I promised more underwater pictures from our snorkeling adventures so here is one from a couple of days ago. We love the reef squid! They are so much fun to watch and to swim with. You can see more pictures from this particular snorkel on Flickr. Check out all the squid pictures - they really do change colors like that, from this kind of iridescent brown to the amazing pink.

I've written before about the layers of bureaucracy and administrative stuff in Puerto Rican government and how it sometimes takes a lot longer to get things done than you think it should. The time-lag is still true but over the last few weeks I've developed a lot of respect for a lot of the people in the government offices. A few weeks ago a number of complaints were lodged against Ola Lola's. The source appears to be a certain developer of a certain mega apartment project that we had the audacity to oppose. All the agencies had to investigate what they quickly learned were spurious, false accusations. Some agencies, the health department and fire department in particular, had to come back to Ola Lola's just a week after they'd been here to inspect us to renew our permits. But, because of the complaints, they had to come.

They have all been polite, professional and almost apologetic for the intrusion. If we had a problem that needed correcting (there were only a couple), they were helpful in telling us how to fix or resolve it.

The last encounter regarding the complaints was with agents from Hacienda, which is basically the treasury department. They issue the licenses. They came - at 4:00 pm on Friday, while we were open - to inspect our liquor license. It is supposed to be displayed on the wall. Well, again because of the complaints, before I left to go back to the States over Memorial Day, I took ours down because I had to take it to another government office to prove I had it. When I got back, I just plain forgot to put it back up. I told the guy, "oh, yeah, it's here. Just a minute." Long story short, the license wasn't where it should have been. I couldn't find it anywhere. So we got a citation and were ordered to find the license and bring it to the Hacienda office in Aguadilla on Monday at 8:00 am.

We looked all weekend and couldn't find it anywhere. Nothing. Nada. We went to the office with nothing but the receipt from last September that showed I paid for it. The only thing I could figure was when they made copies of all my papers in the office in Isabela before I left, maybe somehow it got left there. Our friend, Marisol, came with us to be sure that if communication was in Spanish we would be able to participate at 100%. We talked with a very VERY nice, helpful man in the Hacienda office. He called Isabela to see if they had it. They didn't have our original but they knew I had it, at least at some point, because they did have the copy they made in our file. The helpful agent at Hacienda came back with a Plan B. We couldn't get a replacement license, but because we had the receipt, we could get a letter that says we do in fact have a license, we just don't have the paper copy. The Collectoria (another department) director, a man we have also had contact with during the past year, wrote us the letter while we waited. So we now proudly display that letter on our wall, instead of the actual license.

I'm making kind of a big deal out of this for a couple of reasons. The series of complaints was (we assume) supposed to be intimidating and harassing. Instead, it has turned into a very positive thing. Puerto Rico is a very face-to-face culture and that's the way we like to interact with others, so it's worked to our advantage. At every opportunity, we've gone to meet with the people involved, or met with them here, and worked out whatever the problem was to get it fixed. We now know a lot more people in the offices that "control" the oversight of Ola Lola's. And maybe more importantly, they know us, as people, as individuals, not just as the business Ola Lola's. They've seen our place. They've seen how we operate. They know we're trying to do things right. We make mistakes and because we're still very non-proficient with our Spanish, we may not always understand the first time. But whatever the issue is, we fix it. And now they know that.

The second thing is, when all this is said and done, we will have one of the best inspected, most completely permitted bars in Puerto Rico! And that ain't all bad.

It's been a great learning experience. While it's been a bit scary at times, rather than feeling intimidated, we're grateful. In the end Ola Lola's, we as individuals, and the people we work with will be better - not worse - for it.