June 30, 2024

I technically didn't have to work today but I'd rather spend my time working in the field than doing whatever I would have been doing to pass the time. Ariel and I weeded a small garden bed and then got a stump out of the ground. After that, I helped Emma weed the Yame.

Emma and I were headed up when Lisa started to call for us to come up. We had some guests stop by for lunch. It was the filmmaker Rubén Abruña and his daughter Sara. Rubén is showing his newest film across the island. It's got a bit of a crass name, "Holy Shit." It's about human waste and how we deal with it. If you want to see more, his website for this movie is holyshit.global. Lisa prepared an amazing 4-course meal.

I spent some time packing and getting ready to go back to Aibonito.

In the evening, we played the card game Presidents. It was the five of us, Lisa, Ariel, William, Emma and I. I'm going to miss this place.

June 29, 2024

We went to the beach in Punta Santiago in Humacao. It was wonderful.

Ariel and I took a Canoe through the lagoon. It's pretty seeing all the birds, turtles, lizards, iguanas.

We got to see some bunkers that were built in WWII to see if the German subs were coming. They were full of art/graffiti and they had a slit that the soldiers could see out of. We ate our lunch on top of the underground bunkers. You could see the monkey island close by and Vieques in the distance.

After lunch, we went to the beach to relax for a bit. I love the idea of running on the beach so that's what I did. It's so freeing. I don't know what it is, maybe the ocean moving beside you or the smell of it. Or maybe it's the sand under your feet. 

The beach is magical. I was a kid again, jumping in the water like rain puddles. I dug a hole and jumped in it. I listened to the sound the sand makes when the water is returning to the ocean (it sounds like pop rocks). The beach is exhilarating. 

William was trying to get a coconut down from a tall tree by throwing another coconut at it and he succeeded. It took way too long to get a second one down. Lisa heard we were trying to get coconuts down and she pointed to a tree that was a bit shorter. William, Lisa, and I walked over and surveyed the tree. It was shorter but it would be difficult to get one down. William found a piece of bamboo and tried to hit down a coconut but the bamboo was too wide and heavy to do anything effective. After a bit of trying, William walked over to the tree and it looked like he wanted to climb it. I don't think he had the right shoes on and it would probably ruin his pants if he did try but I wasn't wearing shoes or pants (I was wearing shorts of course). I went over to the tree and started shimmying up. It took a bit but slowly I wormed my way up to the top of the tree. There was a point where I was just out of reach of the coconuts and I wanted to reach for them but I had to just go a little further. I got to them and twisted one until it fell to the ground. It took a lot of energy to get up there so I checked if William and Lisa wanted me to get any more. I ended up twisting off two more and we took them back to the house with us. We took the coconuts home with us to get the coconut water and pulp.

On the way home we stopped by a bakery and grabbed a quesito. It's a long pastry with cream cheese on the inside. The bread is flakey like croissant bread. 10/10.

June 28, 2024

Today Fauno needed help collecting garbage to be taken to the dump. I guess after a hurricane a few years ago, a bunch of garbage ended up around Fauno's neighbor's house. The local government helps out with trash removal so they were called to come in and clean. They were supposed to take the trash to a dump but they just spread it around.

William spotted a weird spider-looking thing in the garbage and we asked Fauno what it was. He said it's a Waba. I tried to google that but nothing came up so I turned to describing it to Chat-GPT. It said it was a tailless whip scorpion so I looked up pics of that and that's what it is. They're harmless but they look like something the devil created.

The whole job took two hours so Ariel and I went to work on taking stumps out for the rest of our work time. It's actually one of my favorite jobs because there is a definite start, middle, and end. And shoveling is a bit of a comfort job. I'd rather shovel than weed 80% of the time.

After we collected all the garbage, we went out for pizza together. I got the vegetarian with a cauliflower crust. It was really good.

After Pizza, I was super tired and I took a nap. When I woke up it was a little after 4:00. I joined William out on the back porch and we just talked and watched the horizon. We could see it raining in the distance and after a bit, a rainbow.

June 27, 2024

Yesterday I helped clear some tall grasses from a hillside with Ariel. We needed to clear enough around everything planted so that someone with a weed eater could come through and clear the slope. 

I didn't sleep well last night so I got a late start on the day today. I got out to the field at 8:00 and I worked until 11:15. It was raining but the job I had to do was replant the extra Hibiscus. I originally counted 21 plants, but later on, I did the math and I believe there were over 30.

Carmelo did an art class with us that was amazing. He would have us do a few different exercises to help us become more creative.

June 25, 2024

I tried to get a head start on today. I got out on the field around 6:40 or so and I worked on removing stumps. It took me two hours from breaking the ground to getting the stump out. For the next 3 hours, Ariel and I worked on getting three small stumps out. We did it in a way so we could remove the first stump and then move the dirt from the second stump to the first hole and the 3rd stump's dirt to the second hole.

Around the time I was going to be done, Lisa offered to show Ariel and I some work that needs to be done tomorrow. As we were walking, Lisa spotted some bananas that needed to be harvested. So I carried up the whole bunch of bananas to the house. 

June 24, 2024

Today's work: Removing stumps

Stumps removed - 2

Energy Level - none

June 23, 2024

Michael left this morning. Best wishes to him in his journey for learn Spanish and getting to know the culture. We played some epic rounds of Chess. Lisa took him to San Juan and she picked up an artist named Carmelo Sobrino. Carmelo isn't in the best of health right now but he's got a great sense of humor.

Ariel got here tonight. She's from Grenada and she's a lot of fun to be around. She wants to learn more about agriculture so she can get better at growing and help things run more smoothly back at her home garden.

June 22, 2024

Today was my day off so I got to sleep in... until 6:40. I heard some banging noises that woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep after that. I got up and saw William was working on the seed deck cover. I went out to let him know what I had worked on the previous day and what pieces of metal were what. 

I went back inside and had some breakfast. I don't know if I've talked about what we have for breakfast here. We have oats with fruit and seeds and nuts. To sweeten it I'll put in some raisins or honey.

I wanted to get some bamboo so I got on my work clothes and when I went outside, I saw William was working alone. I decided to help him finish the seed deck cover. At the time I thought it would be maybe an hour of work but it ended up being closer to 4. We had a lot of good conversation and it was worth more than anything else I could've been doing this morning.

After lunch, all the volunteers sat down and spent a few hours playing card games. We played some Palace then we played Wizard(that could be the name, it's a game Emma taught us).

After cards, we had dinner. During dinner, we talked about thought experiments. 

Mike and I got some chess in after dinner. What a beautiful way to end a beautiful day.

June 21, 2024

I started the workday by trying to finish the roof for the seed deck. William took a trip to town today, so I was trying to hang chicken wire by myself. I couldn't even reach it without standing on a cinder block. I figured it would be more productive to work on it later and work on another job. I went down to weed a garden bed but Mike needed a second person to make a Florida Weave trellis. That took a lot longer to make than I thought it would. After it was finished, I started weeding.

I don't know why but I wasn't feeling great while weeding. I think I didn't have enough water in me and bending over to weed was hurting my head.

Mike made a great lunch of pasta. 

Right after lunch, I took a much-needed nap and William was back when I woke up.

Mike started cooking something shortly after I woke up and I hung around him to hopefully pick up some cooking techniques. The other Fauno gave us some fish, which might be hard to get through. Our host is Vegan so Mike had the goal of making a dish with fish and another vegan dish.

There's something about how a cook looks at the ingredients that's mesmerizing. Like they can see something I can't. Maybe its the possibilities or maybe they can see the flavors. Whatever it is, Mike looks at the ingredients that way.

Mike decided on a coconut curry, rice and veggies, and pita bread. I helped do dishes and I cooked about half the pita bread. It was a great dinner. So full of flavor. I don't know how many times you have to cook curry to just know how to cook one with a hodgepodge of ingredients, but apparently, Mike's cooked it that many times.

June 20, 2024

William and I worked on making a roof for the seed deck this morning. We would walk down the hill to grab bamboo and take it up to work with it. We worked until about 11:30 when we stopped to get ready for lunch with Fauno.

Lunch was on the top of the mountain. There's a vendor up there, along with a stage and a park. After we finished the food, we went to see the view of the ocean.

After that, Mike, Emma, and I went to a fish market with Fauno. We also stopped at a bar to play pool.

June 19, 2024

Mike and I stayed up too late last night looking for recipes for Iguana. Mike is a great cook and he found something that tastes very good.

This morning, I finished weeding the pumpkin and Yaltea and started weeding some new beds. 

It was a simple day, but those seem to be the best.

June 18, 2024

I tried to sleep in today but no such luck. I have earplugs and something to cover my eyes but I knew the sun was up and there was no ignoring it. I rolled out of bed around 7:30 and people were just about to head out to work. I did an extra work day last week so I wouldn't have to work today.

New Student Orientation started at 11:00 my time and it felt like forever waiting for it to come. I had time to sweep out my bedroom and closet and organize. The Zoom meeting was not fun at all. It was a lot of information, some of it seemed like it would be handy but most of it was yada-yada. I finally got out of the meeting around 2:00, an hour earlier than everyone else because I had already signed up for my classes.

In the afternoon, I was talking to Emma when I spotted an Iguanna. Michael heard Iguanna and popped out, ready to go get the guy. We went down and tried to find it in the tree. I hit it first, but it stayed in the tree. Mike took a few more shots, each missing. He finally knocked it out of the tree so I ran over with the machete. It ran and we never caught it.

Mike wanted to stay out, but I was ready to head back up so we went our separate ways. Later on, the people on the front porch could hear the air gun firing and we knew he had found another. We could hear him shouting "I got one." And I think we'll eat it tomorrow.

June 17, 2024

It was a pretty typical day today. I did some weeding for my work.

The plants grow so thick here. It's incredible to see how much life can exist in such a tiny place. I had to weed around the Yaltea because the vines were so thick. It was just handful after handful of vines. I felt like I was in a server room cutting all communication, and in a way I was.

In the afternoon I went for a run to see what it's like to run here. It was about 80 degrees but it was nice. In Idaho, the air burns as you breathe it in and that doesn't happen here. 

Update from the 18th: There was a baby snake in our room last night! Around 10:30, William and I were talking when he saw something moving on the floor that made us stop the conversation. There was a small black snake, around 4 inches long. Will and I were trying to figure out what to do with it when Mike walked in. Mike touched it and it went bananas, squirming in every way it could. We got a piece of paper so Mike could take it out. On the way out, he accidentally dropped it but didn't realize it until he stepped on it coming back inside. Sad day. It was still squirming so Mike took it outside. All the excitement made it hard to sleep at night.

June 16, 2024

Crepes for breakfast! Emma brought some pancake know-how from Belgium and made some great banana crepes.

For some reason, I couldn't sleep too well last night so I lazed around between breakfast and lunch.

Around 3:30, we went to Punta Icacos. What a beautiful place! It was a nice walk to the beach. And the water was clear and warm.

For dinner, we had some amazing Baba Ganoush, made by Mike. Mike stayed at the house and crafted this great meal while Lisa, William, Emma and I went to Punta Icacos.  

June 15, 2024

I woke up at 6:48, 18 minutes after my alarm should have gone off. It would normally be a break day, but I'm working because I have ISU orientation on Tuesday. I jumped out of bed and headed to get breakfast. In the middle of my breakfast, I heard my alarm going off. It turns out it's set for 7:00 on weekends and I think it woke up my roommate - sorry William. 

Emma was also out today and we started working on weeding the herb garden. It's peaceful work.

We finished work and went to a pizza place in town for lunch. Fauno joined us. Fauno is a sweet man who grew up here. I think he pretends that he doesn't speak any English when you first meet him then as time goes on he lets on that he knows English. After that, Fauno, Mike, Emma, and I went to a bar to play pool. There were some Puerto Ricans who played and they wiped the floor with us.

June 14, 2024

Ortiga Brava. That's what we cleared today. This is a giant stinging nettle and we cleared it to have more access to the Iguanas. They've been snacking too much on the Yautia and now there are almost no leaves left. It's actually fun to cut down the stinging nettle. They'll be taller than me but it's a fun challenge to cut them down in a way so the leaves don't touch me.

June 13, 2024

Weed day! We weeded the garden beds and got mulch from banana and bamboo leaves. It rained today, which was much needed. Our newly sprouted plants were looking quite sad.

June 12, 2024

Today's the day we clean leaves. This is an organic farm, meaning no unnatural pesticides. Some bugs would bother the trees, so we had to get them off by hand. This meant I had to wash every leaf of the tree (I had enough time to wash two trees this way) with a sponge, soap, and water. It was nice meditative work nonetheless.

June 11, 2024

We planted corn today. I totally messed up a row so we'll see what it looks like when it sprouts. I judged where the rows were by lining up a straight walking stick with a stick shoved bottom up in the ground. Unfortunately, I lined it up with the wrong stick for one of the rows so my corn will be lopsided. After that, we cleared more ground and planted Gondulas. I believe we'll plant more tomorrow.

June 10, 2024

We cleared one of the fields today for planting. There was a good amount of elephant grass cut down and stacked in piles. I had a rake(barn fork with tines bent to 90 degrees) that I would use to move the grass to the bottom of the hill. I had to come in a bit early because I was wearing black boots. They got so hot! My feet were in little furnaces. We were working downhill and when I decided to come back in, I barely made it back up.

June 9, 2024

Lisa left around noon today for San Juan so it will be just us for the next 24 hours. We spent the evening playing chess, and having an amazing dinner prepared by Micheal, and enjoying good conversation.

June 8, 2024

I started my day a lot earlier than I would have liked. The sun woke me up but I rolled around in bed for a bit. After I thought it was around 9:00 I decided to get up. It turned out to only be 6:45. I got out of bed and the idea of a bamboo flute came to my mind. I wanted to work on something like that this morning. I went down to the bamboo forest and found some bamboo I thought would work. 

We went to an abandoned factory. It was massive. Some part of it ran from 1895-2001. It could put out 5,000 one-hundred-pound bags of sugar each day.

We then went to the Piedra la Blanca. It's a lookout point over the valley and you could see everything.

June 7, 2024 (Yesterday)

I got up at 5:20 so I could get to work early today. I started working at 6:00, cutting down and de-leafing sugar cane. Around 9:00 we went to a sugar cane press. It was incredible to see them put the sugar cane into a press and all the juice that came out. And the juice tastes so good. I'd prefer it over any soda. 

After delivering the sugarcane, we returned to the house and had to get the cane roots out of the ground. That took from 9:30-1:00 and they still weren't out. After that, we came in for lunch.

We had a new volunteer come today. His name is Michael and he's from the Carolinas. Raised halfway in the South and moved to the North in his teen years.

June 6, 2024

It's almost been a week with Lisa and things have been great but hard. We eat breakfast at 6:30 and get on the field around 7:30. Sometimes we have good conversations at breakfast that keep us around the table longer than needed. We go out and work in the field until it's lunchtime. The work is hard. We work in humid heat on slopes where if you take a wrong step, you could end up at the bottom of the hill. After lunch, we relax until dinner time. Some of us play chess, some of us nap, and some of us work on digital passion projects. We have dinner around 6:00 and dinner takes a while. We usually get into some kind of interesting conversation about life 

Yesterday there was a roach in my glove and I didn't notice until I felt something move on my ring finger. It had been hot and humid and work was weeding and cleaning banana trees. I felt something in my glove and my first thought was "Hell No." I peeled my glove back and a little roach fell out. The bugs here are everywhere. I was fine with spiders in Idaho but spiders in Idaho are totally different from Puerto Rican Spiders. Living here on the farm I see countless spiders. I have walked into at least three spiderwebs every day I have been here. And yes I've seen a good amount of large millipedes.

Here's a summary of what I've done this week

Monday: We planted trees on a slope. The hope is that one day they'll be windbreakers for the more fragile plants.

Tuesday: We started harvesting bananas and cleaning banana trees. A banana tree only produces fruit once so when it has produced fruit, we cut down the tree. We also go through and cut off all the dying leaves to prevent vines from climbing up.

Wednesday: Continue the work with the banana trees and weeding. Started a new project of weeding the Yame.

Thursday: Today we were going to finish weeding the Yame or harvest the sugarcane but it's raining so we're waiting for the rain to stop to work.

May 31, 2024

It's transfer day! I'm going to be staying with Lisa in Yabucoa for the next month. I've loved my time with Nancy in Aibonito so much! She's been very kind to me and I plan on going back at the start of July.

I spend the first three hours of the day packing, cleaning, and grabbing a quick bite. We left at 11:00 to get to Caguas, the drop-off location. We spent some time in the town square checking out the tourist attractions. The Catholic cathedral is air-conditioned and very pretty.

After the town square, we went to the botanical garden which is the switch location. It was gorgeous with all the life. There was so much life from the herons, turtles, and massive koi to all the kinds of flowers. It was built on an old sugar plantation and the half-standing buildings were a reminder. 

We got to Lisa's house and hopefully, I can write more about it tomorrow.

It's been a long day and my feet are aching. I'm going to turn in for the night.

May 30, 2024

We went to the nursery to grab some planting supplies. We didn't do a lot, just potted some plants, and moved a few branches that were covering the road.

I learned how to play one of the games you can play with Spanish cards.

May 29, 2024

I had a late start to my day today, sleeping until 9:30. I hurried and got up, had breakfast, and started power washing. I did that until noon when I took a break, read, and had lunch. After lunch, I visited the USPS website to get my address changed for mail and it said I needed to go to a USPS Office in person to verify my location, but luckily Aibonito has one. Nancy and I left and when we finally got in front of someone, it took less than a minute to prove I was me. 

The rest of the day I relaxed, power-washed, had dinner, and relaxed some more. It's incredible here and I love every day.

May 28, 2024

I started out the day with leftover waffles. After breakfast was over, Debbie and I went to town. We got some body soap from Walgreens and stopped by a roadside shop for lunch.

After that, I got to work pressure washing. I did that for a few hours and relaxed. Today was fairly uneventful and an average day. That is until now as I'm writing this. They do graduation caravans where everyone "spams the honk button" and plays their music as loud as they can. The road is a 1/4 mile away and it's still fairly loud.

May 27, 2024

Today it was projected that there would be a tropical storm coming in and it's a holiday, so my host said we should go do something fun before the weather is bad for the next week. We decided to go to Ponce (pronounced "Poun say").

We got on to Ponce and it was clear something was going on. Everything was incredibly clean and workers were out collecting garbage. It turned out someone from Ponce won a reality TV show "La Casa de los Famosos." The winner, Maripily Rivera, was coming to town that day for a celebration.

We looked at a tiny firefighting museum called "Parque de Bombas." It's a very colorful place and it has a bunch of cool firefighting artifacts and a written history of all major fire-related events in Ponce.

We went to an ice cream shop that had the best ice cream I've ever had. They use real fruit so the coconut ice cream actually tastes like coconut and the same for all the flavors of pineapple, mango, etc.

We stopped by a mall "Plaza del Caribe" because Debbie, Nancy's sister, needed to get something. I walked around and there was loud music playing. I went over to investigate and it turns out Maripily was making a stop there. Nancy asked a person in Spanish when Maripily was arriving and someone said 2:30. It was 3:15 and everyone was still waiting. We stayed there and we were there when Maripily showed up. The crowd went wild. I've never heard a crowd cheer so loud and they were chanting her name.

We got on the road to go home but we made one more stop at a park we'd seen on our way into town. It was out of repair and it looked like it had been half-built and then run out of funding. Nancy stayed in the car while Debbie and I walked around and Nancy spotted someone selling Limber (the R sounds more like an L). It's a Puerto Rican ice cream/popsicle treat. I got a cake-flavored popsicle and it was delicious.

We went home and relaxed and I finally had some time to write this. It's been super fun here! I've been here 3 weeks now, but it feels like it's been forever.

May 26

May 25

May 24

May 23

May 22

May 21

May 20

may 19

May 18, 2024

Today was a nice chill day. I woke up and had breakfast, blueberry pancakes. I did some work, trimming trees and power washing. We had leftovers for lunch. We went to town and had dinner at a restaurant. I love this place. We went to Mass and that was interesting.

May 17, 2024

Breakfast-muffin

Cleared out gutters

Went to town

Finished clearning gutters

Dinner tacos

Night on the town

May 16, 2024

There was this guy who slept in the bunk under me. When I first went in the room, he greeted me and said something friendly. He looks like he’s in his mid-60s. I have no idea what he said because he didn’t have any of his lower teeth but the friendliness was much appreciated.

This morning around 3:00 AM I heard him going through a plastic sack. It sounded like a Walmart-type bag. Then I heard his moving a harder plastic bag, like a chip bag. It turns out that’s exactly what it was and I found this out when he started gorging on chips with his mouth open. What a way to wake up.

When I was actually time to wake up, I got up, showered and prepared for Nancy to pick me up.

Nancy is my next host. She lives in Aibonito and she was kind enough to drive all the way to San Juan to give me a ride. We stopped by Costco and bought some needed groceries. After that, we made our way to Hacienda 360. That’s the name of Nancy’s property. They named it that because when you’re here, you can see 360 degrees. I didn’t get any pictures today, but I’ll try tomorrow.

It was a lot of new information soy brains a bit tired. Pretty much I learned about my expectations and how things run around here. More pics to come!

May 15, 2024

I woke up at 6:30 this morning so I could get everything together and ready to transfer Workaways. The plan is that Stephanie will take me to Arecibo and I'll take a bus from there to Viejo San Juan (Old San Juan).

It was a nice start to the day. We had a delicious breakfast of scrambled eggs and pineapple chunks in yogurt. Stephanie had to go to school for a bit so I got another wheelbarrow of mulch from the jungle and spread it on a garden bed.

I got my stuff together and tried to clean up any mess I'd made throughout my stay. Stephanie took me to the bus stop and we said goodbye as I got on the bus. It was a nice uneventful drive to get to Viejo San Juan.

I got to Viejo San Juan and I was hungry so I started looking for a place to eat. I found one that said it served authentic PR food. I talked to the person who gets you a table. "How long of a wait for a table for one" "About half an hour unless you're okay sitting at the bar. Do you want to sit at the bar?" "Yeah, sure." Someone took me over to the bar. I looked at the drinks and asked for coconut water. "Sorry, we're out." "What do you recommend that's non-alcoholic?" "Hmm, How does a Piña Colada sound?" "Yeah sure I'll have that." The bartender made it and then said "Okay I'm going to have to see your ID to make sure you're over 21" "Oh there's no need to check it, I'm 20." The guy stares for a second then goes, "Sorry man, I can't serve you at the bar. You can finish your Piña Colada but then you'll have to go." I said "Okay" and finished worked on finishing my drink so I could leave. When I was almost finished with my drink the bartender came back. "I just talked to the manager and you're okay to eat here," I ordered something, I don't remember what it's called, but it was good.

Now I'm sitting in the hostel public area typing this up. I'll try to upload some photos when I get better WiFi. Sorry the last few days haven't had good entries, it's much more enjoyable to lay in the hammock than type up what I did in my day. 

May 14, 2024

Today I added compost to two garden beds. Yay, more composting. Stephanie was in town again today for school so I was by myself from 8-5. I started the day by going to the jungle and gathering 3 5-gal buckets of rich mud/soil. I dumped all those in the wheelbarrow. I went back into the jungle and grabbed 3 buckets of decaying leaves/sticks. I mixed all those in with everything in the wheelbarrow.

Around noon I rested in the hammock a bit and accidentally fell asleep. So peaceful! I woke up around 2:00 and I got up and finished the job.

The evening was uneventful but peaceful. Tomorrow night I'll be sleeping in a hostel so I'm extra grateful for the beautiful sounds of nature.

May 13, 2024

Today I got to go to the beach! We took a trip to town to get some supplies and we spent about 40 minutes at the beach. I usually hate the water but it was so nice! The water was a great temperature and there was a slight breeze with the 90-degree weather.

May 12, 2024

Today we harvested some bananas! The banana tree is not made of wood so it's really easy to cut down.

May 11, 2024

Today we finished putting some of the garden beds to rest.

May 10, 2024

Today we put beds to rest. We cover garden beds with compost, dead banana leaves then live banana leaves to prevent weeds from growing.

May 9, 2024

Today Stephanie had school again so I was alone most of the day. I woke up and had some leftover oatmeal from the previous day. I know that doesn't sound too appealing but Stephanie made it good so it wasn't too bad reheated. I got to work on weeding pineapples. My upper arms are covered in scratches where the pineapples decided to fight back. After I finished weeding that clump of pineapples, I harvested the citronella. It smells so good and I wish I could smell it all the time. It's very similar to the citronella candles you can buy anywhere you get bug repellant but less chemical-y.

Then I took a nap. Here time feels a bit different. I'm not really on any timelines and I can get tasks done at my own pace. So if I'm sleepy, then I can sleep. It's very nice.

It started to rain after my nap and I didn't have to do any more work because I did the minimum of what Stephanie wanted. But I decided to weed another pineapple patch.

I can't describe how amazing this place is. The lines are much more blurred between nature's domain and human's domain.

May 8, 2024

It's been great living without the Internet. Because we use the generator to get internet, it makes us intentional with what when and how we spend time online.

Stephanie's tasks she had planned today were canceled because the town is trying to recover from the storm so she was able to be here all day.

Some banana trees fell on the road so we went over to take care of it. It was cool to use a machete in a useful way. Cutting through the tree was so satisfying. And I didn't know this, but banana trees have a trunk made of fiber, not wood. So it was like cutting down massive weeds.

After that, we checked out the water system. We hiked up the creek to see what damage there was and it turned out there was so much water, it messed up some important parts. We spent some time taking apart each section of the system, investigating it, and putting it back together.

For dinner, we cooked something amazing! It is two layers of mashed Plantains then a meat and vegetable mixture. There's a picture below.

May 7, 2024

Today I was tasked with weeding the pineapples. Pineapples have serrated leaves and it's very difficult to get the weeds out but it needs to be done because if it isn't, the vines will strangle the pineapples. I also needed to get the ferns out of there because they block the sunlight from getting to the pineapple. Stephanie couldn't be there from 7:30 to 5:00 because she works at a school on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She helps teach kids theatre.

I worked from around 7:30 AM to 11:00. That's when I took a break because I was quite hot. Stephanie let me borrow a rubber jacket so I could weed without the pineapples tearing my arms apart but that thick layer plus the sun was a lot of work in.

At around noon it started to rain which was a bummer. I wanted to get a lot more work done but it's much harder to work in the rain. The weather got worse and worse until we eventually lost power at 4:00. Losing power means we lost internet. We have Starlink here so we get our internet from satellites but if there isn't power, we have no way to reach them.

Stephanie got home and she broke out the generator so I hurried and sent a message to family letting them know I was alright.

Before Stephanie left, she said "Oh I almost forgot. I have a neighbor named Tito(said "Tee-Toe"). He might drive here on his four-wheeler to check in on me. He speaks enough English to get by and he's very friendly so don't freak out if a stranger comes here." Sure enough later that day while Stephanie was gone, Tito comes riding up. I don't know any Spanish so I said Stephanie is gone and Tito showed he understood by giving me the thumbs up. He came back later when Stephanie got home to make sure we were all right and he said he saw a wild pig nearby.

May 6, 2024

Today has been a very long day. It started with nodding in and out of sleep on the flight to ORD. I then relaxed for a few hours waiting for my 8:00 flight to PR. I previously had a layover in Miami, but with the ice incident, I got a new flight from Chicago to Puerto Rico. I got here and my host Stephanie was waiting for me. We went to Costco to get some items she couldn't get in Utuando. 

Fun Cultural difference. We had to get gas and you have to buy gas inside the gas station. We went in and the cashier was on his phone texting a friend. Stephanie waited until he was done to ask for gas. Later I asked her about it and she said it's quite common, that people here run on island time.

I didn't get a lot of pictures but this place is amazing! Everything is so alive. 

Anyway, I'm very tired so I'm headed to bed at 8:30 pm, which is 6:30 pm.

May 1, 2024

The plan so far is this:

May 6th-May 18th

Hang around San Juan. Jump from hostel to hostel

May 18th-June 1st

Work on a newly purchased mountain top. The property is called Hacienda 360, you can look it up online. It’s currently an Airbnb or VRBO. The Property is in Aibonito.

June 1st-July 4th

I’ll work on a farm with Lisa in Yabucoa. She seems like she’s been doing work away for a while so I hope she’ll give me some good pointers

July 4th-August 8th

I might go back to Hacienda 360 or maybe more hostel jumping. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll do this time, but I’ll figure it out as it gets closer.