At Least We Have a Shower...The First Few Days

As the night of our first day living in Rincon came upon us, the lights spread out and across the valleys of Aguada and down to the beaches of Agaudilla. I didn't know there would be so many lights in the distance, they made our view even more amazing than I had remembered. We bought a nice king size tempurpedic mattress from Costco, however didn't think to buy a fan. We setteled into bed and looked out at the lights. It was hot and there were mosquitos, but we easily fell into sleep, the exhaustion of the trip our best pillow.

Sometime in the night, however, I woke up to Cyndi crying. She told me she was worried that we had made a mistake and it was all her doing. The dogs were nervous and uncomfortable and we were in a strange place and didn't know anybody and the amount of work to do to make the house comfortable was overwhelming. It was raining and the coqui's, small frogs that make a noise at night that sounds like a cross between a bird and a cricket, were doing their thing, the dogs couldn't get settled and the heat and mosquitos were starting to be annoying. She put the weight of our success at building a life here on her shoulders all in one night and I knew that wasn't fair. She had the right idea, it was up to us to understand the challenges and face them one by one. The dogs would calm down, we had 2 months and a decent budget to get the house where we wanted it to be. The rain and coquis and strangeness of his place is why we had come and we needed to look forward to the adventure we had chosen to take upon ourselves. We made a promise to better communicate and support each other and the the thought of staying here started to become less worrisome and we both fell back to sleep, but I don't think the dogs did.

The next few days our bodies adjusted to the heat and humidity and we bought and installed some ceiling fans. We had a lot of work to do and a limited budget so we needed to prioritize, but the fans would give the best bang for the buck. We drove to the town of Mayaguez, about 30 minutes south and bought our appliances at Sears in the Mayaguez mall. Mayaguez is the largest town near Rincon with a population of about 100,000 and a university that is the Caribbean's leading scince and engineering institution. It's also known as "the city of pure waters" which locals say contributes to the quality of its most famous export, Medalla beer.

2 day later, the Sears delivery truck was lost and we had to meet them at the Lazy Parrot. As I wrote before, the addresses in Rincon are almost meaningless and directions usually involve local landmarks more than streets and numbers. I had a case of Medalla I wanted to get chilling so I quickly drove our rental car through the rain a mile to the Parrot and led the truck back to Sector Cuchillo Pina (our street). We got our refrigerator and the beer was getting cold, we had also bought a BBQ from Home Depot so it looked like I might get to cook soon.

The local market in Rincon is a chain called Econo and the parking lot is always full. They have local meat and produce as well as stuff from the states, but they also carry a lot of the overly processed food we stopped buying in the last few years. Partially hydrogeneated oils, mono and diglycerides and high fructose corn syrup are in almost everything on the store shelves back home and here wasn't much different, so we bought mostly just basics. Our first dinner cooked in Rincon was garlic and olive oil marinated chicken, cooked on the BBQ with fresh bread from the EC Bakery, washed down with a cold Medalla. We gave thanks for all that we had achieved in our first few days on the island and looked forward to the challenges ahead.

Less is More

Our lives in Los Angeles were pretty simple. I worked 4 nights at a restaurant downtown and Cyndi drove to Laguna Beach 2 days per week to work with massage clients. Neither of us had alot of responsiblity or stress in our schedules and other than the 2 dogs we had, there weren't many things to take up our free time. So we walked the dogs alot, worked around the house, watched movies and spent time with our parents.

Of course it wasn't always this way. I worked managing restaurants for over 20 years and finally grew tired of the 50 to 60 hour work weeks and seemingly unending ways for the corporate higher ups to create even more work. I genuinely enjoyed being at the restaurant and taking care of the guests who chose to dine there, but I didn't enjoy sitting in an office and sending daily labor and food reports to some bean counter at the corporate office. I know that the secret to a restaurant's profitability lies in the number of people at its tables, and probably has a direct negative correlation to the number of staff at the restaurant's corporate headquarters.

Cyndi worked for IBM as a network engineer, but the corporate politics and cubicle life closed in on her and she decide to pursue a career in massage therapy. Her story is similiar to mine so when we met again in 2005, (we graduated from high school together), we realized how much we each valued our time so much more than things.

I know we aren't the first of our generation to step off the treadmill, I also realize that without kids our options are much more open, but at the moment of enlightenment, the moment when you understand how precious your time is here, it takes courage to act upon and I saw that courage in Cyndi as she must have in me.

Here is a link to a book that makes this point much more clear than I ever could: http://www.billmckibben.com/deep-economy.html . Its really about questioning the more, more, faster, faster ethic we've been taught to cow to. Cyndi and I have come to appreciate the simple acts of living; making our own meals, tending our own gardens, being a positive and social member of our neighborhood. The phrase, " think global, act local" got a lot of play in the environmental movement, but the "act local" part is the key. As the world gets smaller by the minute, and the costs of energy and transportation rise and corporations gobble up and spit out small business, the only way to exert control is to seek out local merchants and products that haven't been shipped in from half way across the world.

It was this pursuit of a simple, localized lifestyle that led us to Rincon, (ok the nice waves and warm Caribbean water also came into play). There has been so much talk about global warming and carbon footprints, green living, reduce, re-use, recycle, I think sometimes people get overwhelmed into doing nothing and pretending they don't care. Cyndi and I have made a conscience effort to be a part of the localization movement, but trips to Costco and Home Depot are inevitable. We can't live in palapas and eat bananas all day, but we can seek out local meat and vegetables, eat the fruit of our own trees and try to buy most of our things from the small markets here in town.

Moving Day aka the Longest Day of My Life

In addition to the 2 boxes we shipped, we were allowed 2 checked bags (at a cost of $25 each) and 2 carry-ons each. Since the dogs would be travelling on the plane with us, (they would be laying at our feet), we would only take 1 carry-on each, so we had to maximize the check in luggage. Each check on bag could be up to 50 lbs., anything over would be charged $50. Of course, as we packed the bags and they got heavier and heavier we realized we might end up paying a lot of money in overweight fees. We tried to balance heavy items throughout the luggage and we even borrowed a friends scale to give us an idea of the weight of each bag. In the end we decided we could afford to pay one overweight fee and loaded up one of the bags.

The house was ready for our renters and we locked up. As the van we had requested from the taxi company pulled up to the house, our neighbors came out to send us off, their grandson loved our dogs and was very sad to see them go. I remember a quick, emotional cab ride through the August night and before I could come up with a good reason to stay, the LAX traffic control tower passed in a blur.

Travelling these days is stressfull enough, throw in 2 dogs, 4 overstuffed suitcases and the nerves of leaving your home and we knew the only way to make it through this night was to be organized, calm and to not let anything rattle us. The dogs were great, they stood in line at check in and through security as if they had done it 100 times. The flight however, was booked solid, not an extra seat on the plane and once we got the dogs settled and sat down, I knew I wouldn't be moving for another 7 hours.

As we landed, I looked at Cyndi and saw the same thrill in her eyes as I was feeling. We made it, halfway there. Just need to rent a car, stop at Costco and buy a bed and then drive 2 hours to our home in Rincon. We left at 9pm on Friday night, at 3pm Saturday we opened the door to our beautiful, albeit empty house in Paradise.

Rincon, Here We Come....

Cyndi sold her business in Laguna Beach. She had to in order to pay for the work needed on the house. She could always build a business in Los Angeles, but her plan was to build her massage therapy business in Rincon, whether I was with her or not (I think). She was able to secure a website http://rinconsportsmassage.com for her massage therapy business in Rincon and built a web page that described her work and that she would be available after August. For my part, I guess I was dragging my feet and when confronted with the possibilities of a life in Rincon or staying in Los Angeles, the easy choice was always LA. But Cyndi is tenacious and after realizing we could rent our house out short term and my job, however good I may think it was, wasn't all that, basically I had nothing keeping me in Los Angeles.

We decided to rent the house on craigs list for 2 months while we went to Rincon to work on the house and explore the possibilities of staying permanently. I would come back after 2 months to return to my job for awhile and Cyndi would stay in Puerto Rico. The biggest issues we faced were getting the dogs there, to ship or not ship one of our cars and of course after 2 months in Rincon how long would I stay in LA?

Though Puerto Rico does not have a quarantine period for dogs and the only paperwork we needed for the dogs was proof of a rabies shot and a certificate of health from the vet ($25), the dogs were not as easy as we thought. We were planning to go to Puerto Rico in August and American Airlines will not allow dogs in the storage area of the plane if it is hotter than 85 degrees. We scheduled a red eye flight that would land in San Juan at about 9:30 in the morning, but most of the weather forecasts we had seen called for the temperatures to be between 80 and 90 degrees. One of our dogs, Sancho is a retired service dog and has a vest and identification, so we felt comfortable taking him on the plane. The other dog was still a puppy and we planned on crating him on the plane, however American Airlines couldn't guarantee that he would be allowed if it was too warm. We worked for 3 months training the 1 year old dog to be a service dog and eventually he got a vest and identification and we decided to take him on the plane with us as well. It was going to be an interesting flight.

Cyndi was dead set on shipping her BMW to Puerto Rico. She did some homework and found a company that would take it from LA and get it to San Juan for $2000, about $1000 less than most everyone else. I didn't think a BMW convertible would be the best car to have in Rincon, I felt she should sell her car and save the $2000 and buy something when we got there. But Cyndi's arguments were valid; the BMW was reliable and she has had it for over 9 years, knew it was in good condition and well taken care of. Trying to buy a car in Puerto Rico could be difficult and could take time to find the right car, what would we do then, car rentals would add up quickly. Cyndi also felt that with everything else being new and different maybe her car could provide some comfort. So at the end of June, a guy came by the house in Los Angeles, loaded the Beamer up on his truck and drove off. I guess I get an I told you so on that one as shipping the car turned out to be a bigger problem then we ever imagined.

We also shipped a few items via the post office, Cyndi doing her homework at the USPS web page to know the maximum size of boxes we could ship for the cheapest price. Initially we thought about shipping our sofa and furniture, but from Los Angeles the shipping price was prohibitive. There were a few things we wanted to ship as we weren't sure of their availability on the island; Cyndi's massage table for example, and we also wanted to have a few essential items when we got there like sheets and towels so we wouldn't have to spend our money on those things right away.

The address of our property wasn't listed on our title, there was just a fine description of the parcel and where it stands in relation to others. Getting the address was difficult as most everyone uses landmarks or kilometer markers to describe where they live. So we shipped the boxes to General Delivery, Rincon , Puerto Rico 00677. Sure enough, 2 days after we arrived the boxes showed up at the post office and we had a few of our comforts from home.

Offer Accepted, Now What?

After the thrill of realizing we owned a house in Puerto Rico, we needed to plan our next move. I figured we would travel to Rincon for a month at a time a few times per year and get the house fixed up slowly. Cyndi wanted to pack a few essentials and sell everything else, grab the dogs and catch the next plane to Paradise. Fortunately, for me, we had to wait about a month for escrow and the house needed a lot of work.

While in Rincon we had met up with a few people who could help us fix the house up. Over the phone, from California we were able to have the roof patched, a few walls ripped out, the kitchen plumbing moved to the west side of the house and 2 new sliding doors on the south or "view" side of the house. We also had a new new tile floor and shower installed, the electricity upgraded and the walls and ceiling refinished and painted. All this was done over the course of about 3 months, actually a short amount of time in Puerto Rican terms and at a cost of $10,000.

So by the end of June, we had the upstairs part of the house as ready as we needed. We felt we could install the rest of the bathroom and kitchen fixtures once we got there. The budget of $20,000 for repairs to the house was down to about half.

Back in Los Angeles, Cyndi and I went back and forth if we should make the move completely or go slow. We have no kids and our jobs are easy to leave behind and start back up anywhere, but we would have to sell or rent our house in LA. I felt we needed to take our time and figure Rincon out, work on the house slowly, spend our money slowly and enjoy the 2 or 3 year process it would take to set up our lives in a new and very different place. Cyndi felt we should jump in head first and not overthink this. We bought the house, we love Rincon, let's go !

Destiny Strikes Again!

So it is the next to last day of our vacation and we know exactly what we're looking for; a house or land in the Puntas area of Rincon for under $100k. We drove the 3 streets that go down the hill from the 413 to the beaches and saw plenty of Se Vende signs with phone numbers, but mostly no answers or prices way beyond our means. At 10am we met with our realtor, Greg to look inside the house we drove by the day before.

He didn't have much nice to say about it. No one had lived there for awhile, it would take upwards of $20k to get it in livable condition, the driveway and condition of the house itself was questionable and he couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't slip down the hill the next hurricane season. But we liked it. The main part of the house had 2 small bedrooms and 1 bathroom. There was a small kitchen and 3 other rooms. In a seperate apartment downstairs was another bathroom and 2 more rooms with a kitchenette. The condition was terrible, there were cracks in the concrete and spots where rebar ws showing through. The roof needed repair and water damage was everywhere. Nothing upstairs was salvagable, it would have to be gutted.

But near the driveway a large Flamboyan tree shaded the south side of the house and gave off vibrant red flowers while hiding any view of the southern neighbors house. The veranda was a small walkway on the east side of the house that looked down over a small valley of jungle and the sea beyond. Down the hill, what once was a terraced landscape was overgrown with Flamboyan saplings, weeds and banana trees. I knew the view alone was worth the $139k asking price. As the cliche of a million dollar view came to mind, this house was beginning to seem like a bargain.

Later we ran into Steve, the owner of the Lazy Parrot and asked him if he knew anyone who could give us a quick assessment of the condition of the structural elements of the house. We were just looking for assurances that it wouldn't fall down the hill in the next hurricane season. He told us he had done construction work in Texas before he came to own the lazy Parrot and would be happy to look at the house for us. 15 minutes later we were at the house and Steve was telling us how he had put in the tile floor of the lower apartment for a woman who was renting it and working at the Lazy Parrot.

Now usually when things come together like this, I run away. There are too many coincidences, nothing is coincidence..., blah, blah, blah. But as I linked the dots to us getting to this point, it even sounds crazy to me, but it seemed clear that it was our destiny to own this house! Once Steve assured us of the house's relatve stability, we began working with the numbers.

The original asking price was $178k, recently reduced to $139k. We could come up with about $90k cash, but didn't want to have to take a loan out. Speaking with the realtor who had the listing, we wondered aloud if a $90k offer would be insulting. He didn't seem to think so and we went to Island West to make up an offer.

That night we packed our bags for the trip back to Los Angeles. Not wanting to set ourselves up for a big let down, we didn't put much hope in the offer being accepted, but we did wonder how long it would take to hear back. We discussed various scenarios; what kind of counter-offer could be made, how could we come up with more money, was this the right thing to do? We've only been here 4 days, this is CRAZY!

The next day we drove to San Juan and spoke of little else other than the small slice of paradise that was just within reach. If only! We leaned against each other at the American Airlines terminal waiting for our flight to board, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for something to break up the spell we had been put under. And then the phone did ring, I watched Cyndi's face as tears welled up and she began to jump up and down. The offer was accepted, the house on the hill in the middle of paradise was ours.

Rincon Real Estate From The Pueblo to Puntas

Once we decided we were interested in living in Rincon we stopped at a real estate office called Island West Properties, located on the 413, "the Road to Happiness", the small looping road that connects Rincon's surfing beaches and hillside neighborhoods to the 115, the main highway into and out of Rincon. They had some property listings on their walls, mostly condos and houses in the $200k to $300k price range, a little out of our budget. We were looking for a condo or house for about $100k or possibly land for that price which we could build on at a later date.

We spoke to a realtor, who pointed out a few pieces of land at that price, a tear down house and another house that was a little more than we could afford. We got the directions and drove out. The first few places we looked at were in an area called the Pueblo, which is off the 115, close to the main town plaza and the public beaches and is mostly flat. We liked the proximity to the beaches, but we noticed it was considerably warmer down here, away from the hills, and also the beaches in the southern part of Rincon don't have the great surfing that is found around the point to the north.

We had 2 more properties to look at on our list, both were in Puntas, the northern part of Rincon which is looped by the 413 and contains all the great surfing beaches. Our first stop was a piece of land on the side of a hill with beautiful views, the asking price was $110k. Very nice location, but the property was a sloped piece of hilltop and would require alot of grading and money before we could do anything else. The other property was a run down as-is house with the price cut from $178k to $139k. We knew it was more than we could afford and would need more work and money, but what potential!

The house was built into a hillside, made from concrete with a large concrete driveway and a small veranda overlooking a valley dense with jungle, palms and mango trees. In the distance, the next town of Aguada and further, the town of Aguadilla could be seen, along with a small portion of the sea. All around the house was overgrown and peeking in through the windows all we could see was headaches and the dollar bills we would need to spend to make it livable.

That night, while sipping Mojitos at the Rum Shack, the bar at the Lazy Parrot, we talked about what we saw and our options. Maybe we could buy the land and put a trailer on it, use it for vacation. The tear down house in the Pueblo would be perfect for that. But the views from Puntas and the beaches made our decision for us; we would focus our search on that area. The next day we made plans for our realtor Greg to show us the run down house on the hill and we would drive the hillside streets to see if there were other properties for sale.