Finally – a week that wasn’t complete chaos and craziness. Don’t be fooled into thinking it was all umbrella drinks and laying by the pool either!!
Last week, we started working on putting our home office together…found one desk & the clerk told us they’d call us when the 2nd one came in from the Puerto Plata store. Lesson #1 – don’t believe it when they say they will call! Luckily the store is on our way to and from town, so we swung in and got the second one. The first one was already set up…not so much with #2, but that gave us a Saturday afternoon project. Now we’re ready for when our desk chairs arrive!! Our current set up isn’t exactly ergonomically correct, but we’ve been able to get the work done we’ve needed to do.
Next - another trip into Puerto Plata – this time to find fabric to make curtains for the kitchen and master bath – the only two that we’ve not been able to find blinds or ready-made curtains for. There’s an interesting store in “downtown” Puerto Plata that has lots of nice material at very reasonable prices. And luckily, Glenda, our neighbor has a sewing machine she offered up. So I’ll have to dust the cobwebs from my brain and remember how to sew. Luckily curtains are pretty basic. I’ll send pictures when they are done – if they turn out!! : ) Right now we have two bath towels draped over the rod, attached with clothespins. Not sure which is better – that or the duct tape??? House Beautiful, here we come!
We also went back to the 10 peso (aka dollar) store and Casa Nelson (who knew our friends, Dave & Sharon, had a store here?!). Casa Nelson is kind of like the old Woolworth stores. We did find a couple of fun pool lounges there.
Oh…speaking of the pool – did I tell you it turned green on us? We thought our gardener was checking the chemical levels when he came to clean it every few days, but apparently not! So it took us a couple of days to get it back in balance and get the green gone, but it’s looking MUCH better now. The dogs were not very happy with us when they couldn’t go swimming during the green days. Yet another DR life lesson learned!!
On Friday night we went to the “Nice People Networking” dinner. It’s a bunch of expats here who meet every couple of weeks to have dinner and network. If you offer a service, everyone is given an opportunity to stand up and say a few words about their business. The purpose is to leverage word of mouth advertising. There is also a black list, so if you use someone and they cheat, lie, steal, etc., you can request they be put on the black list. There was an interesting mix of people – all nationalities and lots of different businesses. We met a guy from Colorado, Daniel Grey, who has a horse ranch here as well as there – near Victor (Cripple Creek). We’re hoping to get out and check it out – it sounds pretty cool. We also met a guy from Kansas (yep – two of them here now!), another one from Scotland and a couple from the UK. So who knows where the connections with that group will lead? If nothing else, it’s entertaining and a good way to get out and meet people.
Steve is getting more comfortable with driving, which is good because we had to drive to Santo Domingo on Monday to do the customs inspection on our container. Overall, it went well. Fortunately Al & Glenda told us about a toll highway that we could take which put us on the east side of SD – very near where we had to be, so we wouldn’t actually have to drive in the city for the first time out. We weren't sure how long it would take us to get there, so we left VERY early (4 a.m.!) and got there about an hour & 15 minutes early. This was fine...except the moving company’s employee, Ramon, who was meeting us arrived over an hour late! Some lame excuse that the rain had delayed him…heck, we made it. Ok – he was on a motoconcho (aka motorcycle), but still!?
Oh, and the woman at the moving company who has been “helping” us sort of forgot to tell us we had to stop at one place to get a security badge before going to the administrative office. Then Ramon was at a different building (there were actually 2 employees, Ramon & Maximo - neither of whom spoke much English - and my Spanish is pretty sketchy), so once we finally got connected (around 11:15), the actual process didn't take long.
We’d heard some interesting stories so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. After getting yet another security badge & going through a screening area (the guys were “wanded” – me, they just let through?), we followed Ramon & Maximo out to a huge area with hundreds and hundreds of 20’ and 40’ containers – some stacked 2 or 3 high. We waited while Ramon located ours, then Maximo motioned for us to follow again.
Once we got to the container, they had us verify the number on the paperwork with the number on a plastic tag & called for someone with bolt cutters to take off a bolt that used to “lock” it. A forklift arrived with several wooden pallets which were then laid out in front of the container. Oh, and it was about 90 degrees & very sunny! And when you go to any government facility, men have to wear long pants & a collared shirt; women cannot wear sleeveless tops. Open toed shoes are not recommended either. So we were not dressed for hanging out in the sun for long – to say the least!!
Next, about 5 guys showed up and they unloaded the majority of the container, leaving some items inside of it, mostly spread out so it was easy to get to/see. Then they left. One thing to keep in mind here is that everything was “brown wrapped” before it was loaded in Denver. Apparently that is a requirement for international shipments. So everything looks very weird wrapped in brown paper and it was kind of a guessing game to remember what was in some packages – but others, like the desk chairs, were pretty easy to figure out! Maximo then opened some of the boxes, a few of the packages, etc. and asked what a few things were (thank goodness for my handy dandy Spanish/English dictionary – and charades!). Next, we waited…fortunately not for TOO long and we could stand in the container in the shade.
Next, another guy who appeared to be one of the head honchos came with his clipboard, accompanied by about 6 others. Head Honcho sat on one of the boxes and started asking where certain things were – bicicleta (bike), TVs, fan, in Spanish of course - which Maximo helped answer. He apparently knew what types of things they’d be interested in and those were what he’d focused on. A couple of other guys – DEA types, we think - dug thru a few of the open boxes, and apparently were content that we weren't bringing anything we shouldn't. Head Honcho made a few notes & check marks, then he and the entourage said adios and left. Maximo taped everything back up and the first guys returned to load it back up, lock it and we were on our way - about 1.5 hours total. Ramon said it went very well (muy bueno, muy bueno), so we were feeling pretty good about the whole thing – and happy to be heading back home shortly after noon!
I probably shouldn’t tell you this part, but we did bring cooler clothes to change into…but we quickly realized that there wasn’t a good place to stop and do that switch. So, in the parking lot of the Puerto Cuacado government building, we swapped out our long pants for shorts and flip flops…MUCH better!! And don’t worry – we were parked in the north 40, so no one saw us…we think.
Then (you'll love this!) about an hour after we left, the moving company lady calls and asks if we are going to go to the main custom's office to apply for our reduction in duties! We're about 1/2 way home at that point - and she's still not even sure we CAN apply based on the fact that our residency is in process, not final. So she was going to call them and find out for us…never mind that I have been asking her that question for the last 2 weeks! Oh, and she said she’d call me back Tuesday and let me know. Remember Lesson #1 from above…repeat here!
Today, after giving Maria until after lunch local time to call, I call her back. Long story short – it may be possible for us to get the reduction – but it is not guaranteed (I think it depends on many variables – none of which are consistently applied & may actually be linked more to the person’s mood who is checking the paperwork). To apply, we would have to go back to SD – and be at the main customs office, which is downtown, at 7 a.m. on Monday! And it would mean that we wouldn’t get our belongings for over two weeks longer – and we might not even get the reduction. So after figuring out what it would cost us for storage & container rental (they give you about 10 days from when it arrives to get it out and empty), hotel (no more driving in the wee hours – that’s exhausting!), boarding the dogs, gas, not to mention hassle factor, we decided that we will just bite the bullet and pay the full amount. It was part of our budget anyway and although we’d love to spend the money on something more fun, we just couldn’t justify spending the time and money to go to SD for something that’s not a sure thing – plus we’ll get our stuff next week – yay!!!!
And one more funny story…today we stopped by a little furniture store that I had noticed to see if perhaps they had a dining room set. We met the owner, Juan, who we will now refer to as “One Huevo Juan”. OHJ came out on crutches, with a brace on his leg. When I asked what had happened, he proceeded to tell us the story. Apparently Juan carries a pistol and he had put the pistol, which he was 100% certain was unloaded, in his waistband. You can probably guess the rest…yep, the gun was NOT unloaded. In addition to the part he lost, he has a nasty scar on his leg – about 12 inches long – where they had to repair the bone that was shattered. He said they told him it would be about a year before he could walk again without the crutches. So needless to say, we won’t use that nickname with him to his face…in case he still carries that pistol around!!
It was a hot one today – low 90s! Thought we’d go for a swim this evening – the water was 90 degrees at 6:30 p.m. – so not exactly a “cool” dip, but it was nice when we got out as well. Maybe next week we can actually make it to the beach!
That’s about it from here for now. I’ve also included some pictures I took out Zuki’s window as we came home from Santo Domingo as well as a little gecko who has decided that hanging out in our bathroom (on the faucet) and in our bedroom is pretty cool. Haven’t come up with a name for him/her yet, so if you have any good ideas, send them our way. Enjoy!
