If It's Not Baseball....It's Crap!

Just because we're in the Dominican Republic doesn't mean that it's all about baseball. Sometimes it's also about merengue. But mostly it's about baseball. Last Saturday the challenge was that the loosers would buy the beer. Guess what. Gringos lost. The Dominicans were kind enough to let us score 21 points to their only 31 however.

Afterwards at Le Pachichi there was much beer consumed (not only grandes but jumbos) with an added touch of a merengue contest. Dominicans paired with Gringos to somewhat even the field. These two couples above tied as winners.

Couple of side notes:

Our game was delayed about an hour because someone was scouting a pitcher at the ball field. There was a guy in the stands behind home plate with a radar gun as well. Nice form, don't you think? Who knows where this kid may end up!

I don't have any pictures from our game because I was keeping score for most of it. I did get in an inning or two at the end. Also Senior Handy Andy decided to play for our team. A good reason why we had 21 points.



During the last few innings I was playing second base (Yikes!) and Handy Andy was in center. Twice he threw me the ball from center field. The second time my glove blew out! The leather laces in the fingers just.....dissolved. Granted it's a 30+ year old glove, but oh my can that man throw.

So I went to the local shoe repair guy in town and indeed he fixed it. I also had just blown a teva sandal so he put that back together for me as well, both for a mere 150 pesos ($5). I asked him to hold my glove so I could take a picture.
Maybe he would like to be on our team this Saturday.

One other bit of news. The Hurricane weather center has downgraded the season. Only three category 3 hurricanes expected for this year. Let's hope if there are any they stay in the Atlantic Ocean.

The Cruising Community

Today, we were heading into town when we heard a call on the hand-held that a boat, Persephone, was dragging. We were near there and turned around to help. Many times a boat may be dragging but the skipper is not on board. This was one of those cases. I would say that within 2 minutes I counted 12 dingys there to help out. Some jumped on board to mess with the anchor chain while most just became tugs and pushed Persephone away from other boats nearby. It's nice to know when you do have to leave your boat that you're never really leaving it unattended.

You Make The Call

So this past Saturday (7/14) I played softball again. Well I played 2 innings and then sat out the rest of the game but did take many many pictures. Some pretty good action shots if I do say so myself.

Anyway, after the game it's time to drink beer and celebrate the victory, which ultimately for us Gringos means nobody had a heart attack.

While sitting at the local bar I happened to be right next to a family of 4 wonderful kids - 3 boys and one baby girl. This photo is of one of the 'older' boys - probably 3ish. I sat next to him with my baseball mit on my chair. I picked up the glove and handed to him. He took it and instantly put in on his left hand. His brothers were busy with other things so he had no distractions.

I sat and watched as he put his gloved hand up to the sky, lowered it, put his right hand into the glove then proceeded to pretent to throw the ball he had just caught. Amazing. Three maybe four years old tops!

Eventually 2 other boys joined in. They saw that I was taking pictures and paying attention to this one guy so they snuggled on over to join in. These 2 guys somewhere found a piece of napkin or something, balled it up and began to 'pitch' and 'bat' the 'ball.' Imagine, 1 little guy standing by your left knee - he was the pitcher with the balled up napkin. The other one standing by your right knee - he was the batter and put his 2 hands together as if praying to create a 'bat.' They 'played ball' this way for quite awhile until the napkin dissolved.

These are times when I wish my eyeballs could take pictures.

What else was happening this past weekend? Well the Mac Race happened and our friend Jeff on Thirsty Tiger had a fun ride. There is a website you can follow the action on. Once an hour the position of the boats was updated. Now that's my kind of racing.

What is happening this week? Well Leah and Jason are heavily into their marathon training and will run a mere 50 miles this week. And I thought it was far to walk to the guagua (taxi van) stand. You go kids. Can't wait to see you in the big race in October.

Ok. That's it for now. Cubs won today but Milwaukee is also winning in the bottom of the 8th by 1 run. Go you Arizona!

More Motorcycle Madness

Yes, once again we ventured out into the hinterlands aboard a motorcycle. This time we rented from Steve of Steve's Bar and Grill fame. Steve also drew us a map of how to get up high in the mountains where a friend of his runs a dance club called El Paso with swimming pool.



This time it was just us with no partner bike but we are seasoned veterans now. We got an early start so that the traffic from Luperon to Imbert wouldn't be too heavy and it wasn't. Imbert has a busy crossroads and, yes I did kill the engine right in the middle of the highway. Still not good getting going up hill! From Imbert we only went a short way to the turn off that took us on a really pretty drive, through some small towns and ultimatley to Los Hildagos. We decided to take a little break there and have a coffee. It was still early. We went into a little cafe and a young lady came out and we had a bad language breakdown. I know the word for coffee is cafe' but when I said that I got a very long sentence of espanol in return. Hmmmm....She managed to tell us to wait while she ran across the street and got a guy out of a store (he was working) and drug him over to translate. Turns out she was trying to tell us that it would take a minute to brew the coffee! This is typical of Domincan people. They don't want to dissapoint you and will go way out of their way.

OK, onward. The ride from here was VERY up hill. At one point there is an uphill hairpin turn that I didn't see coming really and 3rd gear was 2 gears too high and, yeah, I stalled the engine again. Getting going with a rider up hill and not roll down hill is an adventure for me. But, we got going finally and found the club about 3 miles further up.

They didn't look open but the owner, Jose, insisted that we come in and he would get us beer and food. He was especially anxious to please when we told him we were friends with Steve. We sat and talked with Jose for about an hour and had a couple of beers. Jose couldn't make the food happen eventhough he was on the phone with the cook trying to get him to come in to work! Jose is showing us the softball trophies. In talking with Jose and looking at our map it seemed like we could make our way back to Luperon another way and not have to backtrack. We're up for it!

Back to Los Hildagos but this time we go straight through town with no turns which should take us to a town called Villa Isabella. Now we had been to Cabo Isabella on our last bike trip and we can tell on the map that Villa Isabella is close to that so it shouldn't be hard to find the nice road we took the last time.

OK, it was impossible. Once in Villa Isabella, we asked for directions. This consists of me saying "LUPERON"? very loudly and pointing down a particular road to see if I get a 'si' or a 'no'. Well, you get more than that and long and rapidly spoken directions in Espanol are nearly worthless. But we trek on in a directiont that seems consistant with the various pointing and si si-ing! The road changed from paved to dirt. Dirt with big rocks in it. This can't be right. A little farther on we flag down a guy coming the other way hoping he is coming from Luperon.

"LUPERON"? - - - - - - - - - - - - -Imagine a long sentence in espanol there. Often during his detailed directions he pointed nearly straight up into the air. Either there was a big hill involved in this route or we had to board a space ship for part of it. As we were talking, a friend of his rode up and the two of them conversed briefly. Turns out the new guy is going to Luperon (maybe) and we can follow him. Hurray!


The bad news is that the road continued to deteriorate. All dirt, many rocks with patches of soft sand. Some steep hills. We came around a corner and, hello, there's a river. How's this going to work? No problemo! There is a one-motorcyle ferry that takes you across and it is 'driven' by a guy just walking it across the thigh deep water (20 pesos!). The tricky part is going down the steep little hill to get onto the ferry and not rocket off the far end which is open. We managed. I've never seen a crazier set up than this.

After a couple more miles our leader drove up a drive way to a house and told us to wait. He came back out and said 'Live here' and drew us a final little map in the dirt road and said only 7 more kilometers (~4 miles). The road got a little better but not much. Finally we came to a town but nothing looked familiar. If this isn't Luperon we are REALLY lost. . . but it IS. We came in down a street we had not been on before but ultimately found the main street and our way back to Steve's.

I guess when Steve said we pretty much had to come back the way we came he wasn't kidding!

All day as we drove through small 'campos' and towns peope stopped to stare at the Gringos on the motorcycle with the funny white helmets. We waved and said Hola and they waved in return saying Hi, but I wonder if they ever saw the movie "Space Balls" because we looked like we came right out of it!

Back at Steve's we had a few beers to celebrate our victorious return while Steve took the rare opportunity to relax in his hammock. Of course he's always available to make change.


And his young daughter is always ready to have her picture taken. Who could resist?

Sandlot Kids

It's not unusual to walk through the town of Luperon and find this scene. An empty lot just barely big enough to play a little baseball. Even though the 'official' diamond is only down the street these guys prefer this sandlot.

If you can field a ball in this yard you're bound to be ready for the majors once you're old enough. Talk about tough guys, these kids were whacking a tennis ball with a stick, running and rolling through rocks and glass and donkey do-do to field the ball with their cardboard gloves and making double plays like the pros.

How do we get hold of Lou? I think he can find a shortstop down here.



And you thought the bleachers at Wrigley were unique.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

HAPPY SAILING TO ALL SAILORS AND CREW!

AND GO CUBS GO!!

Saturday June 30 - Cruisers vs. Domincans

What a fine day. A large group of cruising sailors met a large number of young Domincan men at the Luperon ball field. The ball field is right behind some shops on the main street here. In fact if you want to just watch you cut through the fish market to get to the stands. The field it self is pretty rough by US standards. There is a backstop though and and outfield wall (375 to straight-away center). The infield is dirt but pretty bumpy and the outfield has grass between 0 inches long and waist high with
bottles and rocks here and there.

Somebody brought some extra mitts and balls. Some raggedy bases were thrown out. We tossed some softballs around for a bit and then with no warning, fanfare or discussion of the ‘rules’ the game began. Being visitors we batted first. Not much skill on our side but the dominicans were here for fun and managed to drop a few pop-ups for us. As the game progressed I saw nothing but smiling faces all around. It is amazing what a great unifier baseball is.

Domincan Willie Stargel

A kid from Steve’s bar and grill brought down a wheel barrow filled with ice, beer, and water. He had to make another trip back up to Steve’s before the game was over. Nothing like a cool beer at the ball game. . . even if you are playing!

During the game the outfield had a variety of activities going on including the occasional motorcycle passing through, kids playing in the dirt and a wonderful kid with a home made kite. They all seemed to know how far out to play and nobody bothered them.


I played left field which is not my preference because balls tend to get hit there. In the bottom of the second one of the Domincans launched a high fly right to me. Well maybe back a little. A little more... Uh Oh. . . I turn my back to the plate and begin ‘racing’ out to left. I can still see the ball. I have a chance. I turn. My feet find each other and some various rocks on the ground and down I go. On my back. It was one of those ugly things I think where if you see the guy from the side you see his back hit and then his coconut snap down and bounce once on the ground. If it is in fact your coconut doing the bounce you also get to hear and feel your teeth bang together. I was stunned momentarily and then got up and rifled the ball to third getting the runner as he slid. Actually, no. I laid there for a bit and then got up and took myself out of the game. No damage. No blood but I ripped my favorite Cubs shirt from 03. After I got back to the bench Sue said, “Where’s your glasses”. TIME! Back out in left Sue and I and some of the dominican players helped us search for my glasses. Luckily they didn’t break but they sure did land far from my head!

Sue on the other hand made the first two outs for us playing short fielder catching a fly ball and making an assist at second. At the plate she got a single and scored on an extra base hit. Seeing Sue ‘FLY’ around the bases is nearly indescribable but if you’ve ever read the book, Snail Wins the Game, you’ll know what I’m talking about. In my one at bat I hit the ball right on the nose . . . back to the pitcher. Oh well, that eliminated any need to ‘hustle’ to first. I was still in the batter’s box when he caught it. (Probably a double if he doesn’t)

Between the top and bottom of the 6th I led the fans in a round of ‘Take me out to the Ball Game’ Ala’ Harry Carry. The Dominicans thought I was nuts (no, just concussed). We kept score and we may have even won but that wasn’t the point of this outing. When you are in another country you often feel a little ill at ease as you don’t know the language so good, you fear a customs faux pax, you want the locals to LIKE you. But we all speak baseball! It was so relaxing to just have that common experience and not worry about offending anyone. . . . as long as no one was offended by the level of our play.

After the game everyone walked across the street to a little beer joint, Pechichi’s and the Gringos made sure that, as visitors, we bought most of the beer for the Dominicans. There was music and a little dancing and just laughing and trying to talk a little baseball and a lot of Sammy Sosa. I hope we play again. . . .and that I can be in right field!




After a few beers - okay many many beers- we headed down the street to Captain Steve’s Place for a cheeseburger, fries, some pool, and another beer. Many baseball fans and players also made their way to Steve’s for lunch so the fun continued there. When it was about 3:00 p.m. and since our exhilirating game began at 10:00 a.m. we thought we should head back to the boat. On our way we passed the ball field again where an official softball league was at play. Well, maybe just one more while we watch real baseball.

This time as spectators we walked through the fish market and found a few empty seats behind home plate. Sweet. The Blue team was playing the Yellow team. We cheered for both teams. Go Azul go! Go ....(forgot what yellow is in Spanish but knew it then) go! Everyone was smiling and cheering as the boom box was blaring the latest salsa music. What a slice. After about an hour of too much fun again it really was time to get back to the boat while the gettin’ was possible.

You just can’t beat fun at the old ballgame. And, finally. . . .

This kid could be the next Sammy Sosa. Like Sammy and many Domincan kids they make their own gloves out of cardboard.

Doin' the Luperon Walk

Four days ago I finally did what I've been threatening to do since we arrived in Luperon. Walk for exercise. The first day Scott and I walked from Puerto Blanco Marina to the town of Luperon. It's a lovely walk (about 2 miles one way). As we make our way up the steep gravel covered road to the top of the hill we eventually come to this scene. Nice.

Little Bird

Walking along we hear a distinct little cheep - cheep- cheep. What is that? Where is that? A tiny bird no bigger than a hummingbird is perched up in a tree calling us over. He stayed there for several minutes allowing me to photograph him.

We continued on into town, sat down at Captain Steve's Place for lunch then since we were refurbished and refreshed decided to walk back. (That's 4 miles round trip)

The next morning Kathy from Bellagio and I walked to town. We also found ourselves sitting at Steve's Place this time for passion fruit juice (chinnola) and coffee.

town and beach walk Luperon

Then the next morning Kathy and I walked to the beach past the Luperon Resort (all inclusive which means you have to wear a wristband at all times while on the premises). It was a good hike of about 3 miles. We tried to find the path around the point to make a loop back to the marina but only found dead ends (roads blocked off with branches of trees tied together). We didn't really want to walk all the way back the way we came. So we decided to walk through the resort and back to our marina. Just look casual, try to hide your right wrist, and don't stop walking. Of course if you happen to see a peacock sitting on the balcony of one of the hotel rooms or pink flamingos strolling in a pond you must stop to take a picture. We found our way to the entrance and out onto the road without a soul stopping us or even looking at us funny.

Back at the marina we drank a few well deserved beers and enjoyed a game of Mexican Train dominoes with friends.

From left: Donna and Rick (Naomi Marie), Kerry and Kathy (Bellagio) and Scotto.

Yvon and Carmelle's House

Sunday was the flea market so no scheduled walk that day. However we did visit cruising friends Yvon and Carmelle who are renting an apartment just across from the resort. It's only about a 1/2 mile walk but all up hill. So that counts as exercise in my book. They have two huge cats which were fun to play with.

Sunday night we had dinner with Kathy and Kerry before they leave for their trip back to Canada. We ate at a place called Casa del Sol. Stanislaus picked us up at the marina, took our drink and dinner orders, served us Caribbean Coffee - a flaming treat- and drove up back home. What service and a great meal.

At left: Stanislaus brewing the caribbean concoction.




Today- Monday I'm taking the day off and only have walked as far as the stern of the boat to take this photo of Handy Andy and Poppo who cleaned the bottom of our boat and the anchor chain today. It was well worth the trip. Don't you think?


From left: Poppo and Handy Andy

FIRE in the marina!

A day with more excitement than one would want. I was in town at Steve's Bar and Grill when I heard on their VHF that boats were on fire at the Luperon Yacht Club. As many of you are aware a marina fire is the worst because once it starts many boats can go up. I could see the smoke from downtown Luperon. I've put the pictures in the album below. The smoking hulk used to be a 62 foot Hateras motor yacht. 3 or 4 boats were pulled away from the marina and saved. The owners weren't around but everyone pitched in to pull boats away from the fire. Sheesh. . . who needs a hurricane!


On another front, we felt like we needed to move our anchor. In the high winds we've had the last two days it looks like we stretched our our chain and perhaps pulled the anchor a little deeper into the ooze. Enough so that we look to be a little too close to a couple of boats off of our stern. This will also be a chance to clean up the ground tackle which we expected would be a little barnacled.

A LITTLE? Holy CRAP! My chain looks like barnacle sausage! I spent an hour and cleaned off abaout 15 feet of chain using wire brush, hammer, and stiff brush. This isn't going to work. We stopped and put out another anchor (since I had reduced my scope by the 15') and we are now considering buying a mooring and having it screwed into the bottom. An alterntive is to drop an old engine block into the ooze with chain on it up to the surface. We'll see.










For now we'll keep and eye on our position and go withthe two anchors.
I'll now have to be prepared to untangle them each morning. Sigh.

Scott and Sue...Motorcycle Maniacs!

What a great day. Let me just say first off that a motorcycle is THE way to explore this country.

Note: Some of the pictures are links to Picasa Albums. Click and enjoy. Back arrow to come back to the blog

motorcycle pictures

We started out at Puerto Blanca Marina to get the bikes. My friend Kerry is VERY experienced with motorcycles and gave me great lessons. I’ve NEVER ridden a motorcycle before. It’s not that hard. It’s like driving a stick except your left hand is the clutch not your left foot. Your left foot is how you shift gears. Your right hand is the throttle AND the front brake but DON’T USE THAT, and your right foot is not the gas but rather the rear brake. Oh and you use your hands to steer as well. Oh, and look in the rear view mirror on occasion. Got that? Like all ‘sticks’ first gear is the only adventure. Sticking my legs straight out until I got going seemed to help and I looked great doing this. I made a few runs up and back and then again with Sue on the back (she’ll try anything!) and we were off!

Our first order of business was to go through downtown Luperon to get some fuel. Let me just say that every man between the ages of 20 -30 has a motorcycle and they drive them like crazy up and down the main street of Luperon. I was a little nervous but then I realized that by the time I got there I’d have 5 maybe even 10 minutes of experience so what’s to worry? We fueled up and back tracked through town and then headed west along the coast. What a beautiful ride. We could see the ocean often and the DR mountains always. The road was in pretty good shape and not too much traffic.

cattle

Well, the main traffic was cattle. (Are cattle really stupid or just shy?)

motorcycle scenary

After about 11 kilometers we came to the beach at Cabo Isabella (Isabella Bay). Columbus named this region for Queen Isabella and established a settlement there in 1494. It lasted about 5 years. The beach is beautiful and, like so many places here, nearly no one there. I was thinking of the time we spent at Clearwater and at Fort Myers and what the traffic looked like on a Saturday. This beach is probably 5 miles along the bay and there is nothing on it.

los americas church

From here we continued on and found the oldest church in the Americas. This is actually a re-build of the original but inside they have stones laid in the floor showing the outline of the original church. There was a gardner or caretaker there and he was gracious (like many Dominicans) and proud to show us around. We didn’t understand much of what he was saying but we smiled and said ‘si, si...ah si’ a lot. (si means yes)

restaurant museum

Now we are ready for lunch and we knew of a place called Miamar that is a restaurant and hotel. After many dead ends on gravel roads (nice way to have a first ride on a motorcycle!) we finally backtracked and found the “main road” to the restaurant. This was two rutted lanes of gravel with washed out parts. Well, we didn’t fall and we did find the restaurant and it is spectacular. It overlooks the ocean and has it’s own pool. It is run by a German couple. The food was so delicious and, as with all German restaurants, the portions were as big as the Sudatenland. This place also is currently housing the grad students from Indiana University who are engaged in an archaeological dig. The restaurant itself has one of the best museums of Taino artifacts in the country. When the couple began building their restaurant they began to uncover many interesting artifacts. So they collected them and made a little museum room for them. They still dabble. All the stuff is at least 500 years old. Once the Spanish came the Taino didn’t last long. They went the way of the Aztecs and the Mayan and the American Indian (not counting the casinos). A great meal and certainly a return trip is in order. Perhaps we’ll spend a night or two in the hotel!

Our ride back was uneventful and just as enjoyable as the outbound trip. We again had to slow way down for a cattle drive. Everyone waves when you ride through a town and the children LOVE to yell, “Hola”! Sometimes they like to try their English and holler “Yankee Pig”...just kidding, they yell, “HELLO”. . . and then giggle. Hell I giggle after I say, “Hola”!







We ended the day with a couple of beers back at Puerto Blanco Marina. A great day and as usual, much fun with Kerry and Kathy!

By the way...It's been two years as of last Tuesday since we began this cruising life. Still good. We had a number of fellow cruisers over for 'corkscrews'. Don't go there! A good time had by all. Sail on.

A Day in Santiago

We are on a quest for a couple of things. One is a Honda 2000 generator so that we can charge our batteries (so we can make ice) without running the ship's engine twice a day. This is a pretty big country and you'd think you could find stuff and we probably will. . . it's just not so easy.

To get to Santiago from here you first take a gwa gwa (pronounced Gwa Gwa) which is a smallish van to Imbert. This costs 40 pesos or just over a dollar. When we left the gwa gwa stand in Luperon there were about 6 of us on board. By the time we arrived in Imbert we had 18 souls on board! I counted.



We looked like clowns getting out of one of those little cars at the circus! The bus to Santiago was waiting so we just jumped on board. This hunk is a very nice air-conditioned (un heard of in this country) bus for 80 pesos. All together the trip is probably around 50 miles for 120 pesos or just under $4.00.

Above photo is looking forward, other photo is looking aft. That's Kathy and Kerry sitting behind us.



Santiago is a very bustling city with busy streets, cabs and lots of honking. We walked all around the 'old town' which is the downtown area. I got a prescription filled for 3 months for what it costs for about 1 month in the states. Oh, and you actually don't need the little doctor note, just the empty bottle! Sue checked on getting glasses. They have same day service but you'd have to be there earlier and stay later than we were. Looks like new glasses will be about $90 including the exam. Can you tell that we are like the Howells here (Gilligan's Island reference)? We walked back out on the road into town to find the Ochoa (8A is there logo...get it? 8 - A = ocho - A) This is there Home Depot/Target. Lots of stuff but no Honda generator. We found the big grocery store and while Sue and Kathy did food stuff Kerry and I did manly hardware store stuff. No generator but I did get the rest of the rig I need to keep the frig charged up. The sales guy spoke no English but went and got a guy who spoke a little. Together we figured out what I was asking and needing. At the end I apologized for my rotten Spanish and he apologized for his weak English. I told him THAT'S not a problem. . . it's your country! Too bad I couldn't have said this in Spanish...would have had more punch.
Above photo is of the monument sitting on a hill overlooking the city. We're not sure who scored but it was obviously GOOD!

We hauled our groceries the few blocks back to where we saw the buses to take us back to Imbert. After much hollering and waving of arms we stood in the right place for our bus. The ride back was uneventful and the gwa gwa only had 5-6 people all the way back to Luperon. In Luperon we stopped at the little restaurant on the corner that has the tree growing right inside and had a couple of beers. We were all pretty thirsty and beat from walking around all day.

This is a photo of an eager mango collector. As we sat sipping our cerveza on the second floor of the restuarant, suddenly we hear bang! bang! bang-bang-bang!!! This guy is shaking the mango tree and they are falling on the tin roof below then rolling to the ground. Several other fruit lovers are gathering them up. The shaker guy doesn't wait to taste the fruits of his shaking.

We're working on a photo essay on the wonderful variety of cruising boats in this harbor so look for that coming up soon. Also we plan on renting a motorcycle for the day and exploring the countryside on our own. It is very mountainous and beautiful here and so many times while in the gwa gwa I've wished we could stop for some photos or to have a beer or a snack at the VERY little towns along the way. We'll see. I don't actually know how to ride a motorcycle but then. . . I don't actually know how to sail either!

Finally. . . here's a couple of links I've been meaning to post:

All about Luperon is a site by Bruce Van Sant author of Gentleman's Guide to Passages South. He lives here now and his boat is for sale. Check it out!

Also for all you wannabe or active runners my daughter, Leah and her husband, Jason, maintain a wonderful blog on running. If you have ANY questions about training, equipment, or shoes (especially shoes!) check out their blog. They are actively in training mode for the Chicago Marathon right now.

Thanks in advance for all comments! Our e-mail us directly. Addresses are over there on the right. . . or left. You'll find it!

Captain Snappy internetting at the Luperon Yacht Club. Nice view!