From P.R. to C.R.

Our flights from P.R. to C.R. (via Miami) were quite painless, & both even got in to their respective destinations early. We got to our hotel in downtown San Jose by 9:00 pm. I'll post some more Puerto Rico pictures now. The first one is Shar with a couple of fruits at Machabuca. They are called Jack fruit in English. The second is a shot I took at a museum in Old San Juan. It's relates some idea of what happens when Catholicism is forced on to the Afro/Indio peoples of the Carribean.

Things already feel different now. I can tell we're in Costa Rica.

Leaving P.R.

We had a wonderful time at la fiesta at Machabuca (Dad's place). Great food prepared by Elba with Arlee assisting, interesting dishes brought by the guests and much singing and guitar playing. The rum bar had 10 rums from five countries. The old bottle of Havana Club was the first one to be emptied after which several of the guests explained that Puerto Rico makes the best rum.
We took Arlee and Shawn back to the airport in San Juan then walked around old San Juan. It is a $0.75 bus ride or a $19 taxi ride from our hotel. The old city is beautiful. We toured San Cristobal, a fort from the 16th century. The photo was taken from the fort looking toward a second fort, El Morro. The entire old city was walled, most of which is still standing.
Today we fly to Costa Rica. We have already been to the beach where Steve ran while I swam. I left my crutches behind and walked the last couple days without my cane. Every day my leg is better.

From Sharle, logged in as Steve

Winding up our DR visit

We just stopped in here at the shopping mall on our way back from a small produce market. We are going to try a few new fruits later today before heading to the ferry. Dad has his weight in Dominican candies and sweets as well as some flatbread made from yuca, manioc root. I´m expecting them to ask him for his business license since it looks like he has inventory for a store. One impresive item is a 40lb block of a treat made from cashew fruit and a honey like sugar product. A big candy bar, he calls it. I´m sure we will manage to take a dip or two in the pool before then, it is such a quick way to cool off. We will be quite a few degrees cooler up at Dad´s at Machabuca. He seems to have a fairly constant breeze and by being over a thousand feet above sea level it is cooler. Though still using a cane, I am getting around much better. My leg is still sore and my foot and ankle baloon out after a day of walking, but it goes down during the night. At the pharmacy you can purchase pills cut from one of those sealed packs and each time I have gotten a stronger Ibuprophen, the 800mg are really big.
We are looking forward to our last lunch with the family today. Both daughters and their families as well as the son all join our hosts for lunch and we may even see the grandmother again today. It is a very big, fun, friendly, family affair. You can see Jose and Argentina light up to have their children and grandchildren around them.
What an incredible experience this has been! To be imersed in the local life. Just this morning we talked about how different from being stuck in a hotel room inbetween our sojourns out and about.
Arlee and Shaun will never forget their stay out in Romana at Casa del Campo. I think they have had a wonderful experience that will long outlast the mosquito bites they take back as memories, of which they have quite a few!
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Catch you later,
Sharle

Last Night In Santo Domingo

Last night I wanted to go check out some son or merengue music. Our book told of a Cuban son place down in Zona Colonial. When we got there it was now a different club & not open. We tried the Merengue Bar--great music, but so loud you couldn´t hear it. I was ready to move on to La Guacara, a club that is located entirely within what was formerly a Taino cave. We had been told it was quite the place, but Arlee & Shawn thought none of us would be able to handle the "electronica" (rave-type) music, so we called it a night.

The photo is a 500 year-old Spanish fort. The Zona Colonial is quite magical at night!

I read Shar´s email post & it was better than what I´ve been doing here. I told her she should be posting to the blog, so she just logged on. We´re catching the all-night boat back to Mayaguez, P.R. this evening. Ciao!

Arlee & Shawn rejoined us last night. Felipe took 15 of us to dinner at what Jose stated was the best restaurant in Santo Domingo. Quite amazing. Today Jose took us on a tour of 2 of his water bottling plants, then Arlee, Shawn, Sharle & I went to the market section of town then on to to Zona Colonial where Shar & I were yesterday. I uploaded a picture of Shar & Arlee at the market stalls. Tomorrow evening we´ll be taking the ferry back to Puerto Rico. Saturday we are helping Felipe host a fiesta where he said he´s invited 75 friends. So there will be another hiatus from these posts as I may not have Internet access until I maybe get to an Internet cafe again enroute to Costa Rica. Do good, do well--hasta luego!

Where it all began or one of the beginnings of the end(s)

Shar took this shot of me smoking a Dominican cigar outside the oldest church in the ¨New World.¨ About one minute after said picture was taken I attempted to enter the edifice and was addressed by the guard apparently indicating to me that I could not enter while smoking a cigar. I thought about explaining to him that I just wanted to smoke my first cigar in some twenty-odd years, and how was that anything compared to 500 hundred years of pillage and oppression, you know rape, genocide, Wal*Mart, Walt Shubert etc. but decided my Spanish was not that good.

I´ve got to say it can be frustrating to use these machines. The folks at this Internet cafe make a very nice coffee, and will apparently serve you a beer or a shot of the liquor of your choice but they appear to know as much about the computers in here as I know about dark matter. I know--cry me a river!

Gone!

Well let's see: we've been gone from home a week. We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico @ about midnight last Wed. I slept 4 hours & went for a run/swim on the beach. We grabbed a rental car, drove to Machabuca with one lunch & one swim stop. Arlee & Shawn were duly impressed with Machabuca--Felipe's (Shar's dad) place. The picture is of Shar at Machabuca. We we had a fabulous dinner there. The next day we boarded the ship to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. We arrive arrived in Santo Domingo after 8:00 a.m. & taxied to our hosts place & were then transported in our host's new Mercedes (to me it was a starship)to the private community of La Romana some hour & 45 min. east. The villa there was absolutely unimaginable. I think you could have fit our entire house within one of the living/dining room spaces. Our hosts were/are incredibly kind and gracious. They are long time friends of Felipe who thought nothing of us crashing our hostesses' father's 82nd birthday party. All 3 brothers, wives, and children were there as well as one daughter with kids and husband plus a number of people who I never found out what their connection was. They made us feel like family. We swam in the pool & the ocean, Shawn beat me 3 times on one of the 2 regulation sized pool tables at the house. I played music with Jose Enrique Santos, our host.

After one day we went backto to Santo Doming for shopping & little strolling around Zona Colonial which is 500 years old. Arlee & Shawn stayed out at the villa which they've had to themselves now (along with the servants). They are really roughing it. Our hostess, Argentina, is going to pick them up & bring them back to us today.

Shar is now getting around with just a cane. We did get a little special treatment at the airport & at the ferry terminal since she was on crutches. Yesterday she overdid it, & her leg swelled up again last night. She's getting around, but it's very slow going. We take a taxi if we have to go more than a few blocks.

Ciao for now!