Electricity…something we SO take for granted!!

The picture above is the (almost) full moon the other night from our backyard. It was really cool with the clouds around it and the colored ring created by the light reflecting on the clouds. Very cool! We love that we can go out in our yard at night and actually see the stars (if there aren’t clouds, of course)…something we couldn’t do back in Littleton!

First, a dog story…on Saturday morning, Charles and Martine left for Punta Cana (a town on the eastern side of the island about a 7 hour drive away) to pick up her daughter who had flown in there from France. They were going to be gone until Tuesday and were taking Bamboo with them. Wow, was it quiet around here! Bamboo, as you know, is the neighborhood watch dog and we’ve become accustomed to him barking if anyone who doesn’t “belong” comes into the area. And our dogs have gotten quite used to Bamboo showing up at the front door first thing in the morning – or very shortly after we open it. They usually tussle for a while and go out back to “water” the vegetation as a group. Bamboo hangs around for a while, then goes to visit Archie (at Tony & Linda’s), then home, then back for round 2 of visits later in the day.

Well you can only imagine what those 4 days were like for Dusty and Sierra! Each morning they would go out on the front porch and look over toward Bamboo’s house. When he didn’t show up, sometimes they would woof – as if to say, “Hey, Bamboo, we’re here!” Other times Dusty would lay on the front porch and whine. It was interesting that as much as you’d think that Bamboo was pestering them when he’s here that they would miss him that much!!

And boy, when he got home, were they excited!!! I think he may have been in fear for his life because Sierra was jumping and barking and carrying on like he’d been gone for months – and Bamboo wasn’t sure what to make of the commotion – or that big, black dog moving around like that. Fortunately she didn’t crush him and they’ve now settled back into their daily routine.

Monday around 5:45 a.m. the power went off (yes, again). I was still in bed, but Steve was up working out. Then right around 7 I heard silence (can you really hear silence??)...which meant the batteries had died because even the fans that normally run off of the back up batteries had quit! So our batteries lasted less than 2 hours! Not good!!! I got up and we opened up the house to let the cool morning air in - not knowing how long it would be until the "street power" came back on. We do have our generator, but it seemed a bit silly to crank it up to make my morning coffee! We waited for a while and the power came on a little after 8. I quickly turned on my coffeemaker and about 10 minutes after it was finished brewing, the power went out again…and now our inverter was clicking. I walked across to Tony & Linda's house to see if their power was off - which it was - so that explained the inverter clicking. With our batteries being dead, I think it was trying to draw from what little power it had gotten back when the street power had come on. We decided that we probably would have to buckle down and buy a new set of 4 batteries since ours were likely toast at this point. Oh goodie - another expenditure (around $500-600)!

Steve called Michael, the electrician, to set up a time for him to come and get our generator set up (so we can use it when the street power is off to run the house circuits). He was actually able to come right over, so Steve asked him to check the batteries. Just for a frame of reference, one battery is connected to the next one to the next one to the next one, then to the inverter, so there are a series of cables running from battery to battery. And Steve had just cleaned all of the corrosion from the terminals the day before. Michael climbed up to where the batteries are mounted on our outside wall and as he was checking the connections, two of the cables literally came off in his hands! The corrosion had worn through the connector! Somehow it was still connected but by just a very small piece - which means that the batteries were not getting a full charge from the inverter when the street power was on. Hmmm…that could explain why our batteries were not lasting!! Michael replaced those cables and said he’d come back Tuesday to check and see if the batteries are charged up as they should be - or if we need to by new ones. We were definitely hoping for the former!! He made a list of the things he needed to get to do the rest of our work and said he’d be back on Wednesday a.m.

Then the rain started. Come to find out we were experiencing a tropical “wave” which later went on to become Tropical Storm Bonnie. Sunday we had a nice, gentle, steady rain for several hours – and it cooled things off nicely. But Monday...it was really muggy, then kaboom - it poured!! And this time it flooded our pool - water running in over the sides - yucky, greenish brown water into what had been our very nice, clear pool...bleah!! Now we were facing getting that water cleaned up, which we knew could take several days. Tony came over for something else and he suggested alum, which is a flocking agent (? I had no clue what this was…now I know.). Apparently this alum stuff causes the particles to clump together to make it easier for the filter to pick them up. Steve was familiar with it and agreed it might do the trick, so we decided to get some and see how that worked...our fingers were crossed!

We had a very nice day Tuesday. We have decided we need to take a few hours each week (or maybe even a whole day – gasp!) and get out to see and enjoy this new country we call home. We were planning to get an early start and go into Puerto Plata and walk along the malecon (it's the street that runs parallel to the ocean and is about 3 miles from one end to the other) and back, have breakfast and run a few errands while we explored the town a little more. Well, it was raining when the alarm went off, so we turned it off and went back to sleep! Slept until about 8, then had breakfast at home, got cleaned up and by then the rain had stopped. We still did a walk on the malecon – it was just shorter since it was cloudy with sprinkles on and off and we didn’t want to get caught in the rain. We had lunch – which was a very sad version of “hot” wings. The temperature may have been what they meant because the sauce was definitely not hot…it was BBQ sauce! Guess if we wanted to start a wing business, there might be a niche for it. Then we wandered around town. Here are some pictures of the sights from that day (notice-no moto pictures - can you believe we didn't see anything "unusual" on a moto that day??):







While we were in Puerto Plata, we bought a meat grinder so we can make our own sausage. We're not sure why but all the sausage you get here has been ground to a texture of mush - it's gross! We'd been looking for a grinder and found one yesterday. We plan to try our hand at sausage making this weekend. We'll see how that goes!!

And as is typical on Tuesdays, the power went off…for an extended period of time. We were gone, of course, but Linda told me it went out around 11 or so. We got back around 3 and our batteries were still holding, so we were quite happy about that! Generally it will come back on between 5 & 6, but for some reason it didn't that night until 8 p.m. On top of that, our internet was out as well! But the internet company did come out and got it fixed (for the whole neighborhood) around 7 or so. Needless to say, we didn't do much online that day!

Michael, the electrician, came on Wednesday to get our generator set up so if we need to use it to power the house, we can. We had him move our batteries from their current location (mounted on a wall outside the house) into the propane storage casita we had built. There's enough room for them and two large propane bottles, so it will be much easier to check the water levels and maintain the batteries if they are in there. Plus they will be better protected from the elements which should help them last longer. AND there is ironwork that locks so that should keep them secure so they don't grow legs and walk off!

He ran into a bit of a snag however. He can’t find the plug that needs to go into the generator at any of the ferrerterias around here, so he will go to Puerto Plata next week to see if they have them there. If not, we may have to order it online and wait a bit longer. But at least we can still use the generator to run the refrigerator, some fans, and our computers if needed, using a regular heavy duty extension cord, so it’s nice to know we won’t be completely powerless – nor will we have to subject Zuki to running for hours in the driveway with a cord hanging out her window!!

As of Wednesday, the pool was looking somewhat better but was still nowhere near where it needed to be for me to put even a toe in it! On Tuesday you couldn't see anything in it because it was so murky. By Wednesday you could see the lights, which are about a foot or so down from the top of the water, so it was slowly clearing. We had put some of the alum in it but as suspected, it looked like it would take more than one dose. But we were making progress.

On Saturday we put in a full day of work around the house…laundry, cleaned the house, yard work. Glenda had brought down a wheelbarrow full of plants she was thinning out of her garden. We “stuck them in the ground”…now we’ll see if they grow! We also moved some large rocks from the side of the house back under the palms and since we had some smaller rock left from the work Raphael did, we put it back there as well. We’re hoping to spruce up that area a bit – and with the rock, keep some of the mud under control. It’s a work in process, but hopefully with the help of the plants from Glenda, it will be looking much better soon!


Speaking of Glenda and her plants…she has a rather extensive, if not eclectic, array of plants and flowers in her yard. She likes to see what she can get to grow and has many plants that she doesn’t even know what they are, but if she likes them, she keeps them. On Friday, I had taken something we’d borrowed back to her and we were walking around her yard and she was showing me the plants she was going to thin out (in preparation for the wheelbarrow load she brought me!). I knew what many of them were – and saw one plant that was about 2 ½ feet tall with very distinctive leaves on it. I said, “Glenda, what is this plant?” She laughed and said she didn’t have any idea, but thought it was pretty so had kept it. She showed me where she had several more – and how she’d cut them back a bit so they’d get “bushier”. Well, you should have seen the look on her face when I told her what I am pretty sure they are…marijuana plants! She was shocked – and honestly didn’t have a clue! I told her the pictures I’d seen of the leaves looked very much like the leaves on these plants.

I went home and got online to find pictures of pot plants. Sure enough – that’s what she’s got! I printed out a couple of the pictures and gave them to her. Al has been giving her all kinds of grief ever since. I don’t know if she’s going to leave them or get rid of them, but I guess if you don’t know what they are and aren’t using them for any other purpose than decoration, why not?!

And the pool is finally back to (almost) normal. It’s taken the entire week – several cleanings and many different treatments to get the pH and chlorine levels right. Who knew that having a swimming pool would be so much work!? But we were able to swim again on Sunday – and we are hoping it will be quite some time before we get that kind of rain again (or never would be ok too!).

Oh – and guess who was waiting outside our front door when we got up this morning? Dusty and Sierra were whining and carrying on – sniffing at the door – and yep, Mr. Bamboo was ready for his morning visit as soon as I opened the door. Oh – and he’s got “sit” down pat, so we’ve moved on to “down” (lie down). He’s doing quite well with that too…I’ll have him trained soon. Now I just need to learn the commands in Spanish and French and teach him those too!

That about does it from here for now. Hablar con usted la proxima semana! (Talk to you next week!)

Our First Wedding Anniversary in the DR

Steve and I celebrated our 19th anniversary on 7/11. We had a really nice day. Al and Glenda invited us to go out to breakfast in Cabarete on the beach, followed by a leisurely walk in the sand –watching the kiteboarders and others enjoying the beach and picking up seashells.

It still amazes me how they carry things on their heads here. Check out this woman with the bin of fruit she is selling on the beach.

When we got home, we checked emails then decided it was time for a siesta! After we got up, we tidied up the dog’s haircuts – using dog trimmers this time (vs. scissors). Sierra actually stood still for her trim this time. I think she realizes now that having less hair makes her much more comfortable with the heat!

We finished our day with a nice dinner at a restaurant called Scotch ‘n Sirloin – the same place we ate the night we made the offer on our house here. Neither of us would have imagined 19 years ago that we’d be living on an island in the Caribbean! Heck, I’m not sure either of us knew the DR existed at that time! It was a mucho bueno y tranquillo dia!!

We’ve mentioned the road conditions in previous blogs – and here’s a funny example of how they (sometimes) mark a hazard. It's a tree branch with plastic grocery bags hanging off it. This picture was taken on the main street going through Sosua! This obviously draws a driver’s attention. Unfortunately, they may not miss the other large hole that is on the other side of the lane!! A few days after we took this picture, the marker disappeared and the hole had been filled – we’re not sure with what, but after a couple of rain storms, it’s back to being a pretty severe hazard. I told Steve that I think they really didn’t want the street to be good there – it was really a form of traffic calming – Dominican style. Same effect but cheaper than speed bumps!

We were supposed to get our generator Monday, but Jerry hadn’t been able to get it serviced…so maybe mañana? Tuesday came and went as did Wednesday & Thursday…no generator. Hmmm….

Eye update – it’s doing quite well. I wore my contacts all day on Wednesday. No problems!! YAY!!!! Hopefully that’s the last of the eye problems!


On Thursday, we had to make a trip to Santiago (2 hours), then on to Santo Domingo (2 more hours). Our applications for temporary residency had been approved so we had to go down to get our cedulas (Dominican ID) and our residency cards. The attorney asked us to be at her office in Santiago by 8:30 – which meant leaving our house no later than 6:30. It was raining when we left, but fortunately we didn’t run into any issues along the way and we got to her office with time to spare. We saw lots of motos along the way… sporting traditional Dominican raingear – trashbags!










The attorney & her sister Clara, who would accompany us to SD, didn’t get there until after 8:30…then the taxi was late. We were hoping this wasn’t an omen for how the rest of our day would unfold!

There was another couple waiting when we arrived. We wondered if they would be going to SD as well…and they were. They had 4 bags with them (the size of grocery sacks) and they themselves were not small people. I had visions of a typical Dominican taxi – usually a Corolla or Camry – and the 5 of us stuffed in there, plus the driver…for little multi-hour cruise across the island. Thankfully the taxi turned out to be a Toyota minivan so we had plenty of room for the ride.

The other concern we had was not knowing what the other couple was having to do while there. If you recall, our first trip to SD (on our 2nd day on the island) entailed a blood test, a UA test, and a chest x-ray as well as a lot of time sitting and waiting for our turn for each. Our attorney, Dolly, had told us that this trip, for us, would be much quicker so we were hoping that was the same case for the other couple. Our neighbors, Tony & Linda, had gone to renew their residencies a few weeks ago and ended up having to wait for an extra 2+ hours for the other person with them! That put them back in Santiago after 6:30 p.m. which meant they had to drive home to Sosua in the dark for most of the trip – not a pleasant thing to do especially after a long day in SD anyway. Fortunately, the DR gods were again smiling on us and other than having to return to the cedula office for the other couple, which took an extra 30 minutes, we were back in Santiago by 4 p.m.

We did decide that one of these days we’re going to drive part of the way to SD ourselves and stop at some of the little shops and stands along the way. We’ll also take pictures to put in the blog. A good portion of the drive is very pretty, but it’s tough to take pictures from the back seat of a minivan with tinted windows!

Oh – and the rain. It had rained on and off all day Wednesday at home and we were hoping that it wouldn’t be bad for our trip. And we were pretty lucky for most of the day. It did rain pretty hard for a time while we were in SD. As is true here, it just emphasizes the poor conditions of the roads. For those of you familiar with the Denver area, think of I25 at Alameda during a bad rainstorm. Same concept here – with motos added into the equation!

We were barely creeping down one of the streets in SD in the taxi van, following two motos who were working their way slowly through the standing water. One moto hit a pothole that couldn’t be seen because of the standing water and although it bounced him around pretty good, he was able to keep on going. Well, the second guy wasn’t so lucky. He hit the hole and fell - RIGHT in front of our van! Fortunately we were going so slow that the driver was able to stop before he hit/ran over the guy. The moto driver jumped back up, gathered his stuff (and his ego), and hopped right back on his moto and took off again. You definitely need to be resilient to live here!

We made it home safely – just in time for dinner. Since both of us were tired, we decided to stop at our favorite roadside chicken place. I’ve only been there a couple of times before, but the guy who runs it remembered me. He saw me walking toward his stand and he came out from behind it to shake my hand and ask me how I was. He’s a very nice man and boy, does he roast a yummy chicken! We got a ½ a chicken and some yucca (pronounced yooka) which is very similar in texture to a potato. They have some sort of sauce that they put on both. We don’t know what’s in it, but it is good!

It’s pretty funny – to cut the chicken, he uses hand clippers that you or I would generally associate using for gardening – but they work pretty darn good to cut up a chicken! And the chicken isn’t cut into any pieces that you or I would readily recognize. No asking for the breast or the thigh…nope, you get a hunk of chicken – just look for the dark or white meat. The cost for the whole thing: 125 pesos – less than $4 US. Not bad for dinner for 2 – and we didn’t have to cook!!

Speaking of cooking, check out the flour tortillas Steve and I made Friday night. This batch worked much better than the last batch we made (thinner) and they are SO much better than anything we can get here. We're going to see if they freeze ok and if so, we’ll make a couple dozen. Here’s a picture of the "open faced" shredded beef burrito I had for dinner - using one of those tortillas and some of the good, local produce we get here – YUMMY!!







Saturday morning was the first of many days that we haven’t had rain – or needed to be somewhere/do something. But we did need to stay close to home since Jerry, the guy we were buying the generator from, told us he was going to bring it by around 11-12. So we took advantage and enjoyed some time in the pool, had some breakfast, and did some cleaning around the house. Jerry actually showed up a little early and we now have our generator – yay!! Now we just need to get Michael back over here to make the connection to the house and we’ll be in great shape should we run into an issue again in the future where the power goes out for an extended period of time. We’re hope not to have use it much – but it sure is nice knowing we won’t be facing the same challenges as the last time!!

We stopped and visited with Al and Glenda for a few minutes as we were headed into town for groceries. Glenda had been doing some gardening (she does a lot of that) and had some plants that she’d cut back that she offered us. She swears you can literally just “stick them in the ground” and they will grow. Since we were planning to go to a vivera (plant nursery) in the next couple of weeks to buy some plants, we figured we might as well give this a shot. What’s the worst that could happen?

So after we came back from Sosua, Steve dropped me off at their house to pick up the plants. I ended up with a bucket full. She cut some long stalks off of some flowering trees they have – then cut those into three sections. Again, she swears that we can plop them in the ground and they will grow. We’ll plant them Sunday and see how it goes. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

We ate a late lunch (3 p.m.) and were entertaining the idea of a siesta when our cell phone rang. It was Pam and Dennis. They were in the neighborhood and wanted to know if we wanted some mangos they had picked from their tree. Of course I couldn’t turn those down! They stayed and visited for about 45 minutes – so by then it was too late for a siesta. Oh well….maybe mañana?

After our roadside meal on Thursday, Steve and I decided that we needed to find and try some yucca recipes. I did some searching on the web and found several, as well as directions on how to cut/prepare the yucca. What they don’t tell you in the online directions is that first you have to get all of the dirt that is caked on them off – which is not an easy task since the dirt here is very clay-like. So we filled a 5 gallon bucket with water and put them in to soak for a while. That worked quite well and after hosing them off, we were ready to start prepping them. I was also glad that they aren’t too expensive – I would have been perturbed if we’d have paid a bunch for all of that mud!!

I always wonder what possessed someone to try some things for the first time. Yucca would be one of those things. They are ugly as can be when you get them and frankly, even after they are peeled, they’re not the most appetizing-looking things. But they are a mainstay here – and from what I could see in my online searching, in many countries.

The recipe we tried was Yucca Chicken. In addition to those two ingredients, it had a sauce that included beer, chicken broth, onion (although we left that out since Steve doesn’t like onions), and Old Bay spice. When it cooks, the sauce thickens from the starch in the yucca. We added our own kick to it with a little cayenne pepper sauce. I think I’d add carrots to it next time…it needed a little something else, but all in all, it wasn’t too bad!


Sunday was a painting day. Steve worked on the inside of the casita while I did the outside. We made good progress – but stopped when we ran out of paint (yes, we have more but decided not to open new cans at that point).

We also needed to plant our cuttings from Glenda – or as Steve refers to them – our sticks. Yes, I’ll be the first to admit that I am skeptical that this will work. I’m putting pictures here to document the planting. And just FYI – that thing on the upper right corner of the “stick” picture is a piece of rebar – not a stick that we planted!! We’ll keep you posted on how it goes.





After checking our backup batteries’ water levels and cleaning the connections, we started picking up tools and headed in for showers. Good thing – it started raining not long after that and has been raining on and off ever since. It cooled everything down quite nicely. In fact, we used the cool as an opportunity to bake some pita chips and peanut butter bars!

It’s been a relatively quiet week here – which we decided really isn’t a bad thing! Hope you all had a good week as well. Take care and we’ll be back with more adventures soon!

We've survived 3 months in the DR!!

I think I’ve mentioned before that Bamboo is the neighborhood watch dog. He barks at anyone who he thinks shouldn’t be here whether they are on foot, motorcycle or in a car. Saturday night we were sitting in our office and heard Bamboo barking like crazy. I knew Tony and Linda were out and there wasn’t anyone next door either, so I went out to see what he was fussing about. He was barking at something in the area of Pablo’s house (the one under construction). Steve was close behind me with a flashlight.

When he shined it in the direction in which Bamboo was barking, we could see a man sitting on the front porch of Pablo’s house. “¿Por que usted aqui? (Why are you here?)” I asked. “No es su casa! (This is not your house!)” He had a flashlight and gestured to the materials in front of the house and back at the house while speaking very quickly in Spanish…none of which I understood! “Securidad? (Security?)” I asked. “Si”, he answered. “¿Para qien? (for who)”, I asked. He rattled off a name – but it wasn’t Pablo or Century 21, so we wondered if it was the contractor he named. “Llamo Pablo y pregunde (I will call Pablo and ask)”, I said. He said ok and seemed unconcerned that we were giving him the 1st degree, so we thought perhaps he was legit. (Now no one needs to go check to see if my Spanish is ACCURATE…I’m sure it was pretty sketchy…but at least I got the message across - I think?)

What he didn’t know is that I don’t have Pablo’s number (!), but I did call Al & Glenda…no answer. Next I called Tony & Linda to let them know he was sitting out there – so they wouldn’t be surprised when they arrived home. Tony apparently does have Pablo’s number, but didn’t have his phone with him. In the meantime, Steve took Bamboo, the watch dog, home and told Charles as well. So the neighborhood watch team was in full force!




We had a busy day Sunday. I vacuumed the house while Steve fixed breakfast, then we each headed off to tackle our to-do lists. I painted the propane casita (inside and out) and gave the wall it’s on and the one adjacent a fresh coat of paint as well. Check out the "before" and "after" pictures!!



Then I came inside to paint the area on the kitchen wall where there used to be an A/C unit (we sold it to Pam and Dennis since we didn’t need 5 units in a house this size!). Steve got our solar motion detector light installed on the casita and worked on some of the windows in the house that weren’t closing properly.

Next…doggie haircuts! Both Dusty and Sierra got a trim (Sierra refused to pose for a picture – but don’t worry, she doesn’t look bad!). Dusty, however, was happy to show off his new doo! Then after washing the dog hair off of us, we jumped in the pool for a while – dogs included. We let them run around for a while, then captured them to give them each a shampoo/conditioner and a rinse (gotta keep that chlorine off as we now know). After that they were racing around the yard, chasing each other, then rolling in the grass and having a good time.

Finally, after showers, we decided to try our hand at making flour tortillas. We were so spoiled back home – having access to fresh tortillas. The kind we can get here are really not very good, so we figured anything we made had to be better! And they were. Not nearly as good as what we used to get at Carlos’ store, but definitely an improvement over the store-bought version here. With a little practice, we’ll be set.

Monday morning I woke up with a scratchy throat, so decided I’d just go back to bed for another, oh, 30 minutes or so. An hour and a half later, I woke up! My throat was better but my right eye was teary and burning. I took out my contacts and started putting warm compresses on it – in hopes that I could nip whatever it was in the bud. Well, it was a good thought, but my eye just got worse and worse as the day went on, so we finally decided that it would be best to go to the clinic to have it checked out…and test out our DR health insurance!

There’s a very nice, 1-year old clinic/hospital about ½ a mile from our house. We weren’t sure what to expect – or even where to go when we got there. Since it wasn’t technically an “emergency”, we didn’t go through that door, but rather, went through the main entrance to the hospital. The receptionist was on the phone & while we waited for her to finish, a very nice lady walked out and offered to help us. I showed her my eye and she quickly took us back to talk to a doctor – in his office!

Fortunately he spoke very good English. Interestingly, one of the first questions he asked was not “do you have insurance”, but rather “do you live here?” – very different than in the States!! He took us back to the emergency area. After getting us settled and talking to the nurse briefly, he left. She looked at my eye, got a little information from me, then disappeared for a few minutes. When she returned, she told us to come with her for a consultation with another doctor.

We followed her down the hall. The first doctor who helped us saw us and asked the nurse where she was taking us. She told him where she was taking us and he said “oh, no, no, no – that will be much more expensive. I’ll tell you what you need to do.” So we turned around and went back to the emergency area. He told her to wash my eye out, give me some drops & a hydrocortisone shot for the inflammation. He told me to come back in 3 days to have it checked and if it got worse, come back sooner.

I asked him his name (Roberto something – I missed the last name). Turns out he’s a brain surgeon and the director of the hospital! He was incredibly nice, very down-to-earth. Although I hope neither of us ever needs his “true” services, we both felt like we would be in good hands if we did!

The nurse then proceeded to treat my eye, and while she did some paperwork, another one gave me my hydrocortisone. The first nurse asked Steve my age – and when he told her, she said “Really?! I would have guessed she was younger!” That really made my day – especially since I wasn’t feeling (or looking) so great!!

As is typical of emergency rooms, this one also had some interesting things going on in the other areas. I couldn’t see them (literally), but Steve had a good vantage point and was relating telling me what was happening.

First an English speaking man (I’d guess American) walked in, approached the desk. He said he’d been in a head-on collision – the day before – and his head still hurt and he was wondering if he should get it checked out…and what that would cost. Our brain surgeon friend told him that the first thing he should do is see a trauma doctor, who happened to be in the area, and that a decision would be made on next steps – CAT scan, etc. The guy asked how much the CAT scan would be and Steve thought he heard the doctor say $100. The guy said “ok, I’ll think about it” and left! Steve said he didn’t look real good and wasn’t walking real well…probably should have stayed and gotten checked out!!

Another guy was laying on a gurney – with a big bandage on his head and another on his leg. We have a sneaking suspicion that he may have fallen off a truck. Given how they ride around on the backs of the trucks here, that’s probably not a stretch!

They finished up with me and we went to the desk to get my insurance card and settle up. I signed a paper and got out my wallet…and they told me we didn’t owe anything! So when I can actually read better, I’m going to have to pull out our policy and see how that all works!

We headed to the farmacia to see if they had eye wash. If they didn’t, the nurse told us to get baby shampoo & to use a few drops in water to rinse my eye before putting in the drops. Well, no eye wash at the farmacia…so I had to trust that the “no tears” advertised was really true! I can tell you now – it’s not – or at least it’s not when you are pouring the soapy water directly into an already irritated eye!! YIKES! But I survived and put in the drops, which also burned, and hoped I would be lots better in the morning.

Unfortunately things got worse...overnight was horrible. At one point if felt like someone was poking hot needles into my eye, then at some point that changed to another sensation. Now it felt as if all the little bacteria had little sledgehammers and they were pounding a chorus in my head! When I got up, my eye was very swollen and now I couldn't even open it. It was warm and feverish all around my eye - from my forehead clear down into my cheek - even my teeth hurt! And light - holy cow did that hurt my head!! So we loaded up and headed back to the clinic.

This time we went in through the emergency door (figured we’d end up there anyway). The nurse put me in a room. We told her we’d been in the day before and showed her the instructions we’d been given. Shortly after, Dr. Roberto popped his head in. He looked at my eye and shook his head. After telling the nurse what she needed to do this time, he told us to be careful as it was contagious and could spread to the other eye. He also told Steve he should only kiss my left cheek until I was better – with a laugh, of course!

This time they gave me IV antibiotics, and another hydrocortisone shot and the Dr. prescribed oral antibiotics, an antibiotic eye drop, and some ointment. Off we went to the farmacia…again! This time they had what we needed (the whole thing cost under $30!) and we headed home. I decided to double-check everything before putting it to use. Good thing I did because they had given us the wrong thing for the antibiotic drops. Instead of eye drops, they gave us oral drops for ninos (babies)! Poor Steve headed back to the farmacia…only to find out they didn’t have the right thing. But she told him she would order it – and it arrived in about 10 minutes!

I started my treatment regimen and within hours I was doing much better - the sledgehammer was gone, the swelling was down (although my eye was still hard to open for more than a few seconds) and I was even able to sleep for a few hours. By late in the afternoon, I was feeling much better and could even open my eye for several minutes at a time. So I was definitely on the right track now – and hopefully in a few days, I’ll be good as new – and back in contacts! I HATE wearing glasses!!!

As is now typical, Bamboo stops by a few times a day – to join our dogs in getting their daily peanut butter (that’s how we give Sierra her omega-3 pills for her skin) or just to play with them and/or their toys. Since Bamboo is getting peanut butter as well, I figured he should learn some tricks. We’ve been working on sit – and he’s done quite well with that. A few more days and I may have to take him home to show his mom and dad!

Each day my eye has improved – thankfully! Wednesday was a little tough, trying to work with only one eye since my right eye was still blurry. I was hopeful that it would be better on Thursday since we were planning to go to Santiago – then on to Santo Domingo for our cedulas (residency IDs). We had initially planned to go to Santiago to do a shopping run. I had sent our immigration attorney an email to check the status on our residency application – and to see if we needed to come by her office for any reason since we’d be in town. She told us our temporary residency was approved and asked if we could go to Santo Domingo that day. It kind of threw a wrench in our plans, but we said that we’d make it work…hoping that we’d get back to Santiago in time to do our shopping.

In the last blog, I mentioned that we were thinking about buying a generator – just in case we have another power situation like before. So we had made arrangements to meet Jerry at his shop on Wednesday to look at what he had. By the time we left, we had picked a unit and he’s going to bring it to us on Monday. The casita will be a perfect place to keep it! And it has enough “guts” to not only run everything in the house but also our water pump and the pool pump (perhaps not all at once but being able to run them at all is HUGE!!). Now we just need to get a VERY long cord for Michael to fix up the connections for us.

Later that day, Dolly, our attorney, called and asked if we could push the Santo Domingo trip to the following week. Needless to say, we were glad to say yes. So our shopping trip in Santiago was back on for Thursday.

We got up early on Thursday and left the house around 7. It’s a great time to go – not too much traffic and it’s still cool (relatively speaking, of course). The picture at the beginning of this post was taken on the way to Santiago – some very pretty areas with flowering trees over the road. The picture here is the malecon which runs along the ocean in Puerto Plata - again a very pretty drive especially early when there is less traffic.

Since we had never driven to Dolly’s office by ourselves (Pam & Dennis had taken us), we decided we would first go there to make sure we knew how long it would take to get there – and that we didn’t do a repeat of Tony & Linda’s experience a couple weeks before.

We had lent our Santiago map to Tony and Linda– with Dolly’s office and all of the stores we tend to frequent marked. Well, somehow they missed the off-ramp and ended up getting lost. They did finally make it to her office – 20 minutes late. Fortunately, we drove right to it, so we’re confident that barring any unforeseen delays, we will be there on time next week!

The traffic in Santiago hadn’t gotten any better, nor had the street signs. I found it very challenging to navigate on this trip since I was wearing my glasses. I fortunately have a pair of prescription sunglasses – but they are a prescription (or 2?) ago, so although they are functional, it was even more tricky to read the faded signs! My regular glasses have a current prescription, but my eye was still sensitive to the light, so I wasn’t able to wear them for long when we were in the car.

But we got to all the places we needed to go and found about 90% of what we had hoped to get…not bad by DR standards! And of course, more interesting and unusual sights along the way:




Funny…I was taking this picture of the gringos who are on an excursion – riding 4 wheelers along the highway and who knows where else they take them. Did you notice the sign? That’s the developer of our neighborhood…HMMMM…it would have been good to know someone who knew what we were going to be up against – might have done some things differently?!


There are a number of, shall we say, interesting hotels along the autopista (highway) on the way into Santiago. It’s our understanding that many of them rent rooms not only by the day, but in hour increments as well, so you can figure out who the clientele is! I guess it’s kinda like east Colfax in Denver?? Here’s one of those establishments – yep, Las Vegas – seems rather appropriate!!





And of course, no trip would be complete without more moto pictures. Here we have another family – complete with a fuzzy bear backpack. I think there were 4 this time. It's hard to see, but there's also a very small child wedged in between the passengers (you may be able to make out the arm on the left of the picture. It's not unusual to see families with tiny babies on motos…no car seats here!

Then we have a guy with plastic crates stacked on the back of his moto.
Not sure what is in them.

Finally, we’re not even sure what this guy is hauling. The things that look like poles may be sugar cane. And who knows what’s in the bags!?



There’s quite a system of public transportation here. You see a lot of these vans around as well. Steve thought the curtains in the back with the fuzzy pompons added a nice touch to this one.

We spent Friday catching up on work – the paying kind as well as some things around the house, like laundry. Saturday morning was cleaning, more laundry, and catching up on things that didn’t get done during the week. It has been a beautiful day – sunny, but with a nice breeze. Gonna sign off for now and hit the pool!

Hasta la vista for now!

That which does not kill you makes you stronger…

Our weekend started off nicely – we got a few things checked off that never-ending to do list – like cleaning the entire house, including mopping, dusting & bathrooms. Another chore around here is to do a monthly check of the batteries that run our inverter – which is our back up power supply. It’s important to keep the water levels up in them so they can keep a full charge, so Steve got to use his handy-dandy ladder that we got to do that, as well as change a light bulb in one of the outdoor lights.

Once we got done with that, we headed over to our neighbor’s house. Tony and Linda had decided to put in an alarm system and asked if we would help them. Tony’s good with putting up the sensors, but not so much with the programming of the system. And Linda, well, she’s a dear lady but let’s just say that her talents lie in baking and making good coffee! (Oh, and she used to be a hairdresser – she’s going to give me my first DR haircut!!). We got them up and running in about 4 hours – then came back home to enjoy some pool time.

Mañana domingo (Sunday morning), we decided to go out to breakfast. There’s a small restaurant/bar in “downtown” Sosua called the Britannia. I think Steve’s decided that he needs to give them lessons on how to make good French toast, but my meal was quite good! After that, we were off to the grocery store before heading home to do some more “to do” things.

When Michael left on Friday, he was ready to run the conduit for the casita’s electricity to the pool house – but needed a trench dug to bury it. Steve told him that if he had time, he would do it. So we again borrowed Al’s pick axe (I’m remembering what Steve did to the waterline the last time he wielded a pick axe!) and he went about digging the trench between the casita and the pool house. While he worked on that, I finished putting the primer coat on the casita. Raphael had done all but the two sides closest to the fence and a bit on the side with the windows.
Let me tell you – both Steve and I were hot and tired after we got done with our trabajo (work). Steve had to fight with the palm tree roots the whole way (but didn’t hit any water – or worse – sewer lines this time!). And I had about 18 inches between the fence/palm trees and the wall to paint. That was quite the balancing act, plus that new concrete soaked up the pintura (paint) like crazy. I was covered with paint splatters when I finished and we were both ready for showers!!

Fortunately we got those done because at around 3, the power went out. So we decided to take advantage of the situation and relax on our lounge chairs by the pool…and snuck in a siesta. What didn’t work well was our plan to bake brownies to take up and share with Al and Glenda, but we were hopeful that the power would be on later that evening.

Mind you, power outages here are not an unusual occurrence. They can last for a few minutes or sometimes a few hours. Little did we know that this one was going to last a LOT longer!!

Around 10 p.m. on Sunday, our back up batteries went dead. Apparently the fact that Steve had just checked them & filled up the water worked against us as they didn’t have sufficient time to build up the charge. So we settled in for a long, warm night with no fans. Note: we have acclimated enough that we rarely run the A/C any more, but having the air moving via fan is almost a requirement since any breeze we might have tends to die down at night.

Needless to say, neither of us slept well and Monday morning we got up to find that the power still was not on. This was the first time it had been out for this long since we got here. Both Steve and I were worried because we both had work (for our companies) to do and no power means no internet, no computers. We were frantically trying to come up with an alternative.

In the meantime, we and all of our neighbors either called the power company or went to their office in Sosua to report the outage. Unfortunately it wasn’t up by the time I needed to do my call, so I was finally able to get a hold of our friends in town. They had power and I was at least able to jump on their internet and cancel the call…not my preferred option, but at that point, it was the only one I had. In the meantime, everyone was hopeful that the power would be restored sometime yet that day.

Having no electricity also means no running water for us since our pump runs off electricity! We still had dishes in the sink from dinner the previous night, so we used our bottled water and heated it on the grill to get those cleaned up. When we ran into town to cancel my call, we stopped at one of the roadside bbq places and got some grilled chicken and yucca (pronounced uke-a) for lunch so we wouldn’t have to open the fridge. The yucca has a texture like a potato. I think we’ll ask for some of their special sauce next time…or maybe a little butter!

Finally, late Monday afternoon, a truck from Edenorte, the power company, arrived. Next thing we knew, we had power again…for about 1 minute then we heard a “boom” and it was out again. We went outside to see what had happened. A transformer had blown…the one that supplies the electricity to our entire neighborhood! They weren’t certain if it was just a connection – or the entire transformer.

I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that we then became caught between the developer and the power company – neither of which would take responsibility and/or ownership of the transformer (thus the cost to repair it). What was incredibly frustrating was that there are other transformers in our development that are not in use – but the developer would not authorize swapping them out so we could at least have power until the issue was resolved! So in the meantime, all 7 houses in our neighborhood were in the dark…for another sweltering and sleepless night.

The next morning dawned and we began to scramble to figure out how we could get our jobs done (yes, we are only semi-retired) and hopefully salvage some of our food in the refrigerator. We bought bags of ice and put it into Ziploc bags and placed some in the freezer and some in the refrigerator. We’d also been told that our refrigerator would stay cold if we didn’t open the door too often, so we made sure we knew everything we needed and opened the door just once each day. We used our small cooler to keep just what we needed access to cold for that day.

Now…for our work. Even though there are many restaurant/bars in town that offer free wi/fi for their customers, that is not exactly a great locale for running a web-based training session. Can you imagine what the trainee’s on the other end would hear for background noise!? So we wracked our brains to come up with another idea.

Then Steve remembered that we had brought our car inverters with us. They plug into the car cigarette lighter and you can plug things, like a laptop, into them. So we took it one step further (I really should have taken a picture of this, but it wasn’t too funny at the time). We ran an extension cord from the inverter in the car through the car window into the house and back to our office so we could plug in not only a laptop, but also the router for our internet service. Mind you – poor Zuki had to be running in the driveway during this time, so we made sure we had the doors locked so no one would decide to take her and the inverter (and maybe even our cord) for a joy ride!

That worked pretty well for the two online sessions I had to do that day, since they were relatively short, but the inverter was very hot – as was the inside of the car when I got done. We decided that it would probably be best to try and find another alternative, if needed, for Wednesday since I had several calls back-to-back, with one block lasting over 2 hours. And if Zuki and the inverter were that hot after two shorter sessions, it would not be good to try 2 hours!!

After I got done with the training, we heard voices outside…could they be here to finally fix the transformer?? We went out and walked down the street where there was one of the developer’s contractors standing by the transformer – talking to our neighbor, Charles (think speedo). He’d brought a couple of guys with him, who were poking and banging in the transformer. In case you don’t know how this works, a transformer takes VERY high voltage electricity and basically steps or breaks it down into lower voltage…so it’s not something you want to treat carelessly.

This went on for a while – then they decided, yep, it’s broke. (DUH???!!!) So Charles asks again – can they swap one of the others? The contractor calls Pablo (the developer’s stooge) and he says no. Charles, by the way, is a very demonstrative French man. He also gets, shall we say, aggravated quickly. So when the contractor tells us that Pablo said no, he said “well, I’ll just go talk to Pablo in person then!” He turned around and stormed toward his house. We told him we’d go too. So we locked up the house and jumped in his car…off to the Century 21/Juan Perdomo office (oh – did I tell you that is the developer’s management company?).

We walk in (and oh, does it feel wonderful – air conditioning!!) and the receptionist smiles nicely and asks “may I help you?” Charles says “Where’s Pablo?!” She tells us that he’s not there at the moment and won’t be back for at least 2 hours, but asks if there’s anything she can do. That’s when I lost it. I told her that we’d been without power since 2 p.m. on Sunday and that we expected Century 21 to do something to resolve the issue – immediately! And if Pablo couldn’t take care of it, we wanted to talk to someone who could – even if it was the president of the company.

She quickly called Pablo on his cell phone. I’m not sure if she called us angry gringos – but that’s certainly what we were! He agreed to come back to the office to meet with us in an hour. So we jumped back in Charles’ car and drove to the Edenorte office to see if we could talk to the manager there. Lo and behold, she too was out – and would be back in an hour. So we went home and sweated until it was time to go back to meet with Pablo and the contractor.

They usher us into a conference room (oh, does it feel good in there!) and Pablo proceeds to tell us that it is absolutely Edenorte’s issue. We explain that Edenorte’s technicians have told us that it is a private transformer – thus Century 21’s issue. And in the meantime, we are caught in the middle and not getting any happier about it! He instructs the contractor to call the manager at Edenorte – who he puts on speaker phone. I could understand some of the conversation – and ultimately what was decided was that the Edenorte manager would send a tech out again to double-check because supposedly there is a code or a tag on the transformer if it is theirs. She would call the contractor when the tech was headed over so he could meet him to see for himself – and they would let us know.

Well…funny that none of us ever saw either Edenorte OR the contractor show up, but about an hour and a half later, Pablo calls Charles and tells him that Edenorte still says it’s not theirs, but Pablo is certain it is. He suggests that we all go to the Edenorte office in Puerto Plata to file a complaint. They have a government oversight group – we think it’s something like the Public Utilities Commission in the States – that supposedly advocates for the customers. First of all – it’s now 4:45 and there’s no way we can get to Puerto Plata before they close for the day. Second, if they are anything like the PUC in the States, it could be weeks, even months, before a decision is made…and none of us are willing to wait that long! But we were again faced with another night without power and water.

We decided we had better cook a large package of burger that had been in the fridge since we knew it would be at least one more day before we had power. Thank goodness we have the grill, because the electric stove that the morons we bought the house put in isn’t worth a thing when the power goes out! And thankfully Steve had insisted on bringing the cast iron skillets – which can be used on the grill. He cooked the burger and we took enough out to make tacos (so we could use the rest of our cheese before it went bad), then we put the rest back in the fridge – under a bag of ice.

On Wednesday morning, we decided we couldn’t go another day without a shower. So we carried buckets of water from our cistern (our fresh water supply) and poured them in the tub. The cool water actually felt pretty darn good – and it was oh so nice to get cleaned up! If you’re wondering, we used buckets of water from the pool to flush the toilets this whole time. We were glad we had water…even if it wasn’t running water!!

I called our friend Pam to see if I could impose on them and use their internet to do my calls/training. They manage a rental up in a very nice area of Sosua and it just happened to be empty. She offered to drop off the keys so we could go there.

They had offered the use of the villa to us on Monday night – but it had just been vacated and not cleaned yet – and apparently the guy who used it is quite the slob. Between that and not wanting to leave the dogs here all night – and the house empty with no lights – as tempting as that sounded, we had declined (call us crazy!).

In the meantime, Steve, Charles and Al had once again set off for Pablo’s office. They again ran into a dead end. So they headed to find an attorney that we could hire to represent the residents. There was a specific firm that Al had heard about – who is not afraid to go up against a company like Edenorte, nor the Century 21/Perdomo conglomerate, but he wasn’t certain where their offices were. Steve said the three of them (tres loco gringos) were wandering around “downtown” Sosua (it’s not a very big place) trying to find a sign for the office. Several locals offered to help them…for a few pesos, of course.

Finally, somehow, they found the office and were able to consult with the attorney (or solicitor as they call them here). They also ran into Al’s friend Jerry (the guy we had dinner with a couple weeks ago) and he sells generators. Steve talked to him about what he had available – something we may explore investing in! They then came home to wait for a call to find out how much they would charge and what they recommended as next steps.

Tony, the other neighbor, had stopped by our house to get an update since he had another commitment that morning and couldn’t go with the other hombres from the neighborhood. Then Pam and Dennis came with the keys to the villa. We chatted for a few minutes, then I had to leave so I’d have time to get up there and set up for the call. Steve didn’t want to be rude and kick them all out of the house so he could go with me, so he stayed behind. Apparently he eventually did politely mention that he needed to get some work done – at least for as long as his computer batteries would hold out – and they went on their way.

The villa was still a mess from the guy that had rented it, but fortunately the living room wasn’t too bad and I was able to set up shop there. I turned on the ceiling fans (moving air – what a concept!) and started to open the windows to get a cross breeze…only to have the groundskeepers start up the lawn mower right outside! Since I didn’t want to have too much background noise (I could have gone to a bar for that!) so I left the windows closed and settled in to do my calls. Fortunately, other than a brief blip in the power there that knocked me off the phone, the calls went as planned.

As I was packing up to head home, Al called to let us know how much the solicitor would cost – to make sure we were ok with paying our part. The solicitor had already set an appointment with the Edenorte manager for 10 a.m. on Thursday. I agreed that we were in, then headed back to the house.

When I arrived, Tony, Linda, Steve and Charles were all standing out in front of our house. I walked up and one of them said, “you didn’t see anything...that’s what you need to say if asked”. I couldn’t figure out what they were talking about until one of them glanced down the street (toward all of the vacant lots) and here were 3 or 4 guys working on removing a transformer. It was someone Tony had worked with at another project. He had called Challo (don’t know if that’s how it’s spelled) and asked him to come and swap them out – Pablo and Century 21 be damned!

This guy had offered to do the swap on Monday night (and we all agreed to pay for his labor), but when Pablo said no, we had decided to try and play the game the “right” way – thinking the issue would be resolved by Tuesday. But when it was late on Wednesday and we had no relief in sight, Tony took matters in his own hands.

All was good until the guys went back up to the other end of the neighborhood to put the good transformer in where the bad one was. The guard headed down and was immediately on the phone – to Century 21. Tony headed down the street as well. I’m not 100% sure what all transpired, but Challo talked to Pablo, Tony talked to Pablo, and when all was said and done, Pablo agreed to the swap. He even offered to pay his share of the labor (yeah – we’ll see if that happens!). In the meantime, Linda and I ran to the store for another round of ice…and cold beers…just in case this didn’t work for some reason.

We also cooked dinner on the grill again – spaghetti this time! Yep, used a cast iron pan to heat up the rest of the burger and threw in a can of sauce I picked up at the store. And another sauce pan to heat the water to cook the noodles. It wasn’t gourmet, but it was good.

Right around 7 p.m. we heard the tell-tale beep of our UPS, a light came on, then everything went down again. This happened several times – then there was nothing. I was trying not to break down in tears…we were SO close to being out of this hell we’d been in since Sunday night. Then…beep, lights, water pump, pool pump, fans…they came on – and stayed on!!! We were ecstatic!!! We all ran out into the street and gave Challo and his crew the thumbs up (if they’d have been closer, I’d have given them all a big, sweaty hug!). Apparently once they got the transformer hooked up, they discovered another problem out at the pole and had to change a fuse there which was why the power had come on then gone off a few times before they got the fuse changed.

So we were back in business – fans back on, pool circulating (trying to keep the algae that was forming due to no circulation from getting worse), and yes, back on our computers – connected to the world again. We spent the rest of the evening going through the refrigerator and freezer – deciding what had to be tossed and what could be salvaged, then catching up on our personal emails.

Oh – and during this whole escapade, our electrician couldn’t finish the casita because he needed electricity!! We had called him on Tuesday to let him know we were still dead in the water. He had another job on Wednesday so he told us he’d come on Thursday.

It’s amazing what a good night’s sleep will do for a person! Both Steve and I awoke feeling so much better and were ready to face the day. Steve caught up on some work stuff before heading the meeting with the neighbors, the solicitor, and Edenorte. In the meantime, I divided my time between work, laundry, and cooking the various meat that was in our freezer that had partially thawed, so couldn’t be refrozen if uncooked. I threw some chicken in the crockpot and cooked all of the burger – then put it all in containers to be frozen for future use.

When Steve returned from the meeting, I could tell it hadn’t gone well by the look on his face. Basically the whole meeting was a waste of time and money because someone (we still have yet to confirm 100% who) had told Edenorte that the transformer WAS private, so Edenorte was not interested in discussing it any further.

Of the possible “suspects” who made this claim, only one – Pablo – had the right to assume responsibility for it, but after our earlier discussions with him, we would be surprised if it was him. We may never know for sure who it was, but now any cost of repair will be divided amongst the owners of the development. And if Pablo stays true to form, he’ll find a way to try and pin the bulk of the cost on those of us who have a casa – but not those who own the vacant lots. Somehow he doesn’t seem to understand that having working utilities in the development is to the benefit of ALL owners – not just those who live or rent here. Funny…one of the houses (still under construction) is owned by him! Might be a little tough to sell it if it doesn’t have electricity??

Speaking of electricity…the good news was that Michael was finally finished and we have power in the casita, as well as a timer on our pool pump, so we can come and go as we want and not worry about needing to be back to turn it on/off. We’re also one step closer to being able to move things into the casita from our dining room and our spare bedroom closet!! One more coat of paint inside, a door and the windows and we’ll be ready to rock. Oh – and we talked to him about the generator. He told us what we need to get in order to run things that now run on the inverter, as well as the water and pool pumps. We’ll be making that call on Monday!!

Thursday evening we finished cooking our freezer contents – Steve was a grilling fool and I cooked more burger and some bacon. I also had some shrimp that needed to be cooked, so rather than boil it, I took the less healthy route and plopped it in the bacon grease…boy, was it yummy!!

We also got to Skype with our friends, Dave and Sharon, and catch up with them on everything. Typically we email several times a week, so that many days with minimal contact (e.g. an email saying “we don’t have power – will let you know when we do”) had put me and Sharon into severe withdrawals!! Skype is a wonderful thing!!

Friday – more work and just getting re-organized. It was very frustrating to know that we had things to do (remember that to do list), but everything needed either electricity or water. We could have painted, but would have had no way to wash the brushes or ourselves. Dusty and Sierra both need haircuts – but we couldn’t use the trimmers and we’d have no way to wash the dog hair off of us. So we did get a few siestas in – to make up for the bad nights – and lots of reading and crossword puzzles. And Friday night, we were finally able to bake those brownies!

Steve had a rough night Friday into Saturday. We’re not sure if it was something he ate that bothered him or if he’d just caught a bug. We both had eaten almost exactly the same things, with just a couple of exceptions, and I felt fine, so if nothing else, we’ve narrowed it down to what food may have caused it.

We had planned to get a relatively early start on Saturday since we needed to go into Puerto Plata to pick up a couple of packages and now, get groceries to restock. But with Steve not feeling great, he rested while I vacuumed the pool and got ready to go. We did go ahead and go, but you could tell by the time we were almost done at La Sirena that he’d done about all he could. So when we got home, he laid down to take a siesta while I fixed myself some lunch.

Of course our trips to POP are the best times to capture pictures of the local flavor…


Another interesting load on a moto – this time a bike, some chairs and two passengers!













Here’s a family of 5 (count the feet on the left and there’s another little girl in front of the driver).














And finally, one of the fruit trucks that sits on the side of the road. Selling fruit is hard work - time for a siesta!


Needless to say – this has been a very challenging week, but as I mentioned, we know have a better idea of what we need to do should we be faced with something like this again. We’re definitely going to invest in the generator and likely replacing the electric stove with gas will become a higher priority. We still like it here – and no where is without its ups and downs. You just learn to roll with the punches and when life hands you lemons (or as is the case here, limes) you make limeade!!

Hopefully your week wasn’t as grueling and you’re enjoying a long, 4th of July weekend! Be safe, have fun and we’ll be in touch again soon!!