Our Cabarete Friends

I've been wanting to post pics of some of the very cool people we've met down here.  Here are a few.

Robyn is on the left.  She's Canadian and has been coming to Cabarete for about 10 years.  She owned a condo but evidently had a very bad experience with real estate in the DR so she's renting a condo this year in a complex near ours and will be here until March or April.  She's a retired principal and a grandmother. Her husband is still working back in Canada but I hear we'll get the opportunity to meet him soon.  Then there is Angie and Pat, the couple who own the house near our condo.  Angie was in Montana visiting family when we first arrived but just returned this past week.  Then there is David and Louise.  Canadians as well who have been coming here for some time and bought a condo about 10 years ago.  David is a retired parole officer and Louise is an RN.  They usually stay in the DR from November through April and then back to Canada and Louise will work through the summer.  They live on a island in Canada only connected to the mainland via a ferry.  David tells about going into town to pick up the mail, and it sounds like a nearly all day trip.  But I've seen pictures of there place and it's beautiful and very serene.  They seem to have a great life with winters here and then the quiet beauty of that island in the summer.  They are our unofficial social directors and tour guides.  Louise is expecting a new grand baby very soon so they are cutting their stay short this year and will return to Canada in March.  We will hate to see them leave, but can't compete with a grandbaby!

 

Arvid and Nancy are Canadian as well.  He worked for the Canadian government for an agency similar to our OSHA.  Nancy is usually the unoffical photographer, always snapping pics.  So nice to have one with her in it for a change!

 

Now this is Lynn. She's probably one of the most amazing women I've ever met, but if I told her that to her face I would get a scolding.  She's a teacher from England but has spent most of her life volunteering.  I know she's worked in Africa and the southern portion of the DR...but there are also a lot of other places she's been that I've got to admit I have no idea where they are located.  I'd like to sit down with her in front of a world map so she could show me   When it ws time to retire she moved back to England but found it was difficult to afford a comfortable retirement there.  So back to the DR she came.  She bought a beautiful little house....but boy is it remote.  She's actually not too far from our condo but you pass through some horrible roads to get to her house.  She doesn't have a car but instead drives a scooter and there is really not many places she won't go on that scooter....if she can get it out her roads.  The recent rains caused the roads to flood so badly for over a week that she couldn't get the scooter out so instead she walked about 1/2 a mile through standing water, mud, pastures and under barbed wire fences to get to the gaugau.  She's had hip replacements and knee replacements and nothing seems to slow her down.  She has an incredible spirit.  Plus she's so busy....she volunteers a couple of days a week, she also oversees clean up at some condos, and she has a lot of groups she belongs to.  I don't really understand all she does, but I just know she is a hoot.  And she knows everyone.  She told me last night that there was a time she didn't much like Americans, but she'd come to like so many here that she's reconsidered her opinion.  Lucky for us because Matt and I treasure this lady.

 

 

 

And here is a pic of Sosua beach.....our favorite beach in the DR so far!  It's a quiet bay lined with shacks selling food, drinks, beer, artwork, you name it.  And then there are vendors selling fruit, concho salad, shrimp, candy, nut, shoes.  And the sand is so soft - Matt calls it ashtray sand!  Just a fun place to hang out for the day.