Friday, December 19, 2008

Wrapping it up


We've been gone from the DR for more than 9 months now. Hard to believe it has been that long. I never ended up writing that final post on this blog before leaving the DR. Perhaps it was just too emotional to write that final post. Or perhaps it was like, how do you wrap up 3 years of an incredible life experience with so many amazing memories? It just seemed like an impossible task. Thus I didn't even try. I have felt like I just left the blog hanging though and don't want it to end with that crazy picture of the utility guy with all the wires, although that is just such a CLASSIC DR scenario.

A boatload of pictures and the blog itself captured many of the experiences, although in no way could convey all that happened for us. It certainly was tougher to leave the DR than I think either one of us thought it would be. With today being the first major snowstorm to hit here in Boston, it seems an appropriate time to wrap up this blog, put a bow on it, and send it off into the cool life experience category of our lives.

So on that note, I'll just jot down some of the extraneous things that we are bound to forget, and perhaps some other things we would LIKE to forget but can now probably laugh at or at least swallow.....in no particular order:

Cabarete:
  • The motoconcho competition for our biz when you neared the Ocean Dream gate
  • Trips to Playero, to the butcher who went back to motherland and landed in jail, to the new German butcher where if you didn't speak German or Spanish, forget it
  • Hardware stores that have 3 types of screws and not 33. WTF?!!!
  • Finally figuring out we can pay someone like 25 cents to carry those water bottles up 3 floors to our place instead of us!
  • The Thai restaurant with the snake
  • Rata
  • "Aqua caliente, porque?"; "When this place is sold, there will be no running water in the house because the neighbor controls the water supply."
  • "La musica" guy with guitar on Cabarete beach and all the other vendors that never gave up on you
  • The criminals we met and perhaps didn't even know we were meeting - you know the guy who got hauled off by the FBI, that butcher, the owner/rep of land across from FB's........
  • Just where are those mangroves and where does the land really end at the mouth of the river - thank you very much (not), DR surveyors.
  • Measuring and analyzing LB, FB's land, land across from area 51 - lots of wet shoes and ignoring what sorts of creepy crawlies might lay in the terrain
  • Villa #83 at SHR - I'll take one of those please, or better yet how about Michael's oceanfront villa.....someday
  • The front gate guards at Ocean Dream, Henry our gardener
  • Our Kia....oh, the Kia. Not a great statement jeepeta, but it sure was economical and reliable.
  • Family members screwing their relatives on commissions. Nice people, huh?
  • The Cabarete Police station and its holding cell (no we were not in it, THANK GOD)
  • Trying to read surveys made in like 1950
  • That one piece of land without title.....SO frustrating
  • Las Canas - we could have doubled our money there had we bought from Dean on our fateful trip down. Who would have thought that possible out there?
  • Perla Marina - lots of memories but don't forget that tree in Leemans' yard
Las Terrenas and Las Galeras experiences:
  • Unpaved roads in Las Terrenas causing major traffic jams & dust
  • Hauling Jack & co out to the Survivor-like locations of Playa Anse del Norte and La Cana
  • Dario and his machete getting into our car
  • Arriving by boat and stepping foot on to JS's land near Rincon
  • The ride to Las Terrenas through Nagua with all its palm trees but brown ocean and thin slice of beachfront
  • The road over the mountains into Las Terrenas - don't fall over the edge or ruin your car in the potholes
  • Maria and company at Playa Colibri - such nice people...we'll be back someday
The time has come and gone to say goodbye to the DR. We miss you and of course all the friends we made down there. It was quite a ride.......and now it's on to new adventures. Check out my newest blog -- http://susieparish.wordpress.com