from the inside so nobody could get to me without breaking out the door if I was unable to open it myself, and - worse of all - I forgot to place my cell phone on my night stand and for many, many scary hours I could not get up and reach it even to call 911.

I was conscious all that time, save for an awful abdominal pain etc. (I'll best spare you the disgusting details), but when I tried to even sit on my bed , I felt so dizzy, that I could not get up, until finally, many hours later, I managed to sit down, then raise myself to a near standing position and... fell on the closet door. From there, one painfully small step after the other, feeling like on an out of control merry-go-round, hugging the closet, then a wall, I was finally able to reach the bathroom.

Then, on my way back, now a tad more experienced in that - walking the walls - skill, I ventured a long trip to the apartment door, unlocked it, and grabbed my cell phone from the dining room table on the way back to my bed. Then I was too exhausted for a few more hours to use the cell, but when I did, I called my employer, left a message and fell asleep.

In the morning I discovered how caring both my employer and my coworkers were: one of the director's Leola Brooks (called by all here "everybody's favorite grandma") visited me, helped me to check my blood sugar (which was awfully high due to infection) and my blood pressure (which was stratospheric) and suggested gently that I should go to an emergency room immediately.

I agreed and she helped me to get dressed and dispatched a bilingual colleague with me to the emergency room in Rincon. And when I came back from the emergency room I discovered that the institute's housekeeping staff has not only cleaned the mess I made that night, but my entire apartment, and washed and dried my bed linens and towels. Boy, was I grateful.

At the emergency room I was immediately examined by a doctor ( who was informed of my high blood pressure and all other symptoms even before I arrived) and then put in a bed for observation, hooked to an oxygen tank, given a drop, an EKG, taken a battery of blood - and other tests - given a medication and .... realeased after about 5 hours, feeling almost human again. I was instructed to be carefull eating sallads at rodside stands.

The emergency room bill was - perhaps - the biggest shocker: $ 95 for all that! Full price, for the uninsured, since my employee's health insurance has not kicked in, yet.

Can any of you, living in the USA believe that?

There are benefits to be "just" a commonwealth territory, and not a state: efficient, effective and extremely affordable health care for all!

A busy Monday

There are two construction projects going on next to my ill-chosen first Puertorican apartment, one a villa and the other a 77 unit condo project with a swimming pool etc, so it is recently no problem for me to get up at 6 am (when the noise of construction machines starts), but today I skipped yoga on the beach and headed almost straight to work, stopping only for about 15 minutes to jump on a trampoline ( since it apparently wakes up our lymphatic system) , then at a wheat grass juicer and was at work before 7 am. And am still here, although I stopped working some 15 minutes ago. Well, yes, I took an hour for lunch and instead of eating my energy soup (it is a blended day at the institute - sort of a semi-fast and today I am sort of rebelling against it) went to take a dip in the sea. I also took an hour for dinner and went for a long walk on the beach (after eating a couple of spoon fulls of energy soup with blended papaya - starvation is not my goal). The sunset was breathtaking and I again regretted having left my camera. (the photo is from flickr by feivel2010)

But now, after working 11 hours - some retirement! - I feel tired, so I'll probably be heading straight to my apartment to enjoy the night silence - a nice, though brief, respite from the noise of the construction work allowing me to read and to sleep - untill - hopefully - 6 am tomorrow (sometimes they start at 5:30).
Lucky for me I found a replacement to my apartment - a little, secluded place directly on the beach, and will be moving again next Sunday.