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| This is the view of our house from the upper unit of the three-unit house higher up the hill. |
When I began today’s post at 7:00 am, it was a sunny day. Putting on my swimsuit this morning, I decided to spend a half-hour in a particular spot on the veranda that appears on sunny days around 10:30 am. With my feet on the veranda railing while sitting in a chair it will almost be comparable to a chaise lounge.
Mario sent us a message that he received a notice that our package of supplies arrived at the post office. Tomorrow between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm, the customs officer will be there and inspect the contents; baking pans, a muffin tin, a measuring cup, a peeler, coconut flour, unsweetened coconut flakes, ground flaxseed, almond flour, and various spices and extracts.
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| The view from the top of the three-unit house behind our house. Mario and Tatiana had lived in this beautiful top unit up until a few days ago when they moved to the small house shown below to accommodate the couple we met from Nevada, Judy and Chris. |
Hopefully, with the value of the contents well within the allowable shipping ranges, we shouldn’t have to pay any customs fees. It will be good to have these familiar items on hand to round out our diet to provide more variety.
Although I didn’t want to say this too soon, when everything could change in a moment, the wifi is working better today. Mario wrote to us last night explaining he’d seen the phone company (who supplies the Internet) working on the lines to this property.
With the plugin router, Mario installed specifically for our use only, which I’ve had to monkey with on numerous occasions to reset, we finally have a strong signal. This afternoon, we can start researching locations to fill the two major gaps in our itinerary over the next 21 months.
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| Mario brought this router that plugs into an outlet, providing us with a private connection not shared with other guests. Since he’d purchased the device in Germany, his home country, he had to add an adapter to make it plug into the outlet. The weight of the device using the adapter, made it keep falling out enough to lose the connection. Tom placed this stack of books under it to hold it in place. The signal goes to “limited” quite often, but overall it’s working. |
Ratnesh, our driver, is having a family day today (Sunday) and with other taxi drivers refusing or unable to navigate the steep hill to the house, we have no choice but to stay home until tomorrow when we head out for sightseeing, the post office, and shopping. We haven’t shopped in a week and are down to the last of the produce.
With our coffee supply running low, I’ve made tea these past few mornings leaving the remaining coffee for Tom who only drinks two small mugs each morning, using one tablespoon of grounds in the tiny one-person pot.
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| This is the newly built house Mario and Tatiana moved into in the past few days while guests occupy their house over the next six months. |
Not having a car doesn’t really bother us. Surprisingly, having been in this position in more countries than not, we’ve become used to planning our trips to fulfill our needs and expectations. If we run out of something, we improvise, seldom making a trip for only a few items.
We’d heard from Salote, one of our daily maids (they added Usi to Saturdays and Sundays), that a couple from Nevada was staying in the upper-level apartment of Mario’s three-unit property up the hill from our house. With a little social directing from Salote, we arranged a get together at their place yesterday morning.
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| When visiting Judy and Chris I spotted something in the ocean below. See the next photo for a closer view. |
Judy and Chris are our ages, retired, and have their primary residence in Carson City, Nevada. They also own a wonderful old house in Brittany, France which they visit several times each year.
They, too, like us, live away from family and frequently travel. Both born in the UK they both still possess the charming British accents we’ve come to know and admire. Chris was a college geology professor and shared many interesting stories of his world travels on various geological research expeditions.
It was fascinating spending time with both of them hearing their stories of trips to Africa together in their youth and the myriad adventures they experienced. The time flew by as we shared our stories and before we knew it, almost two hours had passed.
Returning home with a smile on our faces, we realized how fortunate we are to meet people in our travels. Although tourists usually stay only a short time, as is the case for Judy and Chris, the encounters are pleasurable and memorable.
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| These two guys were fishing in the fish abundant waters of the sea surrounding the island. Coincidentally, in this photo is Usi’s brother, Johnny, and his friend Siri. She explained they had considerable success. |
Last night’s dinner of leftover uncooked tough steaks was greatly improved over the prior night’s meal when I cut off every morsel of fat and grizzle and marinated chunks of meat all day in olive oil and spices. When it was time for dinner I cooked them quickly, medium rare, on the highest heat the stove would allow.
With propane as the source of fuel for the four-burner stovetop, the burners don’t seem to get as hot as when the source is natural gas, requiring I start cooking sooner than I may have in the past. Most days, I prepare everything well in advance leaving the actual cooking for the last minute to ensure everything is hot and fresh.
As I’ve prepared the post, the clouds have returned and the sun is no longer shining, typical for island living. So it goes. I have other “fish to fry” today anyway.
Enjoy the weekend!
Photo from one year ago today, September 20, 2014:
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| One year ago, we arrived in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada after flying from Boston. This was the view from our luxury condo we’d booked for six nights while we’d wait for an upcoming cruise to Hawaii. For more details, please click here. |