BY TOM BROWN
As past readers know, it the season for our annual visit to the Dominican Republic. We have a timeshare in a small botique resort on the North Short and a piece of landnthat is an investment property.
We have been coming since 1989 when we made both the purchases and brought my parents and childrren down to see what we had done.
Alot has happened as I will explain.
It is worth making some general remarks about the DR. Its population is approximattely 12 million. It shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti; the DR is much more prosperous. Tourism is very important but the country has other equally important means of earning foreign exchange, namely:
--agriculture, including coffee, sugar, vegetables fruit and rum
--manufactured sewn goods
--advvanced medical services
The country is poor by US standards but relatively rich by island standards. Many poor enjoy a better life by living in the countryside as landowners or squatters. They gget along with odd jobs and subsistence farming. The great weather makes this possible.
Crime is reasonab ly low tThere is not a big police presence, and the police are considered effective. Tourism police are being seen in important tourist areas to combat petty crime.
Large supermarkets do not have a big penetration, though they do exist in the 3 largest cities. Small supermarkets that mostly sell packaged goods are widespread. Meat, fish, vegetables and fruit are sold my farmer trucks driving through neighborhoods or in very basic specialty shops.
Electricity is in limiited supply so that thereare rolling blackouts for most. A new development is that the power company puts in second sets of lines high on the poles that do not get blacked out to serve groups that always pay their bills. Otherwise electricity bills are often ignored and many wires are connected to the lines without being metered.
Piped waqter exists for most large and small cities. There is no potable piped dwater, s o most get their drinking water in 20 liter bottles, which are filled from filtered piped water by small factories or storefront operations. Most cities have public sewer systems.
Public transport includes intercity deluxe busses, vans that ply routed where there is demand. Private transportatiiob is primarily motorbikes or "motos" carrying 1-4 people or unbelievable amounts of cargo. There are n ots of small trucks. There are large trucks owned by companies and cars or suvs for the m iddle class and up.
Back to our trip. We overnighted at the Newark, NJ hilton with a park and fly package,n complete with a dinner served by a Haitian waiter Francois who has been there for a long time.
Then at the am checkin at the airport we had a chunky woman in her 50s dressed in work clothes. She look at my jpassport and noted that I look good for my age. Followup convdrsation rervealed that she rreally is a baggage handler who is cross tgrained by continental, and she thinks that bags are easier to deal with than people!.
Nice flight short of four hours. We got our rrental car and drove to the resort, noting that the roads are in pretty good shape. The motos were cutting in and out of traffic as usual. We had our usual welcome from the front desk nmanager, Jose and the general manager Marc.
We did the usual inspection of rooms, chose one and signed up for the food and drinks plan.
We met with our lawyer regarding our property boundaries.
We had a delicious dinner of grilled dorado, excellent night's sleep and we were ready for action.
At breakfast we met several Dominican couples that were spending a weekend at the hotel, which is a first for us
A day of relaxing, watching the water activity which is mostly scuba and rides on those rubber torpedos, good reading.
The next day was the first jogging day. Did a circle of downtown. It looks good, with some new construction combined with a few newly closed businesses.
then in subsequent days I jogged to the eastern part of town and across the beach to the western part of town. I saw a lot of residential construction that looked like houses for well to do Dominicans. Also saw wires bypassing the meters to steal electricity and stolen manhole covers, leaving holes in the road, of course.
Then tennis. There is a very nice private club with clay courts that we go to, complete with ball boys if you want. Thanks to my injuries last summer and wwinter, it was our first tennis since last summer.
By wednesday we made it to the property, which is 30 miles away. The highway is good but the issue is the motos. and to some degree the traffic in Cabarete, the wind surfing and kite boarding capital of the world.
In the past we have remarked how much can fit on a moto, from 8 - 10 chicken coops , to two large farm milk cans , to a family of four, to pipes or lumber. But this time we saw a first for us. Two men were on a moto. The man in front was driving. The man in back and facing forward was holding the two handles of a loaded wheelbarrow behind the moto. This was a very dangerous improvised trailer that could become a missle if the man in the back let go!
We had the usual emotional greeting from the family that cares for our property. We are now in the third generation of caretakers, due to two untimely deaths. They were sad about that, but life goes on. We visited for a while, paid for the next year's work o n the property and then drove back.
We had a final meeting with the lawyer to sign a limited power of attorney for the lawsuit, but otherwise a relaxing last full day.
The final day was uneventful, got to the airport, turned in the car, no trouble with security and the flight was on time.
So we look forward to returning in a year to a place that is much different from Mexico!
