Caribbean Christmas 2011

Where did the Christmas tree go??

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and hopefully some nice, relaxing days off!

If only it was THIS easy to get Alpie to eat her veggies...

The tough life of a doggy...

Goat Hill Hike

After a long week of work, sitting my bum for longer than what I'm used to (yes hard to imagine since I spend anyways ALOT of time in front of the computer), I told Geoff that I needed to get out and about. Alpie was 

excited about this idea.

We decided to check out Goat Hill, which is all the way on the East End of St. Croix, almost at Point Udall. It used to be a road, and has now become completely overgrown. I recommend doing this hike on an overcast day or at 6am in the morning, NOT at 2pm in the afternoon in the burning hot sun. Sure, it made for nice photos but all three of us were sweated through entirely by the time we were 10mins into it. 

The views though? WELL worth the grueling hike!

Views of Buck Island on the way up

Haha look how BIG Alpie looks here :-)

Looking out over the northern half of St. Croix

Beautiful Buck Island

Everyone deserves a break, dont they?!

"I'm the Queen of the World!"

Watching the new crops grow :-)

A couple of days ago, our landlords planted some new crops in the garden - soon we'll have more eggplant, tomato and bok choy that we'll know what to do with!
A lazy Sunday, with both Geoff and I studying, I let Alpie out to roam a little... when I found her she was in pure bliss, watching the new vegetables grow :-)

Wagging her ears....?

Alpie began wagging her ears tonight... maybe she's forgotten where her tail is?

Chill-axing...

Not only will we miss our little Alpie dog whilst we're gone, I think she's going to be missing the view :-)

I love watching her lie on our hill, completely and utterly happy with not a care in the world and enjoying the simple pleasures of life.

New swim suit

My boss used to have a german shepherd that passed away a few years ago that used to wear this in the water. Not sure how much Alpie loved having it on but I'm looking forward to see if she'll last longer in the ocean now!

Martin Luther King Day = Beach Day!!

I was lucky enough to get a day off today as I worked yesterday instead so we took the opportunity of having a day off together to go to the beach with Alpie!

The weather was perfect - hot and sunny and we tested out the hike to Jack's beach from the other side than last time (from Grapetree Bay) and once again we were lucky enough to have the beach allllllll to ourselves!

Doggy Play Date!

This was a couple of weekends ago, but I havent really had the time to post them.

My friend (and co-worker) has 2 doggies - and live right on the beach. They also have air conditioning, a BBQ and the same day off as us - no reason not to get together and let the dogs get themselves properly tired and for us to enjoy ourselves too!

Zorra and Alpie

The last 7 days we've been "dog sitting".. a little playmate from the dogpark called Zorra came to stay with us whilst her owners went on their honeymoon.

I just had to post these pics since they are so cute! The first is of my two sleepy-heads and Zorra having an afternoon nap..

Campo Rico

A few more pics from our beautiful ranch at Campo Rico...and me after a few ATV trips!

Our little one...all grown up!

A few family and friends have asked to see some recent photos of Alpen.. so here you go - yes, its the same dog believe it or not!

Camping, beach and mangoes...

Sick of concrete jungle, we decided to pack up the car and head down south for a couple night of camping. The truck needed to be tested for sleeping and showering, and since gas is dirt cheap here (.67 c/liter on average) - we thought, why not?

Our first stop was Arroyo, at a beautiful campground called Centro Vacational Punta Guilarte. We arrived after 6pm, so we were asked to pay our fees the next day as the office was already closed. We were the only ones there - and the security guard put on the lights just for us. Unfortunately he didnt have keys to the bathrooms, so we did our toilet trips "camping-style" and travelled to the far end of the campground where the cabano's (cabins) were to shower.

The sunset was beautiful as we toasted our hotdogs on sticks and took Alpen for a walk along our beachfront campspot.

When we settled down for the night, we got ourselves comfortable in the back of the truck, which Geoff worked on so hard to get ready for sleeping... well, that lasted no more than 5 minutes because it was SO HOT and stuffy in the canopy that the windows were already getting condensation on them before we had a chance to fix the sheets! Luckily we brought the tent along with us...

Our little puppy slept and behaved so well that first night - although a little curious of all the noises in the dark, she settled down really quickly and woke us up when she needed to go potty.

The three of us slept so well, and we were woken by birds chirping and the sun the following morning. A dip in the ocean first thing before packing up and heading off on the brand new 'Ruta Agricola' (Agricultural Route) launched by Tourism Puerto Rico. This ended up being a HUGE disappointment. I guess that things down here in Puerto Rico happen very differently from other parts in the world... lets launch a new tourism product and THEN work on it... advertised was six farms, all offering tours of the orchards, open-to-public fruit selling and information, but we only saw a sign for one farm, and were interrogated by the security guard at the front, who only let us in after telling him that we were buyers.

I must say though, once we were inside this farm, we were greeted by a very nice man who went by the name Roy, who was apologetic that nothing was set up for the public and said that we were the first people to stop by. He ushered us into his own truck, and took us on a little tour of the orchard (3000 ha!) and explained to us everything they grow there- mangoes, bananas, avocado and palm trees for landscaping. I think he felt sorry for us, because he let us out and pick some mangoes to take with us. Fresh off the tree - yum!

After the end of the Agricultural route, we ended up in Ponce, which we were told was now a very safe city after having such a dark past with crime. We didnt get a good vibe from the place at all, with locals following us giving us the "thumbs down". Because of this, we didnt end up sticking around for Carnaval, and instead headed out past Playa Santa to where we read was another beautiful camping spot. It was actually just a tiny, dirty beach right near a town, and we decided to keep searching... until we came across Department of Natural Resources's land...and found the most beautiful beach - serene, quiet - and we were the only ones there - in the middle of nowhere!

We watched the sunset and ate our sandwiches, followed by a shower that Geoff installed in his truck. It worked very very well - and we didnt need the 'heat' function as the water heated up itself just from being in the tank in the warm weather!

As we settled down in our tent for the night, the stray dogs started to come out - we werent going to stay here! By this time it was 9pm and we were exhausted from lots of sun, swimming and driving, so we bit the bullet and stayed the night in a hotel in Yauco, called El Cacique - it was cheap and nasty and we do NOT recommend it. It was right next door to a "6-hour Motel" and even though we stayed in the hotel area, it was loud, crowded and the rooms were awful. We had to sneak Alpen in - but of course we had very nosy neighbours so it proved to be a little more difficult.

The next morning we decided to go back to our magical beach in La Jungla (Department of Natural Resources) and go for a swim before heading back home. It was a Saturday (beach day for locals), but we were the first ones there and had the beach to ourselves for a good half hour before more people started rolling in.

All in all, a great camping trip and all three of us had fun! Ponce was disappointing, but the rest of the south was quiet, unspoilt by tourism and beautiful beaches. It was extremely dry, and hotter than the north. Now that we know how well behaved Alpen is whilst camping - and how much she enjoys it, we'll do many more camping trips! In fact, we're already planning our next one...

(I've had to break up the pictures on several posts because Blogger only allows 5 at a time - and I have so many beautiful pics from our camping trip!)

Kayaking

Close to home, cheap and fun - we decided to go kayaking today! It was gorgeous weather and not a cloud in sight. We packed our towels, a packet of Nerds and Alpen - and headed for Conrad Hotel in Condado (just a 3 minute drive from home).

The Condado Lagoon (Laguna del Condado) is a perfect place to spend a sunny afternoon, there are kayak and paddle boat rentals and they're not too expensive either (tip: mention you're a local and they might just give you half price off :-)

Alpen fell off once - but she's now learnt how to swim! The poor thing got the fright of her life because she's never been in water that deep before, but we think she's got the hang of it now and will take her to the beach more often to show her that the beach is a part of our every day life.

The lagoon itself is beautiful - fed by the Atlantic Ocean and it doesnt have any waves, which makes it perfect for the man-powered water sports. On one side lies Miramar (our home!) and the other side follows onto Old San Juan.