John Hathaway - Filed under 'Vieques'

October 11, 2009

New on the Malecon

Duffy's added a new deck in the front. Gives some nice shade for the bar and makes it look more inviting.

And we apparently now have drive-by lobster sales along the malecon too. Never seen that before, but probably a smart idea for the fisherman.

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September 1, 2009

pool update week 7.5

The deck's looking great. It got sealed with a new super-high-tech finish: diesel fuel with a little motor oil in it.

Most of the work this week has been on the steps and bench, which are AWESOME!! It really changes the feel of the pool and is going to make for a great place to relax with a rum punch to enjoy the view. Note the Medalla can in with the fill. I'm sure there's not a wall in Vieques without at least one in there somewhere.

The other activity has been the footing and columns for the wooden deck and getting the top edge of the pool prepped for tile. The tile will go in next. Then the finish coat on the pool and water! I'm travelling through Sunday, and there's a chance that it MIGHT be done by then. We'll see!

Filed under // pool Vieques

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August 29, 2009

gorgeous evening sky

The sky put on a great show last evening for us to enjoy during cocktail hour, starting with a rainbow, moving on to some firey clouds, and ending with a lavendar sky and bright half moon.

Filed under // sky Vieques

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August 28, 2009

social media & sugar mill ruins

Wow, my previous post on the Playa Grande sugar mill ruins is currently the top retult on Google for "Vieques sugar mill". Between this blog and Twitter I'm becoming a little bit of a part time tour guide. This week Chris from Chicago got in touch with me through the sugar mill post and Suzanne from Philadelphia through Twitter, both to get advice on Vieques. We ended up having a fun time with Chris and his boyfriend and Suzanne and her sister for sunset coctails at Al's Mar Azul the other night. Nice to actually get to meet people in person that I've been interacting with virtually.

Yesterday I took Chris and Parker out to the sugar mill. The mill only closed about 70 years ago, so it's amazing to see how much the jungle has reclaimed it already. It's always humbling and a little creepy to walk out there among the ghosts of Vieques past. I was a bit remiss in my guide duties by not thinking to bring/recommend bug spray. The mosquitos were crazy out there, as you can tell from Parker's reaction in the photo where the mosquitos are trying to fly away with his arm.

Filed under // Sugar Mill Vieques

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August 7, 2009

pool update week 4

Wow, things have really moved along since last week!

The first pics are from Thursday when everything was ready to pour the cement and the last are from Friday afternoon after the pour. We decided to add 4 glass blocks to the pump house roof to let in more light which should brighten it up in there. (This is also our laundry room, so we're not just trying to cheer up the pool equipment.)

The old cement and new cement along the formerly curved wall make an interesting Yin/Yang effect, but that's only temporary. This pour brought the new deck area up the the level of the old. There will be a new finish layer poured over the whole thing. (Hopefully next week!)

Filed under // pool Vieques

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August 1, 2009

lobster time!

Chris was inspired to stop by the pescaderia today to see what they had. It's kinda hit or miss sometimes, but today they had a pretty decent selection of fish and LOTS of lobsters. We got 2 small ones (1.5 lbs each) for dinner. Yea!! We'll steam them and then lightly grill with rum butter sauce. (See my previous post for details & yummy pics of that whole process.)

We needed butter to go with the lobster and stopped in at the Morales grocery in Isabel II, but in true Morales style they had more than 30 different varieties of margerine, but NO butter. We were at least able to get some at a colmado on the way home.

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July 31, 2009

pool update week 3

Well, we're now 3 weeks into the pool project and have continued to make good progress since last week.

The cement roof of the pump house had been poorly constructed and has been leaking profusely, so it had to come off to be replaced. And the surfaces of the existing deck and the pool both had to be chipped off. So this week has been all about attacking cement with little pneumatic hammers (think mini jack hammer) and the noise has been driving us (and I'm sure our poor neighbors) insane. In fact, Chris is currently at the little cafe at the airport to get away from the noise for a conference call. Thankfully I think there's probably only a half day of that left before moving on to relatively silent rebar work.

All the rubble has been used to fill in where the new deck will go, so not only will we not have to haul anything away, but we're going to need hardly any additional fill.

Filed under // pool Vieques

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July 28, 2009

starting on the pool

We knew when we bought the house that we were going to have to resurface the pool. And only 21 months later we're actually getting around for it.

Since things were going to be torn up, we decided to enlarge the deck too. There was only deck on 3 sides of the pool and none of it was very wide. So we're expanding the cement deck on 2 sides and adding a wooden deck angled off the far corner toward the great view of the bioluminescent bay and the Caribbean.

They started 2 weeks ago on the day I left for a week and a half business trip to San Francisco and this is the state when I got back. I'm pretty pleased with the progress!

Filed under // pool Vieques

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July 26, 2009

our new canine friend

There are lots of dogs on Vieques that, while not exactly wild, don't have any real home or owner. The Vieques Humane Society http://www.viequeshs.org/ makes a valliant effort to find them homes (to the point of flying them to people in the US!) and get them spayed or neutered, but they're always over capacity and having to turn dogs and cats away. (You can donate on the website!) Many Viequenses don't really see a need to get their pets fixed or any problem with them roaming the neighborhood as they want, so the problem is a difficult one to tackle.

We have a family (3 generations, 5 or 6 dogs) that lives in our neighborhood that has had at least three litters since we've been here. They usually hang out at a semi-abandoned house and one of our neighbors feeds them here and there, but definitely not enough. Of the recent litter of four pups one has already died and it looks like they've driven out the next weakest. He was huddled in front of our gate last evening.

We've been chasing them back down the hill when we see them hanging out in front of our house as a group, but on his own he was too pitiful to turn away. He's obviously been in some fights with his siblings, has a patch of fur missing on his side, and was very hungry. So we've taken him in for the moment. Charlotte (our Jack Russell Terrier) has been surprisingly OK with him. We're a bit torn on wherer or not we're willing to keep him. We'll take him to the vet on Monday and see where things go from there.

Filed under // Oliver Vieques

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April 10, 2009

Black Sand, Black Sky

It comes as a surprise even to many locals that Vieques has a black sand beach. Volcanic material washes down from Monte Pirata and forms a thin layer of black on the beach.

I took these pics almost a year ago and completely forgot about them. While I was there, the sky decided to put on a little show with some threatening clouds to raise the level of visual drama a bit.

Filed under // Vieques

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