Week 2

Wow – can you believe another week has flown by! Fortunately it wasn’t quite as crazy as the first week we had, but we accomplished a lot again…bringing us a few more steps closer to a “normal” existence in our new home.

The dogs have been settling in nicely, enjoying the pool and the new furniture.

Sierra hasn’t quite figured out what geckos are, but she watches them closely as they climb up the walls of the pool house. Last night there was a bird that looks like a small crane in our back yard. She just watched and watched it – then took off after it. It flew off quickly!



Steve did a nice job baking a birthday cake for me a week ago – especially given we have a minimum amount of everything - pots, bowls, ingredients!

Our friends, Pam & Dennis, brought us a beautiful vase of flowers for a housewarming gift. The flowers were just beautiful and the vase goes nicely with our décor (what we have so far anyway!).






On Wed. we went to dinner with a group of people, including our neighbors Al and Glenda and Pam & Dennis. The restaurant, Chez Arsenio, has weekly specials on Tues/Wed/Thurs – 200 pesos (~$5.50 US). The place was packed and the food very good. After dinner, Pam told the servers that it was my birthday and they surprised me with a yummy piece of mango cheesecake with candles and happy birthday sung in Spanish, of course!

We’ve discovered that although you can get many things here in Sosua or Puerto Plata, there are just some things you can’t…and must go to Santiago to get. Although we’ve been there before as passengers, driving there is a whole new experience! So we set out early Thursday, armed with maps and directions from Glenda. Fortunately the directions were perfect, but even then, both Steve and I felt like we’d run a 10k by the time we got to the first store – Ochoa, which is a big hardware store similar to Lowes/Home Depot. A couple hours and several pesos later, we had loaded Zuki (my nickname for our new car) up nicely with many of the household items we still needed – like blinds for the windows and ceiling fans.


Next we ventured into the equivalent of downtown Santiago to buy a grill and a washing machine. Luckily we found someone there who spoke some English, so it wasn’t quite as challenging as it had been at Ochoa – and they deliver for free! So we got that set up and headed to the last store, PriceSmart, which is just like Costco.

We had borrowed Dennis’ card for PriceSmart and Glenda had warned us they might not let us use it – especially if we had a female checker. Wouldn’t you know it – with our basket loaded to the hilt – there wasn’t a male checker to be found!? At first the girl we went to argued that it wasn’t our card. I kept telling her it was – that Steve had shaved his beard. I guess she figured that I wasn’t going to give up so easy, so she went ahead and rang us up. Poor Zuki was now loaded to the gills and we headed back home.

The drive was uneventful by DR standards. It’s actually quite interesting to see the different modes of transportation here – as well as the amazing (and scary!) things they transport. Example: one guy on a scooter (like a Vespa) was carrying two chalkboards, one of which had to have been 3’ x 5’ at least! We’ve seen several motorcycles and bike riders carrying 100# tanks of propane; motorcycles with families of 4 or 5, too!

We spent Thursday & Friday evening and a lot of the day Saturday hanging blinds and curtains. Up until then, we had no window coverings except a curtain in the bedroom that was attached with duct tape!! Amazing how creative you can get when you don’t have much to work with!! But now the casa is looking even more like a home vs. a house.

Finally, we are getting to know some of the island’s creatures. We have several geckos, mostly outside, but periodically one finds its way in and hangs around for a while. Sierra hasn’t figured out exactly what they are, but she hasn’t tried chasing any yet. We have also had some birds that look like miniature cranes (egrets?) that she has chased…but not caught. And a bug that looks like a June bug on steroids. I told Steve it was big enough to be a June, July and August bug! I took the attached picture with my size 8 sandal next to it for a frame of reference.
Luckily it was flopping around on its back so I didn’t have to worry about it too much. When we got up the next morning it was gone – so it either got itself flipped over or one of those egrets ate it! Who knows?

Well, that’s about it from here for now. Hope all is well wherever this note may find you!

Hasta luego!
S&K