election induced spruce up

first off, boy, have i been bad about blogging lately. it's been almost 2 weeks since the last entry. for those following the blog, you'll be happy to not have to look at those 2 blueberry cakes anymore.

so it turns out that when there are local elections coming up, things start to get spruced up in town. in may, there are elections for the sindico - which is basically like the local town governments, including the "mayor". the upcoming elections are apparently the reason why in various towns we have been seeing some civic improvements being made to things like roads, sidewalks, etc.

for instance, the cabarete sindico is putting a sidewalk in by the fruit stand guy. this will certainly help to make that area look a little less ramshackle and make you feel better about walking on that side of the street at night.

last weekend when we were in las terrenas, we saw workers cleaning up the gutters and scooping up trash along the main roads in town. i have never seen anyone ever picking up trash anywhere here, so that was enough to make me turn around and look back from the car to be sure i was seeing what i thought i was seeing.

today in puerto plata, there were lots of pot holes being filled and new areas of tar being laid down. this is good that they do this. i wish they would just pave it properly though, versus doing whatever they do that only lasts like 2 months and then the pot holes are back.

guess all this sprucing up will make the locals feel like re-electing the same set of people who have been governing for the past however many years. maybe not....

i should become more informed on how their political system works, beyond my (probably justified) thinking that the politicians here all just pocket money instead of using it for its proper purposes. i mean most people think this is how all policitians are, but i think it is especially true here in this third world country where there is no transparency or legal enforcement on such behaviors. anyway, i should at least look into how often the elections occur, the different parties, the roles, etc.

on another note, we went out to blue fish today. they are getting prepared to lay down the tiles and do up one of the bathrooms in one of the units of building #3. they are doing this as a means to see how they feel about the choices of tile, countertops, etc. exciting! they are also starting to prime the inside walls in building #3. a crew of very sweaty men were digging away the pool location again. we're getting there!

we went up to the penthouse unit there, which is still available. man, is that going to be a gorgeous condo! i think it's going to get sold soon now that you can really see what that unit will be like.

we went out to the riu all-inclusive resort beyond puerto plata today to have lunch with natalie and elwin, friends from holland. somehow at the riu mambo they do not require you to wear a bracelet to indicate that you are a guest. as a result, we were able to drive into the resort and then just go and have lunch with natalie and elwin. that is quite a complex - 3 resorts in one with several beaches, restaurants, pools, bars, etc. the food was surprisingly very good! natalie and elwin leave on sunday, so we wanted to see them one more time before they left. it was a nice afternoon with them.

before getting to the riu, we went to see a piece of beachfront land out in cofresi that we have listed for sale. it's quite a drive out to the riu, so we thought we'd also take advantage of being able to see this piece of land. it's got an offer on it already, but we thought we mind as well know what it is, in case the offer is not accepted.

so, it was a busy day, without even mentioning that in the morning we went to try to find the owners of a lot that could be of interest to a client. it's always tricky business to try to find owners without them then jacking up the price because you are coming to them. so, we are juggling multiple sources right now who may be able to put us in contact with owners in hopefully a more subtle manner. these are basically locals who live adjacent to the land.

oh, and one more thing, happy birthday, mom! hope you had a good day and received the gift i sent to you!