Crazy Cabarete

One more month before we leave.  We've definitely started our count down of what we need to do before we leave.  A little sad, but we're ready for what comes next.

It's been a bit of a slow week.  No school for me this week or next.  On Tuesday when I normally help teach there was a teacher strike.  I guess this happens quite often.  Then next week the kids are all off for Semana Santa.  Lynn, the English teacher, leaves on April 13th for her three month trip back home to England.  So really only two more classes.

Mojito Bar Sit in

Last night we attended a "sit-in", which I think was really a "drink-in".  One of the most popular spots on Cabarete beach is the Mojito bar.  They have good drinks at great prices, fresh juices and some really nice food items.  Unfortunately, the Mojito bar is in the center of a dispute.  Beachside bars and restaurants must have restroom facilities.  Mojito bar had an agreement with the neighboring resort that allowed Mojito bar customers to use their facilities.  But the resort sold and the new owners fenced off the access to the restrooms.  So the Mojito bar was forced to close.  They have reopened....at least temporarily as take out bar.  So no tables allowed and you must order your drinks at the bar.  A group of the Mojito bar fans organized a sit in last night to show there support for their favorite watering hole.  Since there are no longer any tables, the mojito bar instead has purchased some beach chairs.  So this was our first ever protest...but pretty nice as the mojitos were great...as usual.

As typical....there is always a cast of characters on the beach in Cabarete.  Like the owl lady.  This was the first time we have seen her, but she came to the sit in with her pet owl.  I guess there were two young "owlets" that were orphaned.  She tried to rescue both of them, but one died.  This one however seems to flourish.  I really wonder why she would bring him to the beach?  Surely not a happy place for an owl.

And then there is ALWAYS Cornelius on the beach.  He's a beach musician, but doesn't really care much if you pay him.  Or how much you pay him.  When there is live music at the bar, they musician will often let Cornelius sing while the musician takes a break.  Problem is you can't get Cornelius off the stage.  Last night Robyn gave him a about 100 pesos ($2.50 USD) to play a song.  But he took a seat with us and sang...and sang...and sang.  Got to the point that we were ready to go for dinner and he was still saving.  So we just had to slip away while he was still singing to us

We said goodbye to another of our friends this past week.  Angie, who lives here full time with her husband Pat, went back to Montana for a long stay on Thursday.  Unfortunately, she got sick on Tuesday night and asked Pat to take her to the hospital.  They diagnosed her with gall stones and admitted her, probably just for one night.  As it turned our she was in there two nights and barely was released from the hospital in time to run home and pack a suitcase, and then headed off to the airport.  We hope to see her this summer in Lake Chapala.  She has family that lives very near there and is due for a visit.  Meanwhile, while she's in Montana, she's going to try and get her health issues resolved.  Health care is ok and they do have Dominican health insurance, but she's also covered by Medicare so probably best to do what she needs in the states.

Spanish Lessons and Friends Leaving

Spanish Lessons with Angel

Oh....learning a language can be so hard!  Especially the older you get.  Matt and I invested in three levels of Rosetta Stone and that was helpful.  It gave me a decent vocabulary but I still had trouble forming sentences and I didn't understand conjugation.  We also purchased a much less expensive program, Visual Link Spanish, that I worked on quite a bit before we left Kansas City.  It helped a lot with conjugation but didn't help much with forming sentences.  I took a community college course in conversational Spanish the last few months we were in Kansas City.  That helped some....but I was always the quiet one in the class because I couldn't think fast enough to do much conversing!  Since being in the DR, I've tried to communicate but I found my pronunciation is way off.  So for the last several weeks, I've been working with a tutor.  Angel (my tutor) is from Spain and while here in the DR he teaches at the Spanish language school in Sosua in the mornings and teaches kite surfing in the afternoon.  But he also tutors on the side so twice a week he spends 90 minutes with me trying to hammer into my head the finer points of communicating in Spanish.  He's got his work cut out for him.  But he seems very patient so that's good....and he's very cute, so that helps as well.  Matt took this pic of one of my sessions.

Rymond with Fattie, Syd & Victoria

This week two of our favorite couples went home.  Raymond and Victoria left on Tuesday.  Victoria is from St. Petersburg, Russia.  Raymond is from Los Angeles.  They spent two months here along with their very spoiled pup Fattie.  Victoria is so sweet, never a mean word for anyone.  She seems very quiet, but she told me it's because she's not confident with her English.  She actually speaks English very well....amazing since it's since a different language than Russian.  Raymond is a story and a half.  He started out as a New York cop but was involved in a shooting and had to take a disability retirement.  He then moved to LA where he seems to do a bit of everything.  His love....after Victoria and Fattie.....is poker.  He is officially the North Coast (of the DR) champ.  Raymond's email address is "thatarrogantape".....perfect.  I'll never forget it.  Victoria hates LA and Raymond hates cold weather, so they usually meet for long vacations about three times a year.  Victoria decided their next trip should be to Mexico this summer since we'll be there.  We hope to hook up with them while we're in Lake Chapala.

Deb and Richard

Today, Deb and Richard left.  They'd been here six weeks.  We spent a lot of beach time with them and had a lot of dinners in Cabarete.  We educated them on how to ride a guagua and they learned very well.  They went to Las Terrenas with us and we had a great time.  I know they're happy to get home to their granddaughter but we will miss them.  Hope to see them when we go to Canada next summer.

Nona....not sure what's she is doing!

Matilde

Two people who take very good care of us are the housekeepers, Matilde and Nona.  These two beautiful ladies work very hard to keep all ten condos clean as well as the exterior halls and stairwells.  They are always cleaning, mopping and washing linens, but always seem very happy.  They both have beautiful voices and often sing while they are cleaning.  One day this week they took a little break and came down to the beach.  Unfortunately I had already gone inside, but Matt had a good visit with them (in Spanish of course) and got to watch them have fun on the beach.  Then after a short break, they went back to work.

Our Next Winter Home

Only another five weeks here in the DR.  The past five months have flown by.  We are sad to leave but also looking forward to what comes next.

We'll spend a bit of time in Florida....and plan to go to Disney World.  Just being in the US for a few weeks sounds good.  Funny things we've missed!  We both want a steak dinner -  beef in the DR compares to the US.  Mashed potatoes sound really good right now....no restaurants serve mashed potatoes.  And we need to do some catch up shopping for things we just can't buy here.

Then we'll head into Mexico and plan to be in the Lake Chapala area around May 3rd.  We know we'll head back to Kansas City for a month or so the first of September.  But what to do after that?  Well, we've decided!

In mid-October we will check into a casita at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle.....commonly referred to as La Cruz by most gringos for obvious reasons.   La Cruz is about 30 minutes north of Puerta Vallarta.  The link to this casita La Cruz House.  The owner was very sweet and gave us a great negotiated rate.  She didn't really want to rent to us past mid-December at the discounted rate as that would be her high season so we'll only be there for two months.  This little casita looks very comfortable and they welcome Hermann.  I've heard many good things about La Cruz so very excited to check it out.

In mid-December we'll take the ferry over to the La Paz area and have a two bedroom house rented on the beach.  Matt and I went to La Paz two years ago and really loved the area.  At that time we made connections with a realtor who specialized in property in the ex-pat area of La Paz called El Centennario.  We actually came very close to buying a piece of property then.  We got back in touch with this realtor about finding a rental home and she had a few options, but the ones that were most appealing were out of our price range and the owners didn't want to negotiate.  Matt actually found the house we're renting and he's very excited about it.  Here's the link:  La Paz house.  Again, this owner was great to work with and she gave us a great rate for a four month stay, so we'll be there from mid-December until mid-April.

We found both of these properties on Vacational Rentals By Owners website, www.vrbo.com.  We've used that site for vacation rentals before and it really seems to work out for longer term rentals as well.  We found the Cabarete condo we're in now on that site as well as the Lake Chapala house that we're headed to next.  Hope that all our experiences are this good!

And we're having a visitor!  My friend Cher is coming to see us on April 6th and staying for ten days.  I'm so excited to get to show her around this area we love so much!

Las Terrenas!

I have been wanting to go back to Las Terrenas to spend some real time there but Matt was not so keen on the idea.  He hadn't been overly impressed on our first visit....I think the communication issue really turned him off.  In Las Terrenas few people speak English.  It seems to be either Spanish or French.  There are a lot of Europeans in that area, mostly French.  And a lot of Haitians.  Communication can be tricky but it is a lovely little town and the drive there is amazing.

Deb and Richard (more Canadians) have been here for five weeks and are leaving next week.  They wanted to go to Las Terrenas so Matt agreed that we would go together.  We also asked Robyn as she had never been to that area.  We found a nice house on VRBO at the last minute.  Three bedrooms so plenty of room for all of us and we rented a car.  So bright and early Thursday morning we headed east toward the Samana peninsula.

Dominican traffic jam

When you leave our condo, if you head west you are headed to Cabarete or Sosua.  If you head east you are headed to smaller towns, like Sabinetta and Gaspar Hernandez.  Anytime we've headed east, we've run into a herd of cattle on the road.  You'll see someone wildly waving a red flag as your warning to slow down and the next thing you know there is a herd headed your way.  If you're a gringo, you stop or at least slow down and let them pass.  If you're a Dominican you just head right on through, winding your way through the cows.  I must say, it's much more comfortable to be sitting in a car while these cows pass by rather than sitting on my motorcycle!

The trip to Las Terrenas only takes about 2.5 hours so a nice drive.  We pretty much went straight there with only one bathroom break.  The house we rented was very tropical-style house.  It was intended to be very open.  Lots of wooden doors that folded open to incorporate the outdoors into your living area.  The doors and windows all had slits in them, so even when closed air...and insects....could come right in.  We were concerned mosquitos might be a problem, but they weren't at all.  Our only uninvited guest was a tiny little gecko in our kitchen.

After checking in we walked down to the Las Pescadarias de la Playa.  This is a row of restaurants on the beach all connected by a boardwalk.  We opted for pizza and it was yummy.  We spent the afternoon lounging around the pool at our house and then went out on the town.  This was a big event for Matt and I as we rarely go out at night.  Matt and Robyn did some research and decided on Mi Corozon for dinner.  We set out in the car and promptly got lost.  Most of Las Terrenas is a loop and traffic is limited to one way.  If you miss your street, you have to go through the entire loop again.  After a few loops we decided it was time for me to put my Spanish to use and ask for directions.  We stopped at a service station and I explained to a guy on a motorcycle that we were looking for this restaurant (Nosotros buscandeo para un restaurante Mi Corozone) and if he knew where it was.  He did and asked if he could lead us to the restaurant.  I knew he did this to collect a few pesos but it seemed well worth the cost.  He happily lead us to the restaurant, we hadn't been far just kept missing it.  We had a bit of a discussion over how much to pay him for his time and we decided on $100 pesos (only about $2.50).  I worried if this would be enough, but he just took the bill without looking at it, smiling the entire time.  I'm always amazed at how friendly and helpful Dominicans can be.

Syd, Matt, Robyn, Deb & Richard

Mi Corozon

Pool at our Las Terrenas home

Mi Corozone turned out to be a very elegant and beautiful restaurant.  Our meal was amazing and service was perfect.  It was definitely a splurge for us, something we don't do very often.  But very much worth it!  We capped off the evening with wine at our pool.



Friday we decided to go to La Playa de Ballenas (beach of whales).  It was a bit of a drive, but a beautiful beach - no whales though!  Restaurante Luis is a bit of a legend in this area.  It's a simple beachfront restaurant that serves up amazing fish, lobster and shrimp.  Here's a shot of Luis' when we first arrived.  By one o'clock nearly every table was full.

We left Las Terrenas early Saturday morning as the weather looked very rainy.  The weather actually improved a bit as we headed back to Cabarete.  We stopped at three different beach along the way as well as Playa Grande golf course.  Was a great way to end our trip.  Our only disappointment was that we hoped to be able to snorkel at some of these beaches, but the ocean was just too rough.

Robyn, Deb, Matt & Syd at LT Home

On the road to Las Terrenas

Playa Calaton

Hermann had stayed at the condo.  Nona had taken care of him while we were gone.  He seemed very happy to see us....but then we had a huge scare!  There was a young woman walking her dog that went past our condo on the way back from the beach.  Herm was very excited by this and went out on the balcony barking.  The barking seemed to be a bit too much so Matt went out there to try and calm him down and then started talking to the woman apologizing for Herm's barking.  Then Herm managed to squeeze his way through the pillars on the balcony and fell.  We're on the second floor so it was quite a fall for him.  Matt and I both raced down (Matt actually beat me) and Herm was on his feet by then but he does have a seriously sore front leg.  He allows me to touch it and move all his joints all the way up to his hip showing any discomfort but he isn't able to walk on it without pain. Not sure what to do about this.  I think I'll give him aspirin and keep him quiet....sorry Herm, no beach walk today.  And hope he's better by Monday.

Special Day!

No pictures....this post is really just so I can record a bit of what I experienced.

Wednesday was the day the Lush Ladies had planned a ride.  Lynn thought she had heard of a beach just past Sosua that was nice so that was our ultimate destination.  We stopped in Sosua first to have lunch with some of her friends.  Colleen was part of the group.  She had lived in this area for six years and was ready to "give it up".  Evidently that's the term used for when you've had enough of this crazy life and want to go back home.  I'm thinking she may be missing this beautiful warm weather and beaches when she's back in a Canadian winter, but who knows.

After lunch we headed off to the beach.  We turned off the main road and started through some narrow winding roads.  This was very much a business area with jewelry stores, colmadas and clothing stores.  But not an area intended for tourists.  Of course these three retired white ladies on motorcycles attracted lots of attention.  Lynn asked several times for direction to "la playa" and they kept pointing us deeper and deeper into this barrio.  The roads got more and more narrow and we were definitely in a very residential area, but a very poor one.  We finally came to a dead end.  By that time we had a gaggle of kids staring at us wondering "what the heck".  A young man (mid-20s) who lived in the house at the dead end explained to us that the playa was down this walkway.  No way to ride our bikes any further.  Lynn asked me what I thought about leaving our bikes there and walking.  My reaction was no, not a good idea.  Now Lynn's spanish is not much better than mine but she attempted to tell this man that in the area she lives there are "mucho ladrons" (many thieves) and that her bike was her only means of transportation.  He assured us that our bikes would be safe and he would show us the beach.  Lynn decided it would be safe to leave them there.

As soon as we agreed to leaving the bikes, this man's mother came out of the house with her plastic chair and sat down right next to the bikes to watch them.  An older man started stringing a line between two trees and brought out a tarp to shade the bikes so the seats wouldn't be hot when we returned.  Then the young man started leading us off to "la playa".   Oh, and of course there were about 12 kids that followed along.  Meanwhile, I made new friends.  One little girl had come up to me immediately.  I asked her name, which I couldn't understand.  How old she was, she was ten.  And told her how pretty she was and she said gracias.  She wanted to walk next to me and hold my hand on the way to "la playa".  Another little girl was shyly hanging nearby.  I asked her name, it was Erica and how old she was - she was eight.  Then she was my new amiga as well.  Erica wanted to hold my other hand but I was holding my helmet and a beach towel in that hand.  She solved that issue.  She gave my helmet to the first girl to carry and she took my towel.  So into the barrio we headed, me with a beautiful little girl on each hand.

He stopped to show us their school and took us right inside.  The teacher smiled and was very sweet about us interrupting her kids.  This school was for the youngest kids, no more than eight years old. It was obvious that our guide was very proud of this school. I can't describe how close everything was.  It was house after house built right on top of each other, with a few colmados and cafeterias mixed into the jumble.  Kids and dogs were everywhere.

Well we got to the beach....not a beach at all.  Just a rocky cliff looking down to the ocean.  From that cliff we could very clearly see Sosua beach which is our favorite beach in the DR.  It was also very obvious that our guide was very proud of the view from his barrio.  I thought of all the times I'd lounged at that beach and looked at these cliffs and never had any idea what was on top of the cliff.  I asked my little amigas if they liked to swim and yes they did.  My first little amiga asked "voy ala playa contigo" - if she could go to the beach with me.  When I asked what beach, she pointed to Sosua beach.  I asked her "what about your mother" and she told me her mother didn't live there.  Her father was a policeman and working.  I asked how would we get there.  On my moto.  Sadly I had to try and explain to my girls that I couldn't take them to the beach.

Then we headed back through the maze and there were our bikes, perfectly ok and well guarded.  We gave our tour guide $100 pesos (about $2.50 usd) and his mother another $100 for guarding the bikes and off we went.  What an experience.

Here's what I learned.....just because you are poor does not mean you are dishonest, just because you are poor doesn't mean you can't be proud of what you have and just because you are poor doesn't mean you can't be happy.

Next week the Lush Ladies are taking on something much tamer.  Lynn has a German friend, Lyndie, who has a beautiful house up in the mountains.  She was one of the ladies we lunched with.  She invited us up to visit her on our next ride.  But she doesn't feel that her road is safe for motorcycles so we're going to head part of the way up the mountain and she has a friend who's house we can park our bikes at.  Then Lyndie will come pick us up in her car.  She promised us cold beer and hot pizza....so that sounds good.

Biking and Waterfalls

Nice beach, but no shells.

Thursday was the day the Lush Ladies hit the rode.  Lynn, Robyn and I had heard about a great shelling beach on the other side of Gaspar Hernandez so that's where we decided to ride.  It was a beautiful day and a fun ride, but the shelling beach was a bust.  We found a couple of older conch shells that were mid sized and Lynn found a beautiful small conch, but nothing else.  Lynn also knew of a beach named Shell Beach just a bit further down the road.  We also checked out that beach, but no shells at all.  But it's o.k.  We still had a great lunch and fun visit....and the ride was great.  The road between Sabenetta and Gaspar often has trees forming an arch over the road to give lots of shade.  Past Gaspar, you sometimes ride next to the ocean plus you've got the mountains towering on the other side.

Lynn and Robyn getting ready to ride home

When we got back, Endre and Michaellyn were here!  They were the couple that own one of the condos here and they were actually here when we arrived back in November.  They were great about showing us around and making us feel welcome.  They both have owned motorcycles in the past and they went with us when we bought the motorcycle as Matt and I knew nothing about bikes.  It was great seeing them again, looking forward to their three week stay!

On Friday Matt and I did something we generally don't like to do:  we took an organized tour.  The tour goes to Santiago to visit the cigar factory, a ceramic factory and then up into the mountains near Jarabacoa.  Matt really wanted to see the cigar factory and I have been wanting to go to Jarabacoa.  Driving in Santaigo is crazy so we didn't want to rent a car.  We discussed hiring a driver to take us there, but the price for the tour was very reasonable ($42 each) and included lunch so we decided to go for it.  Deb and Richard, a Canadian couple staying in our condo complex, went with us.

Puffin and Rollin

Parts of the trip were incredible.  Matt really enjoyed the cigar factory.  The workers there make $3000 RD pesos every week which is good Domincian wages, that's about $150 a week and only work five days a week.  They also get three weeks vacation each year, a pension at age 65 and health insurance.  The cigars are all handmade, so there are a lot of people involved in each step of the process.  The rollers have the privilege of enjoying as many cigars as they like while they are rolling.  They've perfected the art of puffing on a stoogie without using their hands.

Matt and a cigar maker

Wood fired kiln

.  I had low expectations at the ceramic factory but it was really fun.  All the pots, vases and urns were hand thrown.  The potters were busy turning out pot after pot....all seemed to be exactly the same size.  For the simpler pots, each potter received the equivalent of $1 USD.  For the more complicated pots, they could receive up to $3.  Every pot was fired in huge wood fired kiln.  We bought a vase for $500 pesos....$12 USD.  Not bad for a hand thrown pot.

This is the type of pot we bought for $12

Talented guys!

Our Hike to the Waterfall

Then we went up to Jarabacoa to Rancho Baignate for lunch.  Surprisingly, this lunch was really good.  Jarabacoa is a big producer of most of the fresh fruits and vegetables found in the DR, so there were some nice veggie and fruit options as well as chicken, beef roast, pasta and rice.  We loved the trip up into the mountains, we hadn't been to this area yet and it was very different than the other mountains that are nearer our condo.  The mountain side was filled with some type of fir tree and it was beautiful.  From the ranch, we had the option to ride horses or take a jeep up to the trail head to hike to the waterfall.  I decided to take the jeep.  I wore white shorts and was already getting tired from our big day, so thought that was the best option.  Jeep ride was fun and then the walk to the waterfall was gorgeous.  The waterfall was in one of the final scenes of Jurassic Park and it is amazing.

We made it!

So there were some down falls to taking an organized tour.  We were picked up at 6:45 a.m.  By the time we stopped at three other spots to pick up the others, it was nearly 8:30 before we started on our way to Santiago.  The tour guide told us from the beginning not to buy cigars at the cigar factory.  He would take us to a place he knows where you can buy the same cigars for less.  Well, the place he knew was a junkie souviner shop that seemed way too high.  The cigars were not the same that were made at the cigar factory and they were actually higher than some that Matt could have purchased at the factory.  Plus we were tired and ready to go home.  And in a tour like this, there is always at least one or two people that drive you freaking crazy.  In this case it was the German guy that continually pushed and shoved his way to the front where ever we stopped.  But all and all a good trip.

Today --- we are spending the day on the beach recovering from two very busy days!