Our week began with a trip up Gringo Hill to Bob and Sue's Hotel in Luperon. Our generator injectors needed to be reconditioned so that meant no power for the night on the boat. So, instead of sitting in the dark with no fans, we voted to go to Bob and Sue's Hotel for the night. Bob and Sue were previous sailors who came through Luperon twenty one years ago and fell in love with the DR. For the next few years, they dreamed of returning to Luperon to live full time. Their dream turned into Bob and Sue's Hotel and it is quite the dream! The rooms are simple and quiet with an amazing view of the ocean and the mountains. The pool is surrounded by beautiful gardens that look effortless but I am sure take great effort! Bill and I sat in the pool for at least three hours on Monday and we only got out because our feet were beginning to peel! Our night went smoothly until a huge thunderstorm came through and the electricity shut down....so we had a night in the dark with no fans anyway which was rather humorous!
On Tuesday, John the German (I swear I don't make these names up!) showed up with our injectors and our generator is no longer drinking diesel fuel which is a huge positive given that diesel fuel is $3.60 a gallon in the DR! Our new solar additions arrived and we are currently getting them wired and programmed to hopefully support the microwave and coffee maker soon....I tried coffee this morning and killed the power on the boat so I can't report success quite yet but getting closer.... Mid week, our friends, Lisa and Eric, invited us to go to Santo Domingo for the weekend. Santo Domingo is the capital of the DR and one of the oldest cities in the Caribbean and has been on our list since we arrived. We packed up the car for the 4 hour drive, strapped in and held on tight as Eric maneuvered through the crazy drivers of the DR. The actual drive to Santo Domingo was probably only about 3 hours but it took at least another hour in traffic to get to the Airbnb. The Airbnb was located in the Colonial Zone and was marketed as overlooking the Colonial Zone....weeelllll......if you say so.....our view consisted of two deserted buildings that look like they had suffered some sort of explosion and a herd of cats that meowed loudly day and night but the Airbnb itself was clean and comfortable so we just didn't look out the window! The next day, we went to Tres Ojos (the Three Eyes) which are a set of 4 cenotes (underground lakes in caves)....yes, it is called Three Eyes but there are actually 4 of them....welcome to the DR logic once again.....The lakes were so clear that Bill stepped onto the top stair of one of the lakes to take a picture and found himself ankle deep in water. Reportedly, several Tarzan movies as well as several scenes from Jurassic Park were filmed at Tres Ojos so Sally the movie buff enjoyed that fun fact. We also enjoyed the entrepreneurial spirit of one man at the lakes. He offered everything from tours (which started at $30 and then quickly went down to $10 the more we said no) to DVD sets of the lakes "for our family and friends". No surprise to those of you who know me....you aren't getting a DVD set for Christmas..... For lunch, we had planned to eat at a Brazilian Steakhouse in the city. Since Santo Domingo is a real city, we were all looking forward to some different food choices on the trip rather than our usual choices of chicken, rice and beans that are the standard fare of the more rural areas. Alas, our dreams of meat on large skewers were quickly dashed. We arrived to a small establishment of about 3 tables (which was fine, just not as metropolitan as the website led to believe). Lisa went to the restroom to wash her hands. Then, she came running out, grabbed Eric by the hand, dragged him back to the bathroom and they both came out quickly and told us that there was no running water in the bathroom and the pitcher of water that had been placed to wash hands was full of bugs...needless to say, we did not have Brazilian food this day. So, we headed down to the Colonial Zone for lunch which was an adventure since it seemed that every Dominican girl under the age of 18 was celebrating a birthday on Sunday. After much ado, we found a place to eat, took some lovely pictures and headed back to the Airbnb for a long siesta! The next day, we needed to run our errands to resupply for the boat. We found a boat store in the city that had more boat supplies than we had seen since we left the states so we stocked up on quite a few necessities. Then, John the German had told us about a chandlery (aka fancy name for a marine supply shop) in Haina so we set the GPS and went on our way...only our way ended up taking us up streets that were never intended for cars much less an SUV. At one point, we had to wait for a man to come down off of his ladder in order to be able to squeeze by....needless to say, when we ended up at a dead end and had to come back the same way, the ladder man was glad to see us go. We never found the chandlery. At that point, we were all tired of the big city and ready to escape back to our little quiet town of Luperon. On the way back to Luperon, we heard a loud thumping noise and discovered we had a flat tire. We pulled over on the side of the road and prayed that the spare tire had some air in it. "Some" air is the key term but it got us to the gas station to fill it up with air and we finally made it home! I hope that you all have a wonderful week full of dreams of meat on skewers and tires full of air!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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