Beautiful sunset in paradise-from our front door!

Check out the beautiful sunset...right from our front door.




Sunday we slept in until about 8, then fixed breakfast and started working on our “to do” list. Funny, I kind of thought the “to do” lists would go away when we got here, but no such luck!



Our neighbor dog, Bamboo, comes visiting daily and is quite fascinated by Dusty for some reason. Dusty’s patience has been tested with Bamboo crawling and climbing all over him, poking his nose in Dusty’s ears and generally being a pest!



We finally had to lock him out of the house. He went out and laid on the front sidewalk. At one point he was sound asleep – almost as if he didn’t want to get too far way when we finally took down the doggie gate! Sierra seemed to take great pleasure in watching him from inside. You can see her practically taunting him in this picture.



It seemed like we didn’t mark nearly enough things off that “to do” list before we needed to get cleaned up to go to dinner up at Al & Glenda's. We had a nice time there – met some very interesting people.

One couple we had met before at our DR mother's day dinner out - Jerry and Irma. He's from Holland and has worked all over the world, including South Africa. He's got connections with the UN and has been doing some humanitarian work in Haiti trying to help them get drinking water. He owns a company that does a lot of earthwork, drilling, etc. Recently the Haitian government confiscated his two trucks and they are demanding several thousand dollars to release them. They also arrested the drivers and have put them in jail. Great way to treat someone who is trying to help the people of that country – for free! It was very interesting to listen to his stories. Irma is from the Phillipines. They met when they were both working in Singapore. They've lived here about 3 years.

The other couple, John and Elmira (I think), have been here for 10 years. She's Puerto Rican and we’re not sure where he’s from - but they both are very well traveled as well. He has invented (again, I think) a system for generating energy called a dynawave. I didn't hear as much about it as Steve since I was sitting with the "girls". But again, they were just very interesting to listen to. They’ve all had quite the adventures in their lives! It was close to 10 when we finally all went home.

The doggies are doing pretty well. We did figure out that the chlorine in the pool has been bothering Sierra, so we got some shampoo with conditioner and gave both her and Dusty a bath. She's less scratchy now, but she’s still having a problem with her ear even though I’ve been cleaning it 2x a day. I ordered some stuff that will HOPEFULLY get to Puerto Plata today so we can pick it up Tuesday. We may have to take her to see Dr. Bob if the drops I ordered don't work. Poor thing!!


Oh, and I have a new lap friend. Bamboo! Each morning within a couple of minutes of us opening our front door he's in here to visit. Monday Bamboo came in for a while, then left. We were in our office and he came back in and wanted up on my lap. I picked him up and he snuggled right in. He took a nice long siesta - probably close to an hour and a half! Goofy guy!! I think we're now his second home!

Later Monday evening we were working on another “to do” item on the back patio. I was watching Dusty walking around the pool…getting just as close to the edge as he can. Both he and Sierra like to do that for some reason. It had been raining, so of course it was a little slick, too. I looked away and no more than a minute later we hear a “splash!” Yep, you guessed it…Dusty had slipped into the deep end of the pool! We were quite pleased that he didn’t panic at all. He just turned around and headed toward the shallow end where there are stairs. I took him over and rinsed him off (we’re trying to do that now that we know what the chlorine can do to their skin!), then toweled him off. It was quite a cool day and it was actually down to 79 degrees when he fell in! I told him he should do that when it’s hot outside – it would be more refreshing!

Tuesday Michael, the electrician, came to put up the medicine cabinet in the 2nd bathroom (there is no mirror, no cabinet, nothing but an outlet above the sink!!) and do the wiring for the casita. He and his helper, Jaquito, were here until 4 and will be back on Thursday afternoon – maybe they will finish then?

Wednesday was a cool, rainy day – what a nice break to not have to run the fans, any of them, for most of the day! We made a quick trip into Puerto Plata to pick up some ear drops we had ordered for Sierra. Hopefully those will do the trick as her ears have really started bothering her for the last couple of days.

And of course, we saw the “typical” sights along the way. It amazes us that anyone would ride a “push bike” here, but you do see them. You also see people riding on just about anything and everything – seemingly very comfortable. This guy wasn’t concerned about bouncing out, I guess!




Check out the mud flap on this moto!! This is a pretty common sight here…either that or a piece of cardboard.




Who know that they had carnivals here? We were very surprised to drive by one being set up near one of the main roads going into Puerto Plata – see the ride on the left? And there were some travel trailers too – almost made us feel like we were back home at the county fair! I was actually taking a picture of the clouds hanging down over the mountain – didn’t even realize there was a carnival being set up until we closer to it. So we got a good “two for one” picture on this one!


When we got home, I took advantage of the cool and baked some zucchini muffins and made pita chips (yum!). Finally having the oven on didn’t make the house too warm – for a change!!

Thursday morning we did see the sun for the first time in a couple of days. It lasted until about lunchtime, then more rain. Fortunately I was able to get two loads of laundry washed and dried on the line before the rain started up...again!

When we got up on Thursday, we discovered we had a major technical issue – no internet which also means no phone. And wouldn’t you know it? I needed to do a conference call/webex at 10:30 - yikes! Thankfully our neighbors, Tony and Linda, did have service. So after calling the cable company & being told (I think) that they’d send a technician, I went over and connected to their network. It worked long enough to get me through the call (although the phone was cutting in and out toward the end)…then their internet went down too! We found out later that there was a pretty major issue that impacted everyone for miles. Oh yes, and the power went out – shortly before Michael came back (are you seeing a pattern here?)!

When the electricity came back on around 3:30, I decided to see if perhaps…maybe…possibly the internet was back up – and it was! Connected again - thankfully. So Steve and I jumped back onto our computers and tried to make up for the time we’d lost earlier in the day. Oh – and Michael didn’t finish. He’s coming back Friday morning. We’ll see if the power is on when he gets here!

Friday was another beautiful day – started out sunny with a few clouds and stayed a little overcast, but comfortable all day. I think this is the first day in about a week that it hasn’t rained and we had power all day! Michael and Jaquito made good progress on the casita, but didn’t finish. They’ll be back on Monday.

Since the dogs can’t go out in the backyard when they are working out there, I took them for a walk around our neighborhood. We stopped at Jackie and Damian’s so they could meet their puppies, Rosie and Sasha (yes, it was Sophie, but they changed it). Dusty and Sierra have barked at them through the fence which scares the puppies back into their house. So we thought it would be good to let them meet on a little more neutral territory. Dusty was very interested in them, but Sierra was only mildly curious. We’ll see if they bark at them so much next time they are all in the back again!

And before we close this post, we wanted to share a discovery with you. Actually Glenda told us about it. You’ll never guess what keeps mosquitoes away…molasses…and it has to be organic. We've been eating (or drinking) about a tablespoon a day for about 2-3 weeks and it's pretty amazing how well it's worked. I used to be a mosquito magnet and now I rarely get a bite. And even if they do bite me, it's almost like they stop quickly (maybe they don’t like molasses?) as the bites are very minor. I put it in my coffee instead of sugar. Steve, who can’t stand it, mixes it in orange juice (that sounds really gross to me!) and then gags it down in a couple of quick gulps. He’s decided that’s a pretty minor thing to deal with considering the benefit it's had for us. We can actually sit outside in the evenings and not get eaten alive and don't have to wear stinky repellant!!

Well, that does it for this week. Stay cool (for those of you sweltering in Colorado) and have a fun, safe weekend! Hasta la vista from the DR!!

Week 12 - WOW how time flies!

This week started off quiet…we both had some work to do (the paying kind!) so spent a lot of the day in front of our computers. I decided since we’d had mucho dias de sol (many days of sun) to call Raphael and ask him to come paint the casita. Hopefully I understood him correctly and he will be at the house on Wednesday! We’ll see!!

Our new neighbors, Jackie & Damian, decided to venture into Santiago on Monday. We were a little surprised that they didn’t leave until after noon since it’s a good 2 hour drive each way – and personally, we try our best not to drive much after dark here (we had told them that as well). Why, you ask? Many of the motos do not have taillights and very few have headlights and those that do you can hardly see until you are right up on them. Coupled with cars that either can’t or won’t turn their brights off, it gets a little dicey!! We were a bit worried about them when they had not yet returned at 9 p.m. – then shortly after that we heard them pull in.

Needless to say, they now know why we recommended they not drive after dark! Apparently they didn’t leave Santiago until it was nearly dark – so not only did they have to drive, but it took even longer because you have to go slower in the dark. They had gone with their realtor, who drove the stretch from Santiago to Puerto Plata – which they said was pretty scary. Then they dropped her off in Puerto Plata and drove the rest of the way home. I think they have learned the hard way about driving after dark here!!

Mid-morning Tuesday, Rafael 1 (as we refer to him – he’s the guy who did our iron work) showed up to give us a price for the iron work on the casita & propane storage. We were pleasantly surprised when it came in at about ½ of what we thought we might have to pay. We were surprised as well to hear that he would be ready to install everything on Sabado (Saturday) since the last time it took about 10 days. One step closer to being done! He also gave our new neighbors a bid to do a repair and put up a door for them.

Later in the day, the dogs were barking like crazy, and when we went to investigate, our neighbor Tony was at the door. Not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post, so here’s the background. We bought the house from 2 guys – Robert and Orlando. Orlando is Dominican, but when his brother who lives in the States was in a bad accident, he went there to help take care of him. In the meantime, Robert decided he didn’t like it here anymore, so they agreed to sell the house. When we came house hunting in March, Orlando’s car was parked in the driveway and we were assured that it would be moved by the time we got here – even though it wasn’t running – and that Orlando would be back in June to get it.

And it was moved from our driveway…someone had pushed it down to one of the vacant lots in our subdivision next to Tony’s house. Once when I was out walking the dogs, I noticed that there was a lot of stuff in the back seat, covered by towels or bags or something. Well, Orlando DID come back to get the car and when he was going through the items Robert had left in the car, he came across the satellite boxes & remote that go to the satellite dish that is on our house! So Tony brought it over to us – and we got to meet Orlando. He seemed to be a nice guy. Unfortunately Orlando wasn’t able to move the car since there seems to still be a problem with the computer…so he was going to try and find someone who could just haul it off for him. So we’ll see what happens there!

We also found out that Jackie & Damian are having second thoughts about the house they were planning to buy and have decided they want to look at more. They like our neighborhood and there are a couple of houses for sale here, so we put them in touch with Pam and Dennis. And the really cool thing – if they buy something through them, Pam & Dennis said they’d give us a cut. They were taking them to look at the houses here plus a couple of others close by this afternoon. So we’ll keep our fingers crossed!!

It was kind of a crazy day with our old world colliding with our new world. We both had lots of work to do “back home” so tried to do that between interruptions here, which included a call from Matt who was seeking some Excel help. I think we figured out the problem…never a dull moment!

On Wednesday Raphael #2 came to paint the casita. Luckily we’d had several days of sun & no rain. We had bought a special sealing paint for the roof – which is quite a bit more expensive than regular paint, but it’s supposed to be the best thing for preventing leaks. He had taken one gallon up with him & when he finished using that one, he asked me to hand him up the other gallon. Mind you, he doesn’t have a ladder here, so he had climbed up using trees and the fence so it was definitely easier for me to hand it to him…or was it…?

Because the casita is quite tall, I had to stack a couple of the leftover cinderblocks to stand on in order to get the can high enough for him to reach. He grabbed it with one hand – and I don’t know if I heard him gasp or what, but I jumped off the blocks – just in time to see the can land about a foot from the blocks! The lid had popped off and paint splashed on the wall of the casita, some on the ground – but amazingly, the can landed upright and we only lost a small amount. And better yet – NONE splashed on me nor did the can hit me on the head!!

So I took the roller from Raphael and spread out the paint that had splashed on the wall. Then, after wiping down the side of the can, handed it back up to him (he could grab inside the can this time!) and proceeded to sprinkle some sand on the paint that had spilled on the ground to help keep it from getting tracked all over!

One would have thought we’d had enough bad luck for the day, but now we could see storm clouds building in the distance. And yes, wouldn’t you know it – after Raphael had about 90% of the roof painted using that special, expensive paint - it decides to rain! Fortunately the paint dries quickly, but it still washed some of it off...dripping white drops off the side of the casita! What a pain! The rain finally stopped and he worked on painting the walls & inside of the casita. We decided we’d have him do what he could for the day and then we'd finish it. It's just too hard to coordinate with the weather, his schedule, our schedule, etc. Those darn DR gods – and Mother Nature – they were not being our friends today, for sure!!

We were pleased, too, that he had brought back the jackets and rain pants that we had lent to him and Luis. We were a little concerned that they had misunderstood and thought they were a gift – and even after I asked Raphael if he could get them back from Luis, he indicated that he hadn’t been able to get in touch with him. But today he had both sets – freshly laundered as well!

Our new neighbors are turning out to be quite interesting. As I had mentioned, they were interested in seeing some other houses, so Pam & Dennis made arrangements to show them several late on Tuesday afternoon and ended up having dinner and a few drinks with them. They also agreed to pick Jackie & Damian up on Wednesday around 10 a.m. to show them a few more houses. When Pam & Dennis arrived to get them on Wednesday morning, there was no answer at their door, but their car is in the driveway – and their keys were in the front door (for both the house and the car)!

Pam & Dennis came to see if we’d heard/seen them, which we hadn’t. So we went back over with them – knocking on the door again. No answer. Wondering if perhaps they had gone across the street to Tony & Linda’s, I walked across and Linda tells me that they had, in fact, been there the night before – and went home, quite sloshed, at around 3 a.m.! Needless to say, they were dead to the world for several more hours. Thankfully they weren’t driving, but we’ve been kidding them that next time they need a designated walker to make sure they get into their house WITH their keys safely inside next time!

And the final surprise of the day…Rafael 1 (the iron work guy) called to tell us that the iron work was ready and asked if he could come on Thursday to put it up. We happily agreed. I went next door to confirm with Jackie & Damian and they too were pleased he was ready so quickly. Rafael said he would call when he was headed our way Thursday morning.

Thursday morning…Rafael called shortly after 8 to tell us he’s on his way. I walked next door to tell Jackie & Damian. They told me that they needed to run to the bank and would be back in a few minutes. Rafael and his crew arrived and started working on our casita & the propane storage. When it looked like they are about ½ way done and the neighbors still aren’t back (2 hours later?!), I called Jackie. Turns out they decided to “run” into Puerto Plata and do a little shopping while they were out – but she said they would be home shortly!

About 30 minutes later, Rafael was ready to do their work and they were nowhere to be seen. Fortunately, he was able do the work without them being there (although it made it much more difficult for his crew). Jackie and Damian did finally show up – after Rafael and crew were done & loaded up, ready to go. We felt bad that he had to wait for them (and we didn’t have enough cash on hand to pay their part), so we were all relieved when they did get back and paid their bill! Here’s what the casita looks like now…with its new iron work and a coat of primer.




Later that day, our power went out – which isn’t an unusual occurrence here by any stretch of the imagination. But it was a little suspicious that it just happened to go out when there were some guys poking around in the meter box at the street – trying to get the power on for a house that is under construction a couple of doors down. Steve went out to see if perhaps they had anything to do with it and apparently they had been randomly flipping breakers! He let them know that we were not terribly happy with that and asked them to leave our breaker alone.

All was good – until around 8:30 p.m. when we had yet another power outage. This one only lasted about 10 seconds, but when the street power came back on, our lights would flash every few seconds and our inverter (our back up power) would click at the same time. We tried resetting the inverter, checked breakers, even called our neighbor Al who is very well versed in all of this stuff – but he, too, was baffled. For some reason, we were not getting street power even though it was on! The good news – our electrician, Michael, was supposed to be at Al’s house at 9 a.m. the next day and Al said he’d be happy to send him to us first since the work he was having done wasn’t urgent. We told him we’d let him know what the status was in the morning.

We resigned ourselves to running off the inverter for the night. We’ve been told that it’s not good to run the ceiling fans on the inverter because it’s hard on them, so we turned them off (which we do anyway if we are here when the power goes out). We have a couple of floor fans that we can run and those are what we used when we went to bed. We also tried to make sure everything else that might draw on the inverter/batteries was off or unplugged.

Well, about 2 a.m. I woke up. Not sure why, but I quickly noticed that it was pitch dark, the fans were off and it was hotter than heck in our room! I got up, flashlight in hand, and checked the inverter…it said “batteries low” (or in our case, I think they were dead!). Of course there wasn’t any breeze outside to help bring some cool air in, so we tried our best to sleep in a very warm room. There was a nice rain shower around 4 a.m. (I think) which helped cool things down a bit, but needless to say, we were awake quite early (or did we ever really sleep?)

Oh, and did I mention that when the power is out we don’t have any water? That’s because there’s a pump required to move the water from our cistern (storage tank) to the house – and it runs on…yup, you guessed it…electricity! I was also concerned about the refrigerator and how long it would stay cold, especially as warm as it was in the house. So once we heard our neighbors up and around, I went over to ask them if we could run a power cord from the outlet on their front porch over to our house so we could plug in the fridge until Michael could come see what was wrong. Thankfully they didn’t mind and we actually had a 100 foot cord we had brought with us that worked perfectly!

With the fridge back on and coffee made (yes, the coffeemaker is electric too!), we decided to look at our “to do” list and see if there was anything we could do that didn’t require electricity. Although we could have done some painting, we wouldn’t have had any way to clean up brushed when we finished, so with everything somehow tied to needing power, we scrapped that idea.

When Michael arrived shortly after nine, wouldn’t you know it…the street power was off for everyone! Because of that, he couldn’t check to see where our problem was, so he went back to Al’s house to work on his job (he needed the power off for that anyway). Once he got to a stopping point there and the street power was back on (around noon), he came back. The problem was out at the meter box…a bad connector! Hmmm…wonder if those guys didn’t like Steve giving them an earful and sabotaged it?? Fortunately it was a relatively quick and inexpensive fix and we were back up and running by early in the afternoon.

We had planned on working that morning, then take the afternoon off to go to Cabarate to watch the World Cup Kite Boarding competition, but we decided we had better do the work we had needed to do in the morning and if possible, try to catch the competition on either Saturday or Sunday. So we stayed home and after working for a few hours, cleaned the pool, had a nice dinner and called it an early night!

Saturday we headed into Puerto Plata to pick up some packages, get paint supplies, and groceries. We had a nice lunch on the malecon - the street that runs along the ocean. There is a nice tree-lined walkway on the ocean side and restaurants, stores, apartments/condos on the other side. It gives you a good view of the ocean and typically entertaining people-watching as well. We were joined for lunch by a cute little kitten. And of course, we saw the usual interesting sights along the way…


It’s not unusual to occasionally see someone riding a horse or a mule along the road, nor is it unusual to see what we call “the penguin man” – the guy in the red outfit who walks along the streets selling ice cream (that’s what is in the bin he’s pushing). But it is somewhat unusual to capture them both in one picture!





We also saw what we believe is a traveling store of sorts:









And again, not usual to see women riding “side saddle” on the back of a moto. I can’t figure out how they keep their shoes on – let alone stay on the back of those things with the bumps and the drivers weaving around cars, potholes and other motos!!







This guy has an inverter & what looks to be a bracket to hold the batteries (which the moto behind him was carrying – unfortunately I didn't get a picture of that).



After we got home from Puerto Plata, we put up our new retractable clothesline (yay – no more worrying about strangling ourselves with the one we temporarily rigged up!), put in our new door peephole (so we can see who’s out front without opening the door first), and hung up our broom/mop organizer.

We had stopped by Al & Glenda’s to see if they needed anything from Puerto Plata and they invited us to dinner with some of their friends on Sunday afternoon. I think we’ll go…so we may not make it to the kite boarding competition this year. Oh well – there will be other opportunities!

I’m going to sign off for now. We had quite a bit of rain Saturday evening so it was nice and cool inside and out, but we also had no power (yup, again). So in an effort to save our batteries for more important things (fans!) should the power stay off too long, I’m going to power off my computer and say good night!

Another day (week) in paradise!

On Monday afternoon we had fun Skyping with Jen & her girls – who are in Sweden for a month. Jen’s husband, Coupar, who is Steve’s cousin, will be joining them for the last two weeks in June. In the meantime it sounds like all three girls are having a blast…especially checking out the different chocolate offerings of the country! It was great to catch up with them!

And some good news – we did get the pool cleaned up after the flood from the rain Monday night. We also made arrangements to have Jean Claude, a guy who does yard work for many of the neighbors, come on Sabado (Saturday) to clear out some of the brush & debris that is behind our back fence. We’re hoping that will help route the water away from our yard next time we get a big rain.

As expected, Raphael showed up on Tuesday, but because of the rain the day before, it was too wet to paint the casita. So he spent his time cleaning up around the area, then headed out to find someone to haul off his tools and equipment.
A while later, a truck returned, they loaded up and off he went. He told us to call him after there had been a few days of sun so we could be sure the concrete had dried before he puts on the pintura (paint). With the weather pattern of late, we’ll see how long that takes! Here’s what it looks like now…ready for its new coat of paint.

After Raphael left, we decided to go get the PVC pipe to use for the conduit to bury our coax cable (see last week’s blog). Turns out you can buy it in 10 foot or 20 foot lengths, so we asked for three 10 foot pieces – knowing we could at least fit those into Zuki with a minimal amount hanging out of the window! So we pay for our pipe and head back to the back of the ferrerteria (hardware store) to get the pipe. Not sure if they don’t like tape measures or what, but they didn’t use one to determine where to cut the pipe. Nope – the guy pulls a 20 foot length out and using two fingers, moved the pipe until it balanced (mas or menos – more or less) on both ends. Viola! That must be the 10 foot mark & there’s where he cut it! So lesson to keep in mind…if you need EXACTLY 10 foot of pipe, you better buy 20 and measure the 10 feet yourself!! Luckily, we didn’t need anything that exact so off we went, with our 3 sticks of PVC hanging out the window of the Zuki. We’re getting the hang of this DR stuff!

Wednesday we went in to Puerto Plata to pick up some mail & get groceries. Just about the time we think we’ve seen it all, here’s another interesting sight along the way…a moto with a drink cart on the back. At least we think that's what it is...see the cups in the bag on the right?



We also saw an ambulance running with lights, no siren – and not surprising here, no one moved over (except us gringos).
As you can see in this picture, that white vehicle up ahead that is passing cars on a double-yellow line is the ambulance. It's not unusual for everyone here to pass on a double-yellow when there is a break in the oncoming traffic! And we thought drivers were crazy in the States!!

On Friday, we met our new neighbors, Damian & Jackie, who are renting the house next door for a month. They just moved here from England and are waiting to close on their house. It apparently needs some work done as well, so they may stay longer. It’s kind of nice not to be the new kids on the block any more – but we’re also trying to get used to hearing different noises coming from next door, as are the dogs who are doing their best to be good guard dogs. Probably about the time we all get used to the neighbors being there, they will move! Oh well, it’ll be good practice for when Christiana, the owner, comes back in the fall.

We borrowed Al’s pick axe (since Raphael took his with him) and on Saturday, we set upon finishing the cable burying project. Steve was making good progress when suddenly he noticed water bubbling up right where he had just been digging…not a good sign! So we quickly dug down to the pipe (which was only about 6 inches down) and sure enough, there was a big chunk missing. I guess it was too much to ask the yahoos who put the pipe in to actually run it parallel to the property line! Take a look at the picture – Steve was following a nice straight line – but the pipe wasn’t! Another DR lesson learned…this one the hard way.

While Steve worked on digging out more of the line so he could cut it to patch it, I went to the ferrerteria for the parts. Luckily I knew the routine for buying the PVC (of course, this was a different size than what we had!). Our other stroke of “luck” from the DR gods came in the form of the fact that we weren’t actually getting water that day (it’s kind of hit or miss here) so the only water we had to contend with was what was already in the pipe. And since there are no shutoffs at the street here, it really was lucky for us because patching the pipe with water running is not an easy nor is it a good thing to do!! Although it's hard to see from the picture, the pipe now has a nice patch on it – and it works just fine (we did get water later that day – and no puddles in the driveway)!!

Shortly after we had started on our project, Jean Claude arrived to do the work behind the fence. He came wearing shoes similar to Crocs – and asked if we had botas (boots). We didn’t realize we had to supply footwear too! Of course we don’t have any boots here (flip flops and tennis shoes make up the extent of our footwear wardrobe any more), so next thing we know, he disappears! Back he comes in a few minutes – wearing boots! Apparently he borrows a pair of Tony’s boots when he works over there, so he went and got those. Note to self…ask foot size when hiring laborers!?

We finished up our project and Jean Claude had finished his and left to do the yard next door. Steve and I got cleaned up to meet Pam and Dennis for a late lunch – to celebrate both Dennis’ birthday (which was in late April, but he was sick, then they had company in town) and Pam’s, which was on Friday. We met them at a restaurant just up the road from us called Pickerings. It’s owned by a British couple who Pam & Dennis know well. We had a very nice meal – roast chicken, mashed potatoes & gravy, vegetables (including baked leeks with a yummy cheese sauce) – and finished it off with a coffee/mandarin orange cake. We were all ready for a siesta after that!! Here’s a picture of the four of us.


Our new neighbors decided to get a dog…or rather, two dogs! When we got back from our lunch, we got to meet Sophie and Rosie, two little Dominican puppies. They had been to visit our friend Judy, the lady who helped us get our pups through customs here. We had told them about her animal rescue and they decided that would be a good place to find a dog. The puppies are about the size of Bamboo – and he has been having a blast wrestling and playing with the two of them.

We decided to sleep in Sunday and after a leisurely breakfast, we did a little work in the yard – cleaning the pool and the area back by the casita. The dogs, in the meantime, relaxed on a pile of sand from the casita project that Steve had moved from the front to the back. Sierra was trying to find the last bit of shade that was available (that's her behind the 5 gallon bucket squeezed up against the pool house)!I got the patio cleaned off and rearranged – now that we don’t have mucho bags of cemento stacked on it to contend with. It’s nice to finally have it almost the way we want it. Once we finish up what’s left of the partial bag of cemento that remains, we’ll shift a few more things around and be able to use the patio for its intended purpose – relaxing and entertaining!!

This afternoon, Bamboo’s mom, Martine, brought back another toy that he had accosted from the house. He’s now figured out how to get through the screen in the front (I’m sure by watching our dogs do it) and occasionally we’ll turn around and there he is! So we have to watch the neighborhood ladrón (thief) a little closer…but at least his owner’s know where the toys are coming from now - and they just bring them back.

We’re wrapping up our week with a bowl of Steve’s yummy homemade ice cream (vanilla with caramel topping for me; chocolate almond for him). We plan to go into Cabarete one day late next week to watch some of the 2010 Kiteboarding World Cup (http://www.prokitetour.com). Will take lots of pix to share if we do!

Hope all is well wherever this blog may find you! Take care and we’ll be back soon!

Note to Self – Learn the Days of the Week in Spanish!

This frog was on the inside of our patio screen door the other night. It's just like the one that I had to catch & release from our bathroom a while back (details in a previous blog!). We don't know how they get in the house - and this one was about 5 feet up on the door. Yes, we did another catch and release with this guy too!





Saturday was spent doing chores around the house (see – not so different than back home) – including hanging some of the pictures we brought with us. Mind you, hanging pictures here is not an easy undertaking. First, you better be darn sure you know where you want them to be, because with walls of concrete, drilling a hole and putting in a “plug” for the screw not only takes an effort and makes a mess, but if it’s wrong, it’s a little more work to patch it up! So I use a little trick & cut out pieces of paper the same size as the frame(s), then I tape them up. This way I can move them around without causing damage to the wall – and can step back to view the arrangement (or live with it for a few days) to make sure it’s what I want before the drill bit comes out. Now the living room is done…on to the bedroom!

Saturday afternoon – Raphael was picking up his tools so I asked if he was finished for the day (finito para oy?) and he tells me yes, and “posible todo finito mañana” (possibly completely done tomorrow). Mañana, I ask? Si, mañana, he answers. I tell him “no, not mañana. Mañana is Sunday. You need a day off (and I say to myself ‘we need a day where we aren’t stuck in our house because you’re working in the backyard’)! Marta.” (I’m thinking this is Monday.) “Marta?” he asks. “Si, Monday, no mañana” I respond, “Monday.” He says ok but is shaking his head as he walks out to leave. Well, come to find out, marta is not Monday, it’s Tuesday! Lunes is Monday – and guess who knew that? Yup, Steve! Where was Steve when this conversation was going on? In the house! So, we were pretty certain that we wouldn’t see Raphael on Monday.

We did enjoy our Sunday. It was a beautiful day – hot, but with a nice breeze most of the day, which made for a perfect day to hang out laundry (another thing we’ve not been able to do with workers and concreto dust flying around out back, not to mention we have to string the clothesline across the yard!).

We did start a project outside. Not sure if I mentioned it in a previous update, but when they “installed” our cable/internet, they ran the coax from the junction box over the top of the ground, up our driveway then across it to the connection at the house. So when Raphael built the propane storage which also houses the cable & phone connections, he ran a conduit through the concrete so the line would be contained as it should. Our project is now to dig a trench across the driveway, then down the side to bury another conduit in which we can run the cable – and if they ever offer it in our subdivision – a phone land line.

Let me tell you – the earth here is just NASTY. It is the rockiest, grossest, mustard-colored clay that you have ever seen!! It is an absolute miracle that anything grows in it. Needless to say, it took more than a shovel to dig that trench. Now we know why all the Dominicans use a pick axes. Fortunately Raphael’s was sitting on our back porch and Steve knows how to use one (Dave – ask him about his steel-toed flip flops next time you talk to him – and yes, he still has all 10 toes thankfully!).

With the pick axe, he made pretty good progress. The trench across the driveway went fine, then he turned the corner toward the street. About a foot in he hit an obstacle. It wasn’t the first one he'd come across. Old rebar, big rocks, roots the size of my thumb – you name it, he’d already hit it. Well this was different. As he tugged on it, I could see movement under his feet on both sides of the trench and I hollered at him to stop pulling. So he got the shovel and took out smaller bits of dirt & rock until we discovered what he’d been dealing with. It was PVC pipe – 3 of them! One large one (septic) and two smaller ones (water & we believe electrical) – and fortunately he didn’t puncture any of them!! Gotta love those DR gods!! That could have been a terrible mess – and none of the hardware stores here are open on Sunday so we'd have had no way to repair them if he'd have put a hole in either the septic or the water...and we don't want to talk about what might have happened with the electrical!

We decided that was an indication that we needed to take a break from that project (plus it was getting just too darn hot). So next we borrowed the dog clippers from Tony & Linda and proceeded to give Sierra a little bit of a trim. For those of you who don’t know her, she is a border collie/lab mix, so she has some of the longer hair like a collie and it’s especially thick around her back haunches. We thinned that out and trimmed under her belly as well as behind her front legs. She also got a toenail trim (as did Dusty). She actually did pretty well – considering that from the time she was a puppy Steve has plaed a game with her where he would make a “bzzzz” noise and poke her, to which she would playfully run away, then he would chase her. Well, the clippers make a “bzzzz” sound as well, so I wasn’t too sure how well that would go but she tolerated it better than I thought she would. Once the grooming was done, we all jumped in the pool for a while!

As suspected, Monday morning rolled around and no Raphael. Honestly, neither Steve nor I was disappointed. Even as much as we’d like the casita to be done (or at least his part), we again enjoyed a day not being confined. It was another hot day – the temperature was only 91 (Denver got hotter than us!), but with the humidity, the heat index was well over 100. We again took advantage of no Raphael to use our solar clothes dryer. One would think that with the humidity the clothes wouldn’t dry, but with the heat and a breeze, the towels I hung out only took a couple of hours to dry completely!

The clouds built up in the late afternoon and shortly after 5, we had what could only be described as a full-blown gully washer! Definitely the worse storm we’ve had so far from a rainfall perspective (lots of rain in a short time) and it had some pretty bad thunder & lightening too. Bamboo, the neighbor Chihuahua, was over teasing our dogs (he can run in and out of the iron work on the front porch, but they can’t get out) and it was starting to sprinkle. His owner, Charles (remember the guy with the helmet, goggles and Speedo & the dive bombing birds?), was calling him. I hollered that Bamboo was over with us. Suddenly the skis just opened up and it started to pour. Bamboo had come inside the iron work, so I grabbed him and brought him inside. He’s a bit intimidated by Sierra (I can only imagine what she looks like to him – her at 60 pounds, him at maybe 3!) and is fascinated by Dusty (what is this curly thing?). So he hung out with us during the storm.


Sierra was a little freaked out by the thunder, so she joined me and Bamboo on the couch. Bamboo even visited Dusty under the bed – where he (Dusty) had crawled as far back under as he could get. He’s recently developed an extreme fear of thunder – possibly from the two very close strikes we had in the recent days.




It rained for almost an hour – heavily. When it finally slowed down and the lightening had moved off into the distance, I carried Bamboo across to his house. Martine met me at the gate and thanked us for taking care of him during the storm. Silly little guy might have floated away if he hadn’t been inside!

We also discovered what happens in our yard when it rains that hard…water from the field behind us pours over the 6 inch wall along the back of our lot, floods the yard and spills into the pool! Our beautiful blue pool was full to the brim – with some not so pretty water. Guess we’ll deal with that tomorrow. And fortunately with Steve’s background, maybe we can come up with a solution for future flooding – or at least a way to mitigate its effect on our yard!

Some of you asked for a picture of the dive bombing bird. I was able to get one – if anyone knows what they are, let us know!







Also, the flower picture that was in an earlier blog is a hibiscus (thanks P & Tristan!). Here’s a cool picture of one – just as it’s starting to bloom.

That's about all from here for now! Stay cool and stay tuned for future adventures from the DR!

Sierra’s Moonlight Swim

Wednesday night around 2 a.m., Dusty started whining wanting to go out. He wasn’t insistent and sometimes he will lay back down and go to sleep. But not this time! Finally, at about 2:40, I got up, put on my robe & got the keys to open the iron work out back. Dusty headed for the grass while Sierra sniffed around the pool. On the far side of the pool she stopped abruptly. She took a step back and woofed – looking intently at something on the ground. It was a very large snail – probably the size of a ping pong ball. She edged toward it and I don’t know if it moved or what, but she lept backwards and her back feet slipped into the pool! She was able to grab the side with her front paws. I was able to get her collar and help her out, but not before she was soaking wet! Lucky for me she was courteous enough to walk several feet away before shaking off. But needless to say, I was wide awake by that time. Maybe I should have gone for a moonlight swim too?

Here are some fun pictures of the pups – during the day – enjoying the pool (on their terms!) and the yard.

Turkey Dinner on the Beach

This past Sunday we were invited to a get-together east of Cabarete at Joe’s house. Joe is a guy we met when we came down house hunting in early March. He bought a place near the beach and was just putting his villa in Sosua on the market. Although it has a beautiful garden & pool,it just wasn’t what we were looking for, so obviously we didn’t buy it.


Check out this fan palm from his yard. We are going to plant some in ours once the casita is done.

Once we were moved here, Joe got in contact with us. He had done some work on his place and asked us to come see it & give him our feedback. He also invited us out to see his new place. But until last weekend, we weren’t able to synch up our schedules; on Sunday, we finally made it out there.

He lives about 35 minutes east of us, down a very bad dirt road, but right across that road and a small lot is a beautiful beach.









Note: one thing we’ve learned here is that you have to keep an open mind…as there are definitely some characters on this island! No more so than you’d find back home, but they do seem to be concentrated a bit more here. And this gathering was no different… we met several very interesting people.

First, there’s Michael, Joe’s partner. Michael looks like Willie Nelson. He was the chef for the day and had prepared what could only be described as a full blown Thanksgiving dinner! They had set up tables under the trees right beside the beach for this feast. There was a turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes & gravy, cranberry sauce, mac & cheese, and fried eggplant.

For those of you who don’t know, Steve’s not a turkey fan (at all!), but he was trying to be polite and took a small piece & planned to fill his plate with some of the other items that he likes better. Well, Michael, being the gracious host, decided that Steve didn’t have nearly enough of ANY of the dishes and proceeded to heap his and my plates with big scoops of everything! Luckily we were able to swap a few things between the two of us and ended up with a meal we could each enjoy. And the peanut butter bars we took were a hit as well (thanks, Sharon, for sending the recipe!)

Then there was a guy from England named Pablo (go figure!). Pablo has been here for about 3 years & has decided he doesn’t like it any more. We asked him what he’d been doing since he’d come down. He gave us kind of a non-answer, saying he didn’t want to shock us. We weren’t sure we wanted to know at that point…so we left it at that and changed the topic of conversation! He told us that he initially came for a vacation which turned into a longer stay with the intention of writing a book. Well, the book is about half done and he’s now decided he hates it here and will go back to England, but he doesn’t know when. We’re not sure, but we think Pablo may have some issues!!

Next we met a couple, Joy from England and her partner, Johnny, who is Dominican. Joy and her husband came to the island about 6 years ago, but have since separated. She ran a bakery in Sosua called Pandora’s Box. Two women, Martha (I believe she was Dominican as well) and Emma, who is from Germany, rounded out the group we sat with. Emma has been here 10 years & speaks very good English & Spanish. It was interesting to listen to her and Johnny talk in Spanish – with Joy making sure we could keep up with the conversation by translating bits and pieces. I was surprised at how much I could understand, but to participate in the conversation was a bit more than I was ready for!



We also watched a young Dominican boy from the area climb up a VERY tall palm tree – with his bare hands and feet – to gather come cocos (look in the middle of the picture above - he's about 1/2 way up the tree). Aqua coco or coco water is a Dominican favorite. We enjoyed a walk on the beach where we found several sand dollars…some of them still alive (yes, we left those there!). Oh, and I can’t forget to mention Leo, who is Joe and Michael’s very cute and sweet puppy. We were tempted to dognap him!










It was a very fun day. Check out the view behind us…beautiful!!


We had to leave around 3 to get home for the second of our gatherings for the day. The last Sunday in May is Dominican Mother’s Day – or Dia de la Madre. We joined 6 other couples at a place called Casa 21. It’s owned by friends of Al & Glenda. Since most of the moms in this group here have grown kids back in our native countries, we thought it made for a good excuse to get together for a nice dinner. Steve was looking forward to a nice piece of beef for dinner, but unfortunately he and Tony got two tough steaks instead. It’s somewhat the luck of the draw here…no consistency. But it was fun to meet some more people and visiting with everyone.

Monday was pretty quiet, but the afternoon rains started again. On Tuesday, we had a hellacious downpour! We had to squeegee off the patio table so we could eat out there later in the evening. One strike of lightening was WAY too close. It scared the bedoodles out of us and Raphael & Johnny who had taken shelter out in the casita. Then not too long after that, they got on the moto and left for the day! I wouldn't be out on one of those things during a storm like that, but I guess when that’s your only mode of transportation, you have to do what you have to do.

Wednesday morning…no Raphael, no Johnny!? We were worried that perhaps something had happened to them on their way home. Thursday was another Dominican holiday (Corpus Christi Day?), so we fully didn’t expect to see them, but Raphael showed up on foot around 8:30. We know he didn’t walk all the way from home (he lives out past Cabarete), but we’re not sure how he got here.

The DR does have a pretty good public transit system – made up of motos for hire, taxis – often small cars like a Toyota Corolla – that they try to stuff as many people in as possible, guaguas, which are generally a minivan that hold more people and have a guy who hangs on the side of the door and yells his destination at people along the street.. He is known as the “cobrador” and also takes your fare and tells you where to sit. They also have buses that run routes similar to the Greyhound buses in the States.

The casita and propane storage are coming along nicely. Hopefully it will be just a couple more days before they are completed and ready for primer, then paint. Next we’ll get the windows, door and electrical done. One step at a time!