Friday, April 21, 1995 - Boqueron, Puerto Rico

One of the alternators isn't working right, so Roy dismounted it this morning and took it to Western Auto in Mayaguez to buy a replacement. I went with him. Now that we know how to get there, it's easy. We saved $3.70 on the fare, too. It was only 90 cents each from Boqueron to Cabo Rojo and $1 each from there to Mayaguez Mall. Roy bought a rebuilt alternator at Western Auto, and I bought a new tape player. Then we went to Walgreen's, and I bought a bunch of stuff, including some chocolate-covered mints. Went to Wal-Mart and bought a belt to hold up my blue shorts that the elastic has stretched out of. By then we were famished, so we went to Ponderosa for their all-you-can-eat buffet. It was disappointing. Selections were limited, especially of hot food. No meat, no chicken, no fish, and very few vegetables. Beverages and deserts weren't included, so we ended up spending nearly $20 for a not-so-good meal. Used the public phone at Sears to call about the inverter and radar. It's a good thing we did. Turned out we'd sent the inverter to the wrong place; they no longer repair them. They are very nice and are trying to locate it for us. The woman I talked with remembered it arriving yesterday, but they turned it down. I'm to phone IPS (International Parcel Service) Monday to find out if they've located it. At West Marine, there was a lot of confusion, but we finally talked with an assistant manager named Sam, who found the radar and said they were checking it out and to call back at 4:30. By then, it was 3:30, and we were worried about missing the last publico back to Boqueron, so we quickly bought a couple of collapsible water jugs (our old ones leak) and some groceries, including ten pounds of potatoes. Then we hurried to the publico stand and got in a van for Cabo Rojo. There were plenty of passengers, but the driver was nowhere to be seen. After half an hour or so, he finally showed up, and we took off. He made a lot of side trips to drop people off, so it was nearly five o'clock when we got to Cabo Rojo, and we had several blocks to walk to the terminal. What a relief when we saw a publico waiting to take people to Boqueron! Roy and I got in right away, but the driver was waiting for more passengers, so I phoned West Marine while we were waiting. Sam said they had checked the radar and were shipping us a new one. That's good news. We should have it Monday or Tuesday. When we got back to the boat, Roy installed the alternator, but it didn't work, so now he has to take it back again. Nuts.