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!!