Saturday, February 9, 2013

our day

We went on an adventure.

We had to return our rental car.  We were spending way too much money on renting a vehicle.

All we have to do is hope for no more sick animals until our car is fixed.

True to 'Dominican Time', our car that was supposed to be looked at a week ago finally got looked at 2 days ago.

They said our car would be done yesterday, so off we went to return the rental.  Then when we spoke to them later, they said, "Tomorrow," which should mean today, but now it looks like we'll be waiting another day.

Hence today, we're trapped in our little house.

Anyway, to get back from the airport where we returned it, we had to make it back what would be a normal 45 minute drive to our little village.

First, we saw the price of taxis at the airport, that would get us home from Puerto Plata; $70 U.S.

Yeah, I don't think so.

We decided to walk to the main road and catch a bus.  The buses kinda pick you up anywhere, but we knew we'd seen one stop here before.

As we were walking, we were stalked by a taxi who wanted to haggle for our business to get us to Cabarete.  We finally got a price we wanted and chose to hop in.

When we got to Cabarete, we decided to have lunch and spent way too much because it was a tourist trap.  But I'll tell you, it was worth it to sit amongst the tourists and pretend we were on holiday for an hour.

I shared my chair space with a shy crab, who was half burrowed in the sand beside me.  He thought I couldn't see him, but I was watching him.  Every 2 seconds.  I didn't need to lose a pinky toe.

Luxury was over and it was time to head home and see how the fighting was going between the pool people and the house caretakers, so we went try to catch a cab home.

Each cab we saw was filled with about 7 people, not including the driver.

No room for gringos.

We just kept getting drivers wave their finger at us, "Nope.  Not this one."

We found what looked like a normal bus stop in Vancouver, which was housing the motorcycle taxi driver's asses.  I asked them if it was a bus stop that would take us to Las Canas, and we'd hit the jackpot!  Indeed it was!

While we waited for the bus to arrive, we had every motorcycle cab in the city asking us if we wanted to hire them, but everyone of them I said in Spanish, "Sorry, I'm too scared."

Especially when you see 99% of the motorcycles no longer have side view mirrors, because they all take them off to look 'cool', not to mention nobody wears a helmet.

They would just laugh at us, but no thank you pal.  I have a secret about life.  I like it.

We waited patiently and then we saw it.

Looking at the shape it was in, I was hoping it would make it to our place.  If the fender hanging and cracked windshield were an indication of how well they took care of it, anything could happen.

We tried to ask how much it cost, but he just waved us on to the back of the bus.

It's my worst nightmare to cozy up to some strange man beside me who had no idea that he was squishing me into a pancake, taking up more and more space the smaller I got.

Not to mention, it seemed like he was looking down my top.

Then a seat came open for two at the front.  I made my move, but a girl closer got it.

This happened about 4 times until I finally barrelled through and took the primo seat.  Got it!!!

It was our turn to get off the bus and we had seen every person giving 50 pesos, and prepared to do the same.

We handed him a $100 and he looked at us, gave us the finger movements that said, "More," and I indignantly said, "No way man!"

He shrugged his shoulders and curved one side of his lips in a mouth squint, and looked to the side with a nonchalant eyebrow lift as if to say, "Hey, I tried," and left it at that.

When it was our turn to leave, we alerted the door keeper and he let us out less than half a block from our road.

Customized bus stops.

It was fun to finally walk down our little dirt road, because we're always so busy running back and forth to the vet or the hardware store in our car.

It was nice to say hi to our neighbours instead of just waving our hellos.

After our little adventure from Puerto Plata to get to our home, it really felt like we were living a day just for us.

Until we came home to a yard full of strangers and children invading our space, and people entering our yard trying to sell us their family dogs.

i choose friends who love me and approve of me


2 comments:

  1. $100 for a bus ride? Puppies? - but what about the kitties? (i must read when i've more time - cuz now i really GOTTA fly, but this is getting stressful arrgghhh!) k i'm cool... later! xo ps. please tell me your kitties are still OK, cuz if not i can't read this any more - SAHZZY!

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    Replies
    1. kitty is trying so hard to get better. he's trying!!! we have a few more days and then he's off the meds. that's when the real word comes :/

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