Week 25;Apr 27 –May 3 Another week in Luperon This week we had more chances to see the countryside in the Dominican Republic. On Tuesday the whole boating community was invited to a going away party for Miss Ellie, who was leaving on her yearly vacation. The party was at her daughter’s home on top of one of the hills outside of town with a view of the ocean, the harbor and the surrounding hills. The Dominican people may live in neat little homes in town, but the white folks live in beautiful homes on the hill tops surrounded by gardens and all sorts of flowering vegetation. This particular hill was known as “Gringo Hill”. Jim went exploring on the opposite side of the harbor from Gringo Hill later in the week and discovered a lovely little German restaurant on the top of another hill. It also had a beautiful view of the ocean, the harbor and the surrounding hills where you could see horses, cattle, and donkeys grazing. In addition to that, they had some terrific German food – schnitzel, bread and pastries. Linda got her chance to travel to Puerto Plata this week to stock up on groceries at La Sirena, the Dominican version of a super Wal-Mart. The prices were good, but the scenery along the way alone, made the trip worth while.
The week was also a very social week with our boat friends from Dutch Dreamer and Water Music. We went to Miss Ellie’s party, went shopping in Puerto Plata, went to music night at Shaggy’s Bar and enjoyed a couple of meals out with them. The kids (and parents) all get along well and we wanted the kids to have some good times playing together before we started going our separate ways again. One of the favorite hangouts is Steve’s where can eat, drink, check e-mail, get laundry done, get showers, play pool and the kids can play in the swimming pool with Steve & Annie’s kids. Another spot is Shaggy’s Bar where you can eat, drink, get internet access, get laundry done (although they hang it out to dry on fences and lines along the street) and even get a pedicure. Shaggy’s had a music night on Friday, kind of an open mic night. Dylan somehow convinced Shena and Jennifer to sing the Canadian national anthem while he played it on his soprano sax. The girls both admitted to being scared, but they got up in front of an audience of adults and did it anyway. Pretty brave for 11 and 12 year olds. The experience gave them some confidence and they decided that maybe they could form a band. They gave their band the name “The Sailing Juvenile Delinquents” for Shena, Jennifer and Dylan. The next song in their repertoire is going to be Woody Guthrie’s, “This Land is Your Land, This Land is My Land”. Dylan has the music and between the 3 of them, they know the words for both the Canadian and American versions. We’re going to miss these folks when we leave!
Week 23 and 24; April 14 –April 26 Luperon, Dominican Republic Coming into the harbor at Luperon, we knew it would be very different from any place we had visited so far. Instead of white sand beaches along low flat islands we saw hills and mountains covered with lush green vegetation. Spanish is spoken here and the currency is the peso, about 36 pesos to the dollar. It definitely feels like we’ve left the US and started our adventure now.
The Dominican Republic is on the island of Hispaniola. Haiti is on the western 1/3 and the Dominican Republic is on the eastern 2/3. The DR’s economy is based mostly on tourism and agriculture. Beach resorts line it’s shores and cater mostly to Europeans and Canadians. They get bussed around on tours to the mountains and to the many waterfalls. The soil is rich here and they grow a lot of fruits and vegetables. I’m not sure how much gets exported, but Libby supposedly packs most of their canned vegetables here. We’re enjoying the produce market on Tuesday mornings in Luperon. That’s when the truck comes in and fruits and vegetables get laid out on the sidewalk and street. To date we’ve tried their onions, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, okra, green peppers, red peppers, cantaloupe, and pineapples. Eggplant and bananas are big here too, we just haven’t purchased any at the market yet. There are fruits and veggies that we don’t even recognize. We got a tip on how to prepare one of them from a local this week, so will probably try that next Tuesday.
Luperon is a small city along the coast with a harbor that serves as a good hurricane hole. Many boats spend hurricane season right here instead of going further south. Although very accommodating to boaters, Luperon’s economy isn’t based solely on cruisers. It holds it’s own as a small business center with farming and fishing as it’s base. The town is full of small local businesses where the owners live right in the back of their business. You can find most everything you need here including medical and dental care. Apparently the government gives their natives incentive to return here and set up practice after they have been educated and acquired experience overseas. (We got our teeth cleaned last week with very modern equipment for $15 US.) Restaurants are numerous and reasonably priced. You can get the “plate of the day” for 100 pesos, or about $3.00 US. It’s a Dominican style meal usually with rice and beans, a salad and choice of meat, almost always chicken. With the proportions they give you, you could easily get by on one meal a day. All the restaurants we’ve seen have been open air. They may have a gate around them that gets locked at night or a private area where the owner lives that’s closed in, but generally no doors, no windows, no floor to ceiling walls. There’s always a breeze to keep you cool, so it works. Siesta time is from 12 noon to about 2:30pm. Don’t expect to get any business done during that time other than eating.
The primary mode of transportation for the locals seems to be motochoncho (scooters or motorcycles). They are buzzing around the city all the time and people flag them down for a ride. Multiple people load on the back of one with a load of groceries or whatever they have. Forget seatbelts or helmets, grab your kid and your groceries and hop on for a ride home. Our friends have seen up to 5 adults on one, we’ve seen a guy carrying a table on his head hop on the back of one for a ride to his destination. Linda got a chance to ride one into town, but it wasn’t full – only 3 adults and a computer bagged tucked under her arm. Gua-Gua’s are also common public transportation. They are basically taxis. You pay a gua-gau rate if you wait for the car to get filled before it leaves. You pay a very high taxi rate if the car isn’t full and you want to go anyway. “Full” might be 8 people in a car the size of a Toyota Camry. We’ve heard stories about stuffing more than 8 people in and putting people on the roof, but haven’t seen it yet. Jim and Jennifer took a qua-qua when they went to Puerto Plata.
Just the general look around town is different that what we’re used to. Many homes and businesses have thatched roofs, if they have enough money, they cover the thatch with tin. The people may be poor, but they are very friendly and clean – always sweeping and cleaning. You always see clean laundry hanging out to dry on fences and lines right on the street. If you bring your laundry into town to be done, you may see your own clothes hanging out for the everyone to see too. Animals are common on the street. We’ve seen pigs, ducks, chickens, goats, if we go early enough in the morning we see the flock of sheep moving through town on their way somewhere. I haven’t followed them, but clearly they know where they are going because no one is with them and they are all moving in the same direction, kids and all.
Just a short note on the weather. We’re in the tropics now and things work like clockwork. Everyday about 9:30am the tradewinds start to blow. They blow all day long and keep you reasonable comfortable despite the hot temperatures. At night it cools off and the winds die down to almost nothing in the harbor. In the morning when it starts to warm up and you think it’s going to be a hot sticky day, here come the winds and all is well again. These trade winds are not good for going east, which we are. They occasionally relax when the weather systems line up favorably and small boats can move along the north coast of the Dominican Republic and then accross the Mona Passage to Puerto Rico, taking a few days to do it taking advantage of the calmer conditions along the shore at night. We are currently waiting for things to line up and when they do, we will probably move on.
Jennifer is getting lots of "kid time". Her friends on Dutch Dreamer and Water Music typically go to Capt. Steve's restaurant and bar each afternoon to play in their pool with Steve's kids, Josh And Stephanie. Jennifer is getting used to the different culture here and enjoying herself immensely. The only down side is that there are so many things to see and do it is sometimes difficult to focus on schoolwork. She certainly is getting a different kind of education hanging around in different ports and coutries though.
We’re taken 2 outings since we’ve been here. Jim and Jennifer took the quahgua’s to Puerto Plata, a near by city and played tourist for a day. They visited an old Spanish fort, a cigar factory, an amber factory, an amber museum and found a replacement for our wifi antenna so we can get internet access on the boat again when it’s available. Jennifer and Jim both learned how to roll a cigar. Jim bought jewelry for the girls. Linda got some beautiful amber earrings and Jennifer found a piece of amber with a fossilized mosquito in it that the folks made into a necklace for her. Who knows, it may even contain dinosaur dna. They took advantage of the gaguas (old Toyotas) and we had 7 people stuffed inside. The coutryside was beautiful but we were a tad cramped.
Our most recent trip was a tour of some local waterfalls. I think this would fall into the category of adventure ecotour. They gave us life jackets and helmets and then our guides walked us through the woods and up the river past 7 waterfalls hoisting us up several falls as necessary. The guide books tell you that Dominican “hunks” will help the ladies and they did. The scenery was beautiful, lush greenery, deep cuts though rock walls, crystal clear water cascading down. Once we got to the top of the 7th waterfall, it was time to come down. You either slid or jumped down each falls. Nothing major here, but still a lot of fun. Some you had to jump into a deep pool others like the one with a 21 foot drop, you could either jump or slide. Jennifer gained confidence as she went along. When they told us we could climb back up the last one and jump again she had to do it, but not alone. What mother’s won’t do for their children…
Week 22;April 6 –Apr 13 Good Bye Bahamas, Good Bye Turks and Caicos, Hola Dominican Republic This week we continued to travel with the group of “boats going South” that we met in George Town. We left Mayaguana for a full days sail to Provo in the Turks and Caicos. The Turks and Caicos seem to be a lot like the Bahamas only the islands are more developed with fancy beach resorts and it’s even more expensive. We didn’t see much outside of the marina we stayed at and a trip into town from an anchorage, but from that it seemed like the British run most of the business and the service people are from Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Jim is getting good at getting in an out of anchorages, weaving the boat through all the coral heads. Jennifer and Linda stand on the bow and try to help him spot the coral, but he usually sees it as soon as they do and makes his move around it.
We left Sapadillo bay in the Turks and Caicos for a run across the the banks to Big Amgergris for the passage to Luperon in the Domincan Republic. This was a pretty uncomfortable trip. The water was only about 10 feet deep and the waves were very short and steep with about ever 10th one coming over the bow. Oh well, can’t always believe the weatherman. The anchorage at Ambergirs was lovely though. We got a good nights sleep and prepared for the trip to Luperon the next day.
We left Ambergris at 10 am and threaded our way through the coral heads and sand roads of elkhorn coral, a bit stressful, but with Linda and Jennifer on the bow keeping lookout things went just fine. After we got off soundings, the wind filled in well and we were fortunate enough to make the passage to Luperon on one tack. We put two reefs in the main to slow down since our current speed would have had us getting to the DR coast at 3 am. We arrived at 7 am to a really different island than any we had seen since leaving Oriental. As the sun came up, we saw mountains in the distance and lush vegetation everywhere. We are finally officially in the carribean!! The harbor here is fantastic. It is protected on all sides by hills and the mangrove mud is great holding.
We made our way into the harbor and were pleased to find our friends on Dutch Dreamer and Water Music anchored here also. Jennifer was especially happy because she now had 3 kids to play with. The harbor officials boarded us and got our passport numbers and ships paper information and then told us to check in at the official office on shore when we felt like it. 100 plus dollars later we were legal vsitors in the Dominican Replublic.
We ran into our friends from Dutch Dreamer on shore and they showed us around the town of Luperon. It’s a lovely place. The people are extremely friendly although quite poor financially. We enjoyed a wonderful local dinner for about $3 per person and then headed back to Opus totally exhausted since we had sailed all night to get here.
Week 21; March 30 –Apr 5
Conception Island, Rum Cay and Mayaquana We spent a full day at Conception Island, snorkeling in 2 different places and hiking along the shore. The coral didn’t seem to be as colorful as at John Pennekamp Park in the Florida Keys, but still it was a beautiful day in a beautiful place. Tuesday we sailed to Rum Cay and caught another good sized (3’ 1”) maui maui on the way. We thought we were going to have to have another huge fish dinner because we barely had enough ice left to keep it cool, but we ended up going into a marina where we could get more ice. The marina was hosting a pot luck supper that night, so for $1 a foot, we enjoyed a night at the dock with hot showers and a fantastic dinner complete with homemade pizza and conch fritters provided by the marina and fresh grilled tuna steaks provided by another boater. We ended up staying a second day to snorkel on the reef with John and Janet and take in another potluck dinner at the marina. This time Jim grilled all the maui maui fillets as our contribution. Jennifer found 2 other kids about her age to play with and a tree fort, so was very content to stay an extra day. Jim and Linda walked into town to “Last Chance Grocery” to get a few staples. We stopped at Kay’s Place where the pool table sits on the sand floor and also stopped at a pretty little local church.
There was a manatee hanging out at the marina. They’re usually in brackish water, so they think this one was lost. They’re bringing in some manatee experts later in the week to check her out and maybe move her to a different environment. Both Linda and Jim got in the water at the dock and swam around with her. They told us not to touch her much. She seemed to enjoy the company, because she didn’t swim away even when we swam right along side her. What a huge docile animal. I still can’t believe I was swimming face to face with a wild manatee.
We left Rum Cay on Friday morning headed for Mayaguana. The winds didn’t turn exactly as forecast, so this turned out to be a long slow trip, but as Janet would say, it was a glorious sail. We sailed within site of Ventoso most of the way and checked in with John and Janet every 2 hours through the night. Since we were under way for about 48 hours, Linda tried out cooking in the pressure cooker on the gimbled stove with the pot clamps in place to make sure the pot stayed on the burner. It worked well and we enjoyed some pretty good rice based meals while sailing heeled over at about 20 degrees. We arrived in Abrahams Bay in Mayaquana Sunday morning. We were just about ready to anchor when we realized the anchor was gone! Somewhere in the last 189 miles of sailing it had worked it’s way loose on the swivel and fallen off. Lucky thing Jim has extra anchors onboard. After we got anchored, we went into town to check it out. This side of the island has no real facilities for boaters, but it was fun to walk around and visit with some of the local folks. All the Bahamians we’ve met have been very friendly and more than happy to tell us about life on their islands. Jim got some more tips on cleaning conch and opening coconuts.