Ok, we get up before the many roosters that roam the streets to make sure the boys are at the airport 90 minutes before take off. Since Garrett is under 16, he is considered a child and therefore an unaccompanied minor. For some reason, that one year jump to 16 makes you instantly an adult! Wow. Anyway, since Garrett was going to have “like, my own personal servant” (those are his words), we were told he had to be there early. Their flight was scheduled for 6:20am (because the airlines can’t stand to have those nice even times like 6:15 or 6:30–it’s always 6:27 or 7:23… but I’m getting off track), so that meant we had to get them there by 4:50am! That’s early, folks!

We got in the dew covered dinghy and headed over to the dock, anticipating the $16.75 parking fee. We got there and the place is completely abandoned. There isn’t a sole in sight…not even in the parking lot guard house! How do we get the car out if there is no-one there to open the gate? Now we’re thinking we may have just spent a lot of money on a rental car trying to avoid paying a lot more for a taxi, and now we may have to pay the taxi as well if we can’t get the car out!!!! But wait. Oh, joy! The gates are up. Not only that, but the ticket collector man isn’t there in his little house, so we don’t have anyway to pay the tremendous parking fee (which could feed a family of Haitians for a WEEK). Oh well…we must go.

We arrive just in time to be 90 minutes early, just like we were told. I think Continental doesn’t realize that things operate a little differently in Key West. The only people anywhere near the airport when we arrived were the security guards. Hmmm. We tried to check in with the little computer thingy, but it wasn’t on yet.

In a few minutes we see an employee-like person turn some things on, so we figured she was getting things set up and would come over soon to help us. There are only like 3 or 4 ticket counters there: American, Continental, Delta…that’s pretty much it. So we noticed that the little computer checker was now on and working. We type in our little numbers, but it told us to go to the counter because we had an unaccompanied minor. We wait some more. We watch the Delta employees come in and light up their ticket are. Then around the corner, we here the American counter coming to life. Passengers on those airlines start to arrive. No employees on our side though. It’s now about 5:30. The girl we thought was an employee was actually just another security guard. She noticed that we had been waiting a while, but didn’t say anything. We asked her what time the employees normally arrived. She told us that the Continental people had to work overtime last night because they had a flight that left but had to turn around because of engine problems. Since they were there til after 11:00 last night, they probably wouldn’t be there until 30 minutes before take-off.

OH.

That isn’t something you want to tell the mother of two boys who have never flown before. It also doesn’t make the boys very happy that they had to get up at the crack of dawn so they could wait on the employees who told us we had to be there 90 minutes early.

Another couple arrive to check in 30 minutes after we did, so they could be there the requisite hour before take off. About 10 minutes later another passenger comes to get in line. I saw him outside chug down the rest of his beer and throw away the bottle just before he walked in the door (I hope he’s not the pilot.) He’s not. He staggers over to the que line, but soon discovers he’s at the wrong airline, so he staggers over to the other airline counter.

At 5:45, an employee shows up. He looks very official. He starts turning on the computers at the Continental station. He looks like he’s going to begin helping us (we’re first in line). We get so excited, like a puppy waiting for you to set his newly filled food dish down so he can start chowing. Then, to our dismay, the guy disappears. I guess it was about 10 minutes later, the real check-in lady arrived and began our process. Just about that time, a Policewoman asks for the owner of the silver convertible parked in front to identify themselves. Oh, yikes!!! That’s us! She was just letting us know that in two minutes, our car would be towed. (so–it’s a rental–he he he). While John finishes check-in, I go move the car—but where? I didn’t bring my purse. I don’t even know where my purse is. I haven’t seen it since we left the U.S. That means I don’t have my driver’s license, and worse, I don’t have any money to park the car anywhere. I figure I’ll just circle till their done. Then the very nice Policewoman asks me if it’s a rental, and since it was she told me to just pull into one of the slots where they keep their cars. Great idea! So I parked in the slot that we pulled it out of. Easy breezy & “free”zy, and she didn’t seem to care if I had a license or not. It’s Key West, they’re very forgiving here. Back to the counter.

The boys got their boarding passes and go over to the point of no return. I noticed that they didn’t have anyone helping them find their way (which they charge you $100 extra for). My motherly instincts kick in. I’m not letting them go through security and not know what to do next. I jumped up to go wait on the other side with them and make sure they get on the right plane safely. These are my babies. Oh no! I can’t go! I don’t have any identification on me because I don’t know where my purse is!!!!! I have got to make a note to find it. I made John go back to the ticket counter and get them to give him a pass to go back. He did. Just so you know, the girl at the counter should have seen that Garrett was an unaccompanied minor and needed an employee to “guide” him, and/or give the adult dropping him off a pass to go to the gate with him. But we’re in Key West, and apparently, that’s asking a little too much.

Well, they’re off. And we’re hungry. McDonald’s breakfast anyone? Do we dare risk it? Why not? This time, it’s the drive-thru for us. The only incident is when I asked for straws and she said they were in the bag, but I only found one straw, not two. She shot me a pair of evil “you’re a stinking liar, chic” eyes and very gruffly handed John another straw. After we had eaten everything and were stuffing the trash into the bag, I found the other straw. Oops.

It’s only 6:30. We all want more sleep, but where do we park the car until we’re ready to go exploring? The city streets! Most of the streets are marked off for the residents and you have to have a permit to park there. We did finally find a street in front of a condo construction site that looked tow-away free, and it was only a few blocks away.

After a nice long rest of the morning’s sleep, we headed off for a bookstore. Kimi and I both bought several books for our upcoming Gulf crossing. John drives us all over town to every marine supply store there. We wait in the car and read–with air conditioning. Once we had been to every marine store, we drove almost to Marathon to see what the other Keys looked like. Lots of mangroves. We saw a couple of iguanas that looked like they were trying to hitch a ride on the side of the road. We stopped in Big Pine and ate Key Lime Pie. Then we decided to head back to Key West to turn the car in before the last shuttle ride–just in case they forgot what they promised.

Oh, earlier in the day, we got a call from a man at the airport wanting me to identify the man picking them up as an approved adult. It was John’s dad, so they let the boys go with him. Turns out, when the boys arrived in Tampa (their first stop), they couldn’t get on the next plane because they didn’t have any paperwork at all. Evidently, the Key West employee did the check in process all wrong (Now there’s a big surprise!!). The employees in Tampa have their act together and got the boys all fixed up, and even gotten them a personal attendant. It was smooth sailing, er um flying, from there. Here’s what I learned: don’t book your kids on a flight with three change overs for their first flying experience without you, and don’t ever go back to Key West.

We bought an entire Key Lime Pie from a place in Key West that is actually a Christian owned establishment (at least they had a scripture up on the wall). We needed some yummy-ness for the upcoming Gulf trip that we were not looking forward to.

Stay tuned for the next post on the Gulf trip! I’m too exhausted to tell you all about it, now.

I will tell you that we are in our little marina slip all safe and sound. Tomorrow we rent a car and drive to Oklahoma. I will try to post about the Gulf trip sometime tomorrow evening. Good night.

We called around to find out what it would cost to take a taxi from the dinghy dock to the airport to drop off the boys. It was $37.50! So, we called around to find out what it costs to rent a car for a day. Turns out, we could rent a car for 24 hrs for the same price. Great! Now the only problem is how to get to the airport to get the car. They have a shuttle service. Great! The guy at the desk told us to call 30 minutes before we needed to be picked up. No problem…

We arranged the whole car deal online while in Marathon, Fl. We had to get up at 7:00am to move the boat down to Key West before the last shuttle service pick up time of 5:00pm. It was a stretch, given the freaky west winds when they should be southeast, but we made it to the anchorage by 4:00. Just enough time to get the dinghy launched and motor over. We called Dollar Car rental to dispatch the shuttle at 4:15 at which time they said the van would be here in 30 minutes and it would have a Dollar Car Rental sign on the outside (this is a key point later in the saga). 30 minutes lapsed and we decided that this is Key West, they’re probably on island time, so we gave them another 15 minutes before we called, although they had our cell phone number and should have called us if they would be delayed. We assumed that since it would be a long distance phone call for them to call us, that we would just call them.

While we waited, I became the official tourist photo taker. (We were standing in front of this post that had little signs in all different directions that pointed the way to various locations and how many miles away it was. It seemed to be a popular tourist attraction and everyone wanted to have their picture taken in front of it.) During our wait, we also happened to witness two fairly obvious drug deals. However, in Key West, I believe that if you’re a pirate, and/or dressed like a pirate, or wish you were a pirate, the laws about illegal drugs are more like guidelines. AND… we also got to see our neighbor from our last visit who has the pirate-like eyebrows tattooed on his forehead—we are once again neighbors. grin. It was a very entertaining wait.

In between photo sessions and drug deals, I called Dollar back to tell them we were still waiting, and they said it would be 15 more minutes. No problem. After 1 hr & 30 minutes passed, we called again—only this time I made John call: “Oh, he left 10 minutes ago, so he should be there soon.” (Yeah, right).

Meanwhile, back at the boat: I failed to mention that Travis and Kimi stayed on board while the rest of us went to pick up the car. We weren’t going to be gone long, and Travis had my cell phone and could handle any problems. But what could happen? Well, he calls us while we’re waiting to tell us that the anchor alarm kept going off. (The anchor alarm tells us if the anchor is dragging, which, if the anchor drags your boat can end up crashing into another boat.) There are numbers on the screen that tell how far out the boat is from where the anchor is so as long as the numbers aren’t bigger than the amount of chain you have out, all is okay, its a false alarm. That seemed to be the case, so we didn’t worry too much. Still, you naturally think, “what if it does drag. Is Travis capable of resetting the anchor, which means starting the engine, raising the anchor, moving the boat forward, dropping the anchor again?” Travis knew enough to let out more chain, and that seemed to settle things down. It had been raining and the wind had been howling, so the boat was swinging and moving alot. Things calmed down, and it there was no cause for alarm. Plus, if the boat was dragging, there are always friendly sailors that come to the rescue. In fact, one of our neighbors dinghied over to tell Travis that its a good idea to set two anchors. (Hey, thanks.) Anyway, while there was no real problem, it added to the frustration because we should have already been back to the boat by now.

Back to the waiting game:

Now, 2 hours later (yell-Regis style-when you read that last part), we were still waiting! John is pretty mad by now (we all were). He calls again. They guy said that his driver said he went by there but didn’t see anyone. He said he would send him back. We told him that we had been watching the street diligently for the whole 2 hours, and that there hadn’t been a single van stop at the place we told them we would be—which, by the way, is a very popular, very well known, very common place–there was no way that you could live in Key West, or work there and not know where this place is. There had been no van that was even a remote possibility of it being our shuttle, and there was no way we could have missed him if he even came within the vicinity. hmpf. We wait.

About 20 minutes later, I saw a woman at the corner of the street a block away talking to a man in a black van and pointing in the direction we were at. Yep, our driver. He drove around slowly, then drove around again. He finally stopped and rolled down his window (a tiny bit) in his UNMARKED, NO SIGN IN SIGHT, COMPANY CAR and asked if we called Dollar/Thrifty Rental. We walked over to this unmarked van, hoping, and sure enough it was our ride. Aparantly, the “sign” was on the guys baseball cap logo which we should have seen through the tinted windows from 50 ft. away. The guy barely spoke English, and obviously had no idea where he was or where he was supposed to be, although he was very nice and seemed to commiserate with the fact that we were told to “look for the sign, but there no sign, you looking and looking but no sign, aye.” Each time we spoke with the office, the guy told us to look for the van with the Dollar sign on it. Can you say “M I S C O M M U N I C A T I O N ?” Anyway, we got to the airport.

The guy at the desk was apologetic and offered us a free upgrade to a convertible (it was raining outside). We told him that we would rather he just give us the cheap car for free or give us an extra day for free. He said he wasn’t authorized to do that, that his manager was the only one that could. Naturally, his manager got off at 5:00, which we would have been there before then if the shuttle had been on time. However, at the time we were asking that, the other girl working there was on the phone with the manager to ok the upgrade. When the desk guy said he couldn’t give us a free day without his manager’s approval and that he was already gone, I said, “But wasn’t she just talking to him? Could you call him back and ask him?”

“Oh.” pause. “Ok.” But alas, it was a no go. Either the upgrade or cheapo. We took the upgrade.

Now, the problem was that since it was now 7:00pm and not 5:00pm, to get the full benefit of the 24 hours we paid for, we would now have no way to get back to the boat because their shuttle service ends at 5:00pm. We had to ask them to call Mr. Manager again to find out if they were going to provide transportation for us at 7:00pm tomorrow evening. He said ok. Ordeal complete. We took a deep breath and went to find the car. It’s nice.

We get the car and head to McDonald’s since it was so late and nobody had eaten. It starts to rain. We go inside to order because we just didn’t think we could deal with ordering through the drive-thru and having to risk them messing up the order for our very particular, special order family. We go inside and have a wonderful order clerk experience. She nailed it perfectly. Where we messed up was in assuming all would go well from there. While we are waiting for our order, we are becoming chilled to the bone from the air conditioning (we are used to our 90 degree cabin). We start to shiver, but it didn’t take long to get the food. We leave, but failed to check the order before we left. (Foreshadowing).

If you’ve ever been to Key West, you are probably aware that there aren’t a lot of places to park a car without paying a lot of money. If you’ve never been here, that is the case, especially in the downtown historic district, which is where we were. We had to pay $16.75 to park overnight! Wow. That’s half of what the car cost!!! What are ‘ya gonna do?

We get the car parked and John accidentally bumps the car door onto the car next to him. Ooops, happens all the time-no big deal, right? Wrong! There was a lady sitting in the back seat (the door that he dinged) with her very cute, one month old, infant son. She rolls down the window to tell him that he just banged her car. She then gets out to look at the tremendous damage (sarcasm-sorry). There was a tiny scratch that was surface only. I said, “it should buff out, no problem.” She agreed that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. John apologized a bunch and told her how cute her baby was. It’s all ok, and we were free to go.

It starts to rain.

Our dinghy is wet from the rain. The food is getting wet. We are wet. We sit in the wet dinghy and it rains a little harder. We get to the entrance of the channel and the motor dies. It starts up again, though. We proceed and it dies again. We’re wet, freezing, and pretty far from the boat. I remarked that God was punishing us for getting fast food. Garrett laughed at me. The motor died again. At least it stopped raining now.

We make it to the boat, open up our food bags. Discover a missing sandwich. The fries are cold and the drinks are watered down. Who cares! It’s fast food: yummy, greasy, unhealthy goodness!

The boys packed their bags. We all took a shower. Lights out (we have to get up at 4:00am to get them to the airport). Now my story is all told. It has been our pleasure to endure these small trials for the express purpose of providing entertaining reading for our subscribers. THE END.

Other exciting news: Travis threw out an 80lb. line as we approached the Great Bahama Bank and caught a HUGE mahi-mahi fish (aka dorada, aka dolphin–but not the porpoise kind.) John was able to get 3 meals worth of meat for our family of five. That’s a lot of fish. I fried some of it for Father’s Day and it was delectable, which made “Father” very happy, as well as the rest of us.

We are in Marathon, Fl. We arrived yesterday…pretty tired. We have been doing nothing while here, except recovering from strange sleep patterns from the watches, and trying to keep cool (that’s not working so well).

On the way to Florida, we stopped in Great Inagua, Bahamas for the day to make water. We also did some beach combing. Great Inagua is home to Morton Salt plant and a national park where hundreds of pink flamingos hang out. We saw one pink flamingo and a couple of dog sharks swimming by our feet as we waded through the water to get closer to the flamingo. Some day soon John will post our lame pictures of the bird…we did get him in flight, which was cool.

We left Great Inagua before dark and headed back out into the vast ocean. We sailed for 8 days straight, which is the longest stretch since our initial Gulf Crossing.

It looks like there will only be 3 of us crossing the Gulf from here (John, Me, Kimi). The boys are going to OKC on the 19th so they can attend youth camp for a week. They are going to stay in OKC after camp and wait for us to come get them. That means that John and I are the only people to stand watch. (pout)

Naturally, since we have to get across the Gulf, there is incredibly freakish weather right where we need to go. On the way out, it was terribly windy & stormy, but on the way back (when we desperately want the wind to blow as hard as it wants) there is an unusual high stalled out that has created a dead calm for the next 6 days!! Imagine that? So John, Kimi and I will wait for better winds and hang out in Key West till we can’t stand it any longer. We really don’t want to spend the fuel to motor across—not to mention that it will be super hot with no wind. Hopefully, things will return to “normal” and we can get home by the end of June.

Home, by the way, is going to be Watergate Yachting Center in Clear Lake Shores, TX. At least for a few months (maybe 6) until we figure out what to do with ourselves. We can hardly wait to be hooked up to shore power so we can run the A/C. It’s been incredibly hot these past few weeks, reaching up to 90 degrees inside the cabin!!! That’s hot, boys and girls! The marina also has a swimming pool (no more salt water), a playground, BBQ grills—heaven! We will also be getting our doggie, Buddy, when we go to OKC to retrieve the boys.

One day, while trying not to go crazy from boredom (passages can get really boring if there isn’t anything in the water, or any other traffic to entertain us), we were all sitting on deck thinking of all of the things that we can’t wait to experience again someday when we live in a house again. Things like: ice, a refrigerator that opens to display all the goodies inside (& some with ice in the door), a self draining shower, ice, a toilet that flushes by simply pushing the handle once, air conditioning, water-without having to make it, a real bed that’s wider than your shoulders, DOORS (for privacy), a freezer (with ice & ice cream), a bathtub (with or without ice), a garbage pickup service (no ice necessary there); not to mention the availability of Sonic ice, Sonic drinks, Sonic slushies, Whataburger… Ahhhh, America—the land of massive fast food and excess everywhere!

We have not really missed TV, though. We had cable for one day before we left Puerto Rico, and there wasn’t anything worth watching. There is sustainable life without TV—who knew?

I will desperately miss the crystal clear turquoise water and the beautiful reefs and marine life. I will miss the extremely laid back schedule we have had. But mostly, I will miss the water. There is nothing better than being able to see through the water to the bottom, and being able to jump in whenever the mood suits to cool off or play. (sigh). Despite the name, I just don’t think Clear Lake will come anywhere close.

We’re almost there. Yippee!!

The bad news: She’s now a middle schooler, rapidly approaching teenager syndrome (sniff).

Oh, and more bad news:  the sail has not arrived yet and we have no idea when it will.

Estamos en Puerto Rico, aka America!! Como esta?

Puerto Rico es La Isla de Encanto (Island of Enchantment)! I’m picking up Spanish a little at a time. We have been trying to speak Spanish all the time to get more fluent. I was very proud of myself for ordering pizza to be delivered (there’s a Domino’s here and we have teenagers on board). I had to get John to tell me where we are so I could tell them where to deliver it, but I did it…oh, and after a while the guy on the phone went to get another guy that told me to speak English because he understood. But still, I did it.

Puerto Rico is very much American, but most people speak Spanish. Very few taxi drivers speak English, but John’s Spanish is good enough to get us where we need to go.

P.R is a stark contrast to D.R. Here in Puerto Rico the roads are really paved and there are trash cans everywhere, and it’s very clean. It’s a very beautiful island with mountains and coastlines. You can drive around the entire island in a day.

When we checked in with customs, the agent that came on board had lived in Houston before (near where I lived). His name is Jose Cruz (like the famous Houston baseball player). He’s a very nice man. John gave him our card with his cell phone number on it, so he called John up the next day and brought us some crackers that are only made in his home town (muy delicioso). He also invited us to join him in a trip to San Juan (the capital). We couldn’t go because we really needed to reprovision, find a new auto pilot belt, and take care of some other business. Then he offered to take our family up to his farm in the mountains later this week. We are going tomorrow. He owns 83 acres in the mountains and grows mangos, bananas, oranges… I can’t wait! Fresh fruit.

It’s so amazing how everywhere we go God hooks us up with someone that befriends us. Jose is like family now.

When we arrived here, there was a music/arts & crafts festival going on at the La Guancha (which is a seaside park and boardwalk). We mosied on over and bought some of their wares. It went on all weekend and we could hear the live music from our boat out at anchor. The food is so yummy here! Where we dock our dinghy, there is an open air restaurant and a sardine stand (the sardines aren’t for people, though). There are tons of tarpon that hang out around the dock, so people buy sardines for a $1 and feed them to the tarpon and the pelicans. The pelicans are so tame that you can pet some of them. We also saw two moray eels up under the rocks. There are markers in the harbor here that say it’s a manatee area, but we haven’t seen any yet (the “I haven’t seen whales yet” saga continues. sigh).

Jose told us about the best Mexican food restaurant in town, so we took a taxi with Kalida into town to check it out. It was the best Mexican food I’ve ever eaten. We had soup, fajitas, and Kimi had enchiladas. Then there was dessert!! It consisted of two large flour tortillas fried with cinnamon, sugar and vanilla, with ice cream in between which had bananas and strawberries in it. It was sooo yummy! Right before we got the check the gestapo mariachi band arrived. We called them the gestapo because they stood in front of the door—you couldn’t leave without interrupting them!

Our friends on board Toucan arrived today. We are very glad to see them. We were afraid we had lost contact with them for good. We’re looking forward to touring around with them. They are very adventurous. There is also another boat here that has an American family of 5 on board from Chicago. Their children are extremely outgoing–I think our kids are shocked by it, but their kids are about the same ages as ours.

Next stop is Salinas, Puerto RIco, and then from there we will most likely spend some time in the Spanish Virgin Islands (Culebra). After that, we don’t know. We lost our mizzen board on the way here, so John is looking into the repair. We don’t want to spend cruising time with the boat hauled out, so we’re trying to see if we can carry on without it, or at least while a new one is made. It will all work out somehow.

When we told some of the Dominicans that we were going to Haiti, they tried to talk us out of it–they don’t even go!! We had become friends with a man named Odalis. He and his friend, Raphael, started a business together, Luperon Harbor Services, and we met them through the Naval Comandancias. Odalis & Raphael helped interpret since they spoke pretty good English. Odalis’ brother runs a taxi (gua gua), so he offered to take us into Haiti, we only had to pay for the taxi & gas, not his time.

We heard from Danita on Tuesday or Wednesday that all was safe, and settled on Friday for our trip. It was a three hour drive to Dajabon, DR. We happened to be going on a Friday, which was market day. Market day is a weekly event where the border between Haiti and DR is opened for a few hours. People from Haiti bring anything they can sell to trade for food, and those who have money, buy food.

Some other cruisers we met in Sapodilla Bay, Turks & Caicos also sailed to Luperon and there were three other boats who were interested in going to market and possibly Haiti, so we talked them into joining us. They were hoping to be able to find some wonderful things at the market (art, perhaps), and they also thought it would be a wonderful experience to see Haiti. We soon learned that it cost $25 to cross the border back and forth ($50 per person), no matter if you were staying weeks or hours. Since it was so expensive, the rest of the group decided to stay in Dajabon and shop at the market while we went over. We wanted to go even though it would cost $250 for our family. We didn’t want to be this close and let money stop us. It was settled that we would all meet at the dinghy dock at 7:30am Friday morning where Odalis would pick us up.

In a van that seats 12, we crammed our party of 14 in with room to spare (based on our previous gua-gua experience, there was still room for at least 6 more)!!

The ride over was long, and it rained a little. Once we arrived in Dajabon the streets were crammed–I mean crammed. There were wheel barrows, peddlers, carts… anything that would hold merchandise was crowding the streets to the point that we couldn’t get the van through without running over people. Finally, a “guide” stepped up and led us to a place right by the government office where we could leave the van safely. Odalis “hired” a boy to watch the van for us. Those not going to Haiti went one way, and our family and Odalis went the other. We agreed that any survivors would meet back at the van at 3:00pm–the border was closing at 4:00pm and we wanted to make sure we got out before it was too late! We said our “hope we see you later”s and headed our separate ways.

John had called Danita while Odalis was trying to park to let her know we were at the border so she could meet us. With Odalis close by, we headed into another world. Kimi was scared, but I told her to just hold my hand and stay as close to Odalis as possible and we would be fine. Odalis would make sure of it-I am convinced that God sent him to help us! The customs officials and the UN guards (armed and everywhere-from Uruguay?) were anxious for us to stop and “chat”, but Danita and Karris walked up at just the right time. Danita was amazing and handled them all, and we didn’t have to pay a dime–since it was market day. Once we started walking away from the border, Odalis offered to go back and find the others; since we didn’t have to pay entrance fees, we knew they would want to join us. Odalis took down Danita’s cell phone number, and we headed to the orphanage while he set off in the madness to find the others. This was very brave, finding them would be like finding a needle in a haystack–except that gringos stick out pretty easily, and we were the only gringos crazy enough to be there.

The walk to the orphanage was an experience all by itself. We could see the building from the border bridge, but the sights between us and the building were overwhelming. There was incredible multitudes and organized chaos (from market days). We saw vendors selling everything imaginable–and some things quite unimaginable. There were animal heads laying out on display: donkey heads, pig heads, cow heads (skinny cows), and all freshly beheaded (trying to give you a visual image-sorry)… ewww! Ladies were making fried plantains and selling them. There were people selling charcoal–not the nice neat briquets you buy in the store, but the burned up wood ash they use for fuel/cooking. There are no paved roads, and it was incredibly hot and dusty, and filthy dirty.

The conditions are as horrendous as you’ve seen and heard. There were lots of naked children running around (this freaked Kimi out more than anything). Women carried enormous loads of goods on top of their heads. Hopefully, the pictures we have will help see how immense the loads were. Men were shoving carts full of stuff through the crowds. Motoconchos (motorcycle taxis) were whizzing by stirring up dust. Huge trucks with beds piled full of merchandise just purchased in Dajabon, had people piled on top of that, dangling precariously! Right near the river (Massacre River) was an enormous pile of garbage, basically a land fill. There were a few women washing laundry in the river, but mostly people were occupied with the market. Many beggars asked us for money, and even more vendors tried to get us to buy their wares. The men would grab your arm and try to get you to come buy from them.

Once we made it to the gate of Danita’s Children, we walked inside to paradise. It was like walking into a whole other world. It was recess time and the school children were playing on the magnificent playground equipment, which was more impressive than any park I’ve been to. The buildings were beautiful, the grounds were clean and free of trash (unlike the rest of the town), there was a huge tree in the middle. Some of the children immediately ran up to us, and Danita introduced them. The children that she has adopted understand and speak English, but the others do not. We said, “Bon Jour” in our Texas accented French. They smiled and hugged us. They were all so polite and courteous. It was very impressive. Those that spoke English said “hello” and “welcome”.

Danita and Karris took us to the older boys’ dorm, which is also where they live. The building was beautiful. What these women have managed to do is remarkable!!! Karris took us on a tour of the school, the church, the cafeteria, the future site of the clinic, the other dorms, and the village, while Danita waited for Odalis to call and say he had found the others. Danita was to meet him at the border to get the others in.

We had toured everything and were back at the orphanage. They had planned to feed us and Odalis lunch, but had not expected the others to be able to come. However, they quickly accommodated all of us! It was one of the best meals we had eaten in a foreign country–and they even had ice (a rarity for cruisers)! The other half of our group was almost not allowed to cross over, but Danita promised them they were only staying for lunch, then would leave.

We were able to watch the children come in for their lunch. They sat quietly (unlike noisy American school cafeterias), and orderly while waiting to be led in a couple of songs, then a prayer over the meal. Everything was in French creole, but we recognized the tunes. Words nor pictures would ever be able to convey to you what an awesome thing that was. These kids (except for Danita’s orphans) live in extreme poverty-most of their families have one meal every 3rd day, there is a 95% unemployment rate, the land has been deforested and stripped of any natural resources, they live in shacks along dirt roads filled with trash and feces (didn’t want to know if it was animal or human). We walked through their village and saw it for ourselves. Little children with bellies distended from starvation and/or worms. For these school children to have one meal a day was a huge blessing, and on top of that they are being educated and given hope–for free! This place Danita has made with God’s help, really is bringing hope to Haiti. It’s nothing short of a miracle.

Back to our meal. Odalis had arrived with the others after an hour of searching! (He’s a great guy). He had found them near a park. They were finished shopping (had all they could stand) and were trying to figure out what they were going to do for the rest of the day until we came back, when Odalis found them. Yippee! We all had a great time of fellowship over delicious food. The friends that were with us were from three different boats, two from England, and another U.S. family of 5. They were all extremely impressed with what Danita had accomplished.

The living conditions in Ouanaminthe are terrible, contrasted with Danita’s world where they lived very much like we do on our boat. All of us cruisers could relate to life with generators, conserving water & power, shopping for food in foreign places… it was all very similar except the orphanage had WAY more space and much nicer restrooms!

After lunch, we took the others on a tour of the school and village. Some of the teachers led their class in welcoming songs for us–again, very touching and moving. We got to meet Danita’s oldest, Roberson (I hope I got his name right), who is 16, and several of the other older kids. We also got to meet Lubenson, whose story is nothing but a miracle! (You can go to www.danitaschildren.org to read all about the orphanage and read Lubenson’s story). He was napping while the other kids were at school-he’s just 2 or 3. Karris also took us to the hospital where a woman was giving birth in the other room—Karris said that all they have is a rusted gurney with a steel bowl at the end!!! It was all open air, no a/c. If it had power, it had to be by generator because I don’t think any of the town has any public electricity.

In the village, most of the families that were not at market were hanging out outside their homes. Some of them knew Karris because their children go to school there, others gazed at us as we gazed at them. Once we said, “bon jour”, they almost always replied in kind with a wide smile. Mothers were doing laundry in a bucket with soap (much the same way cruisers living on boats do–except those of us spoiled with a washing machine-grin). A few little boys followed us around as they played chase with us and each other, they were very giggly and cute. One boy about Kimi’s age was taking a bucket bath in the road with his little brother and he saw us and hid behind his porch rail. He was the only one we saw that seemed the least bit embarrassed. All of the females wear dresses, it’s a cultural, traditional, as well as practical thing (cooler). I was in blue jeans and felt a little awkward. We met a little boy who was playing (naked) with his little piglets in the mud.

All of the children we saw smiled hugely when we talked to them or waved. They seem happy; you start to see the hopelessness in the older children and adults. That’s what breaks your heart. One mother offered Karris her child; in America, it would have been laughed off as a joke, but Karris said she was probably not joking.

We saw a group of young people hanging out at a house; they didn’t seem too happy we were there, until our friend from Kalida spoke french to them. Even though they speak a creole french, it was enough to break down their defenses, and they seemed to welcome us then.

Basically, there is no hope for Haiti—except for God and the people He is using to bring them His hope. Rationally, intellectually, reasonably, politically, agriculturally—there is no hope for Haiti. But God sees hope there, and we could see God’s hope through the work that Danita is doing, along with the other missionaries God has sent there. 500 children have a meal every day and are getting an education for free, all because God loves them! What a contrast to our life of extreme excess in America.

Time was ticking, and we needed to head back to the border before they locked the gates. Danita had to leave after lunch to go to Santo Domingo for some security dogs, so Karris walked us across the border in two separate groups so as not to draw too much attention. Back at the van, Odalis had us scrape up some pesos for the boy that guarded the van for us.

Getting out was a little easier, since the border was closing soon the traffic had thinned out a little. The van is not air conditioned, so we all had the windows opened and every time we were stopped by traffic (which was a lot) vendors were shoving items in for us to buy (rum, bras, panties, shoes, purses…), or beggars were asking for pesos. We shut the windows and laughed as Odalis shooed them off by telling the rum pushers that we didn’t drink-we were Christians. Kind hearted Odalis gave a guy some money after he listened to his sad tale (did I say what a nice man he is?)

The trip back was more exciting than the trip there because of all the military checkpoints we had to stop at. There were military police armed with M16′s every few miles. They were checking for Haitian smugglers and wanted to know if we had been to Haiti. “Of course we hadn’t–we were just a bunch of Americans going to check out the market,” was our driver’s wise response! We passed through a street in the DR that had burned limbs and logs in the way-remnants from the previous day’s riot over the government seizing private property for some gov. project. We also had a flat tire in the middle of nowhere. We started to get worried when Odalis pulled out the cell phone vs. digging for the spare. He was calling his brother to find out if there was a spare–there was, so all the guys pitched in to help change it while us girls stood back and made up jokes about how many gringos it takes to change a gua gua tire. We stopped at several gommas (we called them gomer’s) to see about getting the tire fixed, no luck. Oh well. By the time we got back to Luperon, it was dark. Good thing we made it back safe because the gua-gua didn’t have any head lights. Actually, I take it back, there was a fog light in front that still worked.

We concluded the day with a yummy meal at Capt. Steve’s.

That, in a nutshell, was our trip to Haiti. Although we were well prepared for what to expect, it was still shocking to see it for real. It was a life changing experience that we are still trying to process. Our perspectives are different; things that seemed important before, are suddenly totally meaningless.

Next stop, Puerto Rico (we’re here, but I can’t post about everything at once…so pretend we’re not here yet and I will post about this place at a later date.) Adios amigos!

Now to tell you about Luperon. The landscape here is beautiful… it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in real life. John said he had read that the movie Jurassic Park was filmed here, so that will help you visualize it. It has both the highest and lowest points in the Carribean. There are mountains all around and there are palm trees growing on the mountains. It’s just beautiful. The other equally beautiful part of the Dominican Republic are the people. They are, on the whole, very attractive people. To top it off, they are some of the most hospitable, friendly, welcoming people. As a cruiser, sometimes you get the feeling that the locals are busy calculating the profit they will make from you as they are saying hello. Not that you aren’t welcomed… but more for your money than your company. Here, that is not the case at all. The people of Luperon seek you out and make you feel like they are interested in you as a person, not as a profit. Many cruisers come in here thinking they will stay a couple of weeks, and are still here months, and sometimes years later because the people are so wonderful. Many of them have learned English very well and they are not the least bit offended that you don’t speak good Spanish. On the contrary, they are delighted that you make the attempt. They seem to be very happy people that love their country. It’s a pleasure to be among them.

We arrived on Friday morning which was just in time to participate in the weekly Saturday (Sabado) softball game. Baseball is huge here… Sammy Sosa, …..other baseball players I don’t know. Anyway, every week the cruisers play against the locals in an informal game: Los Gringos vs Los Dominicanas. Guess who wins? Travis and John played, me and Kimi and Garrett watched. It was a close game, 24 to 3. To even things up a little, the Dominicanas agreed to swap one player for one player for a second game.

Even with a Dominicana on our side, we lost the second time as well 22 to 1. Oh, and the rules are: no strike outs for the cruisers! Afterwards, one of the other cruisers gave Garrett a hard time for not playing, so I think he will participate this coming Sat. Oh, after the game we got to see a political candidate promotion parade! They were waving PLD (Partido de la Liberacion Dominicana) flags, and Garrett got one as a souvenir.

We ventured out from the quaint little town of Luperon to Santiago. Our friends on Kalida did the trip and told us we have to experience the bus ride (vs. renting a car), so we decided to go for it. So here is a brief, but informative account of our outing.

First, we walked down the main drag to where the taxis and gua guas are. Gua guas are minivan taxis-no a/c and very worn/well used vehicle. In America, it would hold 11 people (12, absolute max-including driver). Here, they hold at least 20. No joke! We counted 19 at one time on the one we were on–even the locals laugh about it. The next experience; the driving. The drivers are very alert and well trained, impressive even. In America, we would have died! Apparantly, if you want to go faster than what is in front of you, you lay on the horn until they move. If they scoot over a sliver, that’s enough room to pass. If there is a car coming the other way? No matter–suck in, everyone will fit! The reason I said “than what is in front of you” is because it could be anything from a motoconcho or a farm truck or a donkey & rider or a person walking. If you don’t move over? Get within two inches of them, all the while honking. (The brakes work very well). Oh, and the roads are also shared with stray goats, cattle, horses, donkeys that might be wandering around. That was the first leg of our journey.

The gua gua took us as far as Imbert (a town), where there is a bus station (big gua guas with A/C). We purchased tickets to take us on to Santiago. The bus station is like a cinema ticket window without the rest of the builiding–it’s just a ticket window. No restrooms, no benches (although there were a few outdoor chairs). There was a large shade tree, though. We waited for the bus. As we waited, a man was sitting on a ledge and spotted us as Americans. He had lived in Alaska as a young boy and wanted to talk English with us. That is how we found out why he left Alaska. He was deported. Why? He committed a felon. He just went crazy–that’s all!!! Obviously, he was a few fries short of a happy meal. John handled him very well while I held on to Kimi and John, and the boys and I exchanged eyebrow raises.

On to the buses. There are two types of buses, those that are express buses and go straight to Santiago without stopping, and the other buses that stop anytime there is someone on the roadside waving pesos, or riding the bus and wanting to get off. The guy shuffling people on and off buses was very nice and helped us get on the right express bus. We had to wait for several buses to be able to all fit on the same bus. We only had to wait 15-30 minutes. We all got on the same bus, but were not able to sit together. It’s about an hour ride from Luperon to Imbert, and another hour from Imbert to Santiago. Once we arrived in Santiago, John had to figure out where to get off. I know a bus ride doesn’t sound like a big deal, but none of our kids have ever ridden public transportation (plane, train, automobile) where they had to make sure they got off/on at the right spot, sit with complete strangers… Not only was it their first bus ride (non-school field trip ride/church camp ride) but it was in a foreign country with a foreign language. This was wayyyy outside my comfort zone!!!

We made it to downtown and happened upon a large department store. We needed to buy Kimi some pantelones (pants & shorts). She had outgrown all that she brought. The salesperson was very helpful, and we found several things that Kimi se gusta (she likes). We wandered around downtown till we found Calle del sol (that’s a street name). We had hoped to visit a canvas shop that sells Sunbrella for $10 US/yard, but they were closed. We ate lunch at McDonald’s!! We found a large supermercado (grocery store) and checked out the prices for a return provisioning trip. We were all tired of walking (more tired of wearing shoes, though), so we decided to try to get back to the bus station and call it a day. It is also muy caliente (very hot) in the city. Santiago is in a valley, and since it is a city, there is a lot of concrete and buildings with little wind. It’s hot.

The bus ride back seemed much easier, probably because we knew what to expect. We did have to switch buses at some point, which was a little confusing, but we managed. We met a young man from Imbert at the bus station who spoke English. He helped us get on the right express bus. He sat next to Travis, and Kimi and I were across the aisle. He was very interested in who we were and what we were doing, and we found out who he was and where he was from, where he learned English… This made the trip go very fast. He was a very nice young man. The scenery on the way was beautiful; the bus driver was the most aggressive of them all! Once we arrived at Imbert, the same people shuffler remembered us and directed us to the gua guas to get back to Luperon. We found the same driver! Our family took up a whole bench in the van (the benches that seat 3). This is a minivan; a Diahatsu; a family car—not a commercial minibus. On this trip we saw another cruiser couple. We also met a man from Luperon who was commuting back from work. His brother is a baseball player in Oklahoma or Texas. He couldn’t remember which, he just knew they practiced in Oklahoma. We recruited him to play for the Gringos at our Saturday softball game!!!

That was our trip in a nutshell. A very exciting time. Although there were moments when I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack, I am really glad we did it. It was an experience I’ll never forget. We also learned why it’s best to rent a car that comes with a driver. (Can you say, “liability”?!). Hasta luego!

We toured the “downtown area” on foot. This is much different than the Bahamas. This place is very busy. The island is growing like crazy. Real estate prices are through the roof, and there is construction everywhere! We have met lots of islanders from Jamaica, Haiti, & DR. This is the happening place with all the jobs, so all the people from nearby places with poor economies have come here to work. Club Med put in a huge resort here about 10-12 years ago and every since then it’s been a hot spot for the wealthy. The very rich snub the Bahamas and come here. The people here seem to have a less than high opinion of the Bahamas. We have not been able to change out our Bahamian money yet. They use US dollars here.

We have met several other cruisers that are also headed to Luperon. We met a couple from England that we like very much. We will probably leave here at the same time. We are all waiting on weather. Another guy we met (the one that we hitch-hiked with) was from Colorado, but was born in Halletsville, Tx! What are the odds? (Halletsville is only 30 minutes from Victoria-where we’re from). Small world. He and his wife were cruising with 3 kids as well, but theirs were lots younger. They were headed the opposite direction from us- north.

This is supposed to be snorkel city, but we have been disappointed in it so far. We rented a car on Saturday and drove to this place called Coral Gardens that was supposed to be an awesome snorkel spot. It did have a huge reef, but it was roped off because of a fire coral hazard. We swam over the top of a stingray until John stirred him up and he swam off. Kimi and I were trying to swim away from him, and he swam right under us. We freaked out! We saw a huge spiny lobster hanging out on the bottom. Other fish were nibbling on him. We saw parrot fish, zebra fish & yellow zebra fish (these are the names that Kimi and I have given them, not their technical names). What we saw at Thunderball cave was cooler. Still, we saw stuff…no sharks or whales, but it was too shallow for them there. Oh well.

We went grocery shopping while we had the car. They have an IGA here that has decent prices…about like Key West. We had pizza one night and the girl working there was from Santo Domnigo, DR. She didn’t speak very good English, so John told her to go ahead and talk in Spanish. That was entertaining watching him try to remember how to speak Spanish. We could both understand her well enough to understand what she was saying, but trying to talk back to her in Spanish was funny!

This is mating season for the humpback whale between here and the DR. I must see at least one whale, preferably a whole pod!!! I was hoping we would see one on our way here from Rum Cay, but we didn’t. The trip here from Rum Cay was another awful experience with strong winds and waves tossing us all about and crashing over the bow!! Yuck! Our cruiser friends that are going to Luperon as well said we’re going the wrong way… we need to go west and it will get better. I hope they’re right.

That’s what the water looks like, only it’s more clear than Jello. It’s like transparent blue jello, or powerade. It’s yummy looking! The shallower water is the most beautiful shade of turquoise. It looks like a very large, very refreshing swimming pool. We can see the bottom no matter whether we’re in 6 feet of water or 60!

We left Georgetown on Monday, the 17th and arrived in Salt Pond, Long Island. Long Island is long (duh). It’s 75 miles long and only 4 miles wide at the widest point. We rented a car on Wednesday and toured the lower half of the island. Hopefully John will add video of the waves at some point. We ate at a restaurant (can’t remember which town it was) and John and Travis ordered fried snapper. Imagine our surprise when their plates came, each with two WHOLE fried fish. The heads, eyes and all still intact!!!! GROSS! Kimi and I ate dolphin. Before you get too sad, dolphin is not the cute Flipper porpoise we know and love. Here, they call Mahi Mahi Dolphin. It’s also called Dorado. It’s very tasty–and we didn’t have to see it’s unpleasant parts. Garrett ordered chicken strips, which they were out of, so he had a cheeseburger. They are definitely on a different time table than most of the world (island time); it was a 2 hour lunch! By the time we got our food, it was almost time for supper! It’s kind of nice, though. Nobody gets in a hurry here.

One of the big events on Long Island is an annual Regatta. They build and race sailboats. They build them just off the side of the road. John stopped and talked to one of the guys working on a boat and took pictures. Everyone on this island is very friendly. It’s like a small town in 1970′s Texas before Wal-mart took over the world. We liked it very much.

After Long island, we sailed to a small, privately owned island (Hog Cay). We didn’t go ashore, since it was private. We anchored out in front of the island owner’s estate consisting of several houses connected with breezeways. It was a very awesome island to own. It had a beautiful beach, cool cliffs, lots of trees and birds. Their own paradise.

Then we went to Conception Island. This island was uninhabited and had the most beautiful beach we’ve seen yet. We arrived to an empty anchorage and immediately jumped in the water and played on shore. We thought we were going to have the whole place to ourselves, but then another boat arrived, then another, and another, then a large mega-yacht pulled in. Oh well. They first sailboat that arrived behind us came over. They were very nice, a retired couple from New York. The mega-yacht people came ashore as well. They were nice, too. They had twin boys about 1 or 2yr. old that were very cute. We spent the next day there. The kids built sandcastles. There was competition involved. Eventually, they had to see whose would survive the longest once the tide came up.

After Conception, we sailed to the other side of the island so we could take the dinghy into a lagoon. The books we have said there are turtles there. We tried to find them, but nothing. We then sailed on to Rum Cay. For those of you who have seen Pirates of the Caribbean as many times as we have (a lot), you can imagine how many times “where’s the rum?!” has been said.

The food supply is diminishing rapidly. All of the “good stuff” is gone, and we are down to about 7 meals. The grocery stores, so far, have been little more than convenience stores. Just the bare necessities. There isn’t a lot of meat to be had, nor fresh fruit and vegetables. Long Island had more than anywhere (other than Nassau). I had expected to be able to buy lots of fruit everywhere, and cheap, but that has not been the case.

Travis caught a dorado (aka dolphin, ada mahi mahi) on the way here (to Rum), but the silly fish let go and swam off just before Trav got him aboard. Then he caught a Barracuda (not something we want). He will keep trying. It was very exciting thinking about eating fish for supper. sigh.

We leave Rum Cay tonight and sail to Turks & Caicos. A norther is coming tonight and the winds change from SW to NE (eventually) which makes the perfect direction for sailing SE. I’m not a fan of overnight crossings, but this should only be two nights. I just hope the forecast is over-exaggerated and not under!

I’m feeling a little homesick. As beautiful as all of this is, there’s a lot to be said for friends, family, church, and American supermarkets, and Buddy (our dog), and Sonic, and Blue Bell ice cream, and Mazzios pizza… So know that all of you back home are loved and missed. (Have an ice cold Sonic coke with extra ice for me—and have a Dr. Pepper for the boys-they haven’t had one since we left the states!!)

By the way—we found out what happened to the REAL Classic coke! It’s here in the Bahamas! They make coke with real sugar here, not that fake, manufactured high fructose corn syrup…and man, is it yummy!!!! It’s pricey, though. $17 a case.

Since I mentioned prices, let me share a few with you and you will appreciate $3 gas. Milk: $4.79 a HALF gallon, Lay’s potato chips: $7, Gasoline: $5 a gallon, diesel: $4.78 a gallon, small box of cereal $5. Next time you shop at Wal-mart, think about those prices and feel blessed. Of course, not to rub it in, but you’re not enjoying your cheap abundant food & gas in this incredible, temperate climate surrounded by turquoise water and skies. Just goes to show ya, everything’s a trade off.

That is all for now. This ended up being a long post. Be sure and check out our gallery for more pictures fromWarderick Wells as well as Long Island and Conception Island.

Thanks to President Bush, we also get to benefit from the Economic Stimulus Plan. I don’t agree with it, but I’ll take the money! We didn’t pay any taxes, we don’t owe any taxes, and yet we get money back—(makes no sense to me) but I’ll take it.

And now it’s time for an Awards Speech moment:

I would like to thank my wonderful father-in-law for taking care of our mail, and relaying important information to us. He had to email me all of our tax filing information. We couldn’t do this without him! I would also like to thank my wonderful mother-in-law for helping as well. She has amazing organizational skills (probably better than me, if that’s possible), and she, no doubt, has had a hand in keeping our records orderly. Plus they both check our PO Box several times a week, pray for us, and encourage us when we need it.

I would also like to thank our children for being alive. Because of them, we will be getting $900 from our federal government so we can stimulate the economy of the Bahamas (grin). Not sure that’s what the gov. had in mind, but that’s what will happen. (They will consume it all in food!)

I would like to thank God for creating the beautiful islands we are enjoying, and for the wonderful ocean full of interesting life. Apparantly, God has a different opinion about what a “fair wind” is than I do, but I’m sure He’s right!

OH! And I would like to wish for world peace!

Every year, when I hit the SEND button and file our taxes, I feel like I have just accomplished an amazing feat deserving of an award. I suppose the award is our refund check!