The weekend

Happy St Patrick's Day!
Glen, if you get a message from Jim, I tried to post on his blog but it did not let me - either with my Google account or anonymously. I have been reading it though?

It's been a few days since we've posted anything. the trip to the Samana Peninsula really wiped us out. Now it's back to the grindstone to get some homework done. Both boys are pretty much on track with what assignments we 'brang' with us.
Just before the weekend the boys met a family from Toronto that are here for week. What a blessing - and just in time. It has been nice for the past few day to see them with someone to hang around with... a lot of pool and beach time. Good to keep things cheery :).
Shelly and John show up on the 19th. We decide it would be good to pick them up from the airport instead of them taking the shuttle down. The shuttle is nice, organized, on time, etc., but will come with a crowd of other tourists, expected tips, long waits... you know: travel.
By picking them up, we can be at the resort an easy 20 minutes ahead of the shuttle. This should shotgun them into an empty lobby and no line ups. How do you think those lucky travelers always seem to get the good rooms with the pool view on the second floor with the fresh towels? They get there first.

Well, that is all for now. The kids and Barb are at the beach, but back to work for me.
cheers.

Coming Home to Bavaro

Thursday. After Breakfast we decided it was time to head home. Aaron had business in Santo Domingo, so he left us and planned to catch up with us later. So Hartley and Doug joined us as we pressed on to Samana before heading back. We fueled up and turned back for Nuevo Camino -toward Santo Domingo and Boca Chica. We met Aaron on the Las Americas highway for something to eat. We had left Hartley and Doug behind – it was faster going in the car than the bikes, so they took their time. Another flat tire left them stranded without us – meaning that Aaron turned back.
We continued on through La Romana to our third check stop. This one took longer to get through – it became apparent that these were not cops… just guys with guns. As official as they looked (anyone with a rifle and a shotgun can look official). They were only interested in bribes from white folks and not concerned with paperwork or identification. What worked was to show them how good our English was. They got so frustrated thinking we could not understand what they wanted that they just left us alone. Whew.
All in all it was a pretty amazing trip – even with the driving. But we were happy to be back in Bavaro. The first thing the kids noticed was we were ‘happy to be home’. Suddenly we were calling Bavaro home. Kinda peculiar - kinda not.

Las Terranas and El Limon

Wednesday. The fellas made it to town (after a flat bike tire) while we had breakfast and toured the beach. Mid morning we made our way to El Limon. The waterfall here is the main attraction but it is not accessible from the road. I will let our pictures tell the story. In the end (as always is here), there was a dispute over money. It was lucky we had Aaron to translate… this would have been out of my league as far as language goes.
We decided to stay another night here. It’s a lot noisier than Bavaro, but the room was $20.

Yes... those are people down there.  We walked down the mountain to get to the falls.  It was a little more than a quarter mile. Straight down! 

At first we thought we could save some cash on the trip if we took the bikes down and back. We know now that there is a reason they use horses.  And there were places the horses wouldn't even go!

Tuesday's Road Trip

Sorry for this next post. It’s quite long since we have not blogged for a couple of days. I will include lots of pictures though and hopefully it will not be boring.
Living in Bavaro / Punta Cana is a lot like living in Banff. This is a tourist town. 19 years ago there was an airport… 20 years ago there was desert and a beach. If you are older than 20, then you were not born here. So we thought it would be a nice adventure to see what is on the rest of the island.

We thought a trip to Santo Domingo would be a good day. Our only map was a hand drawn picture on the back of a placemat… and it looks like it was done in crayon. But no matter. How hard could it be to find our way around an island – there are only so many roads, right.Tuesday morning: We packed the car and started our new, mini adventure, changing our minds now and heading to the Samana Peninsula. It’s a longer drive, but Aaron, Doug and Hartely decide to go also and there is much more to see. They took their bikes across country back roads – we had the car/ As we left towards Macao we found an ‘80s Rock a station on the radio. A great way to start – rally driving this Saskatchewan road to loud music!

First stop: Higuey. We’d been here before, so it was nothing new. We drove through like it was Bentley, only bigger. We did go through a 6-way stop though… our first white knuckles.
Through the country we saw sugar cane and fruit and of course, a lot of garbage. We missed a sign (hard to believe, I know) and ended up in Boca de Yuma.  They had cows there.

Another nice little town, but it took about 40 minutes off our trip in backtracking. When we got on the road we made good time to La Romana (the 3rd largest city on the island). This is where we met our first checkstop. Regular police picking out white folks in cars and reminding them that police have guns. We had our papers and the conversation went well. No bribes and we were back on our way. It was a little unnerving (to say the least) so we stopped for lunch – in a Burger King. 

We didn’t mean to fall back into our old hamburger habits, but we had been driving a long way. We left the city for the Nuevo Camino para Samana and headed West. The drive by the highway was beautiful but we never did see the new highway.

We went through San Pedro de Marcoris (where the fabled toll booth was supposed to be) and made it to Boca Chica. Still no highway. We stopped at a bomba (gas station) and bought a ‘real’ map and asked directions – ZERO English here I might add. “Poco Problema” I heard quite a few times. But, we carried on.Before 

we knew it we were in Santo Domingo and seriously considering changing our destination when there it was: the toll booth, the Nuevo Camino, the sign reading “Samana”… we were in the wrong lane out of 6. Now trapped behind a concrete barrier, we not only missed the entrance, but we were heading into the city.Santo Domingo is a city of 3 or 4 million. Driving here is an experience to say the least – and not for everybody. No signs, too much traffic, too many people (we locked our doors) and another checkstop. This time Milit

ary Police. Still targeting white folks and carrying big guns. We made it through – no bribes, no gunshots. After some frustration with lawlessness traffic we made it out of the city and there it was… the toll booth to the new highway. Hooray, the trip is back on.

The new highway is about 80km in length and cuts hours off the trip around the island. We stopped in Bayaguana 

for a pee and beer. 

Very friendly. This is where Aaron, Hartley and Doug stayed the night. We didn’t hook up with them (and we were surprised to find cell service) so we pressed on.
We drove through a National Park and took a lot of pictures. The drive took us up a mountain road and through enough small towns that we decide to stay in Las Terranas. Mostly Haitians here. We spent the night in probably the most expensive place in town, but we were tired and it was dark.

Another home work day

Another day we didn't leave the house.

We made some big plans for the week and so the kids are scrambling to catch up a load of school work. Tomorrow we are leaving for a road trip.  We haven't really decided where, but it is looking like we may head to Santo Domingo in the morning.  The oldest cemetery in the Americas is there, as well as the landing site of Christopher Columbus.  Not a ton more ( at least from what I can find out), but still a decent piece of History and a nice road trip.

Sorry we didn't take may more pictures of the kids working :)  But we did find a town called Canada.

ps. there is no Daylight Savings Time here so now we are only 2 hours ahead.

From Higuey to Housewarming

Today we went on a road trip

to Higuey. About 45 minutes inland on some pretty good roads. We got see the standard "two" traff

ic lights that no one uses or even notices. We just went with the flow. Eventually we made it through the anthill of Dominican traffic, up a one way the wrong way, down the middle of the streets and on some of the sidewalks, to our destination: Iberia. (insert really big 'aahhhh' here). We followed a beer truck traveling with its back doors open. We hoped for something to fall out, but no such luck :(

Iberia is a cross between WalMart and Costco for Domnicans. The kind of store you go into and have to go down every aisle - just in case you missed something. Aaron and Laura were getting a TV and new washing machine. Doug was looking for groceries and Hartley was trapped and along for the ride. :) We picked up a few things for the house, some clothes, more utensils, hangers and closepins.

Then the ride home.

Unlike Glen's ride to Miches, the road was really good. The only trouble with a

good road is that is you can go faster. Only 2 close calls for us - too bad there were no pictures of the bus that missed us by inches, or the bus that missed us by centimeters... or the other bus that just barely missed us. And then, as if by magic, the 'good' road disappears. We came back through the road to Nisibon and Macau. Potholes, potholes, and more potholes!

Lots of landscape and some beautiful scenery though.

Getting home, Aaron and Laura are now all settled in with the new TV. We were invited to the housewarming 'party'. What did we bring? Clothespins. Everyone needs clothespins. :oP

-Brad

The rest of Saturday

Aaron and Laura are finally in their new apartment.  Their old one was pretty cramped... enough really for just one person.  The new one is pretty nice.  Not only nice, but 2 bedroom with a nice kitchen, a laundry room, 2 bathrooms, and 2 balconies.

Quite a step up.

We spent the morning ironing out the new rental car for us so that we would have something to help with the move.  Without the car we would have either had to wait for Laura to be off work, or carry everything over by hand down the street.  The new place is close, but not that close.  No one really wanted to carry anything that far.   Now that we have a car we are a little more mobile.

  I will miss having the motorcycle, but it is good trade.  If anyone is in this position, it seems that the best deal is online.  We saved just over $100 CDN (I guess that would mean it was nearly $100 USD) by booking online.  The only catch is that we could not get a car the same day.  The booking was online but was 4 days in advance of pickup.

It's a Dihatsu.  Never seen one in Canada, but here they are as common as flies. Cute little thing with lots of pep and a deceivingly large interior.  Best part too is that we can keep it until we leave and then return it right to the airport.

Up Before the Sun

Last night Brendon decided that we should get up early this morning and see the sunrise!  So, we set the alarm and Barb and the boys headed off to the ocean.  The boys have never seen the sunrise before, I know, scary isn't it?  It was well worth getting up early to see.  They took pictures and enjoyed the moment.  Of course, they came back and went back to sleep but that is an experience they will remember.  Brad went to pick up the car and help Aaron move while Barb and the boys stayed home and cleaned the house and did laundry.  Brendon completed all of his math modules - YeeHaw!

Hartley Arrives

Today was spent like any other, puttering around the house doing homework - but with some added stress for me.  The Internet at home went down yesterday (Thursday) for my company in a very big and serious way.  Problems with a connection in the weather led to a series of catastrophes and failures.  The proceeding 'shit storm' meant that the connections were off all afternoon, evening, now Friday morning, and into the day....  aarrrgh.

To me now two things are very clear: 1) while "telecommuting" is easy and convenient, it is not without stress, and 2) to get by you must have great people to rely on.  If not for Phil and Graeme I may have been on a plane home.  :o(   Luckily for me, everything got fixed. Phil and Graeme came through and got everything back up.

While on the topic of Internet guys, Hartey arrived today.  Aaron and I went to college with Hartley  at RDC.  In fact, he worked with Aaron for awhile and ended up taking over some of the bigger software projects they had on the go when Aaron ventured south.

The three of us (Aaron, Doug and I) went to the airport to pick him up on Motorcycles.  He packed light and so it was easy enough...  a car would have been nicer.

For any of you that know my views on FaceBook and the Internet... I don't have a picture of Hartley yet.  I didn't get his permission to put a picture online and so I didn't post one.  You will have to imagine that he is tall - about 6'5" - and looks like most any other propeller head computer guy. Perhaps he'll humor me later on and I'll get his ok  for a pic.  :)

-Brad

Winter Storm

Well, it has been business as usual around here except for the fact we have been in the middle of a winter storm.  It has been very cloudy, windy, rainy and the temperature dropped to around +24.  This weather has given us the opportunity to catch up on homework.  We have rented a car and can finally pick it up this weekend.  Before we go exploring, our first task with the car is to help Aaron and Laura move to their new place.  It will be a fun day!  We are planning on going to Santo Domingo and Samana over the next two weeks to check out where Christopher Columbus landed and perhaps get a peek at some whales.  After a busy day, the boys and I love to hit the pool for a night swim.  Brad is too scared to get into the pool because I might hold his head under the water. . .  so he gets to run the camera.  

Salud ~ Barb