From San Juan to St. Croix

Date: 08.03.2014

It was time to move again. This time we were using a small airline company called Cape Air. I was just barely surviving standing up and walking after last night's migraine, and it almost hit back when we were standing in the line at the package drop/check in. Fortunately I had some painkillers inside my bag, so I managed to kill the oncoming storm before it was too late.

Airport terminal in San Juan

We did know that our aircraft would be small, and it was confirmed at the check-in when they weighted our hand luggage and asked about our weights. It was really interesting, because hell do I know my weight in imperial scale; something from "a lot" to "too freakin' much" :D.

Our "tour guide" talking with our captain

Almost in St. Croix

We were escorted to the aircraft and all our personal luggage was put to the space in front of the aircraft or inside it's wing. I will never get used to the american way that people talk to you and say your name when they are addressing to you, I heard my name during the walk and going inside the plane more times than I hear my name said in a month back in Finland. Yet I can say that it's pretty nice custom, and makes the service / conversation a lot more personal than "yeah you, you there" -yelling and pointing :). And it's also cool that people say my name usually right on the first time, even though some people from the main land first try to make me "Maya" before they start to use the correct pronunciation "Mia". Puerto Ricans seem to get it right on the first time :).

At the St. Croix airport

Stnz managed to fail our car rental and we ended up with more expensive premium level car. Well, the only problem is that it's not a car, it's a Ford. Ford's aren't cars. And this one (Taurus) has some odd level of accessories; it has bluetooth, computer, but no park assistance or turning assistance lights.

Spotting hydroplanes

Our apartment wasn't ready before 15, so we headed to the marina and stumbled upon another airline, which made its flights using hydroplanes. While the guys were photographing the plane, I started talking with a stranger who said he had adoptive parents from Sweden / Denmark and stuff. This was the second person in an hour who just came to me and started talking with me about random stuff about their lives - I think I'm gonna like this place :D.

All the artwork is for sale from a local artist

Finally some real food!

It was time to EAT, and I chose us to go to Angry Nate's seafood restaurant which was close by.  Finally I got a real salad when I ordered one, which wasn't coleslaw or some iceberg lettuce inside a bagel. The smoked salmon was nice, but for a northerner like me the salmon should be more.. fatty and the.. uhmm.. ..smokening could be stronger :).

After we were done, it was time to head to our apartment. Next to it, I found one of the many of the town's ruins, and of course I had to go inside (yes, I still have a huge problem staying away from places which seem interesting enough and worth the risks :D). I found some old machines inside of it, which seemed to have something to do with printing.

Our apartment is looking really nice, and from all the places we've stayed so far, it's the one which reminds me of our building standards the most. It seems to be a solid build, and even the tiles on the kitchen or bathroom walls don't make my eye twitch and make me want to scrape all the plaster out and do the tile work again properly.. It's also cleanest one so far, in a way that you could do the "Scandinavian" way of being indoors and leave your shoes off all the time. I could see myself living in this kind of apartment on here, or in Vieques, or on some other neighboring island :).

This time I won the bed lottery, because the guys thought it was "too gay" to sleep on the queen bed together, so I got the bedroom to myself and they shared the couch in the living room :). I'm not complaining!

From the living room to the kitchen

The beautiful little kitchen

Timo in his bed, stnz's bed on the floor (pic by stnz)

And me in my own private bedroom, doing the exactly same thing in same position as what I'm doing now :) (pic by stnz)

From Vieques to San Juan

Date: 05.03.2014

...it was time to head back to the main island *sniffles*. We started the morning slowly and during our first cups of coffee our host James paid us a visit - fortunately we were all wearing pants (well, I was, for once :D). James was a fun and interesting guy, and he had been visiting Finland for 7 times in his life, what are the chances :).

After getting our gear ready, I called for a taxi, and once again problems - we can get there in one hour. With our stuff and my knee, I didn't want to walk to the centre, so we sat at the bus stop and all did our things (I was writing) and waited. For the first time the lady taxi driver was precisely on time, wohoo :D.

We went to Isabel, and I forgot to buy one cool shirt from Black Beard, and it's bugging me a lot. The guys wanted to eat some pizza for breakfast and I was too tired to argue - I managed to get one slice down, and the guys ate the grande bacon pizza by themselves, plus stnz ate a slice of meat lover's pizza, which almost came with the whole chicken on top as I suspected when he ordered it :D.

The guys sleeping on the ferry trip

We got to the ferry terminal and waited for the ferry. This time it wasn't full, so we got a place to sit and it didn't take long for the guys to start sleeping. I wrote some stuff up and played some Fallout2 on the 1 hour trip.

When we got to Fajardo, there was the minibuses waiting and trying to get us to their vans, and stnz declined them all. While waiting to see what the guys would do to get us to Ceiba to pick up our car, I noticed a woman in her panties and undershirt, wearing some platform shoes and completely out of it. If we'd be at home, I would've went to her and asked if she was alright, but here I didn't have the guts. So I decided to just watch what was happening, if she was drugged by someone and if someone was trying to do something to her. After keeping my eye on her for a while, I noticed that she was with a guy and a little (~6 yo) girl. The guy seemed to be clean and sober, and the kid was dressed and bathed, but I had the vibe that they were all homeless, and the kid was more attached to her father. It still made me really sad to watch how a person could end up in that condition, and make things worse, there was a little beautiful girl involved. I really hope that everything works out with them in the long run. Life usually does correct it's ways on some point..

After a while and when I asked when the car rental place would close it doors, stnz realized that we didn't have the time to clown around - we needed the ride and got one to Ceiba. We managed to get there like 5 minutes before closing time.. Stnz had rented us a small and cheap car and we were guessing what it was on the small lot. Imagine our surprise when the girl drove a Jeep in front of us :D. It felt like the universe was fucking around with us, because for the 5 days in Vieques we were all cursing our lack of a car and how all other tourists were driving by with their Jeeps :D.

Our ride

Then it was off to San Juan, and to the apartment Stnz reserved for us blindly. It was pretty interesting to find ourselves inside a closed community, right next to a beautiful beach. The neighborhood was a little step-up from where our earlier apartments have been located, but I'm not complaining. Still, I somehow already miss the simple life of Vieques. I wonder what I could do there so I could move and live there? Even the Fajardo ferry terminal seemed busy and quite annoying after the somewhat peaceful island living, not to mention what it's like in the busy San Juan.

The electricity work in the US is something... else. And even halen (170cm short) could touch these lines. And so could I with a bit of a jump :D

The beach 50m from our apartment

 I had a wonderful surprise at our new apartment: 1) there were dogs! Oh, how I've been missing scratching, hugging and kissing the dogs, and talking softly sounding like a crazy person (you aren't crazy when you do that while addressing the dogs, aren't you??)  2) the other dog was named Mia! I had a namesake! I'm forming an alliance with Mia, just because we are two Mias and we are awesome <3

My namesake, Mia the awesome dog (pic by stnz)

The private terrace we have by our apartment is great place to play a nerd (who am I kidding, I'm a nerd)  (pic by stnz)

It was my time to take the couch again. This time it was much better to sleep on than the plank in New York  (pic by stnz)

There was a nice and clear sky on the beach next to us, but I was too tired and hurting all over to have the energy to go there and do some night time photography. But I promised to myself that I was going to do it on the next day. We'll see.

San Juan to Vieques

Date: 28. 2. 2014

Today is was time to move our asses to Vieques. On 26th we were surfing on the net and looking for a place where we should move ourselves next. For some reason we stumbled upon Vieques and after some searching, we decided to go there. I found a place to do my open water dives for PADI OWD, and mailed them. It didn't take long I got the dives booked and couple of shore dives for the guys.

First we drove around San Juan - lost, because the rental car agreement didn't really give the correct address, and the site for the rental car company gave a completely wrong address. Fortunately, I found the nearby car company from a tourist map Halen had discovered from the flying school yesterday, and we finally made it.

The idea was that we'd continue the rent and drive the car to Fajardo, but the company didn't have an office there. Next company we asked had only a minivan, which would've cost 70USD + 40USD dropoff fee for leaving the car for another office on the island. That's when we decided to take a taxi, which cost us 91USD (including the tolls) and we got dropped off straight at the ferry terminal.

First we missed the ferry for 15 minutes, and the next one which was leaving in an hour was sold out. The cargo handler said that they'd start selling tickets for 16:30 ferry at 15:30. So off we went to a nearby pub and ordered some food. After eating halen and I had an eerie feeling, and halen went to wait for our tickets around 14:30. I went to look for a geochache by myself, but stumbled upon a guy who was.. uhm.. a bit drunk. And raging to himself. So I decided that it wasn't really a good place for me to be by myself. I got back to stnz and we went to see halen, he was the second in the line and they just opened the ticket selling office. Over 30 minutes earlier than the cargo lady said it would.

We had a long wait at the terminal, and managed to get into the wrong queue after listening one of the terminal workers yelling loudly in Spanish to everyone without us understanding a word, even by asking.

The ferry trip was 1h long, and you couldn't go up on the deck, you had to stay inside the whole time.

When we got to Vieques, everything looked a bit chaotic. Not-so-official taxi drivers were blocking the street and the traffic, and the road was really narrow. I spotted a cabbie, and asked the guys to go to him and as him if he was free. He said that he was picking up his wife, but could take us at the same time with him. After getting lost a bit (in Puerto Rico and on this island, there really aren't street names to navigate with..) we found our place - and it was couple houses away from the taxi driver's and his wife place :D

Local teens move around with horses, you could tell by these two which was the mare and which was the steed.

Because we didn't know how bad the rental car situation was in the island, we were without a car. Our host was kind enough to drive us to a restaurant with her truck - halen sat in the front, and me and stnz sat outside, true banana island -style :D. She also gave us a ride to a local market where we could get some breakfast before getting us back to the apartment. Which doesn't have wifi, which makes it a lot harder to post anything online.

Waiting for our dinner

Day 3: NOLA-MIA-SJU

Date: 24.2.2014

Before we left, we visited a local dive shop because stnz wanted to buy his own diving computer and missed  the store in NYC. The store didn't have the right computer so we left empty handed. We stopped in a nearby gas station (BTW, the gas is annoyingly cheap here). I managed to see the local newspaper and it had a suitable front page for me, on the day of my b-day; Banksy! I had to buy the paper, and I'll frame it at home :).

We got to the airport on time and returning the car was hilarious because we changed the car's units to real ones. The person checking our car asked us where did we drove with it? Then it came clear that she was overwhelmed of the mileage we got into the car in 2 days, she calculated them to be 15 000 :D. We realized that she didn't see that we had changed the car off from the miles and into kilometers so the conversion from the mileage when we got the car and the amount in kilometers afterwards didn't add up.

Time to head out of NOLA and change scenery somewhere even more warmer from the ~20C weather.
Yesterday it rained but today it was beautiful (of course).

The long ass Causeway

New Orleans from the sky

Miami

At San Juan, we waited for our rental car bus to pick us up for 45 minutes, and made 3 phone calls. It felt like the Hertz-people taunted us, because they passed by us 6 times. Stnz rented our car from some small place instead of the big ones we usually use, so this wasn't really a good start.

After a while, the guy picked us up, saying that they didn't know someone was coming. Funny, we called 40 minutes earlier and they said someone was "right there picking us up"..

While driving to the company, there were two big collisions on the highway, fortunately the cars were new, so it seemed that everyone escaped without major injuries.

The car was basic bulk, but it was cheap. Good enough for our purpose. Waiting for the car and problems with their printer I gave up on anything fun happening on my bday. Sucks ass. Well, the weather was nice.

Stnz at the rental car company

Our little four wheeler

Our aparment is really nice, and there are ACs in the bedrooms. I really love it - and it was our home for 4 days (one day more than we planned, because we don't have any flights reserved and paid).

Day 2 in NOLA & Mardi Gras: Krew of Alla

Freaky Fast Delivery - Free Smells

Date: 23.2.2014

Today started with rain, last night there were big thunderstorms and our apartment got really cold. Unfortunately there wasn't enough blankets and Timo didn't want one when we went to bed, so he ended up sleeping with a sheet and with a hoodie, while stnz hoarded all the thick blanket they had. I don't know why he didn't wake stnz up and took some of the blanket, but it was an amusing site in the morning when one looked like frozen burrito and another looked like he had hoarded all the blanket in the other side of their bed.

It was time to go somewhere and find breakfast, and we headed to the street where the party was yesterday, because we remembered there was a cafe serving breakfast until 3 pm :D. The food there was awesome and from basic ingredients (which start to feel like rarity in this country of processed food) so it lasted us the whole day.

The not-so-alive people

mmmh, sweet elixir of life

You should hire Topher, he takes care of trees.

Real Skunk-skin bag

My pretty awesome breakfast: turkey bacon omelette (with spinach), grit and toast

Our car and the mess left after yesterdays party

 

Because of the rain, we first started the day by crossing The Causeway. It's a 38,5 km long bridge, the longest bridge over water in the world, crossing the Lake Pontchartrain which is 1600km2 in size, but average depth is roughly only 3,5 meters.

Bird next to a gated community,  getting his lunch, don't know what bird it is though and it annoys me.

Stnz in a Teavana, shop exclusively for tea. He found a tea blend he has been loving and saying he loves it every day he drinks it. I'm glad I spotted the store for him while walking by.

This whole neighborhood was being demolished, it was a really big area next to the old cemetary, I really wanted to go there and check it out but the warning signs of guard dogs were enough to keep me out :D

Yay a parade

Mardi Gras: Krewe of Alla

After an unsuccessful trip to a local mall to find a prepaid sim-card with mobile data, we decided to return back home. Fortunately the guys were lost again in the city and we stumbled upon the Mardi Gras parade, which we were sure we missed. They were running late because of the rain, for our luck.

We found ourselves a parking place as a stroke of luck and got ourselves to a waiting place of the parade, so we had time to take some photos, even though the participants weren't putting on their best performance. In a way, it was nice because I had the chance to talk with the parade people. Many times I was asked where the pictures were going, and once again I remembered why it would be good to carry around a business card, with my website and Flickr account..

We had the chance to take photos for like an half hour before it started pouring rain again.Fortunately I had two rain sleeves with me for a camera, so me and Halen could photograph in light rain.  

This guy asked me over and handed me a crown head piece - and asked me to wear it through the Mardi Gras. Thanks, sir :)

If you ever wondered what the beads are for, some say they have no meaning, but some sites give the different colors a different meaning. All in all - they are there to remind you to have FUN. The krewes also throw toys and other stuff which you can collect, and the crowd should make themselves seen to get those collectibles instead of the beads.

I got like 30+ beads, and had to start to decline more, because my neck started to hurt because all of the weight. It's a bummer that I couldn't get all of them with me to bring back home, but I tried to collect all the colors into my suitcase :).

We had to leave the parade early because we were just uncomfortably wet because of the best shower of the trip, rain, so we packed ourselves into the car, happy.

Sunset and Bywater

The day changed to 24th in Finland and I was starting to get some birthday wishes, it was really heartwarming :).

We got dry clothes on and continued on foot to do some neighborhood sightseeing and visiting a nearby market. Stnz took his time again getting ready so Halen and I decided to use the time and go outside already, because the sun wouldn't wait for stnz. On the street we saw some guy who told us that the views from the nearby bridge were awesome and we should go and check them out. One thing I love this part of the city was that the people said hey to everyone passing by, and started to talk with each other "just because". 

The bridge across the railroad tracks was pretty beautiful, it led to a park next to the Mississippi river. For our bad luck, the park was still closed (it was supposed to be opened in "Winter 2014") and there was a huge steel gate in the middle of the bridge. I started my 30th year of living by breaking the law and climbing over the gate :D. Unfortunately, there was a park security personnel right in front of the bridge so we couldn't go down in the park. There was several other people with the same problem, so we ended up admiring the view from the bridge. 

The whole Mississippi river was covered with thick mist, it was really odd looking sight. It would've been fun to see it more closely by, but the closed park took the whole water front. And the officer didn't move away.

There were some graffiti around, and they were pretty beautiful and styled in a different way. I always love to photograph beautiful graffiti just to show that they aren't all ugly and spoiling the view. Here they were somewhat surrealistic. 

We spotted a local iron workshop which had a long miniature railroad track at the yard. By looking at the buildings, this city is a great place to be an iron worker - I truly loved the steel railings and other metal work all around the city, new and old. I'm pretty bummed that same kind of stuff isn't seen in Finland.

There were still some visible x-code spray paintings from Katina (2005), most of them original which weren't painted over, but this one was made of steel. The X-code is drawn in partitions: first comes one line when the search and rescue crew was inside, then the second one when they got out (X), and after that they filled the information: top quadrant - date, left quadrant - crew visited, right quadrant - hazards, bottom quadrant - injured or bodies inside.

We also found a house which had two cherry trees on it's yard, and the flowers were just starting to bloom. This was a huge luck, because they bloom only for a short period of time - so I consider this my one and only birthday present - I've always wanted to see a blooming cherry tree <3

When we crossed one of the bigger streets so we could get to a local store, we clearly entered into a neighborhood (St. Claude) which wasn't filled with young, laid back people. First car shop had a sign which started: "We don't sell the Cat, we don't sell Crack" so I knew enough to put my camera away.

The store didn't have any fresh food, only some canned / processed stuff. Everywhere was notices with printed images of people who had shoplifted. While at register there was a broadcast reminding people that there were security on ground and asked if the cashier was all right, which the cashier replied yes, and they reminded again about the security on site. Such Fun.

After this it was time to get back "home", and get ready for a visit in French Quarter - first chance to drive the Camaro with the roof open :D.