Getting Settled (Part 1 - Island Living)

On Sunday, we picked up a few groceries and realized just how expensive this place can be. Although we did buy many things that you need when your pantry is completely empty, we
didn't have nearly as many items as we should have....for a $380 bill!! It's funny because somethings are priced very comparable to the states, but then other items are way more. For instance, a regular box of mac-n-cheese, normally like $.75 at most, was over $2!!!

We also joined two of Rs coworkers and ventured out to the rain forest. Up in the middle of nowhere there is a really unique watering hole! Although there were only a dozen or so people there when we showed up, we've heard that they can have a couple hundred when they have a band on a weekend night. Their biggest attraction is the beer drinking pigs!! No really!! For a few dollars they will give you a non-alcoholic beer which you can take to a pen and give to a HUGE pig...and not a farm raised pig...a really wild pig with tusks!! Check these pics out...







We had a busy Monday, the first work day since arriving. We started by having Tropical Depression Ana visit in the middle of the night. Everyone on the island said it was not much of a storm, but R was up closing shutters and making sure our shack was still standing.

Then we ventured out. We opened a PO Box, then swapped our Texas drivers licenses for VIs. After these two surprisingly easy, and fast, stops (we had heard nightmare stories about how long it can take), we had lunch with R's coworker. We then picked up our library cards and opened a bank account!

As you can see, Sophie loves having our own pool!! We are trying to get her in the water once a day so she gets used to it (our permanent housing has a pool which she will have access to and we don't want her to fall in without knowing about the stairs)!