Cleaning, cleaning, and more cleaning

The first few days after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, the four of us (Marimerce, Jorge, Maria del Mar and I) were busy cleaning up our own apartments and helping our friends and family. Here are the casts from left to right: Jorge, Marimerce, and Maria del Mar. 

Both of our apartments had about an inch worth of water in some areas, so it took a good few hours to make it dry and get rid of the smell. One of the fastest ways to get rid of the water is to use a rectangular bucket to scoop the water. Once it gets to a level that the scooping does not work anymore, we used the scoop tray, and then finally, the mop to get rid of the remaining bits. Since there was no water from the pumps, we used chlorex and vinegar to mop the floor again and voila, back to the original condition of the apartment.

Cleaning out Marty and Javier’s back yard

Jorge and I went over to their house in Miramar to clean the yard. It was a complete mess with broken glass, twigs, sand, and leaves all over the yard. It took around 2.5 hours to clean the yard, as we worked efficiently. It was not an easy task in the scorching sun, but still manageable and ended up being a great work out. Keep in mind that the Planet Fitness Gym was closed for the entire duration so this was the substitute workout.

Cleaning out the soccer field

Jorge and I went over to the soccer field to help out with the mess. We both play with a local team a couple of days during the week and thus, they needed help. When we got there, there were already around 8 people helping out. There used to be a stand to watch the game, but the stand had broken apart and we had to cut a lot of trees and clean the stand. They probably have to build a new stand there from scratch.

Cleaning out Maria del Mar’s father’s house

Maria del Mar and I went over to her father’s house (Ignacio) and we had to check the damage control. Luckily, the house was still in good condition except for some water in some areas of the rooms. Unfortunately, the back yard was a complete mess and it took a good two hours to clean it up. While I was there, I plucked out all the awkward weeds growing from the cement (the job of the gardener), sculpted the trees, and cleaned the grass. The tool shed behind the house had broken apart entirely and at some point, we plan on putting the shed back together. The partition fence that separates the neighbor’s place was damaged heavily and was leaning into Ignacio’s territory. We hoped that Ignacio will get some kind of insurance to cover this problem, but who knows…

As you can see above, we were doing a lot of manual labor, which was not easy and difficult compared to an office job. I am so glad that I have higher education and that I’m not a tradesman, in a good way. Manual labor takes a strain on the body.

Well, we were fortunate enough to have a working generator at Marimerce’s father’s place. Thus, we had all our refrigerated and frozen goods in place. The only catch was that the generator worked during the hours of 6pm to 9am only. Therefore, we woke up before 8am to cook breakfast and then cooked dinner after 6pm. I normally do not eat breakfast, since I do not get hungry in the morning, but it was fun cooking breakfast for four or even up to six when we had Vanessa and Francisco staying there as well. It was kind of like Big Brother or 3 couples going away on vacation together, but still, so much fun.

For lunch, we always ate out. It is not cheap to eat out in Puerto Rico, unless you go to the supermarket. They are chains like Supermax or Pueblo that have a hot meal section, but the lines were ridiculously long to get in. We ate at local restaurants where prices ranged from around $10 to $15 including tip. One good news was that the government took away the 11% tax for the time being. Thus, eating out was 11% cheaper, in a way. Although, eating out every day can be very expensive.

 

 

Dry law in effect

The government put in effect a dry law for the first week after the hurricane. Basically, every single establishment did not sell alcohol, except for the hotels. I guess the government wants to prevent any more disaster and frustration that may cause harm to the island. We did see the hotel restaurants that had a few customers drinking alcohol.

This does not mean that you cannot drink alcohol at home. You are allowed to consume your own alcohol. We were fortunate enough to have a good selection of booze at the apartment and we pretty much had a glass of wine every night.

 

 

Once the dry law was lifted, oh boy, the line at the liquor store was very long. I could not believe the 20-person line to get into the store and there was a bouncer to let the people in and out.  

Curfew in effect

We had a curfew from 6pm to 6am for the first few days and this was slowly changed from 9pm to 6am and then from midnight to 6am and finally, no curfew. The curfew period lasted for around 3 weeks. During the curfew period, only government employees, workers, people working at establishments were allowed to be out during the curfew time zones. Besides, you do not want to be out walking around at night. Imagine the scene of Walking Dead. It was pitch dark and there was no light anywhere. You definitely do not want to be in the wrong place….

 

 

 

 

Network connection

We had very limited network connectivity on our cell phones. The entire internet system was down and with no electricity, even if cable was still alive, you won’t be able to use it. We relied on our mobile phone to get access to vital information on the web and make phone calls. The connection was very intermittent or did not work at all. A lot of the mobile towers were heavily damaged, thus, depending on the area, there was no connection whatsoever.

Life in San Juan was not that bad

After all, there were many inconveniences, but life in San Juan was not that bad. Seriously, I have been in some parts of Africa where people had no water, no roof, pot hole toilets, etc. Compared to that, this was not bad at all. Puerto Rico is a first world island supported by the United States and will recover very quickly (I hope!).

 

 

I enjoyed my time during the 20 days after the hurricane, but struggling to get off of the island. I booked a flight from San Juan to Madrid on Air Europa for Oct 24^th and the flight was cancelled. The airport was closed for the first few days and was only accepting charter or government/military planes. My flight got cancelled three more times, once on Sept 28^th and then a fully booked flight on Sept 31, where I could not get on the flight. We went all the way to the airport, but it was overbooked and they just moved me to October 8 without any compensation or anything. The girl told me to talk to the people in Madrid, when I get there. Geeze, what kind of customer service is that? I called Air Europa to confirm my flight for October 8 and they had indefinitely cancelled the San Juan – Madrid route until March 2018! I finally got a flight leaving on October 9 from San Juan – NYC – Madrid. The flight was brutal, since I had to layover in NYC and it took almost 18 hours, instead of the 7.5 hours direct. Give me my money back Air Europa!

 

 

Meanwhile, while I was waiting to get off the island, I volunteered often. I will write in the next blog, how to help.