5 years...ways we know we're part of it all

Happy Anniversary to US and to Ola Lola's!
Seven years ago today we got married on a beach in Barbados.

Five years ago today we opened Ola Lola's in Puerto Rico.

You know you’ve become part of the Puerto Rican flora and fauna when:

You are on a first-name basis with the frog(s) in your bathroom.

Lizards are a regular wall decoration in your home.

Six-foot iguanas sitting in the middle of the road or hanging out in the trees don’t even phase you.

You own a Mazda pick-up truck and think nothing of putting a few pieces of wood rail across the back and sides and using it to haul 2 horses.

Horses loose in a neighborhood are no cause for alarm.

You wake up at 3:00 am, 4:00am, 5:00 am and 6:00 am to a rooster crowing under your window.

You go to sleep with a thousand chirping coquis (tree frogs) as your lullaby.

You see a woman tying up her goat or cow outside a store while she goes in to get a few groceries.

You see not one, but several, older men riding 1-speed bicycles as their primary means of transportation, often pulling a cart full of cut grasses to take back for their horses.

You are on the beach and see a pack of dogs – all sizes and shapes – while you eat your picnic lunch, and all of them either stay away or come over closer with their tails wagging, looking for handouts.

You go to the airport and see people with their dogs INSIDE the airport waiting to greet relatives or friends getting off the plane.

You see a horse in a field and there’s an egret sitting on top of it while it’s grazing.

You use a weed whacker or machete as your primary means of “mowing the lawn” and as soon as you finish, it’s grown enough you need to start again.

Horses tied in empty river beds or alongside the road with a rope around their neck are a common sight.

You have to wait on a major highway while dozens of cattle cross it to move from one pasture to another.

You’re watching a hummingbird dart from one hibiscus plant to another while you hear a hawk’s cry as it soars over the cliff.

While you’re out snorkeling, you see sea turtles, reef squid, spotted eagle rays, thousands of different fish, eels, crabs, flounders, bristle worms, sea urchins, and maybe even a dolphin, nurse shark or a manatee.