7-10-06 continued
Okay, now here's where I have some time for myself to do what I like to do...just walk. Knowing the wife was safe, and being pampered back at the hotel, I took off, wandering towards the Colonial Zone. I enjoy sitting at the little corner stores, trying a 20peso Brahma (not too bad), and people watching. I had a couple of interesting experiences. I had a one-legged pigeon hop on my hand after I kicked it a crumb of cookie. I saw a man whom had either just been stabbed or had a serious infection on his stomach as he walked by the corner, but no one seemed to notice or care too much. I weaved myself further and further away from the hotel. Stopping every once in a while and drinking a beer. Sweating like hell, but enjoying every minute of it. I decided I would find something simple to take back to the hotel to eat... beans and rice. Well, with all of the places to eat in SD, I couldn't locate a simple little kitchen that would give me just beans and rice. They looked at me like I was crazy. But, just as I was about to give up, I found a place. The owner even asked me to follow her into the kitchen to point to her what I wanted just to make sure. Then, she dipped a ladle into a 5 gallon bucket of room-temperature beans, and did the same into a bucket of rice. Talk about a bacterial soup!! And I work in the health field. Oh well, you only live once.
I finally found my way back to the hotel, and meandered back up to the room. I was expecting the wife to be bouncing around, feeling fresh, and rejuvenated. Instead, she was sitting on the bed, staring blankly at the TV.
"What's wrong?", I asked. Then I heard one of the funniest stories ever..
Here's where having a "stronger" grasp of the language would be most handy. She had a 2pm appt. for an "exfoliation and skin elixir". Well, she said she showed up at the spa, and was immediately told to disrobe, and was given a towel. Then she was led into a room with 2 different saunas, but she didn't know which one she was supposed to go into, whether she was supposed to go in the buff, if the saunas were coed, etc. So, apparently, she just sat there until the attendant returned. Then she was taken into another room with a table in the center of the room, and told to get on the table. She was then told to remove her towel. She tried to keep it to cover up the nether regions, but the towel was taken away. So there she was, naked, with a large Dominican lady, whom spoke no english, about to work her down. First, the lady sprayed her down with a green waterhose, just like we have at home. Then the loofah came out. The loofah went everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. My wife even had to assist the attendant in "holding her body" a certain way so that EVERYTHING got loofahed. Thinking that nothing could be more embarrassing, the lady then came out with a bowl of oatmeal and started to apply it generously, all over my wife. The same scenario occurred, and we think we found a piece of oatmeal just the other day. I nevered laughed as hard as I did when she told me the story. Of course, I asked "was she good looking, and do you think she would do it to me?"
Since it was our last night in the DR, we decided to try El Meson de la Cueva, which is located near Parque Mirador del Sur, I think. We took a cab over, and when the cab driver dropped us off, I didn't even see a restaurant, or a cave. But, he pointed down over the side of the sidewalk, and we saw the entrance. What an incredible place for a meal. I'm glad we got there early, b/c by the end of the meal, the place was really getting busy. We had a pulpo appetizer and bottle of red wine. I had one of the best filets with blue cheese sauce I've ever eaten, and my wife had the chef's special salmon stake poached on a plank of cedar. It was a great evening, and made for a wonderful memory as we would be leaving the DR the next day.
7-11-06
We woke late, and decided we would just grab breakfast at the hotel, since we had a 2 pm flight back to Dulles. So, we indulged in the breakfast buffet at the Jaragua. At $16US per person, it was a bit more than I would have wanted to pay, but it really was good, with all of the fresh fruits, juices, breads, cheeses, meats, omelets, etc. that I would have wanted.
After breakfast, we met our arranged taxi driver, who was even 15 minutes early, and we departed for the airport.
The drive to the airport always brings mixed emotions. I know it will be at least a year or more before we return to the DR, but we were beginning to miss our lives back at home as well. I enjoy returning to the civility and sanity of life in the Shenadoah Valley of VA. We really don't know how good we have it. We know we always have many friends and fond memories to be revisited in the Dominican Republic.
the end.
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