Funny things about Puerto Rico

i know there are things I have forgotten but this weekend Lance and I made a list of some things about Puerto Rico that are unique. So here they are:

1. They don't have crosswalks here. Nope. You just stand out on the edge of the curb like your going to just walk across and traffic just stops for you. Its pretty awesome actually.

2. People drive like maniacs here. Seriously. maniacs. Its not unusual to see someone just drive right up onto the sidewalk if they want to...there is no organization to their driving... if you are at  a 4 way stop and the lights go out, every body just drives up to the middle and pushes their way through instead of taking turns.

4. Speaking of their driving.. police drive around with their lights on for no reason  - so you never know if you are getting pulled over or not.

5. As my momma quickly learned... they ARE Americans... so do ask if they are American. I did NOT make that mistake, for the record, I learned from my mother's example.

6. It rains every day. Nothing really stops for the rain though (except for the occasional big storm) because usually 10 min later its sunny and warm again.

7. Its this interesting mix of incredible wealth and incredible poverty. If you stand on the corner and watch the cars go by, it wouldn't be unusual to see some fancy ridiculously expensive car drive by (or 2 or 3 of them) YET the streets surrounding this city (outside of the 3 major streets that are all nice hotels, restaurants and shops) are just run down streets with graffiti everywhere.

8. Speaking of cars... when I say ridiculously expensive, I'm not referring to BMW's and Lexus's here.. I'm talking about $200,000 Bently's and other cars that I don't care to remember the names. However, I'm afraid Lance might suffer from whiplash from staring too hard as they zoom by. I frequently have to wipe his drool ;-)  We noticed that most of the cars end up in the same place (this weird parking lot near a restaurant). Lance's theory is new money=flaunting it (as opposed to old money in kansas city who could care less about the latest trend in cars)  or that restaurant is a drug dealing hotspot. MY theory is that these people are wealthy in the US, have a summer home here and instead of purchasing a car that would just sit in the garage while they aren't here... they just RENT these fancy cars when they are here visiting. WHO knows.. it doesn't really matter.

9. The homes are deceiving. They are all surrounded by (usually rusty) metal fences and completely gated in...usually doubly enforced with a heavy metal chain and a padlock (in case the gate wasn't enough) and the window all have bars on them. BUT... if you look inside the gate you may find a huge gorgeous house. Everything is on the lockdown..even our apartment you need 3 keys.. one for the front entrance, one to use the elevator and then one for our apartment. Once in our apartment there are four locks on the door JUST in case you weren't already safe enough.

10. lizards lizards everywhere. Lizards are like our squirrels...seriously. When I first came here I thought it was awesome to see a couple of lizards crawling up a wall when we went for a walk... over time I realized that its more unusual NOT to see any lizards at all that day. Hey, at least they are pretty cute :-)  I must look ridiculous to them taking pictures of lizards.. it would be like a tourist coming to ks and gawking and taking photos of a squirrel. haha. THAT's a funny image!

11. The puerto rican's like to party!! Its quite funny, actually. For example, when we were driving to the airport at 5am on a saturday morning... the bars were still packed!