Caballos del mar

Of course, four-legged horses are not the only ones. As I said in an earlier post, I also love hanging out with caballos del mar.

And at some point, they are all sea horses!

On horses

Way back in the last century, I took a riding class for a PE credit in college. I learned a little about grooming and tacking and caring for horses. Mostly we did trail rides on Western saddles and gear. We didn't train the horses at all. We just got them ready, got on and rode off.

I imagine that's kinda most folks' initial construct with horses: yes, there are some fancy show riders and jumpers and some horses race around a track and some prance in the Olympics. But basically, horses are for riding.

Fast forward a few years (decades) and I found myself in Puerto Rico, helping to care for Elaine's horse, Chocolate. When we only had one horse, he was her horse. I helped out occasionally, feeding and all. I learned a little about caring for him, but only enough to do what I needed to do to help. I was not going to be a rider. While Elaine's passion was the horse, I was learning to scuba dive. That was kind of deal: you ride, I dive. When the opportunity presented itself, I did a little riding. Eventually, Elaine became a certified scuba diver. We both did it so we could spend time together doing what the other loved. Don't get me wrong: I like to ride; I just wasn't very good at it. Elaine likes to dive but if it's a choice, she'll ride.

Then we got KTJ, our - Elaine's - big dark bay Thoroughbred rescue from the race track. She is a sweet smart girl and training and working with her quickly became Elaine's focus.

When Elaine went to St. Lucia to work three years ago. I stumbled along doing the best I could taking care of both horses. When Elaine came back, I decided I wanted to get more serious about this. She was working with KTJ so more and more Chocolate became "my" horse.

Most of what little I knew and what I read talked about the need to be the "Alpha horse," the herd leader and to become this, I had to dominate. Those of you who know me know that's not my strong suit. But I tried because that's what you're "supposed" to do with a horse. We had some success but many "training" sessions ended in all kind of frustration for me, but more importantly for my horse. I talked about these frustrations with Elaine and other horse-people friends but didn't really get anywhere.

One night, Elaine handed me a book and said, "I think you're ready for this." The book is Horses Never Lie by Mark Rashid. Simply put, we mostly look at our interactions with horses from our point of view, not the horses. And they are very different! In a herd there is a dominant horse who gets his way by, well, dominating the other horses. But there is frequently another horse Rashid calls the passive leader that the other horses follow because they trust and respect this horse.

This was an eye-opener, a game-changer, for me! I don't dominate well. Maybe I could become this trusted passive leader for my horse. Now, nearly a year later, I have a relationship with my horse.

And that's what this thing with a horse is about - a relationship. It's not about riding; riding a mutually agreed upon part of the relationship. It's certainly not about "breaking" a horse. It's about working together with trust and respect. That means listening to what the horse is telling me. Sometimes, I have to trust him more I trust myself. He has to learn to trust me that I won't put him in danger, that even if his prey-animal instincts say, "RUN!" he'll stay because he trusts that I won't let him get hurt. Sometimes he has to do training things he doesn't like (circling on a lunge line for example) because it helps get us in sync with each other. (Sounds the demands and requirements - and joys - of any great relationship!)

I can't believe how far we've come together in such a short time. Not having to or trying to dominate is so freeing, so relaxing. There are lots of trainers now doing some variation of "gentle" training. This feels so much better to me. I keep reading more, watching more and practicing more. Chocolate is a very smart, very sensitive horse. Now we both enjoy our time together and look forward to it. We are working on a great relationship!

Loving people and our dogs I understand. I am totally surprised at how much I've come to love this horse.

By the way, I just uploaded a whole bunch o' photos of the horses to Flickr. You might want to take a look. Enjoy!

Happy Hurricane Season

Happy first day of Hurricane Season! It is a happy first day because there are no hurricanes or storms on the horizon. Okay, there is a low off the Carolinas headed out to sea but that shouldn't affect us - unless it produces some waves.

I read a forecast for this hurricane season. Based on current conditions and computer models, we have a 45% chance of a more-active-than-normal season, a 45% chance of a less-active-than-normal season and 9% uncertain. Who knows what the other 1% think. NOAA says 45% chance of near-normal season, 30% chance of above-normal and 25% chance of a below-normal season. A "normal" hurricane season in the North Atlantic is 10-16 named storms, 4-8 hurricanes, and 1-4 major hurricanes. We already had one hurricane, Alex in JANUARY!

One issue is the ocean temperatures. This winter our dive computers didn't record anything below 80 degrees. In previous years we've gotten don to 78-79 degrees. Most of the winter was 81-82 degrees. That's warm! Tropical storms and hurricanes feed on warm moist air over the ocean so having the  ocean this warm this early is a little scary.

I love my island

So. One of the documents we need to do business here is the "Excepcion de Comerciante." In the States this would exempt us from paying sales tax on business purchases. Here it allows us to claim a credit for sales tax (IVU) paid against the sales tax collected when we sell stuff at Ola Lola's  Without that exception, we wind up paying sales tax twice. It's a pretty useful, important document.

The Excepcion must be renewed each year. Officially, ours expired on May 14 but we have until the end of the month to renew it. I went to the local Hacienda (the tax collection department) office on May 19. Other than waiting in line, the renewal process takes about 20 minutes. they check to make sure you don't owe any back taxes, print the paper and off you go.

Oops! They found a glitch. The income tax office in San Juan disallowed a credit in our 2012 (!) income tax and said we owed $205 in overdue tax and interest. This, by the way, was the first time we'd heard about this. We have receive NO communication about this from the income tax office. Anyway, pay or resolve this debt or no renewed Excepcion.

Our choices: Pay the $205 or take a bunch o' documents to San Juan and try to get the ruling reversed. I chose to take a shot at going to San Juan. At 6:00 am on May 24, I left for Hacienda in San Juan. Whatever happened, I needed this resolve by Friday, May 27. It's Memorial Day weekend and any holiday spells doom for getting anything accomplished.

I expect this to be an all day dragged out affair. I was prepared to do battle, like Don Quixote but in broken Spanish. A note here: a friend suggested I put down my windmill-tilting lance and armor and instead smile and in a friendly manner ask for help. I did this and I think it helped. We got through the documents and the very nice lady said she would review the case and let me know the result. I asked her, "Ahora? Hoy?" ("Now? Today?") "Ah, no. Uno mes." ("No. One month.")

I explained - in Spanish - that I needed this resolved today and explained the problem with the Excepcion and paying IVU twice and all that. She told me they could give me a letter telling the local office the case was under review and to go ahead give me the Exception. Brilliant! I was out of there in about an hour! Everyone was very nice and helpful. Must have been my smile and friendly, non-combative demeanor.

On May 25, armed with my letter from the income tax office in San Juan. I got up early to be at or very near the front of the line at the local office. I was in fact fourth in line. They called my number. I went to talk to the Gate Keeper. I didn't get any farther.

I didn't need to get any farther. Somewhere sometime between May 19, when I first started the process, and May 25, when I went to (hopefully) finish it, the powers-that-be, by administrative declaration, decreed all existing valid Excepcions are good through December 31!

Nearly a week of scrambling, running around, fretting, gnashing of teeth done by administrative declaration.

I love my island!

Love is in the air...

and in the water! We have manged a few beautiful dives this month, despite the rain and crappy visibility. We've made some new friends like these two incredible sea horses. So beautiful! I love playing with horses!

You can see more photos from this month's dives on our Flickr site. Come check 'em out. Enjoy!

Zika - what's Zika?

"The MEDIA" made a big deal out of the Zika "epidemic" on the island.

What Zika epidemic?

Two years ago when chikungunya roared through the Caribbean, everybody knew about it. Everybody knew SOMEBODY - or a dozen or two dozen somebodies - who had it. This Zika thing? I don't even know somebody who knows somebody who knows anybody who had it. On an island where we wear our tropical diseases like badges of honor, I have heard not one peep.

Except from THE MEDIA. Apparently this is a manufactured epidemic. The conspiracy theorists are putting out that the island governor, hoping to score big $$$$s from FEMA or CDC or somebody, announced there is an epidemic of Zika.

If true, the ploy backfired big time. Not only is there no Federal money coming to combat the non-epidemic, tourists, conventions and big, high profile events are canceling and staying away. So, no new money and we're losing money that was committed.

All because of a pretty much non-event.

Is Zika real? Of course it is. For a certain segment of the population - women who are pregnant or hoping to get pregnant - it carries potentially serious dangers. For most of us catching the Zika virus is about as bad as a mild case of the flu. In fact, flu is worse.

With all the rain we've had mosquitoes are at their worst. As soon as the rain stops and the winds start to blow again, the mosquito population will go dormant until the next rainy season. Maybe all the Zika hullabaloo will dry up too.

Making the best of it

After that amazing up-and-down dive-then-surf-then-dive spell, the rainy season came a month early. For two weeks it has rained - and rained hard - nearly every day. Lago de los Caballos (Lake of the Horses) in the corral and paddock hasn't been totally dry for two weeks, despite running a sump pump 24/7. We keep  trying to find dry spots for the horses to giver their hooves a chance to dry out.

There's no surf. And even if there was, I wouldn't take my camera out in the driving rain.

The rain messes up diving, not because we can't dive in the rain (sometimes that's fun as long as there is no lightening) but because of visibility. Rain, especially hard rain up in the mountains, washes silt and "stuff" down the rivers. That screws up visibility until it has a chance to either settle out or be washed out by currents.

Can't ride. Well, we could ride, but I can tell you for experience riding in the rain is not much fun. Besides, the trails are all muddy and/or covered with pools of standing water which unfortunately become mosquito farms.

That doesn't mean there's nothing to do. Lots of mopping, sweeping up, trying to keep the horses and dogs dry and clean. But that's part of life when you choose to live outdoors in a treehouse. That is our choice and we'll keep making the best of it. Anyway, when it rains here, it's still 80 degrees not 30 or 40 degrees. So that's not so bad.

Everything old is new again

We are about to start a new chapter in the the continuing Ola Lola's adventure.

This past Monday we said "adios" to Danny and Marie who have been running the Ola Lola's kitchen since February, 2015. It has been a little over a year of fabulous food and fun. Their lives are taking them in new directions and so they are leaving Ola Lola's.

We have learned so much from them, so many things we will carry forward as we take over the Ola Lola's kitchen again. 

Beginning this Friday, we have a new menu and new nightly specials.

We kept some things from Danny and Maria's menu, most notably the amazing Fish Tacos and french fries. We brought back some favorites from our menu, like the Jalapeno Popper Dip and the Gourmet Gringo Burger. We added some new things like the Black Bean Dip and the Tropical Dream Ice Cream (that has no cream and is actually vegan),

And we're adding new Happy Hour specials, different each night.

There is lots going on as we get ready for this new chapter in our adventure. Watch for more new stuff coming soon.

Coming back

We've been away from here for a while. Not that there's nothing to write about, There is so much to write about! So much is happening so fast. It's been our best season in several years at Ola Lola's. For all the negative press the PR economy has been getting, we're still here and open for business.

It has been an up and down surf season - and that's a good thing. The upside is there have been some great opportunities for some great surf photography.

The "down" surf is also an upside: between swells, there has been some great scuba diving this winter.

So, surf-dive, repeat. You can see all the best of both surfing and diving here, on Flickr.


Lots more to come. We promise!

2016 (so far) in pictures

So far 2016 has been a very busy year. Here are some of the highlights:

January 1, New Year's Day ride on the beach.

 

 

January 2,  another ride on the beach

 

 

January 3, scuba diving at Natural

January 4, scuba diving at Natural

January 5, scuba diving at Natural...

and at Crashboat

January 6, scuba diving at Crashboat...

and at Natural

There as been no surf so the diving has been excellent (as you can see). My goal is to have 500 dives by the end of the year. This dive at Natural was #348. Ambitious, but doable.

Ola Lola's has been busy so all in all, it's not been a bad week.

Merry Christmas!

It's been a wonderful Christmas weekend so far! Yesterday I take a big group from the States scuba diving at Natural. Not a bad way to spend Christmas Eve. This couple wasn't part of the group, just  a couple of hangers-on.

Last night we hosted Christmas Eve pot luck dinner for a bunch of "misfit toys" or "orphan gringos" as one of our number called us. So much fabulous food and so much fun!

Hope your holidays are filled with warmth and love and joy and that the new year brings you health and happiness.

Happy Holidays!

Tonight's the night!!!!

Some time tonight someone will eat the 4,000th Peanut Butter Burger.

Don't know about our World Famous Peanut Butter Burger?

It is a handmade, hand-seasoned 100% all-beef burger, grilled to your order, then served on grilled fresh local bakery bread, topped with peanut butter and sweet pickle relish. #warmcreamysaltysweetmeaty The way it all comes together in your mouth in nothing short of amazing.

And tonight, we will reach a major milestone. We have a great gift package for whoever gets # 4,000: Standup Paddle Board tours from VerdeAzul, Discover Scuba Adventures from Darryl's Diving Adventures, gift certificates from Levain Artisan Bread, Fusion Art and Floral and Ola Lola's, portrait photography sessions and more.

Wish you were here.