La Noche de San Juan

Last night was "La Noche de San Juan", Saint John the Baptist Night. John the Baptist is believed to have been born on June 24th, so many countries celebrate this day on the eve. Here in Puerto Rico, it plays out as hundreds of thousands of people flock to the beach for what can only be described as a Puerto Rican Mardi Gra or Spring Break beach party. At midnight all those participating flop backwards into the water, like they are being baptized....it is to ensure you have good luck for the next year. Some people may flop once, others, several times. Joe and I ventured out last night to see what all the fuss and traffic was about....Perplexing,interesting, as it was, like Carnival last year in Brazil. Luckily for Joe and I we believe in faith and not luck.

They apparently plan on sacrificing the sand alligator to John the Baptist also...

This is real video I found on YouTube from 2 years ago, but if you listen closely you can hear the countdown and then see them all flop! Kinda Funny.
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And this clip is even more interesting..."Ace, uniquely Puerto Rican detergent, commemorates Puerto Rican tradition of San Juan night when the island residents dive into the ocean at midnight. Even when you are far away from your homeland, your pride of being Puerto Rican will make you follow Puerto Rican traditions."(quote taken from the person who posted the clip)
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Play date in Old San Juan

Ponce

Ponce is the the second largest city in Puerto Rico. It is situated on the southern side of the island and is nicknamed "the Pearl of the South". As you could probably guess, Ponce was named after Ponce De Leon. Ponce was the first town in PR, built in the late 1600's. Joe and I headed down for a day of exploration and fun. If you meet a native of PR they always tell you, you have to visit Ponce. If you meet someone from the US who has moved here they will say, I can't figure out the hype! It was fun to see how well preserved many of the building were and it only took us an hour and a half to cross the island. Unfortunately we got to Ponce about 10:30 and everything shuts down from 11- 2 in Ponce. So we enjoyed the outdoor scenery and then explored some of the local beaches. The sand on the southern part of the Island is dark grey/black. We also learned that no matter where we are most likely we are going to stick out like a sore thumb! So us trying to drive into a local hang-out all inconspicuous-like...NEVER works, I haven't figured out what gives it away. We had fun!

Costco and Quicken

As we have been settling into our new home that has also come with setting a new budget and familiarizing ourselves with the area and our shopping options. We have been here on the island for about a month and after analyzing all our grocery reciepts, taking a tour of Sam's club, Costco, and Walmart. Joe and I decided that Costco could fulfill our needs at a better rate than the local grocery could (as long as we controlled our buying). It is easy to walk around and fill a cart with your hearts desires(ice cream, chocolate, pickles, top my list)but break you at the check-out. How do you remedy this? Make a list of what you need, decide if it is an item you will use in a timely manner if bought in bulk, and then ask will you spend more buying it at a grocery store in smaller installations in the amount of time it would take to use up the same item bought from costco? For example: We bought a box of 140 Glad ForceFlex Kictchen trash bags for about $11, our hope is we never have to buy trash bags again while living here. The grocery store carries the same bags in boxes of 34 for $7.99.
But also to help control our spending at Costco we signed up for Quicken, which is a banking solutions system that combines all your accounts and helps you categorize and track your spening, it will tell you how much you have left in each budget category. I know personally I use to log onto my online bank account and say "where did it all go?" Quicken will even give you spending predictions with a 10-day outlook. And if you are really couragous you can look at a graph of your spending! The best part of this is it is FREE, it isn't advertised on their home page but if you go to their products and services tab at the top, you too can have their free online product. We have enjoyed having it, mostly because it allows us to be good steward of the money we have!

We have an address....

As we were approaching the end of our second week and heading into our third week in San Juan, we have spent countless hours on the Internet looking at apartments and calling Realtors, trying to set up appointments to view ones we liked and would fit into our budget and desires. Things like, having 2 bedrooms. Because San Juan is considered a vacation destination, often you find studio apartments that are well furnished but upwards of $3000 a month and don't fit into any of our categories, and then their isn't much price difference between a 2 bedroom and 3 bedroom, but a huge jump between a studio and a 2 bedroom. Also, it depended on if we wanted to be in the middle of the tourist district or in a residential area. Plus some of the Realtors here aren't exactly as "kosher" as Joe and I would have liked. So after much anticipation we found out late Sunday night that we were going to get our new home, all contracts were signed, deposits paid and keys passed! Once all the business was done and everyone was out, the celebration dancing, squealing began(Oh, for their to have been a video camera for that). After two days of finding everything a home we are moved in and settled! Some of you have asked for our address and I can gladly pass it on now!

Joe and Melissa Mott
Cond. Mundo Feliz
1 Calle Hermanos Rodriguez Ema Apt 1805
Carolina, PR 00979-5811

We are still working on the cell phone thing, but Joe's will stay the same as his Charlotte number and we can be reached on it for now. (If you don't have it, and want it, email me personally, please.)
Thank you for your prayers and praises!

June 1st = Hurricane Season Kick-off

2009 Hurricane Season Predictions


The hurricane forecast team from the Colorado State University is predicting that the 2009 Hurricane Season will be an average one. The latest predictions from team call for 12 named storms of which 6 are forecast to be hurricanes, with 2 of these forecast to be major hurricane of category 3 or higher.

The team from the Colorado State University base there findings on ‘a weak El Nino maritime temperature fluctuation, along with an unusual cooling of tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures it observed in recent months’

Additionally the team are predicting a 31 percent chance that the US Gulf Coast, between Florida and Texas by a major hurricane with an average major hurricane landfall risk in the Caribbean.