Tuesday, January 23, 2007
It was announced by the Ministry of Tourism last week that Boca Chica will not at this point in time be enjoying the revamping that has taken place on the beaches of Puerto Plata, Cabarete and Juan Dolio. The reason given by the Ministry was that one of the four large hotels, named specifically to be the Don Juan hotel, is not prepared to pay its share of the previously agreed private sector contribution. However… in this young democracy government announcements are aplenty and one statement often contradicts the other, so who knows if we are dealing here with a special version of the many rumors always circulating – namely the latest ‘Government Rumor’?
Anyway… if the mentioned announcement surprisingly should turn out to be the last word in this tricky affair, there are two redeeming factors that we at Playa Vista at least can embrace - one is that the government in the same announcement indicated that they do have other plans to implement improvements in Boca Chica independent of the re-sanding project and secondly the standing plain fact that Playa Vista anyhow is blessed with a substantial sand frontage! Furthermore it would seem to us that because of a breakwater just to the west of our location it is pretty much a sure thing that we will be able to avoid the kind of sand erosion that has unfortunately affected other parts of the Boca Chica beach and therefore we will be able to continue to offer sun, sea and sand as well as excellent facilities for Playa Vista customers while we wait for the authorities one fine day to pull out their proverbial fingers and finally do the necessary for the well being of the whole of Boca Chica beach!
Posted by Playa Vista @ 04:13 PM CST
Monday, January 8, 2007
An extremely good Playa Vista friend is our hero number 1 these days… not only for the purposes of this story, but even more so because he has been helping us uncommonly altruistically and manfully in the Playa Vista Bar in recent weeks. We say manfully not just because of the excellent supportive role he has been playing in the Bar, but also because a very painful dose of sciatica makes it difficult for him to operate without the smooth cooperation of that infernally irritating nerve.
His own diagnosis told him that the solution could well be a course of cortisone injections. After quite some understandable procrastination he finally bought himself a small bottle of what he thought would be the necessary liquid and a syringe. He then just had to find somebody competent to inject him. In the middle of the day he tried a couple of private 24-hour service clinics, but they were both closed! He then went to the public clinic where, to his great surprise, the doctor, who is normally sitting with a great long line of people waiting to see him, was all alone. The next surprise was that the doctor immediately discarded the cortisone idea and promptly gave our friend an injection of Dexa B-Tres (for the medically minded this is based on neurotropic vitamins and dexamethasone) which he said would be much better. Our brave friend of course took the rather painful injection in his stride and immediately thereafter limped to his computer to verify on the internet what he had actually been injected with. ‘Approximately 100 times the strength of cortisone’, he told us after the check! He was quite delighted with this, and all was well and good, but… this was a Friday and the doctor would not be available over the weekend for further injections.
On Saturday morning our friend turned up just as enthusiastically as ever with the one proviso of uncertainty as to how on earth he would be able to get his daily shot, as he placed his packets of Dexa B-Tres hopefully on the side of the bar. Exactly what his level of hope, or even his thinking, was… we don’t really know, because within a few servings of Piña Colada, Coca-Cola and Presidente beers an entirely first-time Playa Vista customer leaned over the bar to order his own variety of refreshment, noticed the packets and straight out asked if our brave bar helper had a problem with sciatica. “Why would you be asking that?” our friend replied in astonishment. “Well, I happen to be a doctor and I know all about that product sitting on your bar counter”. Almost before the next coke could be decapped the doctor newly-in-the-house took the matter fully in hand. He jumped right behind the counter and administered the injection there and then in good old natural Playa Vista style. Our friend clearly thanked the doctor and offered a well earned discount on his tab.
With Saturday’s injection well taken care of that just left Sunday to be negotiated, still without clinic and even without the newfound doctor. At this point another Playa Vista customer stepped up to the plate. One of the best patron’s of Bohemia beer that Playa Vista has ever seen was willing and eager to do the necessary ‘shot’ the next day. “Fine,” said our friend… “on the simple condition that you don’t start into your daily Bohemian ration until after the exercise has taken place!”
Sunday came and our trusted customer certainly achieved the goal of a Dexa B-tres injection, but… there were a couple of stumblings along the way. Firstly, he broke the capsule with the substance in it and cut his hand… and while they were trying to stem the bleeding, our indispensable bar-helper friend and faithful ‘PlayaVista soldier’ stood with his bare feet on the broken glass! However, once the bloody mess was cleared away injector and injectee went successfully about their business. Whatever the truth might be about keeping to his promise of leaving the beer alone until after the injection, the bad news was that ‘good customer cum-injector’ was off to Costa Rica in the coming days.
So it would seem… the next weekend would probably require a whole new seemingly coincidental Playa Vista saga to get the job done!
Posted by Playa Vista @ 01:35 PM CST
Tuesday, January 2, 2007
A little seasonal greeting from all of us at Playa Vista
The Playa Vista terrace bathed in Caribbean sunshine as is usual for the Christmas week! A Happy Christmas and Prosperous New Year to you all!
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Could this really be what rumor says it is - the support vessel for the Boca Chica beach revitalization project… or are we just dreaming festively?
Posted by Playa Vista @ 12:32 PM CST
