It snowed in Puerto Rico today!!!

We took the kids to Disney on Ice for the second year in a row. Last time we saw it in Ponce. This time we ventured to the Coliseo in San Juan.

Pina Colada vendor walking around. Probably non-alcoholic but do they sell these at the Stateside shows? lol

The 4 o’clock start time came and the skaters began the opening number. If you know anything about island time you know that virtually nothing starts on time. Even the movie theatres say a show starts at 4 but then it has half an hour of previews and starts at 4:30. Not Disney on Ice! I would estimate that at least 1/4 of the audience hadn’t arrived for the start of the show. They trickled in culminating in the people in front of us seating themselves at 4:30.

Arial and a guy coming in late

While my kids watch Disney cartoons on TV, I realized that they have ever seen a Disney movie. Oh wait – my daughter watched Moana once in the airplane. But other than that – none. (Star Wars a New Hope notwithstanding). They know a few characters from a “Five minute Princess Stories” book we have. They enjoyed the show nonetheless.

Trevor needs to teach this move on iCoachSkating.com haha

When Disney on Ice travels outside the States they change the sound track to the local language. PR loves Spanglish so the songs were in English but all the recorded dialogue was in Spanish. The actors tried to lip sync with the words but sometimes they just moved their lips a little and used lots of expression.

Most Puerto Ricans have never ice skated and are pretty impressed with simple skating moves. Trevor was the sole clapper for the double axels and triple toes that we saw. 🙂

Being as the skating world is small, Trevor actually knew one of the skaters. She played Elsa and her name is Anna (don’t get confused here!).

Trevor knew Anna playing Elsa

Security was extra tight so we couldn’t go backstage but she and her friend Rachel came to us.

I asked if the show had a contingency plan for if the power went out. (I was serious). She laughed and said no. They’d just stop skating. Fair enough. After this tour she is slated to do Disney shows in Europe. Yay! More lip syncing in foreign languages!

Toilet paper.

Papel sanitario.

TP.

It goes in the toilet when you’re done. Right?

Not always…read the signs!

(Ok two of those aren’t about toilet paper – one says don’t put your feet on the wall and the other says Imagine if doctors were good football players or movie actos, it wouldn’t be important how much you pay or wait to see them. It was in the doctors waiting room)

I asked my friend why this was such a common request in public bathrooms.

She said it was probably because people use way to much paper and it clogs the pipes. Maybe the pipes are old and maybe the fact that water pressure is not always consistent has an impact. Dunno.

What I do know is that I forgot. Every time. They seriously need to put those signs like two inches from the toilet paper roll or on the floor by my feet. Lifetime habits are hard to break!

My daughter on the other hand has embraced this completely and I have to gently remind her that a home we CAN and SHOULD put the TP in the toilet. Otherwise it smells so bad!

Hey readers! (All two of you haha)

I finally got my butt in gear and added an email notification to my side bar. You can submit your email address and the little people inside WordPress send you a note when I write a blog. And you won’t get spam because, well, you won’t. I can’t think of one good reason why I’d send out spam.

Here’s a totally unrelated photo for your viewing pleasure:

I saw these pigs four days apart on my drives to school. No one seems to know what species they are or why they are wandering around. 4 years driving this route and I’ve never seen one before. And then 2 in 4 days!

Puente de la Bellaca was something I randomly read about and decided we needed to hit next tome we drove ‘up north’ by Quebradillas. Today was the day!

Only making one u-turn then asking a guy in his front lawn where to go (those Spanish lessons pay off!) he told us to drive on the short questionable-looking road. There was a space to park and a path thru the woods. Naturally, I was nominated to walk first to break the spider webs.

Thankfully only a 5 minute hike or certain family members would’ve complained, we reached the bridge! It seemed sturdy enough after the hurricane. Let’s test it by walking on it with our kids!

It’s not that long and you can see some cool caves in the hillside and the ocean. It didn’t even sway in the wind. Haha. But… it smell like sewer.

We were too hot, tired and hangry from partying the night before we didn’t hit the pirate lair on the nearby beach but we’ll add it to the next day trip north.

Turns out my friends Cassie and Britton visited this place too! Read about it and get more history here

Having the power come and go randomly in Puerto Rico has become standard. Yesterday at the gym when the power went out nobody batted an eye. Little did we know it was an islandwide apagón. Blackout.

At first it felt annoying but when a friend of mine posted a meme I wondered how bad the public sentiment was going to get. How long was it going to last? How dire were people going to act? We have enough food supplies in the house, and are 45% full on our generator tank. I decided not to turn on the generator until night time.

Reports said that the power would come back between 24 and 36 hours. That’s enough time to worry people. I decided to get gas for my gas tank on the way to school. I wouldn’t have enough gas in my car to go up and down the mountain 2x to school the next day. but as I passed the gas station I counted 50 cars – I’m not exaggerating – lined up to get gas. Some of them might’ve been just trying to proceed down the road. It was only two lanes. People were sitting on their hoods because the line was not moving. At least they were polite.

I had planned to take my kids north to Happyland in Añasco but with the gas situation we had to cancel. My Plan B was to go to Krispy Kreme for donuts but again after calculating my gas I didn’t want to waste that much. I suppose that’s why so many people were in line at the gas station. It really really sucks to have to ration the gas you have available in your car knowing that it is a precious commodity.

My very nice neighbor offered to take my kids to school the next morning. We went over to her house after school and tried to assess if we could fit three car seats in the back of her car. The conclusion was no.

My friend texted me on WhatsApp (did you know that functions much better than texting during a power outage?) that her husband found gas at 8:45 PM without any lines. So at about 9:20 PM I went out too. I want to first gas station I saw that had no line (which thankfully was the closest to us) and they only had premium gas left because regular was all sold out. Sold.

Power came back on in Mayaguez in the middle of the night. It went out for a bit again in the morning but I’m crossing my fingers that business is back to usual.

Blackouts create chaos. Most people hunker down, but I avoided the major Hwy 2 road at all costs. Imagine a major thoroughfare in your city. A six lane street with stop lights every 1000 feet. All those lights were dark and the road because a free for all circus.

This is too soon after Maria. As my friend said, it’s still too raw. People were quick to panic giving a clear message to the government and power company, “We don’t trust you.”

This next hurricane season might be tough.