Our Weekend

On Saturday we hit up the Ramey Air Force Base Museum.  It's a one room museum near the airport filled with pictures and artifacts.  We learned a lot about what happened on the base, where it got it's name, and saw some old photographs of areas we've visited.

Practice runs from PR to prepare for the dropping of the atomic bomb

The Marriott where we have stayed on our visits here, was the Base's Hospital.

THEN

NOW

Crashboat Beach was named after these boats.

THEN

THEN

NOW

THEN

NOW

For lunch, we headed to Palma's Cafe.  Jake raves about this place, and KC had never eaten there before.  Jake had wahoo and mashed potatoes, and KC had chicken and rice and beans. 

Jake swears he never sees these signs anywhere, but admitted he saw this one in the bathroom.  So, KC had to snap a picture to document.  These signs are in many bathrooms in Puerto Rico.  It makes us thankful for the great plumbing systems we grew up with. :)

We also stopped at the Indian Head on Highway 2 when you first hit Isabela.  We have driven by it many times, and never stopped to take a picture.  Mission accomplished!

Raining Iguanas & Dogs... Finally

It hadn't rained here in about a month and a half, and everything was really dry.  One of our paths started to look like a Minnesota fall from all the dead leaves.

On our drive home from work on Friday, it started to rain.  We saw this huge iguana outside of our complex.

Then, we captured this.  In Puerto Rico, it doesn't rain "cats and dogs", it rains "iguanas and dogs".

Honeywell Happenings

Candy Day
This week KC's group had a "throw back" candy day.  People brought in candy they liked when they were kids.  There was an assortment of the typical candy you think of: mary janes, smarties, sugar daddies, etc.  But, there was also some candy we had never seen before (even though some were made in the states!).

KC went "trick or treating" around her team member's cubes, and brought home some samples to try that night.  Two of the pieces (middle piece, and the bottom) were typical Puerto Rican candies.  The middle piece was a guava paste candy.  It had an interesting consistency- a little mushy, kind of like jello.  We didn't finish that piece.  The bottom piece had a coconut flavor and reminded us of a hard taffy.  Jake liked that piece of candy.

It was fun to experience some new treats, and enjoy our childhood favorites!

Blushing KC 
During one of KC's group meetings everyone started talking in Spanish.  It went on for a few minutes, and then her boss remembered she doesn't speak Spanish.  She apologized, and switched back to English.  KC said, " No problem, I just zoned out for a little bit."  They all laughed and she blushed with embarrassment (which is a pretty common thing when you're as white as KC).

That afternoon, one of her co-workers said something funny, and her face turned red again.  He pointed it out, and said, "Your face is getting red again.  You should see it.  Just like in the meeting this morning."  She said, "Yep, that's a common occurance for me, and you'll see it a lot.

Now, it has become their running joke.  He says he can't turn red, because he'd turn purple! ;)

Take Your Kids to Work Day
Today was Take Your Kids to Work Day- and in Puerto Rico they really celebrate that day!  We must have received 20 emails about this event.  The kids showed up in the morning with their parents, but the event started at 8:00, so it wasn't too disruptive in the morning.

Around 10:30 KC went into the bathroom, and there were two adults and ten girls in the bathroom.  While she was waiting for the first group to clear out, another group came in.  After washing her hands KC saw a little girl standing by the counter holding her hand out for the soap (which she couldn't reach).  KC asked if she wanted her to lift her up to get soap, and the little girl didn't say anything.  She asked again, got no response, and just lifted her up so she could reach the soap.

During the lunch hour it became really noisy with kids everywhere.  (There were 200 kids there.)  While walking, she ran into two boys pulling on a pop-up safety cone mounted on the wall.  She told them, "No.  No, no, no, no."  No is a universal word- right? ;)  They continued touching it, and she had to say it again.  This day really brought her back to her teaching days!!

Our Weekend: Rio Camuy Cave Park Edition

Our weekend started out with a quick stop at Applebee's.  We didn't eat at Applebee's often in the states, but now we get a kick out of eating at a place that feels familiar...  (even if the menu was mostly in Spanish, and they had to find a server who speaks English for us)

Jake's pasta wasn't that good, but KC's quesadilla burger was awesome! :)

While sitting in the parking lot of Applebee's, we noticed this discount mattress place across the street.  Very effective advertising, since we both knew what they were selling right away- even with our limited Spanish skills!

On Saturday we headed to the Rio Camuy Cave Park.  On the way, we encountered a car fire.  We were thankful it was on the other side of the road, as traffic was REALLY backed up on the other side.

For lunch, we tried El Meson (a sandwich shop) for the first time.  It was okay.  Jake's salami sandwich was better than KC's chicken salad.  They had a Minnesota Feast on the menu, but we didn't try it.  Don't ask us why they named it that, none of the ingredients reminded us of Minnesota...

Then, we arrived at the Rio Camuy Cave Park.  After purchasing our tickets (and waiting a bit) we were escorted out to these trams.  Everyone hopped on, and we were driven down a very, very long hill to the bottom where the caves are.  

The road on the way down

Clara Cave was the first cave we walked into, it was huge!  It seemed much larger than the Window Cave.  After about a fifteen minute walk through the cave, it opened into another area where you could see the Camuy River running below and there is a huge overhang above. They also have the "fountain of youth"- but we didn't drink from it! 

We then went through the other side of the cave.  On the way back you could smell the bats (and their droppings) . There is a colony of half a million bats that live in the cave.  Luckily, they sleep during the day, so we only ran into one dead bat on the side of the cave wall.  We also saw a few large spiders while walking through.

During our tour, we were chatting with another visitor and he asked us where we were from.  We said Isabela, and he said, "No, dude, where are you FROM?"  Then, we laughed and said Minnesota.  Not sure we'll ever be tan enough to say we're from Isabela! ;)  

Fountain of youth

On the way home we were planning to stop at an ice cream shop filled with unique flavors (rice and beans, carrots, garlic) coworkers told us about in Lares.  But, after waiting about 10 minutes for traffic to budge an inch, we decided to turn around and skip it.  Instead, we stopped at Baskin Robbins- where they have normal flavors, and we knew we'd enjoy it! :)  

On the way home we decided to drive down the scenic road at the bottom of the Isabela hill, and saw a lot of people milling around the fish market, and enjoying the beach area.  There's a protected bay where you can sit in the shallow water, and the water is pretty warm.

Bay where people were sitting

Then, we walked further down past the sand dunes, and onto the rock structures.  It's always amazing to stand close to the water and feel the salt and spray!  The ocean is so powerful.

Looking the other way

KC's favorite view!