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Diane's DiaryJanuary 31 Monday At 9:30am Jeannie, Geri and I took a taxi to Catalano (the meat store), the hardware store and Traki (dept store). I had actually wanted to take the dinghy and walk from Plaza Mayor as it's cheaper this way but Jeannie didn't want too. I paid one way for the taxi and Jeanne the other - so Geri needs to pay the next trip. I bought some lomito, chicken cutlets and chop meat. The chicken cutlets were expensive at almost 2.25/lb, chop meat at 2.50/lb and lomito at $3/lb. So, next time I will ask them to not cut the chicken since it was too expensive. How can you pay as much for chicken cutlets as lomito? The chop meat is definitely high quality but the problem with the more expensive cuts is that it doesn't have any fat so the meat is dry. Anyway, we walked back to Plaza Mayor, as Geri wasn't sure how to walk over there. We went to Unicasa, had a drink and took a cab back to the marina. I made an excellent string bean casserole later in the day. The recipe was from Susan on Sunrise and I had it at Xmas Eve at Plenum's house and really liked it. This recipe was superb and I will definitely be making it again. I grilled some lomito at the potluck and just brought it back to the boat, as Larry didn't want to go. I actually think it's better that way as I don't care for the food at the potluck myself- everyone mostly brings just junk. February 1 Tuesday I did some hand laundry in the AM. The laundry service here in the marina dries all the clothes too much and some of the cotton clothes shrink really bad so they have to be hand washed instead. I am careful as to what clothes I give her since I know she shrinks them. She also loses clothes so you need to do a careful list of what you give her. Jack on Stormbird came back from the UK today and brought us a wireless Internet card. We paid $35 for the card and less than 1 year ago we paid Steph $70 for the one she bought us. Shows how much the card has decreased in price in one year! Seems like all prices on electronic items have decreased. Anyway, when Larry put the card in it didn't work and he was extremely frustrated as he thought the card wasn't working. Actually, it turned out the server was down in the marina so he couldn't register the card. Finally, after lunch the server came up and Larry finally got the Internet working. Hallelujah! I quickly went up to the marina to pay for the service, as they won't start the service until you pay. However, because of our location in the marina our signal strength is only about 30% so it's not great. However, it's better than nothing. We pay about $20 a month for the Internet but that includes unlimited service 24 hours a day. The local Internet cafes were about .50/hour last year and are about .80 hour this year so it really pays to have unlimited service as the hours can really add up. Last year we had computers in the marina at the minimart but this year she has gotten rid of them. TBS here in the marina has computers to use but there are only 3 or 4 computers so there is often a wait to use one. We are also going to get this Skype computer phone service. We can call the US on it for .03 minute and if the other user has the computer, the call is completely free. We know some of our friends can take advantage of this since they all have computers and the Internet but unfortunately my parents don't have a computer. My Aunt Mary has one but I don't know if she would be able to set this up by herself. Anyway, we were already online today looking up things on the Internet. We are delighted to have it and just wish we had had it several weeks ago when Larry had the biopsy and wasn't feeling well. We are still going to order a new computer anyway as the one we have now is 4 years old, we are still running Windows ME when the new XP has already been out for a while and we have been having problems with the computer. Since we do email out at sea on the computer, we consider the computer a necessity not a luxury. Larry also does all his pre trip navigational planning on the computer. Anyway, I walked 3 laps around the marina today but did not swim. The wind has been up in the late afternoon lately making the air temperature a little chilly. I made excellent chicken fajitas for dinner. We didn't watch a movie tonight, as we were busy playing on the Internet. February 2 Wednesday I slept very late today - until 9am, which is very late for us. Larry woke me up around 5am when he went to the bathroom and I couldn't get back to sleep for a while. I made brownies this morning. Happy Hours has invited us and other cruisers to their apartment for drinks and appetizers later this afternoon. I called the Ameron paint distributor - we had already discussed buying the paint from him and he was going to give us a discount if we got 4 other cruisers to buy it. We had to buy a minimum of 4 gallons each and the price would be $44 per gallon. We did get other cruisers, no one was in a rush for the paint, and I called him today to place the order. However, he now told me Xanadu Marine is now the authorized dealer so we would have to buy it from them! I hit the roof as we had already been dealing with him and knew he was trying to play both ends. If Xanadu didn't become the dealer, he would have just sold the paint to us than. I called Xanadu, told them the story but Patty wasn't too happy about it and didn't want to do anything. It wasn't until I said I would call the President of the company here in Venezuela and would complain that I got results. I also found out it was a US company so would have called the US to complain also. I spent a while on the phone between making phone calls to Xanadu and the Ameron rep. Anyway, the Ameron distributor rep finally came into the store later that day at 5:30pm and they wanted me to come down to the store at this late hour. We had already had plans to go to Happy Hours apartment so I didn't want to miss it. Also, it was to late in the day and I wasn't in the mood to argue at this late time in the day. However, they did say we could pay the $55/gallon price, which was the original price they had given me if we had only bought a carton of the 4 gallons. This was $11 more than we would have paid but less than the $85 gallon Xanadu wants to charge now. It seemed like a fair comprise to me but there was 5 other cruisers involved in this that I needed to contact first. We went to the party and there were probably about 50 cruisers there. I brought brownies and since they were the only dessert they were a big hit and went immediately. I don't think I even had one! However, I did have a few when they came out of the oven and for lunch. The party was a big hit and everyone had a good time. Roberto in the restaurant was having a birthday party around 7pm so some of the cruisers went down to the restaurant for that. We did too but we didn't stay. Larry ordered our new computer today. We will get it delivered to Giulio's shipper in Miami and send it via air to Caracas. He said he can send it to PLC also but since we have to go to Caracas anyway we may just pick it up there. There is no insurance on the computer once it reaches Giulio's shipper so we are a little nervous after spending $2000 on a new computer and have it disappear. We both would feel better just picking it up in Caracas. February 3 Thursday I spoke to all the other cruisers involved with the paint and they are all agreeable about paying the $55USD per gallon. So, I called Patty at Xanadu back and she said she wants all the money before she places the order. Sure, this means we have fronted all the money not her. But regardless, we all wanted the paint so I told her we would be down later this afternoon. I gathered our money up- 550,674Bs to be exact. It takes a while to count that much money! All the other cruisers except Windborne 3 brought me the money. Windborne had the money for themselves and another cruiser. Rick from Windborne came down the store with me and we took a taxi. I didn't want to get robbed of 3 million B's and have to replace it! When we got to Xanadu, she had the receipt incorrect- she figured the amount for 20 gallons instead of 24 so she had to redo the receipt. Also, she wanted all the money together- not part like Rick had and part I had. I could understand that as I had wanted to put it together on Destiny but Rick had said not to bother. So, I wound up putting it all together in Xanadu using a different calculator that I was not familiar with. However, I got it all done. No word on when we get the paint and I'm sure Patty won't even order it until next Wednesday after everything reopens after Carnival. We used our new Skype phone service later that night and we called Mom and Dad, Aunt Mary, Eric and Heidi. Joe Demers has said he isn't coming to visit us and I doubt Heidi will be coming also. I know Heidi would like to come but her Mom is very sick so I don't think it's feasible at this point. But she said she might try to come anyway although I really doubt it. We had leftover chili for dinner, watched some TV and made the phone calls at night. February 4 Friday Since this is Carnival weekend, we know the canals will be packed with boaters and Plaza Mayor jammed. So we went to Plaza Mayor today. I wanted to get a few things we needed today so we don't have to go to the supermarket over the weekend. We needed to buy a headset with a microphone to use the new Skype phone service. Another cruiser lent us theirs until we got a chance to get another one. Also, Larry wanted to buy another cable for the wireless Internet card so we can improve our service. We spent a few hours in the mall looking for our new headset (12000 B so it was cheap), had lunch, went to the supermarket, had an ice cream and got back to the boat late in the PM. February 5 Saturday We went to the flea market this morning and made 21,000B selling some things. Oh, boy, that's not even $10USD but it was better than nothing. We actually didn't buy anything either so saved some money that way. I made some red wine meat marinade when we came back from my favorite cookbook. I made a big batch of it as it keeps for a long time. PLC is very crowded this weekend with lots of cruisers here for Carnival so we aren't planning on going anywhere. The pool has too many people in it and I never go in when it's that crowded as I don't really think the pool is all that clean. We watched the DVD movie "Ray" that Sylvester lent us. It was excellent and we both enjoyed it. Both "Ray" and "the Aviator" are up for Best Picture and Best Actor but I feel Ray should win for both awards. We'll have to see when the Academy Awards are given though. February 6 Sunday I pressure cooked a lot bunch of black beans this morning and than made huevos rancheros for breakfast. They came out very good but not as good as the last time. I got the weekend paper so just read it. I returned a whole bunch of DVD's to Sylvester also. I played dominoes but only got a 345 so I didn't do to well. Oh, well, I go for fun not to win. I walked 3 laps today using my CD player and really enjoyed having the music to listen too while I walked. I should have used the Walkman before as it make the times go more quickly. I am going to try and walk every day though. We are definitely not getting as much exercise here in the marina so need to work off the calories more. I read at night while Larry worked on the PC - sometimes I just don't feel like watching TV and would rather read. However, we unfortunately can't use headphones on our TV so when Larry has the TV on it's so loud it's difficult to read. February 7 Monday I did a lot of housework today. Yes, Destiny is our house and it needs regular cleaning like we do at home. When we just boated on weekends we didn't have half as much stuff as we do know and actually that's part of the problem! We definitely have too much stuff but at home West Marine was right there so we didn't have to worry about carrying spare parts. Half of the things we have on Destiny are the multitude of spar parts, as we simply can't get spare parts here. Anyway, I defrosted the freezer- now that's something I never have to do at home since we all have self-defrosting refrigerators in the US. Also, we have no dishwasher or microwave so meals take longer to prepare and clean up. I also vacuumed, as we seem to get a lot of dust in the boat. The marina and all of PLC are very crowded with lots of tourists here for Carnival. I don't like to go in the pool when it has a lot of kids in it as they all pee in it as the only bathrooms available are either in the restaurant or return to their apartments. I worked on my logs the entire day and got all caught up. I walked 1.5 laps around the marina until I found my sneakers were flopping around as they had come unglued so I couldn't continue. I had left them out in the sun so suspect the glue had come undone from that so in the future will put them in the shade. We went to the restaurant for dinner as there was supposed to be a band but they didn't show up. Oh, well, we had a nice meal anyway. February 8 Tuesday I washed the topsides and handrails this morning as we are going to apply more Cetol. We keep the handrails covered so they are still looking pretty good. We also need to redo the companionway with Cetol also. These are all just maintenance coats, as it needs to be reapplied every year. Larry spent several hours applying the blue tape to the handrails. I made jello and a big pot of spaghetti sauce before lunch. Making my own sauce is a real pain in the neck however it's better than buying the expensive and awful Ragu, the only American spaghetti sauce available here. They don't have any other pasta sauce available in the stores so I guess the locals just make their own. I also made a taco salad and excellent cucumber soup. I walked 2 laps in the late afternoon. We called West Marine about placing our order- we keep adding things and having questions. We still have not gotten the order placed yet. I made lomito in a red wine marinade for dinner with carrots. At night Larry worked on the West Marine order so we can hopefully get it placed. We are ordering about $1500 worth of boat stuff. It's cloudy and overcast out with lots of floods in Venezuela. There are lots of mudslides around the country, the airport is closed and it looks like almost a repeat of the '99 floods except this is supposed to be dry season right now. Of course Chavez is blaming the problem on global warming and the big developed countries! Three of our 4 computer boxes have arrived in Miami but since the airport and the road to Caracas is closed, I don't think we'll be going this weekend anyway. |