He's One!

Happy Birthday Cormac!
We had so much fun at your birthday party earlier this summer!
And hope you did, too...
See you in December!

Exploring Santiago

Transportation in Santiago is, well, interesting. As you walk the streets, you notice many public cars, or "conchos," buzzing around and honking their horns to try to entice you to get in. These are actually privately owned cars with a license to carry passengers on a certain route for about 30 cents per ride. Needless to say, we have not figured out (nor have we met anyone who can explain to us) where the exact routes are. So, we decided the best way to figure out where "route A" (the majority of conchos in front of our house) goes, we'd just hop on and ride it until it stops. Here's a picture of a woman getting into a route "A" concho.

Well, we ended up at Centro León, a large museum built by an extremely wealthy family in Santiago - they have a large cigar business, and own the "Presidente" beer company.

This afternoon, I ran into this little guy scurrying around. There are geckos of all different shades of green, and we are very friendly to them as they help out by eating bugs around the house!

La Bandera Dominicana

Quickly becoming my favorite dish, La Bandera Dominicana (the Dominican Flag) never ceases to satisfy. The national flag of the Dominican Republic is broken up into four quadrants - this delicacy is meant to imitate the flag by having four separate foods in four quadrants on the plate. Usually the four quadrants are filled with rice, beans, fried plantains, and meat. The version here, prepared at our house, has carrots replacing the meat.

All in a Caribbean day

Can you guess what this is?
It's a limoncillo. The street vendors sell these little fruits, which you squeeze open with your fingernail.
Inside, there is a yellowish pulp (it's about the consistency of an eyeball) that you pop into your mouth. They're pretty good!

Capresso

We celebrated Micah's Step 2 scores by dining out at Capresso. A paper in the apartment recommended it for its Mexican, Italian, and music. This little gem is near our place, and has really good food.

And delicious mojitos cubanos.
We conversed the whole meal in Spanish--I think the rum helped a bit.
And if you come visit, we'll bring you here. The avocado eggrolls are delicious!

Rainy Day

Hello everyone! Today it's been a rainy day in Santiago. We're about to head out to the colmado (corner store) to get some supplies for making pancakes; every dinner so far (and to be honest, every lunch, too) we've eaten "La Bandera Dominica". We'll post more on that, soon, so hold tight. But tonight, the comfort, rainy day food of choice = pancakes (pronounced pahn-KAH-kays, that is). They seem to be popular--Aunt Jemima mix is everywhere in the local grocery store. So we indulged.

This photo wasn't taken today...but it's a pretty church downtown. This weekend we'll probably explore Santiago, taking in the sights that Lonely Planet recommends and mostly likely some it doesn't. (Just kidding, moms :).

Hope you're having a nice comforting meal tonight, too!

La Playa Cofresí

This weekend we took refuge from the heat at the beach. From Santiago, we hopped on a bus to Puerta Plata, a beach town on the north coast (the ride took just over an hour, and we splurged on the comfy bus). Once there, we ate some delicious veggie pizza at a gargantuan open-air pizza joint that was right on the Malecón (the sea breezes were enjoyed).
Then, a very helpful man helped us find the gua gua (a local little bus/van) to the Playa Cofresí, a quiet hamlet 5 km west of Puerta Plata (he charged us the small price of una cervecita, or beer, for his help). The beach is named after a Puerto Rican pirate who ravaged the coast...we unfortunately saw no pirates this time. The beach was small, and on one end there were two enormous all-inclusive resorts (where we "borrowed" some chairs for a few minutes until we realized that everyone had wristbands on except us, and that some guards were walking our way, and then we scrambled). On the other end was Ocean World, where we declined to go and swim with the sharks. In between the two is this nice little beach.
Where we enjoyed this view all day from a little bar.
The all-inclusive culture is interesting. We were the only "gringos" who were really outside the resort, and we got a fair amount of attention. Maybe it was our day-glow white skin? (We're really flying through that sunscreen!) We talked a lot about the comfort we find in being surrounded by family, community, and familiarity. We appreciate being home so much, when we're able. And we grow so much when we're not home, too.
But, it wasn't all seriousness. We mostly talked about how good really cold Presidente is. YUM!

The Market

We recently went to Mercado Yaque, the largest outdoor market in town. It was quite a visit, as the market had anything from live chickens to yuca empanadas. Although we had a bit of trouble finding it, our noses finally told us we were near - it had quite a stench from the rotting fruits and vegetables from previous days lining the street. We found a fruit stand on the outskirts of the market, and decided that we'd buy as much as we could for 100 pesos (about $3US). The bags started to get heavier and heavier, and eventually came away with a pineapple, 10 juice oranges, 3 mangoes, 6 bananas and an avocado! Of course, I had to grab a sizzling empanada from a street vendor as we left!

The spoils of our plunder!

The First Stop...Home

Hola from Santiago! We've made it to our new home...safe, sound, and...really sweaty. The travel proved easy (and the people kindly), as we lugged our 150 pounds of luggage from the airport to our apartment. Our first several days were spent exploring the city in an attempt to find the necessities, mainly food (preferrably street food, for Micah!), and cleaning supplies. These supplies were our good friends as we buffed this apartment from top to bottom.

This is the view from the top of our building, looking south towards "El Monumento". The breeze is sweet up here, and we'll soon be doing plenty of grilling in the evenings.



Now our place is spic, so we can show you around a bit. The living and dining room are connected, and here's the living room extending to the balcony. Opening these doors provides a nice breeze throughout the apartment, and it's fun to hear the sounds of our neighbors as their doors are open, too.



This is looking at the dining room and the doorway into the kitchen.



Now you're looking through the kitchen from the back of the house.

And if you turn around directly from where the last photo was taken, here's the laundry/utility room. The wall is open but there are little screens cemented into the holes. Do you like all that dirty laundry? We're working on it, bit by bit!



Here's the bedroom. It's very spacious, and connects to a large closet and a bathroom.



Instead of showing you a photo of the bathroom, we'll provide you something nicer...the view out the bathroom window. Our neighborhood is quiet, and colorful. The trees are filled with beautiful flowers, and there's an old man who walks the streets and yells "aguaaa-caaaates" which means avocados.



We've consequently reached a few of our goals already--we've eaten a mango and avocado every day since being here!

Baby Cormac

Before leaving, we got to spend 4 blessed weeks in Minnesota with some of our favorite people. Our first nephew, baby Cormac, reminded us of the joy new life can bring while we were struggling with deaths in the family. Did the month in Minnesota make us realize that we are true midwesterners at heart? I think so. There's not much that stirs our soul like watching a cool sunrise over a glassy lake to the tune of loon calls.