Outings

Well, it turns out the other realtor was not being unethical - we arrived at the house we want with another realtor and all acted like it was a coincidence that we were there again.  Our realtor was skeptical, but the one working for the owners showed her text messages from the owners detailing their problems closing on the house they were buying, or something like that.  So the owners of the house are stalling.  Unfortunately we liked it even more the second time, so we're waiting a couple of days and keeping our fingers crossed.

Yesterday we drove west almost to the other end of the island to buy a used car. It was a mind-crippling experience in Spanish.  M test drove three cars.  We wanted a compact minivan like a  Mazda 5 or MPV, circa 2006-7, but knew that was not very likely and the unpleasant car-buying experience could stretch on forever.  Quotes (translated) from the first place included, "Don't think about it-- Buy it!" and "In 10 years this (dented old MPV with bald tires)  is the nicest minivan I have seen!"

M's only rule was not to let him buy anything that wasn't Japanese, and B's only rule was she wanted an automatic for the hectic driving (it is hard to look over your shoulder while shifting gears.)

So, we ended up with a 2009 Suzuki SX4 sedan with 30K miles  Kind of a nifty little car.  Seems like a good island car and has a little more punch (145HP)  than it's econo classmates for merging. 

Well, we don't have it yet, but should in a few days when our bank transmits the funds.  We had to pay off our Mazda to ship it here so we have a 3-year loan on this one. 

Today we drove into Viejo San Juan.  We went to Castillo San Cristobal, an old fortification complete with cannon emplacements, tunnels, and a dungeon.  There are painting on the wall of the horrible dungeon said to be painted by a captured pirate captain who was put to death.

Then we parked on the CG base which is great... from there you can walk around the old city without having to struggle to park.  We ate at a nice restaurant and then got the kids piraguas, which are sort of like shaved-ice sno cones. B and M got pina coladas from another street vendor.  Yes, you can buy pina colodas from any street vendor or roadside stand for about $2.50.  It is awesome. We sat in the shade and watched pigeons and parrots compete for bread. Tonight we're going to walk down the beach from our condo to a restaurant we've been wanting to try.  We realized that there's no way we'll be moved into a house by the time school starts so we have calmed down and are making the best of it. Turns out this is normal... the move in process is sloooooow.