shopping, shopping, shopping

we've been working hard at furnishing the Blue Fish condo. lots of progress over the last week and a half with decisions and purchases having been made on living room furniture, mattresses, curtains, lamps, bedspreads, decorative pillows, and paintings. the photo shows our 3 seater rattan couch being made. this and a 2 seater should be done this week and ready to be delivered to the condo.

as part of the effort, on Tuesday we went to Puerto Plata and on Wednesday to Santiago. we hit Hidelisa, Casa Nelson, Irene the seamstress, Ochoa Hogar, La Reina, Bellon, La Sirena, and Hache. we spent a significant amount of time in Hidelisa in Puerto Plata, deciding on the curtains. this is a store with all sorts of fabrics. it's pretty chaotic with rolls of material blocking aisles and lots of sales people swarming about you. i noticed in the shops in both Puerto Plata and Santiago that the salespeople stick to you like flies. you move 2 steps, they move 2 steps. and they practically stand on your feet, they are so close. it's a bit annoying, especially when you then ask them for help, and their help is of no help. i think they mainly are sticking to you to ensure that you do not steal anything, so it's not really about customer service.

in Puerto Plata, we saw 3 people we knew from Cabarete and another 4 in Santiago. again, there are only so many shops worth going to for items that foreigners like.

in Santiago, a well dressed, very friendly Dominican decided that he really wanted to hold a conversation with us in La Sirena. i think he heard us speaking English and maybe wanted to practice. he was a photographer and claimed that his brother was the ambassador for Costa Rica. his son was studying in Boston. he gave us his card and told us that it was good to have someone to call in case we ever had any problems. i think we're covered here, so maybe we'll need that contact more if we are ever in Costa Rica...

everything has to be paid for in cash or else you'll pay a whopping 16% to pay with a credit card. you don't really want to walk around with too much at one time, so this makes for many trips to ATMs where it's always dicey if the machine is rigged up for stealing your card number. to help ward against that, our normal drill is to look around at who is nearby and see if there are any lurkers. a slip of the hand along the card slot helps to see if there is a card reader jammed in there.

here are some random pictures from the shopping spree. first up, an old victorian style building in Puerto Plata that was being used as part of a school. there are many buildings like this in Puerto Plata that are run down and you'd love to see get fixed up.



we made a brief stop for lunch on the way back from Puerto Plata to Cabarete at a roadside parada, El Campito, which was a suggestion of Greg's. we got the cangrejo (crab), a Dominican specialty. it was really tasty! neither one of us could bring ourselves to have the chivo (goat) which Greg had also highly recommended. goat is a specialty here but not one i have ever chosen.



just outside Santiago, we saw this guy on a moto transporting a lawn mower. not as bad as the guy we had seen transporting a ladder while on a moto, but still, not something i'd want to have entangled with me, if i crashed.



Christmas comes early to the DR......the shop, Ochoa Hogar, was already displaying Christmas decorations.