Day 183, Year 6 Change of Plans
Date: Monday, April 25, 2011
Weather: Another Sunny and Beautiful Day
Location: Bastimento Beach Bungalow, Vieques-Puerto Rico

Being on land is very much like being out on Windbird. Circumstances can change your plans very quickly. And that is what happened today. The trip to Windbird today was postponed and the car rental was extended for another day. Our oldest grandchild, Sam, had what he called headache yesterday and during the night it became evident that it was either an ear or sinus infection, or both. We followed the suggestion in the Lonely Planet and took him to the Centro de Salud de la Familia just south of Isabel Segunda first thing in the morning. After much waiting, they sent us next door to the Emergency Room at the hospital. There we waited, and waited, and waited. I walked to the nearby fruit and veggie market to buy much needed fresh produce. When I returned, we waited some more. Sam was being very patient, but after three hours it looked like little progress was being made. Mark and I thought of calling Diane at Blackbeard Sports to ask if there might be an alternative to the Emergency Room. She had been so helpful the other day when we were looking for bikes to rent and today her suggestions were golden. She suggested that we go to the new doctor in town as he would not have the waiting list of the other two established physicians. We took off immediately and when we arrived, I went in and found that the doctor could see Sam immediately. Mark raced back to rescue Heather and Sam from the Emergency Room and within half an hour we had the diagnosis of an infected right ear and a left ear that doesn’t look much better. We then went to the Farmicia. Heather bought the over-the-counter items prescribed by the doctor and I waited to get the prescription filled. And I waited. And I waited. You have to take a number and wait just to leave your prescription. So by the time everything was done, it was 1:30 in the afternoon and time for naps. We did have some wonderful beach time in the afternoon mix and matching grandchildren and their parents with rotating nap schedules. We rotate time between picking up sea glass, building sand castles, and exploring the sea life on the reef on the far side of our salt-water “swimming pool.” Tomorrow we will try once again to go to Windbird for a little sail and hopefully do some more adventuresome some snorkeling.

Tonight we had a Handley favorite dinner of beef and veggie kebobs using my sister Margie’s marinade. It is just absolutely the best marinade in the world. While the kebobs were on the grill everyone but Heather and I went out in search of wild horses. We stayed behind to complete the dinner preparations and the wild horse hunt was successful. The horse hunters found six horses two doors down the beach. One was a young one and the grandchildren loved the adventure. Earlier in the day we had left the gate open after driving the car in, and within an hour we had a wild horse in the yard. So the wild horses definitely add a special to our visit here.

110425 Day 183 Vieques, Puerto Rico–Macho Men at the BBQ