The reason I ended up on the west coast of Puerto Rico was to purchase a vehicle. Here is how the saga unfolded. My friends Bill and Kelly, Bill being the Coast Guard dental officer for the Island and Kelly who's tuned into the local scene on the west coast alerted me to some buying opportunities out west. Now I'll just make a general comment about Puerto Rico. They operate differently in a number of areas that takes some adjusting too.

Maso, a local Puerto Rican surfer who also makes his living by selling chicken and beer out the back of his car at surf breaks apparently had the pulse on two rides for a thousand dollars or less. Beautiful. I call Maso and that's when the language barrier reared up. He speaks a cross of slang English and slang Spanish that neither English speakers or Spanish speakers can understand. I understood about 25 percent of the conversation, but what I thought we were clear on is the fact that I'll be driving two hours out west to check the car out and that said vehicles were available and all that.

Well Kim, Kelly, Bill and I arrived mid morning at the surf break on a day when the surf was pumping. I met Maso and clearly I was not his priority and immediatly got that bad feeling. Maso tells me to "hang out for a few days" so we have time to look at the vehicle. I let him know that wouldn't happen. Apparently he views himself as some kind of local power broker as these vehicles for sale were not even his. So I asked for the location of the vehicles and got the run around. Eventually we did look at a Isuzu Rodeo with a smashed out back window and an assortment of other dings. Of course the owner was no where to be scene. Very irritating to say the least. But lets not take a turn to negative town just yet. It's funny how things usually work out.

During all the hub bub Kelly mentions Shawna, a girl in the Coast Guard who is transferring to Kodiak is selling her car for $1900 beans. Beautiful. More than I wanted spend for sure, but in the context of the quality that I was seeing at a $1000 dollars spending a few more hundred for a car that doesn't have windows bashed out was worth the stretch. So we settled on $1700. The vehicle is a 1994 Mitubishi Mirage with 108,000 miles on it and seems to run just fine. So I'm pretty jazzed, because now the entire gamut of activities is now available. Let it be known though that this does not mean I'll be staying any longer than the hurricane season directs.

Capt Chris