|
Home Port Our Logs The Crew Calendar Favorite Links The Boat Photo Album Route and Charts Miscellaneous Stuff |
Diane's DiaryJune 21 Monday I spent the morning trying to find the French boat Ophelia as they left the marina this morning. One of their friends was murdered while off the coast near Ensanada Medina and was with another boat. I announced on the security net that we were looking for the other boat, Turisops, and we on the English speaking net found the boat! I wanted to tell Ophelia that we had located them. Afterward, I took the dinghy over to the Caribbean Mall this morning as Elias had told me they exchange money at a preferential rate. They did- the rate was 2700 but since I was by myself I only exchanged $200US. I didn't want to have a lot of money on me. I don't think I will bring a lot of money with me in the future to do this exchange though. I walked twice in the marina at night but the pool was closed today for the regular Monday cleaning. June 22 Tuesday I went to Makro, the wholesale food store, with 3 other ladies this morning. We left at 9:30am and got back at 12:30. I got Larry's prescription at the pharmacy in Makro cheaper than using the Locatel pharmacy! At 1:30, I went back to the casino with Bob on Freestyle. We took a taxi over there as it looked like it was going to rain. We got another $200 US at 2700 rate. I finished putting away all the food when I got back from exchanging money. June 23 Wednesday I was looking to exchange some more money before the rate falls even farther. The paper seems to think this is because Chavez is flooding the market with money to win the reelection in August. This is probably true so the next time I exchange will try to get enough money to get us through August. Hopefully, we'll be leaving sometime in late July or August for the out islands. This windlass job has turned out harder than Larry expected so he's still working on it. Oh well, we are really not in a huge hurry but would like to have enough time to do lots of diving in Bonaire. I walked the cart over to the gas station to get some more gas for the dinghy. We calculated we are paying about .13 a gallon. That's got to be some of the cheapest gas in the world! Anyway, Larry needed some more cable from the new marine store in Plaza Mayor so in the afternoon I took the dinghy down there. I got caught in such a terrible rainstorm and couldn't leave that I just got a manicure- about $2 USD. Certainly one of the cheapest things you can do for yourself! June 24 Thursday I helped Larry run some wire for the new windlass. Then I finally got back to writing and wrote a story on "There's no Place like Home". It's about our story visiting home. Anyway, I swam and walked at night. We had absolutely no wind at all today so it was extremely hot during the day. Normally, it clouds over and rains every afternoon which helps cut down on the heat. But today we didn't get any wind until the evening and than it was very strong. June 25 Friday I left at 9am to go downtown with Geri from Freestyle and Susan from Sunrise. We had a very nice time looking at all the stores downtown- they were looking for fabric. I even found the new video store that sells VCDs for 4000B and DVD copies at 8000- that's if you buy several copies. So I bought some movies- we want to build up a collection to swap with other cruisers. We went to a nice lunch at the Neptune Hotel. The restaurant is on the top floor with a wonderful view of the PLC harbor. There's no AC but since the restaurant is up high it receives a nice view of the water. I was able to stay on my diet and had a nice fillet of chicken with mushrooms and a small salad. My whole bill was 12,500B - about $4 including everything. We also got some fabulous strawberries that were just fantastic as they were extremely fresh. I only bought a kilo but wished I had bought some more as they were some of the best I have ever had. Strawberries are one fruit I never get tired of. I swam in the afternoon but didn't walk at night since we had done so much walking in the day. We watched the DVD "Woman on Top" our marina neighbor lent us- it was very funny but stupid. However, we did enjoy it. June 26 Saturday I lost some more inches on my diet and am very excited. I lost 1.5 inches on my chest, 2.5 on my waist, and 2.5 inches on my hips. I am absolutely thrilled as I haven't been down this low in a long time. I definitely want to lose more but will only stay on the diet until we leave. When we come back here in the fall I'll go back on it. Hopefully, I won't gain too much weight while in the islands but we do so much exercise I think I should be OK. Anyway, I haven't cheated hardly at all on the diet but think I am ready to start taking a break once a week or so. It's something to look forward too. When you are on a diet for such a long time, I have found from the past, that you need to go off it every once in a while or you'll go crazy! Anyway, Larry and I got yellow fever shots for about $10 each this morning. I took a nap in the afternoon but didn't get to sleep as we had a very violent thunderstorm with thunder almost directly overhead. June 27 Sunday I did some emails in the morning and than played dominos in the afternoon. I played very badly and only scored 415! I swam and walked. We watched the excellent DVD "The Life of David Gayle" which was just superb and we really enjoyed it. It's so nice to have the DVD player - I'm really glad we bought it as we have definitely gotten our money's worth out of it already. June 28 Monday I spent some time this morning making phone calls to see if we could get some more money at a good rate. I have heard some people are paying as low as 2400! I can't wait till this referendum is over- if Chavez wins as some polls suggest- we think the USD will again become tight and we will get more for our money. Anyway, we need to get enough money now to get us over this! Anyway, I gathered the laundry up, dropped it off at CMO and went with Susan from Sunrise to Plaza Mayor by our dinghy. The banks are closed again today (they seem to have a lot of banking holidays here!) so no one knows what the exchange rate will be until tomorrow. June 29 Tuesday We are waiting for various sources to see about the exchange rate and whether we can get some at a good rate. A lot of people say they can do it but when it comes down to it, they don't dome through. Anyway, I called Mom and Dad this morning, as I haven't spoken to them in a while. Not much new at home. I also called Tom Leechin, our stockbroker, as he sold our 3 stocks on Thursday and we wanted to discuss where to put the money. I hand washed a bunch of my tank tops, as I am afraid they will shrink if she puts them in the dryer. I gave Freestyle some money to exchange and we were able to get a rate of 2650, which is the best I have heard of. Unfortunately, Freestyle was changing a lot of money and got shorted by about 200,000 Bs, which is a lot of money about $70USD. He is not sure if it was done intentionally or not. It was also the first time he had ever done the money exchange himself. As a former Auditor and Receiver of Taxes I was used to routinely counting a lot of money so I have never been shorted but I am extremely careful. Also, I am aware that many of the 20,000 and 50,000 B notes are counterfeit so always check every one of those bills. You have to see a line running through the bill and need to see a "face" in the blank window- the face comes through from the other side of the bill. I also precooked some meatballs for meatball stew as I had some chop meat that needed to be used up by today. I went to the pool and walked also. June 30 Wednesday I went by dinghy to Plaza Mayor by myself this morning. Larry went over to EPA to get some more boat parts. I swam 24 laps in the pool but was tired from all that swimming so only walked one lap around the marina. I prefer to walk at night, as it's too hot to walk during the day. Anyway, since I made a large money exchange I think I'll have enough to get us through until we leave here. The USD is falling in price. From a high of 3300 it's now down to 2800. I waited to exchange money with Jaime today- 2800 but he was able to take a check, which is good so we don't need to spend our entire USD! |