Yep – it’s hurricane season in the Caribbean!

In case you’re wondering (and even if you aren’t), I thought I’d start off by letting everyone know that we ARE keeping a close eye on the storms developing in the Caribbean. Fortunately Hurricane Danielle went well north of us – but it’s not yet clear how or if Hurricane Earl is going impact us. It’s truly a hour-by-hour watch. NOAA updates their site quite often and we are prepared for whatever Earl may bring.

It’s kind of like getting ready for a winter storm back home…make sure you have plenty of provisions (water, food, batteries, candles, etc.) in case there is no electricity for an extended period. We’re quite happy that we have the generator and feel comfortable that we could go several days, if needed, without power.

The one thing that we’re not sure about is how a storm might impact our internet connectivity – which is our link to the rest of the world. So for those of you who stay in touch on a more frequent basis – if you don’t hear from us for a bit, don’t worry…it’s likely that our internet has gone down and we’ll touch base as soon as possible.

Ok – on to more enjoyable topics from the tropics. (Sorry – couldn’t resist that one!)

We had another busy week (didn’t we come here to relax??)…but luckily no major setbacks or issues to deal with – yay! On Wednesday evening, we went to check out the “Sosua Residents Club”…another group of expats who get together monthly – similar the “Nice People’s Network” group, but different in that this group is more geared toward doing things for and around town – like helping build the tourist traffic, supporting a local children’s shelter, etc. while also being a network for the other expats in the area to find resources. It was a small group (8 including us) and it was interesting to meet a few new people.

On Thursday, we headed to Santiago with our lists for Ochoa (the DR version of Lowe’s) and PriceSmart (the DR Costco). As always, lots of interesting sights along the way:

Gotta hope they don't hit any bumps on this ride....









This is a traffic circle in Santiago...gives you an idea of what the traffic looks like down there - crazy!!







Many of the small villages have fruit stands set up along the roadside. No reason you can't get your daily 5 servings here.











This is a typical Domincan schoolhouse. The kids all wear uniforms - from the very youngest clear into the older grades - which is the next picture.








And finally, this may be one of the worst cases of moto overload that we've seen - of the human kind. I'm not sure that moto truly has a seat that is built for 4 butts. And doesn't the guy on the back look cute with his pink backpack? Makes you wonder if the gal with the cast got that injury sticking her foot too far out into traffic - yikes!!

Back to Santiago....one of the “must haves” on our list for the trip was a lawnmower. We had already been to Ochoa but we did not get one there (wanted to check prices at PriceSmart), but had shelves for the casita and storage drawers, a 6 and a 1 gallon gas can in addition to several other items – plus a cooler! We did get the lawn mower at PriceSmart…and were HOPING it would fit in Zuki with everything we already had – and had gotten at PriceSmart. Before we went to pay, we checked to be sure we could buy tie-down straps…just in case we had to put it on the roof (hey – when in Rome….!). Fortunately they had them…more than we would need, but they had them!

We proceeded to check out and go through the exit process. Unlike in the States where they do a cursory look at the receipt, here when you buy something like a lawn mower, they take you over to the side, open the box, unpack the whole thing to show you that all the pieces and parts are there, and you sign that you got everything. So while Steve was going through that process, I went out to Zuki and quickly started rearranging and trying to take strategic advantage of every square inch of space! I filled the storage drawers with the items we’d bought from Ochoa, stuffed things under the seats, etc.

Another difference here…a PriceSmart employee brings your stuff to your car and helps unload it (in this case, we had two). You should have seen their eyes when they got to the car! But with a little poking and prodding – and putting things in places I wouldn’t normally think of, we got everything in. Steve couldn’t use the rearview mirror – but heck, who needs that mirror, right? Here’s what Zuki looked like when we got home:



Friday afternoon we headed to the vivera (plant nursery) to buy some shrubs and plants for the yard. When we walked into the vivera, we were met by a huge, but very friendly, Rottweiler. The owner of the vivera greeted us and took us around to look at all of the different choices. We had an idea of what we wanted this time, but he gave us some great ideas for the next time – and they deliver, which is good because we can’t get very tall plants in Zuki! He showed us a beautiful tree that has flowers that are very fragrant, but not overpowering. We’re trying to think of a place we could put it so the breeze would blow the scent into the casa. We also want to get a fan palm, a lime tree, and an avocado tree. The only bad thing about the fruit trees is that they take about 5 years before they bear fruit, so we won’t get to enjoy our own crop for a while.


So in the meantime, we’re trying our hand at some other things – tomatoes and jalapenos. We planted our “crop” a week ago Saturday. Here’s what the tomato sprouts look like now. Still waiting for the jalapenos to pop up…maybe in the next few days.

We also got to play with a little Rottweiler puppy – about 3 months old and as cute and sweet as could be! She loved the water and the vivera owner showed us how she would put her head under the faucet and play. He really seemed to like the dogs – but I’m guessing if we had inquired about buying the puppy, she would have been ours. Good thing we aren’t in the puppy market right now – but if we were – we’d have taken her in a heartbeat. What a cutie (and wouldn’t you know, I didn’t have my camera – darn it)!

On Friday night, we joined Pam and Dennis and 5 other people for pizza at a restaurant which is right next to the military base – which is about half way to Puerto Plata. Pam and Dennis had heard good things about it – but we were a little leery when Steve and Dennis each ordered a Sprite and they had one (actually a 7-Up) – for them to split between them! Another guy, Bill, ordered a cuba libre (coke & rum) and they didn’t have any rum – in the Dominican Republic (rum is the national drink here, people!!)!! Pam half jokingly asked if they had pizza. The waitress assured us they did. So we ordered and kept our fingers crossed.

Pretty soon, the waitress showed up with a small bottle of rum and two more bottles of 7-Up for Dennis and Steve. Apparently they sent their delivery moto to the store to get some! And the pizza was very good – probably the best we’ve had since we got here. We were also pleasantly surprised when the bill came. It was about $9 per person – and several of us had beer with our pizza (ok, more than one) plus we all took pizza home! So it was definitely worth the trip! We got to meet a few more people and enjoyed visiting with Pam and Dennis too.

Saturday was another work on the yard day. We had Jean Claude come to help us. While he cleared the weeds in the empty lot next to our fence, we went to work on building forms to pour a concrete pad in front of the casita. We also had him plant our new colorful bushes outside our fence and the little shrubs in the front of the house (that’s the picture at the top of this post).


We were really glad we had Jean Claude to help with the concrete. It took 4 large wheelbarrows full, all mixed by hand, which is HARD, HOT work! We did get a picture of him – busy at work.

We finished up the concrete and sent Jean Claude home…but we kept working. Steve put up the blinds in the casita and I started moving things in that we had, up until now, stored on the back patio. We finally called it quits a little after 5. We were pooped – but isn’t the casita looking nice? The one bad thing…the concrete splashed on my nice paint job, so I need to give it another coat. That’s ok, because I still need to paint the back sides – they are still white!!




Sunday morning we went to Cabarete and had breakfast with Al and Glenda again. We had a relaxing morning – watched the waves that were much stronger than when we’d been there last Sunday…I think they were remnants of Danielle who had passed well north of us a day or so before.




We got home around 1 and ran to Playero (our grocery store) to get groceries – and a few more provisions. When we got home, I gave Dusty a haircut while Steve gave the grass one – testing out the new mower! We also tested out our generator…made sure everything was working as it should be and did a few more odds and ends around the house. At one point Steve looked out the front door and caught Bamboo, the ladron, carrying a toy we had given to Archie down the street – just as proud as could be! Steve was able to convince Bamboo to drop the toy and come into our house…with a promise of peanut butter (one of his favorite treats). So while I distracted him with his reward for listening and coming to us when we called him, Steve went out and retrieved Archie’s toy - which Steve put on the iron work...just out of Bamboo's reach. Check out this picture…looks like Sierra is giving him a talking to, doesn’t it?


Today (Monday) we’ve been keeping an eye on Earl. It was sunny and hot – with a couple of hit and run rainstorms, but tonight it’s been very, very still. The outside temperature has dropped, so we can tell the storm is getting closer. We aren’t under any watches or warnings as of the last NOAA update, so that’s good. We’ve battened down the hatches and brought in anything that we don’t want ending up in the neighbor’s yard. So hopefully we’ve done everything we needed to in preparation for anything Earl might hurl at us! We’ll let you know how it goes!

And hopefully Earl (and Fiona – the tropical storm lining up right behind him) will be long gone and leaving only good waves by Thursday when we plan to go try DR surfing with Max and Richard! Hang ten!!

Take care – and we’ll be in touch again soon!

What’s a honeydipper?

We’ve enjoyed another quiet week (relative to many of them since we’ve been here)! I took these pictures of some wildflowers growing in one of the empty lots down the street from our casa. Steve says they are weeds – but I thought they were pretty. I may have to go dig them up and try that “plant them and they will grow” theory!!












Oh – and here’s one of the plants we did just plop in the ground a few weeks ago…they are doing great and getting lots of pink and white blooms on them.

Monday was a holiday in the DR –they seem to have a lot more holidays here than even we do in the States. Here’s a little history lesson for everyone. 16 August (they put the day first…still getting used to that too!) was Restoration Day. Apparently the DR won its independence the first time on 27 February 1844, but then lost it again in 1861. The War of Restoration was a fight against Spain and the war ended in 1863 – on…you guessed it…16 August. Interestingly, this year (not sure if it’s every election year), the 2010-2016 Congress and municipal governments were sworn in on the same day. So that gave the Dominicans two reasons for big parties all across the country – and for a 3 day weekend!

On Tuesday, we thought that Jumbo, the septic pumping company, was coming to take care of our septic tank. They told us they’d be at the casa at 10. We had also contacted the plumber to let him know they’d be there Tuesday a.m. so he could come do the repair work the tank needed (which, if you recall, was never completed when it was built!). Well, Peter the plumber showed up around 10:30…but still no Jumbo! Peter had a couple other things he could do, so he left and told us he’d come back later.

After making a phone call, the Jumbo owner said they’d be out shortly after noon – and he was. But they didn’t bring the truck to do the work – he came to see what it would entail and make sure their pipes would reach. He then scheduled them to come back on Wednesday at 9 to actually do the work. We let Peter know the new plan.

And Jumbo showed up Wednesday a.m. – a few minutes early even– with the “honeydipper” truck (Steve tells me that’s what they call them in the States??) and they went to work. Here’s a picture of the huge pipe they run from the truck back to the tank. It only took them about an hour to get the work done and they were on their way. We called Peter to let them know they were done and he came a short time later. We asked him what the best way would be to reseal the lids on the tanks and we were very pleased when he told us he would do it for us. And the best news of the day – it only cost us $30! Honestly, I don’t know how those guys do what they do! Both the Jumbo guy and Peter had to get down into the tank (yucko!!) to work on it. Man – they earn every penny they make, for sure!!

We made a quick run into Puerto Plata on Thursday to pick up some packages that had arrived. As always, some interesting sights:



This poor kid has a backpack as big as he is…and he’s almost as big as the guy (we think…it was hard to tell) that is driving the moto.
And we spotted yet another “don’t try this at home” shot - no safety equipment at all! Even the work truck - parked on the wrong side of the road - has no cones or anything to warn oncoming drivers. For my friends at OSHA, let me know if you want this one to use in any of your training sessions! It continually amazes us how these people work – and seemingly have absolutely no fear or concern for their own safety. It’s really very sad!

Friday was a busy work day…I had a couple of hot projects and so most of the day was spent in front of the computer. Bamboo came over – as he usually does – and was happy to take a little siesta. Our two were of course doing the same.

We had hoped that Carlos, our gardener, would show up this week. But he didn’t. Last time he came, it had been almost 4 weeks between mowings and we were afraid we might lose Bamboo in the grass. Carlos was very contrite and apologized many times and I asked him nicely to be sure and come 2 times per month – every 15 days. Well, 15 days was on Monday, but since it was a holiday, we cut him some slack. Tuesday was kind of a rainy day on and off, so again…we get it. But by Friday night when he hadn’t come, we decided it is time to take matters into our own hands. I don’t feel too badly this time since we hadn’t paid him yet for the next month!

Fortunately, Tony had told us before they left for the UK that if we needed to borrow anything, including their mower, we could. So we did just that! We spent a good portion of the morning on Saturday doing yard work and I must say, the yard looks better than it has any time after Carlos had been there! You can also see that the plants we got from Glenda and “stuck in the ground” have, by and large, done quite well. (You can view a larger version of this picture-or any of them-just by clicking on them if you want to see more detail.) A couple of them are still struggling along, but overall, I’m pretty happy with our landscape at the back of the yard. Next on tap – color! We want to get some more flowering plants/bushes, to add some color to our landscape. Fortunately we should be able to get a lot of that from cuttings from our neighbors, which is a good thing since we now will be buying a lawnmower…sigh…

Next we tackled the casita. We wanted to give the seals on the septic covers some time to cure before we started messing around in there too much. Steve got the shop vac out and got the floor swept, then we moved the generator out there. We set to work on getting the threshold under the door built. We wanted it to be high so we won’t get water in there.


You can see how nicely it’s coming together. A few finishing touches, a coat of paint, and we’ll be able to check that one off our list – whoo hoo!! Oh – and move the rest of the garage-type stuff out there – double whoo hoo!!

We were both pretty tired after doing all that work, so we decided to run into town and get a roasted chicken and yucca from our roadside stand guy. Much easier than cooking and it was yummy too! I snapped this picture of Bamboo wandering around back in the rock garden while we were eating out on the back patio.



On Sunday, we headed to Cabarete for breakfast and the beach. Yep – FINALLY – we actually spent some time on the beach and swam in the ocean! There are a lot of, shall we say, enterprising individuals on the beaches – especially the more popular ones like Cabarete. If you don’t have your own lounge chair and umbrella, you can rent them. The first guy we talked to wanted 400 pesos (about $15!). Since we were only planning to be there for a couple hours, we decided that was too much. He offered to come down to 300 pesos, but that was still demasiado (too much). Oh – and we didn’t have that much cash with us anyway! We had intentionally brought very little with us and after paying for breakfast, we had less than 200 pesos left.

So we wandered down the beach a ways and in very short order, we were approached by another guy. He started at 300 pesos. I told him we didn’t have that much – so he asked how much we would pay. I offered 150 and he gladly took it. We spent the next couple of hours relaxing on our chairs and swimming. It was a delightful morning! There weren’t too many people on the beach, although it was getting busier and busier the longer we stayed. We headed home shortly after noon.

After getting a few groceries, ice and filling up Tony’s gas can (for his lawnmower), we took the lawnmower and full gas can back over to Tony and Linda’s. We sat and visited with Max and Richard, the couple who are housesitting for Tony & Linda. They have been here since October of last year, so it was fun to swap stories about our adventures. And what’s really cool? Apparently Richard has been wanting to check out the surfing here, but they just haven’t gotten around to it (and Max isn’t terribly keen on trying it herself). Steve also wants to go and me, I could take it or leave it, so we’ve decided we’re going to go together – the guys can surf while Max and I either boogie board or maybe just hang out on the beach and take videos! We’re very excited to have found another couple that we can do some things like that with. Now we just need to get it on our calendars!!

Monday was a busy work day, but Max came over late in the afternoon to spend some time with our dogs and she brought Archie over to play as well. We’ll be going to Santiago later this week and she’s going to let our dogs out for us, so we wanted them to get to know her a bit. Sierra took to her immediately and even Dusty did really well – perhaps her British accent reminds him of Linda who he adores!

I’ll close for now. Time to get back to work! Have a good week – wherever you are!!

It’s a Small, Small World

We caught this rainbow as we came out the front door of our casa - looking down the street. Yep, those are the rogue cows that came visiting a couple of weeks ago...now staying in their field thankfully!

Who knew when we went back to Cabarete on Wednesday that we would meet a guy from Colorado…and better yet, from Littleton! We were going to take a look at an apartment for rent for a client. Elke, the real estate agent we met on Monday, had made arrangements for us to see it. As we were driving to the property, she asked where in the States we were from. When we told her Colorado, she said, “Really!? Richard, the man who owns the place we’re going to see, is from Colorado, too!” We got to the apartment and started talking to Richard. Turns out he lives about 10 miles west of where we used to live! It truly is a small world as we are finding out first hand.

We took this picture of a “repair” done to one of the electric poles here. As you can see, it has quite a lean to it. But rather than put a new one up, someone has used some rope to shore it up – using a nearby palm tree as the anchor. No wonder we have problems with the electricity around here!!

On Thursday, we stayed home and were on our computers most of the day. We finally got the website up for S and K Adventures – our property management company here. Here’s the URL if you want to check it out: www.sandkadventures.com/property. It’s a work in progress – with more detail and pages to come, but at least we now have something out there if people ask!

In the afternoon, the clouds moved in and we had a good rainstorm. It cooled things off nicely, added some water to the pool – which was down a bit from evaporation in the heat – but fortunately it wasn’t the yucky brown water we’ve contended with recently. Maybe our new landscaping/drainage mitigation is working!?

Friday morning we headed to Puerto Plata to run errands. Although it’s not an uncommon sight here, we saw more than the typical number of banana trucks. Often these trucks will be loaded so high that the height of the bananas is about twice the height of the little truck and the truck will be squatted down and can barely crawl along!

Notice the speaker on right side of the top of the cab of the truck on the left (we took the picture from behind). They use that to announce to everyone that they are coming and they have bananas.

The first thing we took care of when we got to POP was to get our revista. This is that annual sticker I told you about in the last blog…the one they have sometimes, and other times, not. We had gone to the bank and paid for ours, so we took the necessary paperwork and found the little “transportacion” building. Fortunately Al and Glenda had given us the scoop on what we needed to do when we got there. Charles (our other neighbor) had recently gotten his – and apparently they had asked him to do a sort of safety check – checking the turn signals, brake lights, headlights. He was the only person they had do that “inspection” – but then again, he was the only gringo there at the time. Again, not unusual here.

So we took our papers and our factura (receipt) to the desk. Sure enough, we needed to do the safety inspection. Much to our chagrin, we discovered our brake lights didn’t work – unbeknownst to us until that moment! We wondered what would happen…this was not something we’d been prepped for. Would we be turned away and told to come back when they were fixed? Nope! Apparently brake lights aren’t that important and we got our sticker and were on our merry way in no time! Which leads us to ask…why check if it doesn’t really matter??? Around here, you can kind of assume that no ones break lights, turn signals, dimmer switches, etc. work – and you just have to drive with that assumption. Now we just fit in even better! But we were glad to know there is a problem so we CAN get them fixed.

Next we were off to the shoe repair store. A funny thing happens to leather down here (apparently this is a humidity thing – which, being from Colorado, I don’t know much about!). For quite some time, I’d been finding these weird little flecks of black on my left shoulder. It took a while for me to figure it out, but finally I realized that it always happened when we went somewhere…and I had my purse, which I carry on my left side. The leather on the strap is flaking off – and the little flecks were sticking to me. Mystery solved!

After looking at several stores around town trying to (unsuccessfully) find a purse to replace mine, I mentioned it to Pam last week when we were over getting their wheelbarrow for the rock project. She told us about this shoe repair store and thought they might be able to make a replacement – perhaps even in a different material that would hold up better here. Since I like the purse and it’s relatively new (I bought it a couple of months before we moved down here), I figured why not? So for 400 pesos (that’s about $11) I’m getting a new strap made. Yay – I’ve successfully avoided replacing my purse for a while longer.

From the shoe repair store, we headed to Viva, which is one of 3 cell phone carriers in the DR – and the only one that gets semi-decent reception at our house. This was to be our 3rd visit to the store. Why, you ask? Well, the first time we took Steve’s blackberry in to get a SIM card, they told us it was locked. So we took it to the guy in Sosua who unlocked my cell phone and had him unlock the BB. The second time we went, after waiting an hour, we get to the desk and after inserting a Viva SIM card, the clerk tells us it is still locked!

Needless to say, we were less than happy and left – vowing to take the phone back to our Sosua guy. Well, after doing a little online research, I found out how you can check to see if your phone is unlocked – and if it is locked – how to unlock it. So I get Steve’s BB and check it. Lo and behold – it IS unlocked!!! I decide to try the SIM card from my phone and guess what? Yep – it works just fine. We think the problem was that Viva clerk didn’t put the SIM card in correctly.

So we go back again – armed with the knowledge that the phone IS unlocked and that it WILL work with a Viva SIM card. Oh – a little side note here…as we’re parking about ½ block away from the Viva store, a guy walks up to the driver’s side window, which Steve rolls down a bit. He asks if we speak Spanish or English. Steve tells him English. The man proceeds to explain that he’s the parking attendant for those spaces and he will be looking after our property, making sure that nothing happens to it. He nicely asked Steve to back up a little more to ensure that one more car could park in the space in front of us – which he did.

As we walked away from Zuki, we noticed that all of the cars along that block had pieces of cardboard over the front windows (and the motos had cardboard on the seats). Steve said, “I’ll bet we need to pay him for the use of his cardboard when we get back.” Sure enough – when we got back, there was the cardboard, which provided a nice sun shade – and our friend the parking attendant was ready to collect whatever pesos we would pass his way. After giving him a few coins, he retrieved his cardboard and we were on our way. Interesting way to make a living, but here, you see just about everything!

Back to Viva…fortunately this time we only had to wait about 10 minutes – and we got a different clerk who spoke a little more English than the last one. We’re thinking SWEET – we’re actually going to leave with Steve having a phone. The SIM card worked and the clerk asked for Steve’s ID. Steve hands him his cedula (DR ID) and the clerk types in the number…not in the system (this is the second time this has happened – apparently it can take 2 or 3 months to get in the system after they’ve issued it)! Passport? We carry copies with us, so I hand him Steve’s copy. He goes to the back and when he returns, he asks if we have the original with us because apparently he can’t scan a copy?? Needless to say, we don’t carry our original passports with us, so without ID, we once again leave the Viva store empty handed.

Steve is thinking that perhaps this is a sign that he is just not meant to have his own cell phone here! And honestly, 99% of the time, he doesn’t need it since we are together and I have mine. It’s that rare occasion that I run into town by myself and take the phone with me. Guess if I needed to call someone for help, it just wouldn’t be Steve! Good thing I have the numbers for all of our neighbors and friends in my cell!!


We did get a couple of fun moto pictures on this trip. First – is this moto air conditioning DR-style?? Check out the block of ice on the back of this moto. Hope he gets to his destination before it all melts! Oh – and that’s one of the fire pumper (bomba) trucks in front of him.





And who knew that Pizza Hut delivered – even here in the Dominican Republic? Heck, who knew they had Pizza Hut in the DR?? We did a double-take when we saw this moto! Not sure if they’d come as far as Sosua to deliver, but you wouldn’t have to worry about your pizza getting cold!!

On Saturday, Michael (the electrician) showed up around 11. He had been unable to find the plug we needed to connect our generator to our house, but had come up with an alternative and was ready to install it. Ironically he has the same exact generator at his house and the same problem. So he bought two parts and was going to fix his the same way he did ours. Makes me feel pretty good when the electrician we trust bought the same generator…hopefully that means it’s a good one!

After a couple of hours, he was done – and we are now ready to rock and roll if the power goes out for an extended period of time. We’ll even have running water – whoo hoo!!! We’re hoping we don’t have to use it any time soon, but it’s good to know it’s there just in case.

We spent the rest of the day doing odds and ends around the house. We’ve had clouds, thunder, lightening and rain move in every afternoon for the last several days. It’s kind of like it used to be in Colorado – cools it off nicely and makes for a comfortable evening.

Sunday was a really nice day – not as hot as it has been lately, which was a nice change. After cleaning the house and giving Sierra a trim, we decided to go for a swim. And for another nice change – the water in the pool was actually cool! Many times after it’s been hot for a stretch, the water will feel like bath water – not terribly refreshing, but today it was just perfect – not too hot, not too cold. Sierra decided to take a dip and we convinced Dusty to go wading on the top step in the shallow end. Even Bamboo let us dip his toes in the water!

Later we gave Sierra the last of her beauty treatments for the day – a shampoo with a vinegar rinse. Yep – she smelled like a wet pickle dog (until her hair dried). Why vinegar? We have very hard water here, which makes your hair feel very coarse. I had read online that vinegar helps strip the calcium deposits and softens your hair – so I have been using it (and yes, it works). Steve was skeptical, but he tried it too…and decided I wasn’t making it up.

Since Sierra’s fur was not as soft as it used to be so I thought, hmmm, if it works for me, it just work for her too – and it sure wasn’t going to hurt her. And it really did make her coat a lot softer, so vinegar is going to be part of the routine for all of us going forward. By the way, it also works to remove the calcium deposits from sinks, toilets, tubs, etc.

Speaking of toilets, we stopped by Jumbo, the company that pumps out septic tanks. They are coming next week – then Peter can actually finish our tank – and we can reseal it and hopefully that will be the last of our sewer repairs for a good long time. After that we can start moving things into the casita. We might actually have a dining room soon! No table and chairs, but at least it won’t look like a garage any more!!

I’ve told you about our neighbor dog, Bamboo. Well he has adopted us as his second (or first?) family. He spends most of his time with us - either playing with Dusty (Sierra kinda scares him with her size although he is quite intrigued with her), playing with their toys (he’s not stealing them as frequently now since he’s over here playing with them more), or taking a siesta - often on my lap!

He was at the door both Saturday and Sunday around 6:45 a.m. – which was well before we were ready to be up. Our two dogs were running back and forth - to the front door then back to the bedroom to let us know he was there! We got them to settle down so we could sleep for a little longer and as soon as we opened the door, here comes the little squirt. I've been working with him on his manners and teaching him how to sit, lay down and now we've move on to shake. He's a smart guy - watches what our two dogs do then he does the same.



I’ll close with a picture of them waiting to get their daily peanut butter (in exchange for a trick – or in Sierra’s case, to take her daily skin pill!).

Hope all is well, wherever this blog may find you. Adios for now!!

Nope - it's not a dry heat here!

HOT!!! Wow – it’s been very warm the last few days. We get to a point where we try not to even look at the thermometer because it just makes it worse, but to give you an example, it is 8:15 p.m. as I’m writing this and the heat index is 90 – which actually feels relatively cool! For those of you who aren’t familiar with that term (heat index), here’s the link to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_index. And for those of you who are used to the heat in Colorado (but it’s a dry heat, right?), you know that when it’s hot, it just hot – wet, dry, whatever kind of heat. Unfortunately you can’t even jump in the pool to cool off – because it’s like bathwater! Oh well…guess that’s the price we pay for living in paradise, true? I’m sure we won’t be feeling so bad when it’s in the 80s here and it is freezing back home!

I’m not sure if this little, teeny, tiny gecko was trying to cool off or what, but he was floating in the pool when I went out tonight. Poor little guy was paddling like mad, trying to get to the side, so I scooped him up and put him on the edge of the pool. He sat there for several minutes – probably trying to get his breath and wits about him – so I snapped this picture of him. He was a cute little guy! We’ve seen lots of very little geckos lately – don’t know if they hatch this time of year or what, but there sure have been a lot more little ones around than before. They are fun to watch and every once and a while Dusty will see one and try to chase it. Guess who wins that race?!

Luckily it was a relatively non-eventful week (after the “fun” of last week), but it was busy and we accomplished a lot. Since Century 21/Perdomo (the management company for our little neighborhood) isn’t doing any maintenance, a few of us homeowners agreed that we would have some of the work done and pay for it. So on Tuesday, Jean Claude, the neighborhood gardener/laborer, came to work. Steve and Al put him to work digging a hole – looking for a water pipe that we believe has a leak (there’s typically water sitting in this one area at times that there hasn’t been any precipitation at all…hmmmm).

Dave – cover your ears – he was digging this hole with a pick axe and a spade – with no shoes on! He comes to work with croc-like shoes on and a couple of the neighbors have boots that he can borrow, but for some reason, he wanted to do the digging with no shoes! Thankfully he finished with all 10 toes intact – even after creating a hole that was about 6 or 7 feet long, a couple feet wide and almost hip deep. Unfortunately we still haven’t found the water line. So the decision was made to wait and see if we get more water in that hole – and perhaps we’ll be able to tell where it’s coming from and have him dig in that direction. After almost a week, it’s not showing signs of doing that for us. Not sure what’s next – but I’ll leave that to the experts!

After Jean Claude (aka JC) finished digging, we had him do some work at our house. The grass in the front had grown out onto the street, so he cleaned that up. And he did such a nice job of getting it off in large pieces that I was able to take the “sod” strips and put some in the back over the area that had to be dug out last week for the sewer repair. Hopefully grass is like the other things here – stick it in the ground (or on the ground in this case) and it’ll grow. Plus this grass has some great fertilizer to work with! Speaking of growing – check out the stick in the picture below. Yep – the leaves are even bigger just since last week!

Remember the sand pile we had in the back that the dogs were enjoying? Well between their digging and the rain, that pile was spread all over the top of the concrete pad we had put it on, so we had JC scoop it up and put it in a pile again, then move all of the extra cinder blocks from the casita construction over and created a sort of dam to keep it contained. We had had some fencing across that area to keep the dogs out but since it was down, Sierra took the opportunity to lay in that nice sand pile in the shade.

We all took a break and had some lunch. We take turns feeding JC when he works for the neighborhood and it was our turn. We had bought some small containers of Pringles (they don’t get stale so fast that way) and most of the store-bought cookies (like Oreos) come wrapped in smaller quantities, then in a larger package, so we gave him one of each. As we were eating, I asked if he had family here (he is Haitian) and he said he had 3 little girls. He finished everything I had made for him except the Pringles and the Oreos. He told us he was going to take them home to the niñas. I’m sure that those were things that they likely didn’t get on a regular basis (if at all), so I went in and got two more of each so each girl could have one of each. And another for JC – he had worked hard! We were impressed that he was so thoughtful about his kids. Wish we could have seen their faces when they got their treats! It’s interesting to think that something that seems so simple and basic to us can be such a treat for someone else. Sure does make you appreciate what you have!

For the rest of the afternoon, JC worked on clearing out some of the common areas where the grass and weeds had grown out of control. While he was doing that, I went on a rock hunting expedition. There are some really cool coral-looking rocks here – I think it’s called colichi (sp?). There’s lots of it around, but it’s not easy to find because the weeds and grass is so thick. But I figured out if you walk around in the empty lots around here, you can feel the rocks under your feet, then with a little weed pulling action, viola! I took Zuki up to the area in the neighborhood where Al and Tony had told us there were lots of these rocks and loaded her up twice. Some of the rocks I used out in front of the house to put a border where JC had cleaned up the overgrown grass.


Then the rest we used out back to finish the border along the back under the palms. On Thursday we ordered the gravel for the back and to fill in some low spots in the driveway. That afternoon they brought it – 4 cubic meters worth. Steve and I discussed having JC come help us move it, but decided that since he wasn’t always as careful as he needed to be that we would do it ourselves so we wouldn’t lose all of our new plants. Guess what we now had planned for Saturday?

On Wednesday we met with a potential client for the property management company – the guy whose house we looked at when we came on our house-hunting trip. He’s an interesting fellow…will be interesting to see what we can do for him. He’s already turning out to be high-maintenance. Not good!!

We actually have spent quite a bit of time on the company – working on the website. It’s getting closer to being ready…had me stumped for a while, but I figured it out finally! On Friday we didn’t have power for 7 hours. The good news was that our batteries held up just fine and we were able to do the work we needed to do.

Saturday morning…rock moving day. We tried to get an early (relatively) start so we could beat the heat as much as possible. We finished up the back yard around noon and decided to call it a day since it was 90+ in the shade at that point. Showers and a siesta rounded out the day. Check out our handy work - before:



And after:









On Sunday we didn’t start quite as early since we only had about ¼ of the rock left to move. It only took us a little over an hour to finish. We were glad to get it done and took it easy the rest of the day.





Today we went into Cabarete to meet with a woman who has several properties that might be a fit for someone we’re trying to locate a rental apartment for. We took that opportunity to look at the town from a different view point and made a note of several of the properties and where they were in proximity to some of the key “hot spots”. Check out these dogs we spotted on the back of an ATV!



We also were able to take care of the first step in getting our revista. That is a sticker that is required to be renewed annually that goes on the windshield of your car. First you have to go to a specific bank to pay for the revista – which costs 45 pesos (which is about $1.25). There are branches of this bank in many of the towns, but the problem is that the bank doesn’t always have the form. So it’s kind of hit or miss – but the DR gods were smiling on us today because the Cabarete branch had them.

Now we have the form and receipt of payment. Next we have to go to one of the government offices in Puerto Plata and actually get the sticker. That should be an interesting experience!! I’ll be sure to post an update for you.

Other news – our neighbors, Tony and Linda, left today to go back to the UK for 6 weeks. They are Archie’s mom and dad and they also take care of our dogs when we need them to. They have some friends staying at their house to look after it and Archie – Maxine (aka Max) and Richard. I’ve met them a couple of times and I’m sure we’ll get to know them better while Tony and Linda are gone. Hopefully our puppies will like them as much as they do Tony and Linda – just in case we need someone to look in on them if needed! Al and Glenda would do that for us, but neither of them are real dog lovers. They don’t dislike them, but Glenda grew up on a farm and the dogs she was around were working dogs, not pets. Linda and Tony, on the other hand, truly like the dogs. They don’t mind if Dusty jumps on their lap to get petted – in fact they encourage it! So we’ll have to see how Max and Richard are. We’ll keep you posted!

That’s about it from here. Stay cool and have a good rest of your week!

Another crazy, busy week in paradise!

Wow – it was a busy week! For those of you who are loyal readers, my apologies for getting this update out later than usual. I think you’ll understand when you read it!

As advertised in the last blog, we did try our hand at making the DR version of Jimmy Dean pork sausage. It really wasn’t bad for our first attempt (and it was still better than anything we could get here!). We need to tweak the ingredients just a bit and we’ll be set. Our new motto: if you can’t get it here (or can’t get anything comparable), learn how to make it!

Too bad we don’t need beef for the sausage…because for some reason the cows that normally graze in the fields surrounding our development have decided that they now prefer to walk through the neighborhood, indiscriminately munching on bushes, flowers, and grass – and leaving telltale patties in the middle of the street. What’s interesting is they typically do this at night, but none of us have seen any of them in the development during the day.

We think they are getting in up near the front gate by Al and Glenda’s so we gave Al a spool of barbed wire that we had left over from when we had our fence built. He was going to use it to cordon off a couple of openings up that way…so hopefully that will be successful and we won’t have any 4 legged visitors of the bovine kind again anytime soon!

How are the plants (sticks) doing, you ask? They are actually all looking good for the most part. One of them is getting eaten by something. Glenda tells me it is slugs so I did some online research and found a good use for my used coffee grounds. We’ll see if it does the trick! Check out the flowering tree – AND the stick (yes, those are little leaves coming out the sides). Maybe there is something to this “plant it and it will grow” thing??

On Tuesday we had to call Peter the Plumber (yes, his name really is Peter) to have him come see if he could get the toilet in our master bath to work…it wasn’t flushing correctly. We had tried everything, including the DR version of Liquid Plumber (it’s called El Plummerito) – but to no avail. See…even life in the tropics can be crappy (sorry, couldn’t resist)!!

Peter said he’d come by Tuesday afternoon, but then he called around 3 to let us know that his work truck had broken down so he couldn’t make it until Wednesday. This is one of those times you are SO glad you have a house with multiple bathrooms!!

Wednesday a.m. was quite crazy. Peter showed up as promised right at 10, so we showed him the non-functioning “throne” and left him to do his magic. Next, Al had called a puerto y ventana hombre (door and window man) for us. We wanted him to come and measure to give us a price for the casita. We’d had another company that had come out, but they never called with the price!

Luckily I’d seen this shop in Charamicos, a small village we go through on the way to Puerto Plata and the phone number was on the front, so I wrote it down as we passed by. The shop is near Casa de Tornillos (House of Screws – yes, that is the literal translation – and, by the way, it is a great place to get keys made and find drill bits, etc.) Anyway, I digress….

Mr. Rodriquez of Puertos y Ventanas de Rodriquez showed up at the house at a little after 10. He measured and gave us a price on the spot….which, even better, was less than what I’d budgeted – and even better yet, he said he could have them ready Friday! So we sent him on his way to start building our ventanas y puerto.

We were really glad that the door & windows were coming in under budget because by this time Peter had discovered that the problem was not in the house, but rather, was outside…somewhere between the house and the septic tank. Long story short, the “root” of the problem was just that – roots – and lots of them!! In true Dominican fashion, the sewer pipes from the house run to a concrete box buried in the ground that is called a junction or inspection box. I learned more about sewers than I ever wanted to know (and you may to if you keep reading)!

So…the sewer pipes are not joined to the pipe that runs into the septic tank. Nope, they all meet in the junction box where it fills up with the lovely stuff that goes through the sewer lines and eventually it flows into the pipe leading to the tank. Well, that box wasn’t sealed correctly so it and the pipes were FULL of roots from the palms that are planted along the fence where the box is located.

Peter and his guys dug all of that out and fixed it so we shouldn’t have the same issue in the future. He also discovered that our septic tank wasn’t built correctly. He said we could leave it along and it might be ok, but he recommended that we eventually get the tank pumped and while it is empty, have someone (him) come and fix the problem. Not sure what that will cost, but we now have another item to add to our list.

He wasn’t able to finish everything that day, so he left and said he’d be back in the morning to wrap it up. Steve and I were a little nervous about what his bill would be since he’d been at the house for about 5 hours!

In addition to all that, I had a call with a prospective client – doing some virtual assistant work, and a call with my DaVita boss. Good news – I did get the VA project so I started on that Wednesday night since the agreed-upon deadline was Friday morning!

Thursday, Peter came back and finished putting things back together. When Steve asked him what we owed him, he apologized that it had taken so long (so Steve is thinking that it was going to be very painful) and told him it would be RD$3800 (that’s 3800 pesos – or about $109 US). Can you believe that??? He was here at least 6 hours, had to get parts and had 2 helpers with him. I’m not sure you could get a plumber to show up at your house in the States for that!! We will definitely call him back to do the septic tank repair and any other plumber-type work we might have in the future. We were glad to have that problem taken care of and spent the rest of the day doing work stuff.


On Friday morning, as promised, Senor Rodriquez arrived with our door and windows and got those installed. I finished the client’s project and since we had several items that had come in to our mailbox (for us and Al & Glenda), we decided to head into Puerto Plata to get them.

Friday afternoons are always crazy on the roads (kinda like home) so we typically avoid this, but it did make for some interesting picture taking.

Oh – and check out the pothole…yep, the same one that had a “warning” tree stuck in it not long ago that got filled in…but isn’t anymore!


This is a DR shoe salesman - yep, the bag is full of shoes too!

This family was all in pink...even the dad!


Friday night we went to a “Nice People Network” meeting/dinner. It’s a group that is run by a guy here that meet every other Friday and it’s a way to network and advertise your business. We went to one meeting with Pam and Dennis shortly after we got here, but weren’t in a position at that time to ramp up any business-related discussions. Well, time has gone by and we’ve put some work into getting our property management company set up. And since this meeting was at a restaurant just up the road from us (and one we’d talked about trying out), we decided we’d go.

Now mind you, neither Steve nor I like these kinds of things. It’s kind of like giving presentations in front of large groups – I can do them – I just don’t LIKE to do them. But we agreed that we would go and hopefully at the very least we’d have a good dinner.

Well, dinner WAS good and we actually met some very interesting people. First there was Robert. We actually looked at a villa that Robert has for sale (still). He’s now decided he may try to rent it out, so we agreed we’d go back and look at it and see if we can find him some renters. Next – Christian. What can we say about him? Well, he was mildly entertaining when he first sat down, but after about 30 minutes of no-stop chatter (no conversation, mind you – he WAS the conversation), it became rather annoying because no one else could get a word in edge-wise or talk to anyone else at the table.

Fortunately, Tony (the guy who runs the group) sat down and introduced us to a woman, Magdelena, who has a villa for sale as well as two condos in Cabarete that they rent out. We chatted with her for a bit and she asked if we’d like to see the villa. Here anyone can sell real estate (no license required), so we thought even though we aren’t actively pursuing sales, it wouldn’t hurt to go look.

Shortly after we agreed upon a time and she went back to her table, her husband walked by and Tony introduced him to us also. We started talking and he asked why we had moved to the DR. We told him that we’d wanted to simplify our lives – get out of the rat race. He laughed and said he wanted to do the same. Turns out he owns a telecom company in Miami. He and his wife travel to the various office locations – staying in each place about 15 days a month. So they are in Miami, Madrid (Spain), Bogota (Columbia), and Bolivia and here on a regular basis!

He told us he was reading a great book “The 4 Hour Work Week”, which I had read about 2 years ago. So we launched into a discussion about different things in the book – one of which is the concept of passive income. He asked what I thought about that and I told him I liked the concept, but am still trying to come up with ideas on how to put it into practice. He proceeded to tell me that he has several ideas and suggested that we get together for dinner when they get back to the DR in mid-September so we could talk about them. Needless to say, Steve and I decided that meeting Camilo and his wife probably made the whole dinner worth while!!

On Saturday we went to see the villa for sale. Magdelena was running behind, but told us to go on out and the caretaker could show us around. The villa is absolutely stunning! It’s a 5 bedroom, 6 bath, ocean-front beauty. It has a gorgeous infinity pool as well as direct access to the beach. So if anyone knows of anyone looking to buy such a place, send them our way!! They are selling it completely furnished, too. Here is a picture of the view from one of the upstairs bedrooms:



They also have a lot next door to the villa for sale. So we went with the caretaker to look as well. We were about done looking around when the villa phone rang. The caretaker answered – and called me to the phone (?!). It was Magdelena. She was just getting ready to head our way, but then thought perhaps we’d like to see the condos they have for rent as well. We agreed and headed into Cabarete.

Well, needless to say, the condos were almost as fabulous as the Villa. The first one has a magnificent ocean view from almost every room. It has 3 bedrooms and the complex has a beautiful pool and direct access to the beach. Check out the view from the living area:




Last she showed us the studio condo. It sits in the building right behind the bigger condo, so no ocean view, but access to the pool and beach are included as is maid service. The studio is set up very nicely and has everything you could want/need for a nice vacation stay…or a visit for a few months. Unfortunately the battery in our camera had gone dead – and no, neither of us had thought to bring a second camera! I took a few pictures with my cell phone, but need to figure out if I can send them to myself since we have a pay-as-you-go cell plan….hmmmm.

We spent some time visiting with Magdelena and getting details on all of the properties. Now we just need to find buyers and/or renters…so keep that in mind!!

After our trip to Cabarete, we headed back to our villa to drop off the camera and grab the cooler for another trip into Puerto Plata. One last package…and for Steve, the most important one…had arrived – his new ice cream maker! Since we needed to go to the grocery store anyway, it was a good excuse to go into POP again.

We also stopped by the cell phone store to get Steve’s blackberry set up on a DR plan. We had been there once already – only to find out that his BB needed to be unlocked. We took it to a guy in Sosua (he did mine) and had that done, so thought we were all set. Well, after waiting for an hour we finally get up to one of the desks…only to find out that the phone still isn’t unlocked so they cannot help us! Needless to say, we were less than impressed and will be paying our Sosua friend a visit.

We headed home with groceries and the ice cream maker. Next on the agenda – put the Kreepy Krauly Kruiser together. What is that, you ask?? Steve says it’s the ultimate in lazy…I say it’s not. It’s an automatic pool vacuum. If you’ve ever owned a swimming pool, you know what a chore it is to vacuum the pool. It’s not difficult, but it does take time and frankly, I’m personally not always in the mood to do it – or as is the case more often than not, when it needs to be done, you don’t have time.

Two of our neighbors have these things and love them. So Steve researched them and we found one online for a decent price. He had some gift cards from his birthday and decided to use some of the money to buy one. That was one of the packages that we picked up the day before. We put it together and sat poolside, watching it crawl around cleaning the pool….very cool!

A little later in the evening, I heard Linda at the front door. We went out to see what she needed and she pointed out several cows in the empty lot across from our house and next to theirs! Turns out there were about 20-25 of them. She asked if we could help chase them out of the neighborhood. So armed with flashlights we got them all gathered up in one lot and “herded” them (Dominican-style with rags, sticks and me whistling and the others clapping their hands and hollering) down to the far end of the development (away from the gate – remember, there’s barbed wire up there now, so they didn’t get in that way). Lo and behold, they headed toward an opening in the fence – that wasn’t there before that we know of.

Well, that was all fine and good until about 2 a.m. when Sierra started woofing. She has this little “woof” that she does – it’s not a bark, but just a way for her to let us know that something isn’t right. I got up and she’s looking out the sliding door of our room – toward the empty lot to the side of the house. We have a really good light out back, so I could tell there wasn’t anyone in our yard, but I could hear crackling in the lot. Then it dawned on me – the cows were back. I looked out the kitchen window, which faces the front, and sure enough, there were cows in the lot across the street as well.

Needless to say, they made a MESS – in many ways. We had cow pies in our front yard as well as all over the street. They also chomped our plants, broke branches and just decimated a bunch of things in our yard as well as Tony and Linda’s. The other houses down on this end have fences or walls around the front of the house, so the cows weren’t able to get in there. Of course, they were gone when we got up in the morning, but we knew we needed to take our barbed wire and do some fence fixing.

First we went to breakfast with Al and Glenda. Remember when they took us out for our anniversary a few weeks ago? We decided then that we would try to do breakfast once every couple/three weeks, so this was our Sunday to do that. After a nice, leisurely 3 hour breakfast, we headed home to fix fence.

We stopped to talk to Tony on our way – and he’d already been down to do the same thing. Interestingly, it had already been fixed! He reinforced it some and noticed that a couple of the fenceposts were broken, so who knows how long it will last. But he was going to call our friends at Century 21 to let them know…and see if they would do anything with it.

So we headed back home to give Dusty a haircut. It’s amazing how quickly his (and our) hair grows here. He was pretty shaggy – and hot – so it was time to practice my shearing skills. He was quite the trooper, standing for me for about an hour and a half, and I was quite happy with how he turned out. I’m still nowhere near professional level, but he doesn’t look too bad – see:



Sierra enjoyed just lazing poolside:


After eating a late lunch/early dinner, we went for a swim as did Sierra. Then she and Dusty got their Sunday shampoo and conditioner! Once Steve and I cleaned up and had ice cream (yep - the ice cream maker works great!), we were both ready to call it a day.

Monday we worked and worked and worked – on our “real” jobs (the ones that we get paid for) and on our business (property management). I’m still working on the website…getting up to speed on cascading style sheets (aka CSS) which is about as fun to read about as watching paint dry. I hope to have it up in the next week…wait – I WILL have it up in the next week – if it kills me!! I will send the URL in the next blog update and you can check it out.

I’m going to close for this update. Have a good rest of your week and we’ll be blogging with you soon!!