Ponce Chronicles

Bucket brigade!

The level of swamp water in the swimming pool has been dropping slowly but steadily as the sump pump grinds on. Eventually the pump becomes too gunked up with congealed algae and leaves in the shallow water, and we must empty the rest of the pool by hand. Time for a bucket brigade!

The bucket brigade starts with me down in the bottom of the pool, trying not to slip on the sloped surface, scooping up buckets full of rank liquid. Allysen and Jayce are positioned topside, taking the pails from me. There’s no really handy place to dump the slop, so they decide to hurl the water through a wrought iron fence into the empty lot beyond. Memo for the future: It’s really important how you aim the bucketful of water. If you don’t, it has a tendency to come right back at you.

The iguana is back in the pool!

We have had a variety of wildlife visitations to the pool, starting with the tarantula, and followed by a South American cane toad (with toxic skin). They may all be looking for water, but the pool is now empty. Today (January 21), we sight our first iguana, lounging at the pool’s edge. (Jayce just missed it, as she took the 3 a.m. flight home, and in fact has just texted to report wheels down in Boston.) Ugly sucker, very prehistoric in appearance.

Everyone stops work to gawk at the critter, which soon goes into the empty pool, keeping Estevan company as he power washes the sides of the pool.

Eventually he drives the iguana out, and it disappears over the hill. An hour later, it reappears. I chase it away with a broom, and again it disappears over the hill.

Half an hour later it’s back. In the pool. Or no, this is a different one—larger and greener in color, perhaps four feet long from nose to tip of tail, and a foot and a half long in main body. What it hopes to gain in a dry pool, I do not know. It seems to be thinking the same thing.

What we’re going to do about it, I do not know. Leaving it to poop in the newly cleaned pool is not an option. Apparently this is a common problem in the area, for anyone who maintains a pool. In fact, iguanas have undergone a population explosion on the island (to which they are an invasive species, imported as pets and released), and now pose a serious threat to fruit crops and other commerce. The government actively encourages the practice of killing them and selling the meat. This one eventually comes to its end at the hands of Michael the tree man, who grabs it, balls it up, and dispatches it out of our sight.

Here’s a National Geo clip on the iguana plague:

(Coming next in Part 12, a visit to the tax man!)

Mineral hot springs!

In our one vacationlike excursion, we take the first full Sunday afternoon to drive to Coamo, where live the famous Coamo Thermal Springs. Apparently known to the Taino Indians and later to the Spanish settlers, the natural springs are indeed hot, emanating as they do from a dormant volcano under the land—and full of minerals, including, as becomes apparent, sulfur. There’s a nice little park there, where you pay a couple of bucks and get to soak in either of two pools, one hot, and the other hotter. It’s small, and in appearance a little like something you might see behind a “Magic Spot” rural motel. But indeed it’s relaxing, and the visitors are all pleasant and chatty. The girl who sells us the tickets tells us she grew up in Worcester, not far from Boston. Nearly everyone we talk to seems to have connections in the states, if not Boston itself. It’s a recurring theme.

Our favorite moment at the springs comes from the instructional sign posted above the hot, sulfurous, relaxing water:

No running
No diving
No alcohol
No discussing religion or politics…

Yah, these Puerto Ricans know a thing or two about relaxing!

(Coming next in Part 11, iguanas invade the pool!)

Timber-r-r-r! Video at 11!  

Michael and his brother Manuel have come on board to take down some trees that are endangering the buildings. When I say “buildings,” it probably sounds like we’re on an estate. But no, this is an idiosyncratic house. When Allysen’s parents built it, they could not bear to cut down several big cork trees on the hill, so instead they broke the house into two parts, living area and kitchen/dining area, with the cork trees in the middle, surrounded by wooden deck. Both structures are made of poured concrete and concrete block. It’s the concrete roofs that have tree trunks bearing down on them, one a mahogany and one a cork tree.

These two guys are Paul Bunyan types, fearless and strong as a blue ox. Michael climbs into the trees while Manuel handles the lines. Michael goes up, lines are thrown and cinched, and the next thing I see, Manuel has tied a running chain saw to another rope and Michael is pulling it up. Braaap-p-p-p! Crack! He doesn’t cut all the way through, but leaves enough wood to keep the trunk or branch intact. Then powerful but judicious hauling on the lines breaks the branch or trunk segment away and it swings free to be lowered by Manuel. Repeat. Many times.

The strength of these guys shows even more when they start cutting up the pieces, hefting them onto their shoulders, and carrying them along the up and down and around brick pathways, to hurl them onto a pile in the empty plot we refer to as “the back forty.”

The mahogany tree especially tugs at us—such beautiful wood. We ask Michael to slice us some cross-sections of trunk to take home.

(Coming next in Part 10, a visit to the mineral hot springs)

Lemon! Or lime?  

Since arriving in Puerto Rico, we have not been eating solely at Subway; it just seems that way. Subway, after all, makes healthy sandwiches, quickly, for a good price. And there’s a Subway close to Home Depot, and another close to Sears. What more can you ask for? Well, variety for one thing, and local color for another. For dinner, we have tried to branch out a little. The results are decidedly mixed.

A place called Sabor y Rumba (Roomba? I like it!) has great ceviche (lime juice on a tasty fish), and I get my first taste of a local (to Boston!) craft beer: Sam Adams Rebel IPA. In Ponce? Yes, in Ponce. And you can buy it at Walmart. A highly recommended tapas place offers the most indifferent waiter service we have encountered in a long time, plus food of variable quality.

Here we again put to the test something we first explored at a chain restaurant called Sizzlers*. Can you ask for a slice of lemon in a Puerto Rican restaurant and get lemon, and not lime? At Sizzlers, I knew they had lemon in the kitchen, because someone’s drink had a slice on it. I wanted some for my shrimp. I asked in my own, poor Spanish, “Por favor, limón?” Allysen backed me up by explaining in Spanish that I wanted lemon, limón, not lime, lima. The yellow one. I was rewarded with a cheerful delivery of lime. At the tapas place, we tried even harder, with Allysen explaining at greater length: Amarillo, yellow. The big one. Not the green one. This time the waiter arrived with a small cocktail napkin which he placed with almost obsequious care on the table. On the napkin: one tiny wedge of lime, just ripe enough to be yellow.

I have not yet asked for lemon in a restaurant and gotten it.

I have, however, learned that the best tostones (fried, smashed plantain) on the island appear to be found at Denny’s. (Yes, that Denny’s.)

*Sizzlers, on the whole, was a mixed bag. The low point was the buffet, where I saw some tasty-looking roasted small potatoes and heaped a serving-spoonful onto my plate. Moments after chomping down onto a piece, I experienced a change of heart. Gulp. Swallow.  “What did I just eat?” I choke. Allysen picks up a piece and inspects it. “Looks like fat, to me.” A passing waiter confirms: I have just taken a healthy serving of golden brown chunks of roasted fat. Buen apetito!

(Coming up in Part 8, Bureau of Certificates Bureau.)

The labors of Jayce.

Jayce, known to her immediate family as Julia, has taken on the surprisingly herculean task of scrubbing the kitchen cabinets. This is a tropical clime, and it appears that the aforementioned tenant has not done any cleaning of any kind in the year she was here. The cabinets are frightening caves full of insect and pest droppings of all kinds. Jayce gloves up and moves in. And spends days, literally, and I literally mean literally, scrubbing out the kitchen cabinets.

One last shelf in a series presents a particular challenge: a large, exceedingly flat, fierce-looking spider, tucked protectively into a corner behind a shelf bracket. Poisonous? Carnivorous? Murderous? Our imaginations abound. We (and by “we” I mean “Allysen”) decide it must be a Huntsman spider, known to be somewhat shy and fond of eating cockroaches. Its value in the pecking order shoots up, in our estimation. Besides, it’s probably huddled against the appalling racket the tree guys are making, just outside the kitchen wall.

Jayce names the spider Edith, though Allysen says she’s pretty sure it’s a male. Okay, it’s gender fluid, then. Jayce talks to it quietly, privately. I don’t want to hurt you. I know this is your home. But I have to clean. Can we work it out?

Edith, who had wedged itself between the shelf and the shelf bracket, says nothing. But two days later, this spider is gone, and we have not seen it since. Probably went to find someplace less crazy to live.

Before I leave Jayce’s section, I’ll point out that she kept at the kitchen cleaning right up to about fifteen minutes before she left for the airport for her flight home (a few days before us). I failed to get an action photo, so here’s one of her relaxing between cleaning bouts. 

The labors of Allysen

Allysen has been mostly at arm’s length from the physical labor, but she’s arguably the busiest person on the hill. She’s the project manager on a project with a tight deadline. Since most of the workers speak little to no English, and I speak little to no Spanish, she’s the one who has to talk to everyone. She’s busier than a one-armed paper hanger—constantly on the phone, or running this way and that to confer with the crews. I practically need to make an appointment to talk to her, and even then barely ever get more than a half-minute conversation before a phone call interrupts us. I wonder how long she can keep this up without cracking.

A couple of observations

Several things are remarkable about this journey. One is the sheer number of things that can go wrong in a house—and all at the same time. Veronica didn’t help, with her wanton destruction of property. But at the same time, this house requires continuous upkeep against the elements—far more so, I think, than our house in Boston. And for the last few years, it has gotten less than the upkeep it needs. I see now how fast it can catch up with you; Nature is attempting to break this place back down to its constituent elements. Like Downton Abbey, it needs a full-time staff. One person could work full-time just moving around the property reseating and mortaring brick. The house is not large, but it’s built on a hill. It was built by Allysen’s parents around some lovely cork trees, and the trees are not being kind in return. Relentlessly, they are pushing at the brick, and leaning closer, ever closer, to the roofs of the two parts of the house.

One thing you learn quickly in the culture here is the power of who you know. Without our neighbor Frances we would have been dead in the water, trying to find the right people to do this work on short notice. Frances wears many hats on this island, and seems to know everyone who’s anyone. She also manages some properties—and has learned, through years of experience, who will show up on time and do the job right, and she has cultivated working relationships with them. When Frances asks someone to drop what they’re doing to come and help, they tend to do it. Also, when the city accidentally shuts off water to the hill, which they do with some regularity, Frances is the one who gets it turned back on with a phone call.

Then there’s the work ethic. While we have encountered the stereotypical “it’s not my job” worker, none of them are working for us here. I cannot believe how hard these people keep at it. The electricians and carpentry/masonry crews labor for seven or eight hours straight—with only brief lunch and water breaks. While I’m busy with myriad small repairs—or making extended runs to Home Depot, Ace, and Sears—these guys are doing backbreaking physical labor, and guzzling bottled water that we’d picked up as an afterthought. The tree guys will be the most amazing, but more about them in a later chapter.

Finally, a few thoughts on local courtesy. As anywhere, I suppose, it’s a mixed bag. I was a little shocked by how many times people stood in my way in doorways or supermarket aisles, oblivious to my polite “Perdón!” In this respect, the lack of common courtesy seemed worse to me than even the renowned New England brusqueness. And I hate to say it, but women were noticeably more likely than men to be rude in this way. Of course, I was pretty conspicuous as a Northerner, but still. On the other hand, I had many interactions with sales people and so on, and was surprised how pleasant most of these interactions were. Even when we had no common language—the percentage of those who spoke English was really pretty small—most people seemed eager to help, and we always seemed to end our conversations with a smile and a handshake. Explain? I can’t.

(Coming up in Part 7, Lemon or Lime?)

Friday Jan. 15: Paradise lost.  

This is the day when the sewer line to the septic tank backs up onto the tile floor of the downstairs rooms, which thankfully are unoccupied. Not good, not good at all. I beeline to Home Depot for a snake, and Heri—who has actually has just stopped by to talk about putting in some hours for us—steps in to do the actual work. He snakes a napkin out of the sewer line, and all seems well, and he handles the unpleasant cleanup with stoic efficiency.

Unfortunately, the next day, it happens all over again. Aughh! Call Frances! Our neighbor Frances is on it with a plumbing/septic tank company—not just any company, but the one that will come when Frances calls. Plumber on the way.

Shortly thereafter, the power goes out: Ricardo has gotten the city power company here to cut power to the property so that he can replace the main panel.

By about 10:30, uncomfortably aware that there may not be a working toilet for a couple of hours, I decide to run an errand to Home Depot, which besides many excellent products has working restrooms. Daughter Jayce comes with, and we do a bunch of shopping for supplies. (Q: Didn’t we do this yesterday? And the day before? A: Yes, we did.) Word comes on the phone that we should look for deck stain—exterior mahogany deck stain. Home Depot doesn’t have it. Decks are uncommon on the island, and almost nobody, we are told, carries the kind of stain we’re looking for. Exterior stain. Not interior. Exterior. This becomes a litany, and still people show us interior stain. (So how has the family been buying stain for the deck for the last forty years or so? Never mind. Don’t ask.) Thus begins a day-long hunt for stain in the greater Ponce area.

Guided by Steerie, the trusted voice of my phone’s GPS, we crisscross the city for the next several hours, looking for deck stain. Glidden? Nope. National Ferreteria (hardware)? Nope, but we get directions to Sherwin Williams.  Sherwin Williams? Closed.  Other Sherwin Williams? Nope, but we get helpful information that a store an hour and a half drive away might be able to help us.

Five hours after leaving for an errand/pit stop to Home Depot, we stagger back up the hill to the house, with sandwiches from Subway, but no deck stain. We find the plumbing back up and running, though. Yay! Turns out the tenant, “Veronica,” had flushed paper towels and sanitary napkins down the septic system, and the system rebelled. The electricians are still hard at work, installing the main box. Turns out the concrete pillar that holds the main panel drawing power from the street has been crumbling year by year under the vines that have grown around it. But the remaining concrete is so hard that Ricardo has melted the tips of three drill bits, drilling holes to mount the new panels. And by melted, I mean melted. He shows us one of the drill bits. Where before there was a cutting edge, now there is a blob.

Finally, after working a ten-hour day on our project (he thought it would take two), Ricardo restores power to the house. Applause! He’ll be back mañana to start tracing all the circuits on the property.

Estevan and Carlos, meanwhile, abruptly change their work plans to build a supporting envelope of concrete around the crumbling electric-supply pillar.

Now the electrical crew swarm the hillside, putting in new lighting on the hill itself and on the brick wall running down the side of the hill, past the swimming pool. It’s going to look great, we tell ourselves.

The pool continues to drain (seen from the kitchen roof).

While we’re up on top of the kitchen, let’s see a couple of other views, to give us hope that this is all worth it—the view down the hill, and across to the living area. Ah, that’s better!

(Coming in Part 6, seemingly small labors.)

(To read The Ponce Chronicles in order, start here.)

January (something) — work proceeds apace.

Time begins to take on a liquid quality, generally starting at 7 a.m., which is when workers around here like to get started. Not our best time of day! But making coffee and greeting people as they arrive is something we can almost handle. Not sure what day of the week it is, at any given moment; just aware that the two weeks are slipping by fast.

All of the contractors by now have walked over the property with us, and given estimates—usually with the comment, “That’s a lot of work.” Ricardo the electrician and his men are going to town—rewiring the whole blasted place, starting with the main breaker box up by the street, which is so corroded he is amazed there’s electricity in the place at all. Eventually they will get to some of the more scarily jury-rigged wiring, and replace it with new circuitry.

Estevan and his crew have already fixed the wooden steps down from the parking pad and replaced some old decking. Heri (sounds like Eddie) is working on the brick steps close to the house. Freddie is bringing the local flora under control. A sump pump pumps green water out of the swimming pool. I eye the electrical tape wrapped around the power cord that goes down into the murky depths, and swallow hard.

With the water restored, we try the washing machine, which Veronica moved out of the house in favor of her own, and left sitting in the elements for a year. It stinks of mildew. On spin cycle, it sounds like an airplane. Not promising. Add buy new washer to the steadily growing list. We are destined to spend about a third of our daily waking hours in Home Depot, the Plaza del Caribe Mall (Sears, Macy’s, J.C. Penney’s), and Walmart, with occasional stops at Denny’s, the various ATMs, and Subway. Not very local-sounding, but more of that later. The laundry situation is a little makeshift, in any event. There is only one 220 volt outlet, which means if we want hot water, we have to unplug the dryer, and vice versa. The washer itself is running off an extension cord from another room. The washer outlet, like many others, isn’t working.

Allysen and I have been sleeping on a borrowed air-bed. The sheets slide weirdly on it, and it makes a sound like an approaching thunderstorm when either of us rolls over. It’s disconcerting as hell. More than once I have peered toward the window, wondering how a storm front has moved in without my noticing, only to realize that Allysen has simply turned over in bed.

In spite of all this, we’re doing okay. No snow or ice, and that’s something. (Back in Boston, the unseasonably warm winter has given way to cold, cold, cold.) The cute little lagartijos (lizards) are ubiquitous and adorable. The tarantula probably would have been, if we’d gotten to know it. The mosquitoes are appalling, though; they’re very small, hard to see, and too quick to swat. We wonder how long it takes to detox from daily application of Backwoods Off. But we’re getting there. We are. We have now purchased a new washer from Sears—and new beds. Luxury!

(Coming in Part 5, things go wrong.)

Settling In—Without Running Water. 

The harshest immediate reality is that there’s no city water to the house. It was turned off after “Veronica” left, and the bureaucratic obstacles to getting it turned back on are formidable. We’ve arrived on a weekend, and Monday is (we learn to our unhappy surprise) a government holiday—something to do with the eighteenth day of Christmas, I think. And so on Tuesday at 7 a.m., we drive downtown and queue up outside the water department building to be 20^th or so in line for service. The paperwork requires a letter of authorization from Allysen’s mom back in Massachusetts, passports and IDs for both Allysen and her mom, a death certificate for her father, her father’s will, and a hasty phone call to get her mom’s Social Security number. I’m not making this up, and I’m probably forgetting a few items. Presto, done!

The following day, some men arrive to turn the water back on at the meter pictured above—but don’t, because of a missing rubber gasket. They don’t say that, of course. They say that water is off for the entire hill. Freddie, bless him, calls someone he knows in the agua (water) department, who comes to our rescue.  Finally, we have water. We don’t necessarily have a clear sewer line, but that we won’t discover for another day or so. Here’s one tiny section of the serpentine maze of water pipes that Freddie, fortunately, understands.

During all of this, we are utterly reliant on the amazing graces of our next-door neighbors Frances and Che, who take care of us like family. They feed us, give us the use of their showers, and line up carpenters, brick-repairers, electricians, fence-builders, and tree removal specialists for us. They are astounding neighbors, and blessed with an exceptional ability to make things happen in a culture where much depends on whom you know. Frances, as I think about it, could have stepped right out of the pages of Lois McMaster Bujold’s Miles Vorkosigan novels. Perhaps a blend of Miles’s mother Cordelia and his Aunt Alys (Ivan’s mother). Just add a Latin flair, and you have Frances.

Internet—T-Mobile to the rescue

Folks like us can hardly be expected to survive two weeks without internet and email, can we? Actually, that’s not just pampered person’s luxury; much of the research we need to do here, as well as maintaining some semblance of connection to the world back home, requires getting online. Trouble is, getting two weeks’ worth of internet to the house will cost about $200. Excessive.

The answer comes at the mall, where I stop into a T-Mobile store to ask about getting a replacement for Jayce’s failing phone. There I learn that there’s an app on all of our phones that allows us to use the data connection on the phone to essentially turn our phones into home routers (wifi hotspots). To my surprise, it not only works, but works pretty well. Sucks a lot of power, as does the GPS when we’re driving, but that’s what chargers are for. We’re connected!

(Coming in Part 3, time starts to blur.)