xander is here!

xander, chris' twin brother has come to visit us here in vieques for 2 weeks!! chris and i have been laying low lately and have really not done all the touristy things since we have lived here. So we are taking this opportunity to do those things while Xander is here. So he arrived on Tuesday and i had to work, so they came to the restaurant and i was able to eat with them! I had been craving the fajitas for a while, I had never had them at the restaurant but i would always smell them when we delivered them to peoples tables. They smelled so good i wanted to eat them soo bad. So finally i was able to get the fajitas!!! And they were even more delicious than they smelled!! soo good!!  Wednesday we went to Blue Beach, we packed lunch and made a day of it. Chris and Xan went snorkeling out to the island and had a great time. it was a beautiful day and then we looked behind us and there were dark...very dark clouds rolling in. It started to rain a little and we were ready to go so we packed up and headed back to the house. I had worked that night as well and the guys cooked spaghetti at the house. Thursday was a great day!! i actually got a day off!! i have been working every day at the restaurant so it was nice to have a whole day to do whatever!! We definitely made the most of it! We went and explored the island in our new car!! I drove and was a little nervous about venturing out not really knowing where we were going, but a little ways into it i was having such a good time! We just picked a road and drove down and took side roads and roads off of them etc. So fun! Anyways we explored all around the bunkers and took lots of pictures. There are soo many bunkers too, we thought there were maybe a dozen or so but im sure there are over 50!! As i said i got really into the whole exploring thing and i was driving, so everytime i would see a road we had not been down i would ask which way we should go....after a while the guys answers were not so enthusiastic, they wanted to go back....but i just kept driving! haha i was having such a great time and then we came to a dead end :( a dirt wall blocked our way to get to another road so we turned around and headed back. We went to see the Ceiba tree, which is a massive tree that is over 300 years old! it is also very cool to look at! My mom would love this tree!! :) but it has thorns on it so its not much of a huggable tree. But the lizards love it!!  We also went to mosquito pier a looong man made piece of land that juts out into the ocean. its a great view of the north side of the island. After the pier we were all exhausted and headed back to the house to eat and relax. that night we cooked dinner... we all cooked too. Xander cooked the chicken, chris cooked the broccoli and i made some roasted potatoes! it was the best meal we have made in this house yet! we were very pleased with ourselves! Friday we went to Glass beach, i picked up lots and lots of glass as we walked along the beach and we were able to get to this great stretch of sand in between two rocky cliffs. Chris and xan took pictures and i will post them when i can. We have also made plans to go to Culebra the other small island to the north of us. We are only staying for one night but we should have plenty of time in the day to explore! I am really excited about it! Chris hasn't stopped talking about Flamenco Beach since we got here. He says its the most beautiful beach he has ever seen! And i think the beaches here are the most beautiful ones i have ever seen so im excited to see that!! I am getting two more days off of work next week too!! I will post more soon! but here are some pictures that I took exploring! :) 
I know it is snowing and very cold in north carolina right now so i hope you are all staying warm and i am pretty jealous of the snow! I want to be there! I know you probably think i am crazy but i do. maybe just for a couple hours playing in the snow and then i would want to be warm again! :) have fun!! 

 Chris and I in front of the ceiba tree.

 

 missing everyone a whole bunch!!! 

io

 

a christmas parade

a couple weeks before christmas there was a parade in town. i know its a little late to be putting up pictures of the christmas parade but it was so cute! there were little kids dancing and playing music, and some of the costumes were amazing!! So anyway here are some shots of the parade! 

i will be posting more recent stuff soon...promise! :) 

these little girls were shakin it! I took video but they came out all dark :(.

10,9....3,2,1 HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!

We both had to work on new years eve but the restaurant was having a party up on the second floor so we were excited to get to go up there when we were done with work. We got finished working at about 11:52pm just in time to grab some champagne get our party hats and noise makers and head upstairs and count down with everyone!! it was so much fun celebrating with everyone! the restaurant is only a block away from the plaza where they set off the most amazing fireworks! the fireworks went on for over 15 minutes it was awesome!! it was sort of drizzling a little bit but we didnt mind we went up to the roof patio and sat around a table and watched the fireworks! we were so close and they were wonderful! the longest fireworks show i have ever seen! After the towns firework show was over, we went back down to the bar to hang out with everyone. 

We stayed at the bar until 2:30ish and for some reason we stupidly decided that we would bike home. this was not smart for more than one reason. But the main reason it was not smart was because Chris ended up getting in an accident. :( I had biked ahead a little ways and when I stopped i noticed that he was not behind me, so i turned around and biked back to the restaurant and thats when i saw him on the ground in the middle of the road and people all around! I was so freaked out, i threw my bike down and ran to him and saw that he was in a lot of pain. I was crying obviously but freaking out even more because i didnt know what was wrong and i thought he had been hit by a car. i think what happened was that he must have hit the front breaks on the bike or the tires slipped on the wet pavement and sent him over his handle bars. causing him to land on his left shoulder and left eyebrow. So the ambulance came and picked us up and took us to the hospital where they stitched up his left eyebrow which had a big gash on it. he kept holding his left shoulder and i knew he broke something. So they told me that we were going to have to fly to the main island to the hospital in fajardo to get his shoulder looked at. we got back in the ambulance and pulled up on the tarmac of the airport and got in one of the small 9 seater planes, took off and landed in Ceiba after only about 20 minutes in the air. Another ambulance met us on the tarmac and drove us another 20 or so minutes to the hospital in Fajardo. They took about 9 xrays of his shoulder and a CT scan of his head. and then they put us in a large ice box of a room! it was so cold in their i think i could see my breath. it was about 5 or 530 am at this point and we were both exhausted, emotionally and physically.  He fell asleep pretty quickly before and after the xrays, and finally after waiting a while the doctor came in to let me know that he had broken his collarbone, but that everything else looked ok! He told me they would give him some pain killers and some fluids, and that he was getting an orthopedic doctor to come and talk to us. it felt like forever until someone came in to hook up his iv of pain killers and give him a shot of demerol. After the shot he fell back asleep for a while and i tried to get warm and relax. the small bag they had dripping into his iv was almost finished and i thought that we would be able to go soon and get out of that freezing room! but then the nurse came back in and hooked up this huge bag of fluids!! Chris kept sleeping...he had a nice bed to lay in, i had two plastic chairs. they gave him some paper blankets that kept him pretty warm and comfy. i had my rain coat, capri yoga pants and a tank top. i was freeeezing and uncomfortable.  i asked the nurse if there was a sheet or something that i could have to keep me warm. She brought me back a sheet and i wrapped myself up and curled myself up into one of the chairs next to his bed, put my feet in the other chair, made a little pillow on the end of his bed where his legs were not and put my head down and tried to sleep a little bit. but it seemed that every time i would get near sleep someone would come in the room or i would hear a noise and i would wake up to make sure that Chris was ok. it was still freezing in the room and the sheet was doing little to keep me warm but i found this knob on the wall next to the door that would control the a/c, set on hi!! but there was something written in marker underneath the knob, the only part i knew was the "no" part and i assumed the other word meant something along the lines of touching or changing.  i wanted to follow the rules and not mess anything up, but i was soo cold and so was chris!  so i walked back to chris' bed, teeth chattering and freezing, looked around to see if anyone was watching, walked back to the door and turned the knob down to med!! i was not sure if it would really change the temp in the room that much but at least i had done something! i went back to my chair, wrapped up in the sheet and relaxed again. the temp did not change at all or at least i could not tell, and i felt like we had been there forever, i thought we were going to have to wait until the bag of fluids was gone and for sure that would take 2 days! but then the doc walked in followed by another man and introduced him to us as the orthopedic doctor!!! he was going to put a figure 8 sling on chris' arm and then we would be able to go!! we were both happy to get out of there finally. So the doc wrapped him up in this harness thing which did not look like it was very comfortable and the nurse called us a publico to take us to the ferry and we were off!! it was so much warmer outside! it was wonderful! we got to the ferry just in time, they had already started boarded but i got our tickets and ran to the gate and told them to wait as chris slowly walked behind me. We had to ride the cargo ferry. the ferry ride was terrible we both felt sick since we had not eaten in a long time and were so exhausted. but we both closed our eyes and rested until we got to vieques where duey was waiting for us with the car, and some snacks!! We couldnt get chris' pain meds filled until monday so he had to make do with tylenol and ibuprofen. He was hurtin pretty bad!! but come monday we got the pain meds and he was a happy camper! he has been laying low for the past couple days, sleeping a lot (due to the pain killers).

he is getting better and better everyday, we go to see another orthopedic doctor on tuesday in Fajardo to make sure that everything is on track and see what we can do. 


i am so thankful that he is ok, and we have certainly learned a lesson! 

felicidades!

this is very belated but should be said none the less! Felicidades!! Happy Holidays!! (felicidades, is what i thought meant happy holidays, but after i heard someone tell a birthday girl, felicidades, i began to have doubts...so i asked a girl that we work with who is from vieques, what felicidades meant...it is a way of saying congratulations, best wishes, happiness to you etc. So basically some pretty great stuff! ) 


while talking to my mom the other day she pointed out that i had not posted anything in forever, sorry about that!! So i will try to catch you up on what has been happening down on the island! 


I was able to go home for Christmas! Which was soo great! it was wonderful to see my family and friends! i was only home for about 5 days which was not enough but we made do with the time that i was there! i arrived home the night before christmas eve, i knew it would be cold at home but i wore a long dress and sandals on the plane anyways because it was hot here! So i arrived at the airport at home and went outside to meet my parents and it was ooohh sooo cooold!! people in the airport looked at me like i was a little crazy but i just smiled!! :) my nephew Cole has gotten so big since i have seen him last but i got to see him and my sister everyday, so that i could catch up on my squeezes!! he is soo cute and growing up so fast!! it was so nice to be home! Christmas with my family is always fun! We play and laugh and eat and laugh and play some more!! 5 days at home went by way to fast but i was happy to have been able to spend Christmas with my family! :)  io


 on my way back to puerto rico, i had a 9 1/2 hour layover in Philly!!!! over night!! it was not so fun! that airport is huge, and very confusing. After wandering around for a bit, I find out that the only terminal open over night is C...i am in E. they are doing construction on D. so I asked someone sitting at the information desk how to get to C. I tell them I have a 9 1/2 hour layover and as this woman is explaining to me how to get to C, this other guy starts handing me a pillow, a bottle of water and one of those silver emergency blankets. he stocked me up on the essentials for overnight camping in the airport. so after the woman finishes explaining to me the complicated way to get to C, i start walking....and then...dead end into construction. so i turn around and then turn around again just to make sure i cant get through the construction as i am walking back to the construction i run into a guy who is walking the other way and i must have had this completely confused look on my face because he asked, you stuck here overnight too. i said yes and we started trying to figure out our way to C. we asked more airport employee's and then are informed that we have to go outside!!! OUTSIDE!! seriously! i have on a tank top with a thin hoodie, capri yoga pants and flip flops. i was not dressed in any way for the 20 or so degree weather that was outside. i was happy and warm inside i didnt not want to have to walk outside.... but i toughened up and went for it and it was cold but not so bad...again everyone outside in their parkas were looking at me in my flip flops like i was crazy! we got a little lost but finally made it to C!!  i thought that since they said C was the only terminal open over night that there would be an area with chairs and tv's and vending machines etc to make our stay more comfortable........not the case. we ended up waiting around in a hallway kinda thing with ceiling to floor windows on both sides, with one of those moving sidewalks, on one side of the hallway, and a couple chairs on the other side. so we set up camp by the chairs, made another friend who missed her flight and had to wait until the morning, and settled in. i made myself a little bed behind the chairs propping my little pillow up on my bag and i had brought a bottom sheet for the bed in vieques and put it in my bag since i knew i would be sleeping in the airport and thought it woudl be nice to cover me up as well. I got out my shiny (verry noisy) emergency blanket and put that on top of me and then sheet over top of that. So i wasnt this shinning silver body. i tucked myself in and tried to get a little rest inside of my human chip bag! it was verry cold next to the window so i was very thankful to have that chip bag of a blanket, even if it did make soo much noise when i moved the slightest bit!! my alarm went off at 4:45 am because that was when the gates opened and we could get in. so my new friends and i parted ways and wished each other safe travels and then we were off. i slept the whole way on the plane to san juan! as soon as i got to vieques, i had time to take about a half hour nap and then i had to go work! 


Chris' Christmas was a little different than mine and everyone elses. they had a huge storm come through on christmas eve and the house leaked and got seira's computer all wet (which still isnt working) and was just not what you want on christmas eve!! the next day the rain went away and they all went to red beach with everyone we know here to celebrate christmas with our "vieques family" he said they had a fun time but was sad because he wished that he had been home for christmas and it just didnt feel like christmas down here. But he got over that when i got back with his christmas present from his family!! a new canon s90 point and shoot camera he has been droooling over for a while!! :) 


the weather was so gross the next day after i got back. it was really stormy and the weather said that there could be 10-18 ft waves on the northern exposed reefs!! We did not see any of those big waves though. so it rained for a couple days and i could not go to the beach, so we just hung out at the house and watched movies. 


Christmas was wonderful at home! 
i will post some pictures from christmas soon! 


FELICIDADES!!




io