Written last week sometime....
Santo Domingo:
We were accompanied on our trip to Santo Domingo by a fellow cruiser named Chris who is singlehanding his sailing vessel Christa. I had been reading his blog for about six months, so it was fun to meet him. He said he didn't mind traveling with children, however I think after two days he may have been having second thoughts.
We left Tuesday morning and took a local bus which was a five hour trip. The countryside continues to amaze and inspire me, the lush green mountains, colorful flowers and strange little things that take you by surprise....roasted pig on a table by the side of the road, so it was not a boring trip. O and I handed Sam off between us and he was remarkably well behaved. I was so grateful.
We stayed in a hostel in the heart of Santo Domingo's, Zona Colonial which is the historic district. The hotel had ac, tv, private bathroom and double beds. I thought I was in heaven. It was reasonably priced for a capital city at sixty dollars. Most importantly it was very clean. We could have found cheaper places but we would have had to share a room or bathroom which is not practical and quite frankly I am getting too old for that.
The historical district reminds me VERY much of Spain. There are piazzas lined with cafes and restaurants where people sit and have coffee or a beer and watch the world go by. Our first night we found a restaurant on a piazza where the adults sat and chatted while the kids ran around. It was nice to let the kids run after being on the bus all day. It was also nice to have beers and conversation while relaxing, pretending like we were in Europe sans the euro!
That night we discovered Elmo was missing. Now Elmo was Ben's 'safety thing'. Elmo has been for all intents and purposes, part of the family. Sam has been eyeing Elmo as a takeover target for sometime now, but Ben is reluctant to even allow Sam to look in Elmo's general direction! However, in a moment of weakness, Ben allowed Sam to take Elmo to Santo Domingo. Long story short, Sam set Elmo on a chair on the street while O changed money with a shady character who offered 34 pesos/$. In true style when the exchange actually took place the guy was trying to shortchange O so a lengthy discussion ensued. Due to the negotiation, O had forgotten about Elmo propped up on a street corner chair, until we were in desperate need of Elmo that night. This is code red family style. The kids were so exhausted that night that they kind of forgot about Elmo. The next morning, first thing, O went to the place where he changed money to try to locate the lost "rojo monstera" in "Otis speak", after exhausting his limited Spanish, and professional grade charades, he returned despondent. We gathered the troops and all went to the scene of the crime. O, Chris and the boys stood outside while I went in and explained Elmos charactoristica, they talked a bit and then said no they had no idea what I was talking about. I didn't believe them so in my desperation, I brought Sam inside, sat him on the chair and looked totally defeated. I then explained in my spanish that Sam had been crying all night screaming Elmos name. They talked a little and went behind the counter and pulled out ELMO!!! I screamed for joy out loud!! I even vaguely remember hugging one of them. So Elmo is once again safe and sound on board Indy, where "she" belongs.
Afterwards, we went for a celebratory breakfast and then hit the sites. First stop, The Museo de las Casas Reales or Museum of the Royal Houses. IT totally rocked. It's a castle built in the sixteenth century. The castle was in wonderful condition and it was a well laid/thought out museum. However it would make an American curator fall down dead. The swords, armor and recovered treasure were the only things protected behind glass. The rest could be touched, sat on, walked on etc. In the medicine room which has wonderful sixteenth century glass blown jars, medicine chests, medical books etc., a man was painting the walls using a big roller, not a big deal, other than the fact that NOTHING in the entire room was covered. It sent chills down my spine! Otherwise, it is a fantastic museum but a little conservation might not be a bad thing.
Santo Domingo was a great trip and further solidified my love of this country.
FYI:
Did you know that the Santa Maria ran aground in what is now Haiti and sank? They had to move everything onto the Pinto which was very small. Columbus had to leave forty men on the island who were all killed by the locals because they were kidnapping and raping the local woman. Funny how they don't teach that in school.

Upon our return to Luperon, a weather window for Puerto Rico opened. The harbor was a buzz as to whether this was an adequate window for PR. O and I decided to make a run. About fifteen boats left Luperon Saturday night. This was the first night of the window. O and I prefer not to leave the first night of a window instead hoping to give the seas time to calm. A couple of the boats that left returned to the harbor to tell the tale. Apparently, 10-12 ft seas, twenty five kts all on the nose. People were making about two kts. Around five in the morning most pulled into a harbor to wait for it to settle. This shook me up a little and I was anxiety ridden all that day.
We left Luperon around 11:00pm and had a WONDERFULLY calm, smooth trip. Seas not even enough to mention, winds maybe eight kts, bright sky, lots of stars, just wonderful.
We wanted to make the run for PR, BUT as we were approaching dark on Monday night with the winds kicking up above 25kts, we were unsure as to whether it was the "cape effect" from Cape Cabron or perhaps the window was collapsing? Our weather router was on vacation and we were unable to contact the sub, so we had not had a real weather report since Sat am. The last weather we had said that the window will start collapsing on Tuesday morning but these things change very quickly and we did not want to be caught out. Better to err on the side of caution. (In retrospect we could have made it.) We pulled into Escondido for the night in hopes of getting the weather in the AM and then making a decision whether or not to push on. That evening as the sun was setting and we were cleaning up from dinner, the local "Commadante" came out to the boat with his entourage, demanding $10 and a bottle of whiskey as the entrance fee to the harbor. We were a little surprised by this and told him,
so after a class of Dewars and $5 he invited us to a party the next evening to meet everybody.
Escondido is straight out of Central America, a remote village on the oceanside of a huge mountain, therefore cut off from civilization, and occupied by fishermen and their families. The town was a series of shacks on the beach, with kids frolicking in the afternoon sunset naked. When the sun goes down the town goes to bed as there seemed to be no electricity, the shore was pitch black and silent after dark. It really was a cool reprieve from the dirt and activity of the cities we had visited earlier. With lush vegetation and towering cliffs shooting out of the ground to over 2000 ft vertically it struck me as sort of "fjordish" if that is a word. Unfortunately, we were unable to hear (or the sub was unable to transmit) the Caribbean broadcast again the following morning so we decided to pull into Samana, which was a5 hours sail to the tip of DR, to get weather before crossing the Mona..


We have crossed the Mona and arrived safely in in Boqueron, PR. I apologize for the fact that I have not posted lately but have not had internet.