I am guessing that some of you may be wondering why I did not post a blog last week. It is a little difficult to post a blog without a computer….thus begins the story of the big “whoops”! When we go over to the marina to do work in the shade and cool breeze, we always take our computers and phones and sometimes my ancient Ipad (just in case I feel the need to completely avoid work altogether!). We load everything into a backpack and Bill keeps it securely on his back. Due to my natural grace and balance, I am not encouraged to carry anything that might be dropped into the water. We also have what is called a dry bag but we have not had much luck with keeping things very dry in the dry bag so the backpack has always been the sturdier choice for the safekeeping of all items…electronics, passports, money, useless masks, etc. Friday began just like every other day but it was exceptionally still with no breeze on the boat so we voted to head over to the marina to sit under the fans for a bit. Once we had cooled off, eaten lunch, paid some bills online and had more than a few boat conversations with other boaters, we decided it was time to head back out to the boat. We loaded ourselves onto the dinghy and with the backpack securely on Bill’s back, we made our way home. In order to get off of the dinghy and onto the boat, we must step onto the swim platform. It is usually a straightforward process without much excitement. Not on Friday. On Friday, the front of the dinghy slid under the edge of the swim platform and would not let it go. We did not want the dinghy bouncing under the swim platform all night so Bill decided to push the front of the dinghy out with his foot. Good plan, unexpected execution. Bill was hanging onto the rope that holds the dinghy onto the davits (davits are the mechanism that lifts the dinghy out of the water when not in use). He put one foot on the front of the dinghy and just as he pushed the dinghy away from the platform, the clasp that was holding the dinghy rope let loose. Galt stayed right where he was supposed to be…with Bill’s right foot on the platform. The dinghy, however, broke free and floated away from the swim platform….along with Bill’s left foot. It was at that point that Bill, the backpack, two computers, two phones and one ancient Ipad went for a swim! Bill survived with a vicious rope burn under his arm and one cell phone that somehow survived. Everything else was immediately fried and no amount of dry rice was going to bring them back to life. Thus, no blog last week! Now, for the next fun. Buying a new phone and new computers in the DR. For the phone, it was pretty easy. Go to the phone store in Luperon, look over the selection of two phones and then buy one of them. Next step, try to get into Google account on phone that I set up several years ago….no luck remembering the password so do a password reset request….Google decides that I look “suspicious” so wait 5 business days for them to send an email giving me permission to access my Google back up account for the phone. I believe the Pony Express could have accomplished the password reset more quickly than Google did! Next step, search on phone for computer stores in the DR. Call Junior and rent the car again. Drive to Santiago. Wait outside the computer store until the security guard deems that enough people have left the store (there did not seem to be any count or order to it…just whenever he waved his hand, people entered). Go in store and find the refurbished computer area. Make selection from the two computers available. There were four selections in the new section but we figured if our computers were going to swim again, it would be less painful to have them be refurbished swimmers. Then, we point to which of the two computers we want, hold up two fingers and give the floor assistant our name. She hands us a ticket and we go to the counter to pay. The cashier takes our money and hands us another a receipt. She points to the counter next to her. That seems to be the “fetching” counter. The fetching guy looks at the receipt, points to another area for us to wait and then disappears into the storeroom. We wait. We wait some more. The fetching guy comes out of the storeroom with one box and takes it to the fetching desk. Fetching man one and fetching man two argue for a minute then both disappear. We wait. Fetching man two comes out with two boxes and waves for us to follow him. He then points to a door around the outside of the building for us to go have the computers tested before we leave. Computers tested and ready to go! Now, I know what you have pictured in your head for this store….Best Buy, Office Max, Costco…..try again. The entire store was about the size of the Gap store in the mall. Thank goodness the security guard was there to control the masses! The next stop in Santiago was one of the two hardware stores on our coast that actually carried stainless steel hardware. Bill had been looking for several weeks for stainless steel screws, nuts and bolts. He finally had a store email him back stating that they had the supplies we needed. When we arrived, Bill pulled out his translator app and began trying to explain what we needed. We have figured out that Google translator may translate words into Spanish but it does not translate meaning. We get a lot of confused looks and this day in the hardware store was no exception. Finally, an associate who spoke some English came to assist us. He took Bill’s list, told us to wait and disappeared. I swear we don’t know where all of the workers in the DR go when they disappear but it must be quite the place because they always come back exactly 20 minutes later with what you needed. We have even had a couple of times when we were told they did not have items but then they appear 20 minutes later. With stainless steel in hand, we headed over to a burger place called Venezuelan Burger. The fact that there is a Venezuelan burger place in Santiago, DR entertained us. We, of course, ordered a burger. Bill noted another column on the menu that was “perro caliente.” He asked, “Why is there dog on the menu?” It took us a few minutes to figure out it was a literal translation of a “dog that is hot”. According to our not so reliable Google Translator, a hotdog is supposed to be a “pancho” in Spanish. I am guessing the menu maker had a worse app than Google Translate on the day he made the menu. From Santiago, we headed over to Cabarete for a couple of days at the beach. Instead of going the usual route, we voted to take a different route through the mountains so we could see an undiscovered area of the country. What we did not realize is how undiscovered it was going to be! The road was very curvy like the mountain roads in Georgia but about half the width. Bill did an excellent job dodging the ditches and potholes. I did an excellent job keeping my eyes closed and not throwing up. So, for me anyway, that part of the DR is still undiscovered… Our Airbnb in Cabarete was directly across from the beach so it was perfect. Cabarete was definitely made for tourists. All of the restaurants had tables set up directly on the beach and it would have been perfect if we did not have the curfew to work around. The Airbnb also had two pools and a pool bar and they were allowed to be open until 10pm so we swam every night. Since we were the only tourists in town, we had top notch service from the locals. We heard story after story about the struggles they have faced during the Covid shutdown. None of them had worked in four months. In the States, we can usually live on savings or credit cards if we have hard times for four months. In the DR, those are not options. It is amazing to me how entrepreneurial the Dominican people are in the face of all of this nonsense. One man was selling cigars to feed his family, another offering to be a tour guide and the pool bartender had started selling spices to the grocery stores in the region. The owner of one restaurant was from Australia and had lived in the DR for over ten years. He told us that he had kept his restaurant open during Covid and had managed to keep and pay all of his employees even though he had no customers. He stated that it was his responsibility to do so. Hard to find that dedication these days. If you have an opportunity to travel to any of the tourist based cities in the States or in the Caribbean, please do so. People are hungry and that is how you can help! Guilt free, feel good vacation! Here is hoping you have a wonderful week and that none of your electronics go for a swim!
1 Comment
Rebecca Smith
9/25/2020 08:07:10 pm
so good to hear from you! I was beginning to wonder ......
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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