DR Trip- Puerta Plata People

We arrived in Puerta Plata on Saturday Dec. 29, and spent the rest of our trip (until Jan 4th) there. We checked into our Air B&B and walked the 200 yards to the beach where we had dinner. The Air B&B was a bit of a disappointment. It was mostly the smell that bothered me, so I spent as much time as possible out on the deck which was very nice.

View off the balcony looking toward the entrance gate

 This woman was selling fruit and a homemade peanut brittle (dulce de mani) and coconut brittle (dulce de coco.)

The next day was Sunday. This was a very sweet day. I totally did not expect anyone to remember Joseph, but we were pleasantly surprised. He has not had any contact with them since he and his parents traveled there six months after he got off his mission.

This is Jasmine Garner. She heard Joseph introduce himself to the man in the middle of this picture and lit up as soon as she heard his name. Joseph had been making his way to her, but she figured it out before he made it to her. Joseph taught her and her husband, they were then married and he baptized them as well as three of her husband's sisters.

Carlos and Jasmine Gardener had one child when Joseph met them. This is a picture of their family now plus Jasmine's sister on the right. Carlos is now in the Stake Presidency.

This is Sugeidy one of Carlos's sisters. She is the only one of the three sisters that is still active, but we got to see the other two while we were there. One came to see us during her lunch break at work and Joseph remembered where the other one lived and we walked there and visited her.

The man who was branch president when Joseph was serving in this area. He is now the Stake President.

China (Cheena) and Pedro (not pictured) Almonte have a very nice family. They invited us over to dinner after church. All of them seemed to have at least a vague memory of Joseph except for their son who was about 13 when Joseph was on his mission. It was pretty funny when Joseph went up to him at church and said, "Jordan!" in a "It's been a long time and I've missed you!" sort of voice. Jordan clearly had no idea who this random stranger was. Their daughter Bielka and her family (pic on the right) live in the same house as her parents and they were very nice too. A little too nice in fact, but that's another story I will plug in possibly the next post about our trip.

After eating with the Almonte family, China walked us several blocks to the Gardener's house. Joseph caught up with them and Jasmine even had Joseph facetime with her father in law who Joseph also taught.

Joseph mentioned to the Gardeners about one of his favorite people- Mariluz. Carlos was able to call her up and she immediately drove from the other side of the city to see him. She was a maid for the missionaries in Joseph's first area. She ended up inviting us to her house for lunch twice while we were there.

This was the group that had gathered at the Gardener's house by the end of the evening. The Gardener's, China Almonte, Mariluz and her son Antoni and his wife.

The next day, New Years Eve, we went to lunch at Mariluz's son's house. Afterward, Joseph employed the services of a barber. As we were leaving the barber shop, I was expecting to catch a taxi home, but instead Joseph led me through some streets and to this house. This is what I witnessed when the door was opened.

The Martinez family has a store on the main level of their house, and they live upstairs. At first I thought they were hoarders, but then I realized it was just a very crowded second hand store.

They had banana and mango trees and ducks and geese in their yard.

Laura Martinez sent her grandson up into the mango tree to pick a mango for us. It was one of the most delicious things I've eaten in my life. I thought I loved mangos before, but I hadn't even come close to tasting a real one until then. It was amazing!

We sat on their roof and played a game of dominoes (the traditional game of the Dominican Republic.) It made me nervous to have all those kids running around us because there was no railing on the edges of the roof/deck!

That night we went to the church for the New Years Eve celebration. The music was really loud and it took a while for people to get out on the dance floor (a difference that Joseph noticed from when he was there as a missionary,) so I had to get out of my comfort zone a little and go out on the dance floor with Joseph and get the ball rolling. It gave them all something to laugh about and hopefully put them at ease a little.

Later this young man (maybe 16 years old) asked Joseph if he could ask me to dance. He showed me how to step to Bachata music which is the more modern music in the DR right now.

Above: Yohana, the Martinez's daughter. Below: Laura Martinez without the curlers in her hair:)

DR part two- Santiago

 We stayed right in the middle of the city of Santiago within walking distance to this Monument (Monumento a los Héroes de la Restauración) and the "Calle del Sol" where we went shopping for all our souvenir type stuff.

 Lots of stairs. Joseph took this picture right before I pretended to be Rocky Balboa and ran up all the stairs. Que theme music.

 You really had to watch where you step. There were A LOT of uncovered holes like this. Good thing we weren't walking on this side walk in the dark! Building codes are not quite the same as in the US. 

Joseph took some funny pictures to share with his co-workers of the attempts the Dominican government has made to accommodate handicap people. They really expect people in wheelchairs to be pretty strong and talented in order to maneuver the ramps that are marked with handicap signs. Joseph and I did witness evidence that their disabled are pretty skilled. As we were walking along, we noticed a man in a wheelchair speeding down the busy city street in amongst all the cars and motorcycles. He was going so fast UPHILL. I couldn't imagine how he was going so fast, but as we watched he caught up to some traffic that was slowing at an intersection, grabbed onto the back of a motorcycle and hung on. Taxis and buses don't have ways to accommodate these people as far as I could see, so this must be how they get around!  

 I fell in love with this stone and its beautiful color! This is what google has to say about it:
 "Larimar, also called "Stefilia's Stone", is a rare blue variety of the silicate mineral pectolite found only in the Dominican Republic, in the Caribbean. Its coloration varies from white, light-blue, green-blue to deep blue."

We bought jewelry for Kilynn and Marji and our babysitters. 

 While we were shopping on Calle del Sol, This man in the picture below struck up a conversation with us. He knew some English so I'd get little bits and pieces. He was talking about how tourists come and only see certain places but ignore other more important sites. He wanted us to visit a museum that was supposedly just around the corner. Suddenly we were following him through the streets and I was feeling pretty wary. I probably wouldn't have been so nervous if I could have understood more of what he was saying, but I was a little worried that we were being led somewhere other than what he had said. Luckily we did end up at a museum. Not much of one, but it had some tanks to look at, some prison cells where maybe prisoners of war (?) were kept, and some murals. He gave us a very rushed tour that I couldn't understand. All the while we were wondering what kind of pay he was going to expect for his services as our (un asked for) "tour guide." At the end, he said he volunteers at an orphanage and the pay he asked for was that we buy him a package of diapers and some milk. We agreed and he led us to a corner store nearby where he selected the diapers and a huge can of powdered milk. It all came to about $50! I felt good about that, as long as he didn't turn around and sell them for a profit for himself...

 A mural at the museum commemorating important women in Dominican History.

 Our lunch. They gave us so much food at this place! Not every meal was this huge but they all included rice and beans and fried plantains. All this food totaled to about $6.00! We gave the left overs to a beggar.

 We were tired of walking, so we went into this cathedral to take a break.

 An example of what the poorer houses look like. It is sad because you see a beautiful stream, but you take a closer look and see pipes going from the houses the river and as you walk over the bridges you can definitely smell the raw sewage.

 An example of one of the many tiny stores (Comados) that are on every block.

An example of what everyone was preparing for their New Years feast. These were everywhere!