From One Extreme To The Other: The Continuing Story

So yes, we're becoming Innkeepers and uprooting to a new place and situation again. And we're taking another leap of faith even if Puerto Rico didn't turn out quite like we'd expected. But you have to take risks to get to where you want to be, and we've lived and we've learned, and for sure, this time we won't be taken for the same ride.

We began to feel that was happening to a certain degree quite quickly in Vieques, bet a security deposit and the lure of a long-term house-sitting reference reeled us back in when circumstances screamed at us "run, run now!" (Those feelings were confirmed by the drama we had in retrieving our deposit at the end of our assignment, but by that time we finally learnt how to play the game).

Winter Park Chateau B&B

This time will be different because nothing is going to hold us back from running if we need to. Firstly, not much money invested to get there, just a cheap plane ticket from Alabama. Secondly, we've met the husband, Greg, of the husband and wife team that own the B&B, and spoke to Laura, the wife, on the phone. The feeling we got from talking to them both was a lot different from the one we got from contact with the owner in Puerto Rico (but which we brushed aside for the excitement of the experience). Thirdly, we're actually going to be making some money - a little bit different from the bumming around we've been doing, or were supposed to be doing. In Vieques we were supposed to work only enough to cover room and board but it turned out to be a little more on the work and a little less on the board at times.

This new endeavour is actually going to yield us some dividends, along with room and board - plus benefits. The experience is going to be really beneficial to us in the future; this is a direction we've been wanting to take for a while. With all the couchsurfing and hosting we've done, we decided meeting people and making sure they have a good time was a lot of fun - and why not get paid for it! This job will entail looking after, or helping to look after, all aspects of the Bed and Breakfast (B&B): from playing host, to handling reservations, to house-keeping and cooking breakfast. Nothing we can't do (if I can handle those early morning starts!). We'll get great experience and be able to decide if it's as good as it sounds.

And if it doesn't turn out as expected? We can always get the hell out of there!

We may not know what we're in for at the B&B in terms of living conditions (but we're told we get out own area with bedroom and bathroom, and there is even a kitchen, a balcony and cable TV!), work conditions (approx 40hrs a week between the both of us) or general fit with the owners who will be there a lot of the time, but we will know the town and area we are going to live in this time; and that's big, because in the case of Vieques, pictures can lie.

Chase, my husband, knows Winter Park and the Rocky Mountains very well; he lived there for a while during his single years and has always revered it as his favourite place on Earth - besides New Zealand. We've tried New Zealand (earlier this year, and I starting blogging about that too here), which was awesome but turned out to be wrong timing, so now it's a great opportunity to try Colorado together and see what that holds for us.


New Zealand, another mountainous place

We're are excited about living in a town we know will be lovely despite the weather (me) or because of it (Chase). Okay, so I'm not really a fan of the cold, but I'm drawn for a number of reasons that will help make it more enjoyable: first of all, the frustrating cold can be forgotten once the first dusting of picture-perfect snow hits the ground turning the place into that clichéd, but true, winter wonderland.  

Aspen, 2008

Secondly, Chase tells me it's a dry cold, which when the sun is shining (as he assures me it does often), it won't bite at you, like say, an Alabama winter, or even an Australian winter. It doesn't get nearly as cold in Australia, for sure, but it feels it and then without snow it's just dreary. And did I mention not having to leave the house to go to work! None of that freezing-your-butt-off while cranking the car in the morning and trying to scrape ice of the wind-shield. In fact, we shouldn't even need a car, at least during the winter with the free resort shuttle running all over town and almost everything in walking distance anyhow.

The other reasons to head here are more obvious: a picturesque mountain setting and complimentary architecture, and the lure of hiking and seeing wild animals in the summer.

And after spending 6 months in the tropics I'm ready for a change - a big change. Holidaying might be fun in the tropics, but living is no easy task. Mosquitoes, bugs, dripping-sweat heat, rust, mould, hard-as-a-brick sugar and chips that soften within minutes of opening! That is not fun.
But while Winter Park and Vieques are worlds apart, they have some similarities. Like Vieques, Winter Park is small and tourist-driven, and both have aspects of isolation.

But how both places address each of these similarities, I'm confident to say, will differ exponentially!

Firstly, the people of Vieques didn't seem too thrilled to have visitors despite them supplying most of the only real income coming into that little island. Winter Park's economy is also based around vacation and adventure, which I'll delve more into in a proceeding post, but tourist-focused or not, we'll definitely be in America now - the land of overwhelmingly diligent consumer attentiveness (commission anyone?), and whether genuine or not, I'm looking forward to being in a place that seems happy to see people and willing to go out of their way to help you. (I must add, we did experience that a little more of that on the mainland of Puerto Rico, but Vieques is a parallel universe).

 

Similarly both towns have barriers that make it hard to get in and out, but while for Vieques it is the sea, for Winter Park it is the mountains. Unbelievably enough, the mountains have proved an easier barrier to break than the sea it seems. While it should be very easy to cross the 8 miles (13km) of water that separates Vieques from the mainland, the boats became almost non-existent by the end of our term there, 7 out of 8 vessels having worked their way into disrepair; and even the one boat left working seemed to be a gamble as to when and where it went (having to also service the other nearby island of Culebra). While it was quicker to fly (the ferry chugged slowly across the straight in no less than an hour one way), flights were also cumbersome, expensive and had limited seating.

Thankfully, the road has already been explored and carved from Denver to Winter Park up through those precarious mountains; now a luxurious four-lane highway, not quite a 2 hour drive, separates the two (snow forbidding). And if you don't have your own car, there's Amtrack and even a bus service to the town.

I do feel a sense of claustrophobia enclosed by all those mountains, but knowing Denver is in easy reach makes it bearable. Also, I'm sure I won't get that fish-bowl feeling I had on Vieques - for starters, so many more shops and so much more variety: cafes, restaurants, a library, even a movie theatre! And most importantly: fresh produce - something surprisingly lacking on that tropical island we just came from.

So I'm ready to try this new venture and see how I like it. Come find out on my all new rocky-mountain-high adventure!


*Author's Note: Spelling is Australian English, for those that think there's u's where there shouldn't be.

From One Extreme To The Other: The Story So Far

Here I go again, on another adventure, and I'm going to try to blog about it (hopefully more consistently than the last one!).

So as my Puerto Rican Island Life comes to an end, luck has us striking off in a completely different direction. We are now moving up several thousand feet into the sky and will be enduring the polar opposite lifestyle in wintry Colorado. We will go from a hot, remote, tiny island off of the coast of Puerto Rico, called Vieques, to a cold, mountainous, civilised society in the middle of the United States.

On the move again

 If you read my Puerto Rican blog (which you can find by clicking on the link above), you'll know that I wasn't the biggest fan of that region, and the tiny island of Vieques in particular. It was hot, it was primitive, it was ugly, and the people were somewhat unwelcoming (not to mention a complete lack of customer service).

But all in all it was a good experience, as any experience truly is, and a unique experience. We were glad to get the hell out of there but will look back on it with fond memories. We will remember all the good times we had, and the friends we made. We will miss those three mischievous dogs we fell in love with, and we will take the bad as learning experiences hopefully never to be repeated.

Here's a recap:

We took a house-sitting assignment in Puerto Rico in May 2011. It turns out it was on this tiny little island off the mainland called Vieques, which until then I had never heard of. We lived on a 14 acre property outside of the main town of Isabel Segunda on a steep hill. We had a small orchard of tropical fruits and took care of the grounds and dogs. If it had've been just that it would have been terrific. But this was Vieques, and nothing on Vieques goes according to plan.

Things broke down, things stopped working, and things just came flying at us like the hurricane that capped it all off (yes, we even experienced a hurricane; nothing too major, but enough to scare our socks off and ruin any comfort we had left!). Cars, mowers, electricity, water, even the drive-way, soaked in rain and mud, ceased to work. There isn't much on Vieques to amuse oneself unless you love beaches (but even then it can get old), and eventually, our best means off of the island, the ferry, stopped working too. But we met friends that changed the whole outcome of our stay to something great. We could count on each other when our cars broke down as they all eventually did, and to have a dinner party, a pool party, or an excursion, as we frequently did to forget our troubles.

Chase and Auggie, the big Rottweiler, became best of friends (see below). Jasper, the little cute terror was always around to play or else was off chasing lizards, and feeble old Oprah kept mostly to herself but when she was around she could be counted on for a big happy smile-unless it was raining! They kept us sane when we were stuck up on the hill.

Nutty Island, as our Aussie friend Peter nicknamed it, doesn't come up so bad in photos and even looks quite interesting, and to be honest, a week's vacation might be alright there; the beaches were breathtaking - if only they weren't a bitch to get to. But unless you want to shell out $400/night at The W Resort, expect to rough it a little.

Take a peek, and judge for yourself:


Of course, what is life - and me - without food! I threw in a few shots for Chase and my friends who endured my constant food snaps!

Friends make life more enjoyable and the people we met made our stay in Vieques what it was. Our first new friend was Ali and his cute little dog Ozi, who we couchsurfed with in Old San Juan. He was so hospitable and enjoyable to hang out with, and we enjoyed getting to know him. Of course our Vieques inmates, Paul and Jodie, and Peter and Jan, became like our family and support during good and bad, and I'd like to pay extra tribute to them here.

Peter was always making pizzas and pizza ovens. Thanks to him there are a chain of pizza ovens scattered around Vieques which will be an enduring legacy to his time in Vieques. I'm sure Jan and Peter both will be remembered for years to come! They persevered in teaching the locals the Australian Way, whether they liked it or not (including a sketchy game of cricket), and still couldn't pronounce 'Fajardo' when they left! Paul and Jodie supplied us with a great hang out spot at their guesthouse La Finca (right), and a great many memories of food, laughs and Chichaitos (a hard, but cheap rum drink with a translation I'd rather not repeat here). Their benevolence even sparked a horde of cats to contend with!

So that was our stay in a nutshell. Stay tuned to my Puerto Rican blog as I continue to play catch up on all the weird and wacky adventures we had!

What's next?

Winter Park Chateau Bed and Breakfast! We're going to be Innkeepers!