Settling In!

Man has it rained!  Rained most of the day Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  Matt was seriously getting very stir crazy.  It cleared off enough that we went to town on Tuesday afternoon via a gaugau to restock Matt on cigars, get me a pedicure ($9) and buy a few groceries.  On the way home we had 22 passengers and a baby, plus the driver and conductor on the gaugau....and remember this about the size of Toyota mini-van.  It looked too full for us to fit on it when they stopped for us and you should have seen Matt's face as they kept stopping for more passengers.  It was easy for me to see his face because I was perched on this little bench behind the front row of seats staring at Matt and all the other passengers  Everyone had to rearrange their knees to mesh in with the other passengers and evidently Matt wasn't doing that correctly because the guy next to me grabbed Matt's knees and rearranged them. But it's cheap, quick transportation and we didn't want to get the motorcycle out in all that rain.

With all the rain our access path to the beach is flooded.  We have to wade through about three inches of water to get there.  Hermann loves his beach time so he trudges right on through, Matt however is NOT a fan of this walk.  Everyone we've talked to says they have never seen this much rain.  Hope it goes away soon!

Actually Thursday was a great day.  We spent several hours at the beach and then went into Cabarete for happy hour.  We had met Pat on the beach a couple of days ago.  He's originally from Montana but now lives full time in the DR in a house very near our condo.  His wife is back in Montana visiting family until next week so we spent lots of time at the beach talking.  He's a great source of information.  He invited us to the happy hour....and even stopped by the condo and gave us a ride.  His little dog Oreo went with us, but she seems to go everywhere with Pat. 

Cabarete in the evening was everything I've heard it to be.  It's almost magical.  This is the same beach that in the daytime is full of beach chairs, kite surfers and families swimming.  But at night the beach chairs go inside, out comes huge bean bags, patio furniture or picnic tables and the restaurants all string out lighting.  It's beautiful.  While it's normally very breezy in the afternoon, the wind dies down at night so it makes for a perfect evening to sit outside to eat and drink.  Most of the restaurants offer happy hours specials from 4 to 6 or from 5 to 7, so that was perfect for us.  About 11:00 the place starts to really fill up with the late night crowd...or so we here.  He back home safe and sound by 8:00.  The only Americans in the group were Pat, Matt and I.  The rest were Canadian except for an English woman.  Some lived here full time, some for five or six months at a time - really fun evening.

The ladies we met last night hooked me up with a yoga class.  Three of them live in a condo complex very near us and they have yoga classes Wednesday and Friday mornings....so today was my first class.  The cost is $2500 DOP for ten classes, which I believe works out to about $6 a class..  Matt is as nervous as a dad sending his baby off to the first day of kindergarten because this is my first trip out alone on the motorcycle.   Yoohoo.  He's told me to keep my speed down, be very careful crossing the street and look both ways.....I really thought he'd tell me not to take candy from strangers!

After yoga we went to the beach and some of the Canadians we'd met the day before were walking up the beach to La Boca and asked us to join them.  La Boca means "the mouth" and is where the mouth of the river runs into the ocean.  There are a couple of rustic Dominican style restaurants there that are well known by locals and visitors alike.  We just had a couple of beers but David and Louise split a fish plate and gave me a bite.  Yummm!  Matt and I will be back when we are hungry enough to appreciate it.

After that long walk we cleaned up and took the gaugau into town because we needed a few things from the store and to withdraw some money from the ATM.  When we were ready to head back, every gaugau that passed us was full so we walked the 2 kilometers to our condo.  The last 20 minutes or so we cut over to the beach and it was a gorgeous walk at the end of the day.  We got home just about 15 minutes before dark, so barely made it!

Big day...we are tired!