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!!

Beautiful sunset in paradise-from our front door!

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




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



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



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



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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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




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




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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Week 12 - WOW how time flies!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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





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









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







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



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

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

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

Another day (week) in paradise!

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

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

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

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

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



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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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





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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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




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

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

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







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

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

Sierra’s Moonlight Swim

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

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

Turkey Dinner on the Beach

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


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

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

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









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

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

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

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

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



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










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


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

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

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

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

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