It was a good day…but with one challenge. Our internet kept going down over the weekend, but luckily we were able to sneak in a quick call to our moms during the brief times it was up. Other than that, we enjoyed the day (and not having workers at the house) relaxing by and in the pool, taking a siesta, then going to a nice dinner with Al & Glenda. We went to a place called Ocean Village, which has a wonderful view of…yes…you guessed it, the ocean. And the food was very good as well. So a very nice day was capped off with a very nice dinner with our surrogate DR parents! : )
Overnight into Monday, the rain came. And it stayed, on and off, throughout the day…but at least our internet was up! Maybe that’s the DR god’s way of making sure we get out and enjoy the nice days???
Unfortunately, the rain meant that Raphael and Luis couldn’t work, so we have experienced our first setback on the casita. We were hoping it would clear overnight and they could start up again mañana. We were also supposed to get our cable installed on Monday. Well, we hadn’t seen hide nor hair of the cable guys (just like back home – some things aren’t so different here!!). Hopefully mañana?! Heck, we’d gone this long without TV – what was another day or so?
Oh…and the guy who said he wanted our empty moving boxes…and would be here at 11:30 to get them…also a no show! Guess it wasn’t our day for smiling DR gods. But we’d rather save our good luck for the things that really matter. Can’t sweat the small stuff!!
Tuesday started out rainy – but cleared off nicely.
The guys showed up to work on the casita mid-day and made great headway…including starting on the storage “shed” for our propane bottle off of the laundry room. Here’s what things looked like as of the end of day Wednesday. 
Cable…well that’s another story. After they hadn’t shown up by 1 p.m., I called and was told they would send a guy around 3. We weren’t holding our breath that he’d actually show up then…or even that day. Well, we could have held our breath because he DID show up – on time!! It didn’t take long to get us set up and he was on his way. We went back to our office to do some work and hmm…no internet! I called the cable company (that’s who supplies our internet, too) and they said they would send someone out. In the meantime, we went out to where the cable comes into the house…and discovered the problem. Instead of using a splitter to connect the cable from the street to the cable going to the internet modem and another for cable box, he had merely disconnected the internet and hooked up the TV!!! Fortunately our neighbor had a splitter – and in less than 5 minutes, we were back in business – internet AND cable. Wow, we’re truly connected to the world now!!
Oh, and the tech they said they’d send? He showed up too! It was almost 6 p.m. so we truly didn’t expect to see anyone yet that day, but here he came! I explained what had happened & what we did. Asked if that was ok – and he said “si!” and off he went. Probably the easiest call he’d had all day!!
On Wednesday, I went to Puerto Plata with Glenda and Martine - who lives across the street from us. Martine is from France, so her native language is French. She speaks very little English, but her Spanish is actually very good. Luckily she speaks Spanish slowly, and even with my limited vocabulary, I was able to understand most of what she said. We even carried on a conversation while Glenda ran in to a store buy minutes for her cell phone – quite an accomplishment for two women who were conversing in a language that was foreign to both of them!!! We had a nice time shopping. We also bought some fruit from one of many fruit trucks that park on the side of the road with lots of yummy, super fresh things to pick from – like pineapples, cantaloupe, watermelon, mango, passionfruit, limes, bananas and guava. The mangos cost 10 pesos each – less than 30 cents US. And if the ones I got are even half as good as the sample the vendor gave us, I’ll be in heaven!! (Note: they WERE as good as the sample – YUMMY!!!!)
While I was out with the girls, Steve had doggy duty. Our neighbors, Linda & Tony, have had family in town from the UK and were going on a day trip. They asked if we would look in on their dog, Archie.
Steve went over and brought him to the house to play with our dogs for a while. After I got home, I did the same. They all roared around the yard – chasing and playing (and Sierra taking her second swim of the day), then they came in and plopped on the floor for a siesta.
Oh, and Bamboo, the other neighbor dog, made himself at home when we had the front door open for the cable guy to come in and out. We had our dogs barricaded with a gate – wonder if he thought they were in jail?! They all stood, nose to nose, tails wagging madly, until Bamboo decided it was time to go back outside. He’s actually Martine & Charles’ dog, but he does have the run of the neighborhood and visits everyone. He’s a cute little guy!
Thursday, yup, rain again, but the guys were able to do a little more work before getting rained out. That’s Raphael on the right and Luis on the left...and the rain pouring down!
Once they decided it was a hopeless cause, they still had to get home…on a motoconcho…and it was pouring! At first we fashioned them each a poncho out of a large trash bag – then they put grocery bags on their feet. We realized that we had brought our lightweight waterproof pants & Steve had a couple of his bike jackets, so we brought those out for them to borrow and they were STYLIN’!! Check them out:
The picture we didn’t get was them riding off on the moto…in their get-ups and a bright yellow & white umbrella we also lent them-darn!!
Later in the day, we joined the other homeowners in our little “village” for a meeting with the agent for the developer, Pablo. We currently don’t have a formal HOA, nor do we pay monthly fees, but that may change in the future. The meeting was quite interesting & got a little heated a few times. We’ll see where this all heads over the next few weeks. Hopefully it will end up being a win/win for everyone!
Friday started out with the Pablo showing a good faith effort by having some workers come out to trim some of the overgrowth from the lots without houses. Unfortunately, they also cut Tony’s internet cable (the lines are run over the ground – another gripe we have). The cable company came out & in the process of fixing Tony’s line, they wiped ours out! Luckily they were able to fix them both – although the lines are still running above ground.
As we were standing in the street chatting with Tony, our neighbor Charles came out looking for Bamboo. Something to keep in mind…Charles is a rather, shall we say, stout man from France and in the typical European style, favors a Speedo as his around the house attire. And, true to form, today was no different. He happens to look over at our villa and says, “You have the same problem I had” – pointing to a tree in our front yard. We’re looking and cannot figure out what the heck he’s talking about. Turns out there is a bird’s nest in the tree. And these aren’t just any bird…they are dive-bombing birds!
He proceeds to tell us that he had several of these nests in the trees around his house and the birds got so bad, that he and Martine couldn’t come in or out of their door without being attacked – and the birds would also dive-bomb Bamboo. Now…try to get a mental picture of this…he decides he’s going to knock the nests down in hopes that the birds will quit attacking. So he dons a helmet (what kind???) and goggles (swimming? safety?) and because the man rarely wears anything else, we can’t imagine that he’s off to take care of the nests in anything but the Speedo! Armed with a long stick, he braves the birds and de-nests the trees. Man…what we would have paid for a video of that!! Just the mental picture is pretty funny!!
So his advice was to get the nest out of the tree right away…I wish I’d have had the video camera when Steve went out with a long stick and knocked the nest down out of our tree!! You could tell he was bracing to be pecked the whole time he was out there. And just this morning, I witnessed one of the birds dive-bomb Bamboo…and he was just walking down the street! We’ve decided those birds are psycho…and, in the case of our rooster neighbor – confused!
Why confused, you ask? How many roosters do you know that crow at 2:30 in the morning? And continue to do so well into the day! Aren’t they at least supposed to wait until day break? Needless to say, we do not love that neighbor!
On Saturday, Raphael & Luis finished forming the roof for the casita. Here’s what it looks like now:
Monday they will mix all the concrete – by hand – and pour the roof, bucket by bucket! These guys certainly do earn their pay!! Oh – and keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain…that’s not good for a freshly poured concrete roof!!
Today we had a nice day…a little swimming and the dogs did some relaxing on their cots…then Dusty decided he wanted to share Sierra’s cot with her. Looks like those two have settled into their new home pretty well, huh?!
A bit later, we heard some crunching & cracking in the area past our back fence – and imagine the dog’s surprise when they came face to face with a herd of cows grazing back there! They had quite the time running back and forth to different places they could see through the foliage and barked and barked. The cows just looked at them and continued to munch.
That’s about it from here for the week…another busy one. Hope all is going well wherever you are! Take care and hasta luego!
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