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Diane's DiaryJanuary 5 Wednesday Larry went to the Power Squadron meeting this morning. It's cloudy and overcast out so I thought it was a good day to wax the topsides. So I washed the topsides on the entire boat down with Simple Green I still have. Even though we had been washing the boat down with water only, when I used the soap a lot more dirt came off it. I waxed the bow and most of the port side of the boat. I spoke to Carlos today- our rate is going to go up so now we will be effectively paying a 60% price increase so we are not so happy. I know it was inevitable that the rate should increase as we had been paying a cheap price for so long but I do think we should not be subject to such a large increase. Especially since we have been here 4 years and have been personally responsible for getting other cruisers to come into the marina in the first place! Anyway, we'll get a 10% discount and no tax if we pay by US check but that's not a great price reduction. Most cruisers are given the 15% tax reduction if they pay by US check. Oh well there's not much we can do - the marina is full with a waiting list and we don't want to go elsewhere. January 6 Thursday Larry went to help Marnel 4 this morning to crank Pete up the mast. Frankly, I think they should have just hired a local worker to do it instead of asking Larry. They only call us when they need help so I don't think that's correct. When Bruce from Wanderlust helped us with the refrigerator, I made sure to give them some of my Xmas cookies that I made. Of course if the cruiser is one of your friends it's different but we have never been good friends with Marnel 4. I went to the office so they could call the computer guy and to sign up with the restaurant for the bull riding party they are having tomorrow night- it's very reasonably priced at 15000 B per person or about $6USD per person including dinner, unlimited beer or rum punch and the bull rides. If all the events were this reasonably priced we would go more often. I called our old cruising local friends Andrea and Gaby- they are here in Venezuela and we last saw them in April when they left for a round the world trip aboard their boat. They may come to PLC this weekend and we told them to come and stop by. Anyway, I did some emails in the pm - about 20 so I was on the computer for a long time getting updated to all our friends and family. I didn't bother sending emails to my brothers or sister since they never bother to email us. I hear rarely from Robert and Kenny, never from Barbara and James only wrote once to say Happy Birthday to me. This was also the first time I never sent my nieces and nephews, except for Larry's nieces, anything for Christmas. However, since I don't hear from any of them I didn't feel I should spend money on them when they don't even communicate with me. That may seem mean but that's the way I feel. I am closer to some of our cruising friends than I am to my brothers and sister. Anyway, I called the computer technician and he promised to come this afternoon. I told him all we needed was for him to bring us the wireless Internet card but he insisted on seeing the computer. No problem, however when he came later that day he charged us 30,000B a lot of money for doing absolutely nothing and I was really annoyed. He didn't even bring any Internet cards with him so I felt he was really ripping us off. I should not have paid him at all and will tell the marina office tomorrow what happened. I was really pissed off. Doctors get about 50,000 B for an office visit and this guy is here with us for less than a half hour and charges this ridiculous price. Anyway, after this idiot left we went to the movie at the restaurant. We saw the DVD movie "Shall We Dance" with Richard Gere that was excellent. January 7 Friday We woke up late this morning at 8:30am. Larry is having some bathroom problems and is getting up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. When he gets up, he wakes me up as he steps on my pillow so it either falls off the bed or he wakes me up. Geri from Freestyle and I went shopping at 10am to Fiorca, pharmacy, and Exito. We actually found cheddar cheese here for the first time at a reasonable price of 20000B per kilo or about $4USD per pound. Actually, LA Cava used to have it also but the price was always very high so I never bought it. In Trini, it's about $2USD per pound so it's much cheaper there. Anyway, this was Kerry Gold cheddar cheese so is a very good brand name and we were very pleased with the quality. We used to buy a lot of Kerry Gold products in Trini and found them to be a very good quality. We stopped for lunch at the arepas place and while it was an excellent arepas, the price is now 10,000B or $4USD so it's almost double what it was. I got a headache as we were having lunch and thought it was maybe from getting dehydrated. The headache continued when we went to Exito. The lights went out when we were shopping in Exito and when we got back to the marina we found the marina had no electricity either so it was another problem in PLC. This seems to happen on a routine basis. I had to lie down for a while when we got back since my headache continued. The restaurant had an excellent party tonight with a mechanical bull for everyone to ride. I still had my headache so didn't want to ride it since I wasn't feeling well in the first place. The food was excellent as they had shish kebab on the grill and it was all the beer or rum punch you could drink. Everyone had a good time riding the bulls including the locals. Larry went on but fell almost immediately. We all had a wonderful time though. I didn't have many drinks as I still had my headache though. I would have ridden the bull if I had felt better. We got back around 9:30pm and watched a new episode of the "West Wing". January 8 Saturday I got up at 6am when I couldn't sleep any longer. I finally got back to sleep but still had my headache and wasn't feeling well. We went to the flea market at 9am. The decided to have it again this week as so many people missed it on New Year's Day. I went back to bed when we got back and just read the paper. After lunch, I did some emails and some logs but I wasn't feeling well the entire day. January 9 Sunday I made some huevos rancheros for breakfast this morning that came out superb and we both thought were excellent. I will definitely have to make this dish again. I did some emails and logs this morning and than went to call Joe DeMers. He is supposed to be coming in a few weeks and we need to know if he is still coming or not. So, I called him from Plenum as they have the cheap Skype phone service - .02USD per minute to call the US. I would have called from TBS- its 300B a minute except they are closed on Sunday. We would definitely get the Skype service also IF we had the wireless Internet but we don't. Anyway, Joe's answering machine said he is at the Providence boat show so that explains why we haven't heard from him. If he is coming, Larry wants to order a PC so Joe can bring it down. Larry went over to White Tiger as he was having a knot-tying lesson. I played dominoes again but played very badly. After dominoes, I started walking in the marina and had done 2 laps when I saw a large group at the marina entrance. Andrea and Gaby were among the people there and it was so good to see them. We invited them on board and they stayed for dinner also. They had come to see Larry and I. I wish I had known they were coming, as I would have made something else. However, I was lucky that I had enough spaghetti sauce and meatball for all of us. It was great catching up with them and hearing about their travels. Their boat is in Hawaii now awaiting their return. They stayed till around midnight, which is way past our usual bedtime. We really enjoyed seeing them again and wish they were still here in PLC. However, we are very glad they got to fulfill their cruising dream. January 10 Monday We woke up late at 8:30am as we were up till past midnight last night. I made a bunch of phone calls this morning - to the credit card company in the US, to DAN to renew our diving insurance, dentist, labs and to Joe again. I brought the propane bottle in to get filled. We switched tanks on January 2 and last changed tanks October 18 so got about 2.5 months use on the one tank. I also gathered up all the laundry and brought it in. I took a small nap in the pm. We went to the potluck tonight and it was nice and small so we enjoyed it this way. The wind has been really blowing the last few days and really starts picking up in the pm. I'm glad we are not out sailing now. January 11 Tuesday At 9am this morning, we went to Plaza Mayor by dinghy so Larry could have his lab test. Unfortunately, the lab said Larry has to come off his medication for a few days before they could do the test or he would get an inaccurate test result. We didn't have the doctor's phone number to call him and neither did the lab. So we just went over to Plaza Mayor and got haircuts, tried to call Aunt Mary for her birthday (but the phone was continuously busy), had a batido, went to the pharmacy and had lunch. We got back to the boat around 1:30pm and left shortly thereafter for downtown PLC. We wanted to go to the Internet store to get the wireless card we need. We will NOT use the store across from Exito as that's where the technician we used ripped us off. Anyway, the store did not reopen until 2:30 so we just waited, however, our dentist appointment was at 3pm. We went back to the store at 2:25 and they reopened to let one of the workers back in so let us in also. They didn't have the card in stock but said to call them on Thursday, as they should be getting more in at that time. We quickly walked to the dentist from there although it was a long walk. The dentist was able to fix my tooth and said if I did get a crown I would also need route canal so hopefully this fix will work. Since we will still be in Venezuela for at least several more months, I'm willing to give it a try. She also fixed Larry's tooth. Her husband was there and I asked him if he knew which bus we could take from here. He told us it was dangerous to go by bus and sent his son to come pick us up! That was very nice of him. We are very pleased with her work. We are going back next Tuesday so she can clean our teeth. Anyway, it was a long day and we were both tired when we got home. January 12 Wednesday Larry went with Denny from White Tiger to the Chinese "junk" stores and the hardware store. I filled both water tanks, hosed down the boat, did the dishes, an email and than the computer hung up and I couldn't get it to work. Fortunately, Larry was back by this time so he fixed it. I also made taco salad for lunch. In the pm, I waxed the starboard side of the boat and got up to the dodger so I still have a little more left to finish. I still have to wash and wax the cockpit. I finished at 3pm, walked 2 laps in the marina, took a quick swim in the pool and a shower. Denny invited us to the weekly Maremares party although we were told the BR crowd is no longer invited so it was not nearly as good or as crowded as it used to be. January 13 Thursday I made some phone calls in the am while Larry worked on the autopilot. I spoke to Plenum and Windborne 3 about bottom paint and called Larry up to the restaurant where we were to discuss the paint. I spoke to Giulio and asked if they were free next weekend, as we would come to Caracas to see them. We have to renew Larry's passport with the US I also spoke to Larry's doctor and he said yes the lab is correct- Larry needs to discontinue the medication and than take the lab test. So, he'll be able to take the lab test on Friday. We were almost out of B's again so I needed to get some. We did not even have enough B's left so Larry could go to the lab tomorrow. So I went to the casino as they used to give a good exchange rate. But their rate was only 2400. Jaime was giving 2450 and George and a few others wanted to give 2500. I was able to change money with a new contact I made in Plaza Mayor and got 2550 so it was worth going down there. January 14 Friday We took the dinghy to Plaza Mayor and than walked to the lab from there. Larry finally got his lab test done this morning however the results won't be ready until Monday afternoon so we scheduled a doctor's appointment for 4pm. We went for breakfast and then over to Plaza Mayor. We exchanged some more money, had a batido, went for lunch, used the Internet, phone, and had an ice cream. We saw Orient Canvas on our way home and got them to come and give us an estimate on fixing the dinghy cover and making new hatch covers. We still have the hatch covers I made except they can't be shut completely when it rains so I would like to replace them if the charge is not too much. Lots of TV tonight- new episodes on West Wing and Third watch so we were watching TV all night. January 15 Saturday It's still windy and cool out. Larry spent the day working on the autopilot and I worked on my logs, as I am several weeks behind. Anyway, Larry thinks he fixed the autopilot but we'll have to go out and test it to see if it can be done. He thinks there may just have been dirt and air in the line. I hope so as that would be an easy fix. We watched the DVD movie "White Girls" at night and it was absolutely hysterical. While it was not what I would call an excellent movie it was still very funny and we both enjoyed it. I made meatloaf and baked potatoes and sour cream. I still have a little amount of sour cream we brought back from Bonaire. The "sour cream" they have here in Venezuela is awful and I don't even consider it sour cream! January 16 Sunday I made some bacon and cheddar cheese omelets for breakfast. I worked on my logs up until lunch and got up to January 12 so am almost completely caught up. I played dominoes at 1pm and did really well except I got 130 points in one hand or I would have probably won otherwise I scored about 380. So I definitely did better than the previous 2 weeks. We finished about 4pm, I took only a one-lap walk since I didn't have any more time, and we left at 5pm for Pisces 3 in PMO. They invited us over for drinks, which was very nice. They did more for us than Lady Diane who did absolutely nothing for us and we had gone out of our way for them. We told them Lady Diane didn't seem particularly grateful and they couldn't believe Lady Diane didn't know how to thank us. |