How Many People Can You Fit in a Gua Gua?

Troy and I took a little trip the other day with our friends Shaggy and Camilla.  We went to Cabarete, a little tourist town thats about 50 miles from Luperon.   In fact, it kite surfing capital of the world.  A friend that we met through other cruisers, Tony and Rosemary (actually Tony's brother), Michael lives in Cabarete and he has a regular gig on Monday nights.  He plays music at a little restaurant there and had invited Troy and Camilla to come and play with him.  Camilla is a very talented musician and she plays with Troy every Saturday night here in Luperon.   

We decided against taking the motorcycle since the weather looked promising for rain.  The next best, and least expensive way to get there is by gua gua.
Luckily for us, Camilla is from the DR and, of course speaks fluent Spanish.  We would need to take 2 different gua guas and one bus to get to Cabarete.  The total cost was 150 pesos per person, or about $3.85  in US Dollars.  What a bargain.  Gua guas are personally owned cars and vans that run a route, usually between two different cities.  What a cultural experience.

On the bigger vans there is one guy on the gua gua whose job is to collect money, tell the driver when to stop to let off or pick up passengers and to make sure everything goes smoothly.  On our ride from Cabarete to Puerto Plata, we were on a mini-van with 23 other people.  We were packed in like sardines and our guy was hanging out the open sliding door of the van.  He has a big wad of cash in one hand, he keeps up with how much every owes, who has paid and who hasn't, takes money, gives change and taps the roof to signal the driver when he needs to stop to pick up or let out passengers.  When there is a stop he pulls, pushes, tugs, shoves, moves, whatever it takes to get everyone out or in or out, then back in and settled again.  It's really a pain when the guy in the far back corner wants to get out.  Everyone - out, back in, scoot closer to your neighbor and hope they didn't have too many habichuelas (beans) or ajo (garlic) for lunch.  Meanwhile, the driver is talking on his cell phone, listening to the radio, driving as fast as he can, all while honking and trying to pass all other vehicles that he encounters.  In fact, it seems like the objective of driving here in the DR is to make sure that you pass as many vehicles as possible.   Wow! What a ride.  The only thing missing was a chicken or two (trust me - chickens and small livestock are transported via gua gua).

Troy and I have had so much fun here in the Dominican Republic.  The people are so friendly and we have really enjoyed practicing our Spanish.  We have made so many good friends here, Dominicans and Gringos from all over the world.  It will be hard to say good-bye, but we are planning a return visit for next hurricane season, so that makes leaving a little easier.  

So - - - how may people can you fit in a gua gua?  Two more!!!

If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home.  ~James Michener

Provisioning

We are finally back in Luperon and aboard Storyville once again.  We had a wonderful visit with family and friends but it sure felt good to be back home too.  You know the feeling.  Anyway, now that we're back our plans are to get a few crucial boat projects done, get in some quick provisioning and head to Puerto Rico.  We are hoping to get away within the next two weeks.  We have a lot to get done but we are hoping to chip away at everything a little each day until we are done.

Troy will be replacing our running lights, anchor and steaming light.  Today he installed a cool solar, motion activated light on our davits.  The light will light up as we (or anyone else for that matter) approaches Storyville.  Helpful to us and hopefully a deterrent to anyone with bad intentions).  We still need to get the head sail back on, it's been off since Hurricane Irene gave us a wave as she swept by.  We will need to top off all of our tanks, fuel, water, beer rum, etc. and of course give everything a once over.  

I am getting ready to go through our provisions and make a list so that we can start provisioning for doing most of our cooking on board for the next 5 or 6 months.  We hear that the Virgin Islands and other places that we are going can be really expensive so we are  planning on cooking and not eating out for most of our meals.  We did that in the Bahamas and found that we really didn't mind at all, especially when a hamburger can cost as much as $18.00 US!!  We have gotten out of the habit here in the Dominican Republic  because you can get a hamburger for about $3.00 US.  What a difference! 

If all goes as planned we will try to meet up with our friends Rene and Stacy on s/v Pipe Muh Bligh and Patrick and Darnell on s/v Island Dreams in the Spanish Virgin Islands, we are guessing in early February.  We really try not to rush and make any kind of concrete plans.  We will just look for good weather windows and go with the flow.  But, we are looking forward to meeting up with them again, we have been cruising with them for almost a year now and we are looking forward to experiencing the Virgin Islands together.  Many of the boats that we spent hurricane season with in Luperon will be in the Virgin Islands and we are looking forward to seeing all of our friends, meeting new friends and getting to experience the beautiful islands.  We can't wait!

The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.  ~St. Augustine

May I Present Mr. & Mrs. Rollins.......

Our daughter Tory got married on December 15th. Tory and Danny have been planning the wedding for the last year. We flew home from the Dominican Republic so that we could give our daughter away and gain a new son.

The wedding was scheduled to take place on the cruise ship Carnival Triumph, sailing out of Galveston in the afternoon of the 15th. The plan was for the wedding to take place before the ship set sail so that guests that were not going on the cruise could still attend the nuptials.

Everyone that was planning on going on the cruise, and many that were in town for the wedding spent the night at the Hilton Hotel in Galveston. We had a wonderful rehearsal dinner the night before, hosted by the grooms parents Rick and Glenda Rollins. We woke up early to get ready for the big day. After everyone was showered, dressed and checked out of the hotel, we found out that the ship channel had been closed due to foggy conditions. The ship could not even make it into the dock. We were a little concerned since the hotel was on the sea wall and we couldn't even see the ocean across the street.

The bride and groom were impressively calm and composed, just communicating with the cruise line and waiting patiently. We waited most of the day and started getting concerned that we might have some timing issues with the wedding and reception happening on the ship. Plus, it was a little difficult to keep the bride and groom from seeing each other, since the only thing we could all do was wonder around the hotel lobby!

We were so impressed with the brides composure as she stared to contemplate alternate ideas for the wedding. After throwing some ideas around, it was finally decided that we would have the wedding at the Hotel. Everyone involved was just wonderful in helping make this happen. The Hilton let us use a room at no charge, the cruise wedding planners came to the hotel to conduct the ceremony and, thanks to Uncle Kenny, we even had a sound system delivered so we could play the wedding music through an iPod. The ceremony was beautiful and we soon learned that we would be able to board the ship that evening and have the reception there, as originally planned (just several hours later!).

The ceremony was beautiful and the reception that followed on the ship was a lot of fun.  The VIP boarding that the wedding party received was nice too.  We had a fantastic time on the cruise, it was wonderful to spend time with everyone!

I ask for your patience with the blog. I am learning to use the iPad to make posts to my google blog and I'm having trouble getting the pictures to post the way I like them. I'm sure there's an app for that, the search goes on. If any of my readers know something that I don't - please don't be shy. Help!!!!

Did You Forget About Us?

So, I took a break. I know, I know, I've been chastized, threatened, begged - please, please start making blog posts again. I think that the time has come. We just got a new iPad and a new keyboard and we are getting ready to set out on some new adventures, plus we have just had some recent adventures, so the time has come to start blogging again.

We are currently in Texas, we came back for a visit for Christmas and New Years and, mainly, to see our daughter Tory marry Danny. The wedding was great and I am planning a separate blog post for that (I need to ease my followers back into this - and not just hit you with everything all at once).

Storyville was left behind in the Dominican Republic. Hopefully she is patiently waiting for us on her mooring. When we return we are planning to visit Puerto Rico, The Spanish, American and English Virgin Islands and St. Maartin.

So, get ready for some blogging in the new year. I think I'll make that my resolution - to keep the blog up to date. At least as much as possible considering that we won't have access to internet most of the time.

So - get ready to watch us sail the Caribbean!!!!!

May all your troubles last as long as your New Year's resolutions. ~Joey Adams

Trip to the Mountains

We took a road trip with friends that we met here in Luperon.  Cade and Lisa, who live on their boat, s/v Sandollar took their SUV and we met up with Derrick and Ester at their property up in the mountains.  It was a great road trip and we had a wonderful day touring their new property that has been planted with coffee, bananas and avacados.  The air was cooler up in the mountains and the views were spectacular.  Derrick and Etster will eventually build there.  They are currently renting a small house next to their property.  We were very impressed with the view and with the fertile soil growing everything from ferns to mangos.  The trees even had bromiliads and native orchids on them! We had a great day with wonderful hosts.

Flat tire - just a usual day in Dominican Republic

Tunnel on the way up the mountain

Yes - those are avacodos, just dripping from the trees! Can you tell that I'm excited about that?

Beautiful fern grown on the mountainside

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

More Bananas

Coffee Beans

Rene and Stacy - Check out the view!

These are grafts on native avacado trees.  Making better avacados!

View from the mountain ridge

Derrick and Ester's sign

Derrick

Republica Dominica

A view of Storyville - I love our backyard!

We arrived in Luperon, Dominican Republic on May 27th. Our trip from South Caicos was a little less than 24 hours of smooth sailing / motor sailing. We had timed our crossing in order to arrive at the Luperon harbor in the early morning hours. What a thrill it was to watch the sun rise and see the mountains growing in the distance. We could smell the land as well as see it. It took a couple of hours of sailing before we could really comprehend the perspective of what we were seeing and just how big the mountains really are. The Dominican Republic is beautiful, mountainous, green and lush. It is absolutely gorgeous!

I was a little nervous about getting into the harbor since everything that we had read told us that it could be tricky, with a dangerous reef on one side and shallow sand and coral on the other. Troy wasn’t worried though, he figured that if we could navigate Double Bayou, then we could get into Luperon! All those sails to Double Bayou were definitely good practice. Especially learning to navigate without the aid of channel markers, which, not surprisingly, are missing here, just like back home at Double Bayou!

We made it into the harbor without any problems and were guided in further by a friendly cruiser that was showering on his deck that morning. He shouted directions to us so that we were able to avoid some of the shallow areas in the harbor. As we were slowly making our way around the boats that are moored here, we heard another shout, two locals in a panga (a small local boat) asking what we needed. We yelled back that we were looking for a mooring ball. We were happy to hear their reply “follow us”! That’s how we met Papo and Handy Andy. They are well known in the harbor and own several mooring balls. They deliver diesel, gas, town water, drinking water, whatever else the cruisers need. Within 30 minutes of our arrival, they had our diesel refilled and we paid for our mooring for the next 5 months. The cost was $50.00 per month for the mooring. Less than $2.00 per day, when all through the Bahamas and the rest of the Caribbean the cost is $20.00 to $25.00 per day!

Department of Agriculture in Luperon

After a short rest we were ready to check into the country. We dinghied over to the dock and took a short walk to the edge of town where the check in process began. It has been quite a while since we have used any Spanish and we were feeling a little lost throughout the check in process. It didn’t help that we had to go through several different government agencies and fill out forms at each one. Let’s see, first there was customs, then immigration, then agriculture and finally the Navy. We progressed through each agency, filled out the required forms in carbon copy triplicate. At least all of the agencies are close to each other and everyone was really friendly. The man in the immigration office asked us for $63.00 to cover our entry fees. When we handed over a $100.00 bill (that’s all we had). A worried and confused look came over his face. Then, through his bad English and our, even worse, Spanish, he communicated that we would need to pay $10.00 to immigration, agriculture and the navy. He would let them all know that we had paid him and he would get our change later. Needless to say, we made a $7.00 donation, as the change was conveniently forgotten!

This way to the Navy!

Our last stop was the navy, where, once again we filled out forms and tried in broken Spanish to explain that we had already paid our $10.00 to the immigration office. Somehow we managed to get it all worked out and two of the navy officers then announced that there were ready to inspect our boat. We took them out to Storyville in our dinghy and they asked if we had firearms and made a cursory inspection of the boat. They did ask Troy for a “little something” but Troy fell back on the story about how we paid everything at the immigration office. Once they knew we had refused, them just said OK, OK, no problema.

After Troy took them back to the dock, we were ready to take down the quarantine flag, hoist the DR courtesy flag and begin our exploration.

So far, we love it here. The cruisers and locals are all very helpful and friendly. We are taking Spanish lessons along with Rene and Stacy and Gary and Barbara. We are all determined that we will use our time here to learn as much Spanish as possible. We are also doing Yoga and water aerobics three days a week. That is pretty much required because the beer is so cheap and so cold here that it is almost irresistible! In fact, everything is so affordable here. Since we will be spending the rest of the summer here, in order to wait out the hurricane season, I am looking forward to exploring this beautiful island and making many blog posts along the way.

Luperon



Stairway to the Yacht Club



Rene and Stacy enjoying a grande Bohemia (cost is about 70 pesos or around $2.00)



Storyville's Quarantine Flag

Dominican Republic Courtesy Flag

A view of the coastline

Farming in the hills

Turks and Caicos

The Turks and Caicos are beautiful Islands that are a British Overseas Territory. They have a governor that is appointed by the Queen. Interestingly, the island natives or their descendants hold the nationality of British Overseas Territory Citizens and are called “Belongers”. Others that have immigrated there have a “resident status”. We checked in at Providenciales (also known as Provo) and anchored Storyville in Sapodilla Bay. The crescent shaped bay is a beautiful beach that is lined with villas that are mostly vacation rentals.


On our first afternoon there, we decided to head over to the beach with Rene and Stacy for a little beach and sun time. While enjoying ourselves there, Troy and Rene met Frank. Frank and his family were vacationing at one of the villas. You know, it’s really interesting to me how you can meet some people and just hit it off, kind of like you have been friends for years. Frank and his wife Angela were just those kind of people. Of course, they are Texans (from New Braunfels) so that may have something to do with it. Aren’t all Texans known for their hospitality? They invited us up to the beautiful villa to meet their family. It was truly a treat to see such a beautiful house and to meet them all. We are planning to stay in touch and even have plans to meet up in the Virgin Islands for New Years!

Frank and Angela invited the six of us to dinner the next evening. We had one of the most memorable evenings that we have had since we started cruising. Great food, wonderful company, plenty of wine flowing, all in the perfect atmosphere of a beautiful tropical island. Troy and Frank even entertained us with some singing and guitar picking. The next morning Frank and Angela, and their kids A.J., Ryan, Brianna all came out to take tours of Storville and Pipe Muh Bligh. I think we may have sparked a cruising dream with Frank! What a fun and interesting family. Anyway, I hope we can meet them again in the Virgin Islands. We are all looking forward to it.

It was great to meet you all, shout out to - Frank and Angela, A.J. (Frank's daughter), Ryan (future son in law), Cara (Frank's daughter), Dave (Cara's boyfriend), Brianna (Angela's daughter) and Brett (Angela's son)

We happened to be in the Turks and Caicos during the full moon and we had heard that the glow worms that live on the shallow banks mate at an hour after sunset three days after the full moon. Imagine, calendar reading, time telling, sea worms, that glow! This we had to see. There are even paid tours that take boats full of vacationers out to see the phenomenon. Sure enough, we set our alarms as reminders and at exactly an hour after the sunset we began to see glowing shapes in the water. You couldn’t see the worm because they are small, but you would see a glowing shape puff out a small glowing cloud (the female releasing eggs) and then a quick zigzagging glowing shape would zoom toward the glowing cloud (the male fertilizing the eggs). They were all around the boat and out into the bay as far as we could see, like glowing green stars in the water.


Meeting new friends and seeing the wonders of nature at work. Two of the reasons that we are out here cruising!
We spent about a week in Provo then we took a day trip across the shallow Turks and Caicos Banks to start waiting for a weather window to cross to Luperon. About 110 miles from South Caicos. The water was crystal clear and the snorkeling would have been fantastic, but we had another conversation with Chris Parker the day after we arrived in South Caicos and he had us on the move again with a three day window to cross to Luperon. That darn Chris, always has us on the go before we are ready to leave. Never the less, we were excited to make the crossing to Luperon where we will make our home for the next five or six months.

Angela, Deana, Stacy, Rene, Frank, Brianna, Gary, Barbara Troy

Frank and Troy

View of our boats from the balcony

Rainbow over Sapodilla Bay

Cara, Stacy and Rene

A.J., Barbara, Gary and Dave

Brett, Frank, Deana, Troy, Ryan and Brianna

Beautiful Turks and Caicos