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Diane's DiaryMarch 18 Friday A quiet day today with not that much new to report. March 19 Saturday I cleaned the boat, vacuumed etc. I also made some more of my wonderful lomito sauce. S/V Quietly knocked on the boat at 9pm- we thought something went something was wrong since it was so late at night, no one usually stops by at that hour - but no, they were helping Larry with a PC problem he couldn't resolve, were busy the whole day and just stopped over now. I made some lomito for dinner and it was excellent as always. March 20 Sunday The temperature has certainly increased and it's close to 100 degrees now. You can really feel the difference and the heat is just stifling. We try to avoid the direct sun at all costs and particularly during the heat of the day. We do get a nice afternoon breeze that makes things seem cooler but I am still not looking forward to going up on the hard in this heat. Oh well, it's a necessary evil and part of the price we pay for living on a boat! This is Easter week so PLC is starting to get crowded - it will be a madhouse this week and I am not looking forward to it. Many of the locals will be vacationing here in PLC. I got the weekend paper, which I always enjoy, and made some cheese omelets for breakfast. I played dominoes today but I played very badly and scored a 450- not good at all! S/V Quietly gave me the latest James Patterson book- he is one of my favorite authors, and this is a brand new book that I haven't read yet. I did some walking today but only did one lap- I need to walk some more! March 21 Monday At 9:30am this morning, Jeannie and I went to Plaza Mayor via our dinghy- their dinghy motor is not working right now. Plaza Mayor was just mobbed with all the locals coming into PLC for vacation. Unicasa supermarket was a madhouse and I certainly won't go back there this week. We got back, had lunch, put all the food away and I took a nap in the pm, as I wasn't feeling too well. At night we watched the DVD "Finding Neverland"- it was very good and I highly recommend it. It was nominated as one of the best pictures of the year -it didn't win but it was very good. March 22 Tuesday I cleaned the boat in the am, vacuumed, cleaned the refrigerator, defrosted the freezer, and cleaned the bathroom. I entered all our DVD movies into the computer so we could keep a list of the DVD's we have. We have 36 movies to date. We were just finishing lunch when someone knocked on our boat- it always seems someone knocks on the boat while we are eating. Anyway, it was 2 cruisers coming from Cumana that saw Destiny and noticed it was a Nordic 44. They had one also! Coincidently, it was a boat I had seen when it was for sale when we were still had our boat in RI. I had actually met the previous owners so got to tell these people what I knew about the owners. Anyway, we invited them on board and I was glad I had just finished cleaning the boat so it wasn't too messy. They stayed between 1:30 - 4pm and we talked about the boat. They are on a fast track though and have to be in Bonaire by April 14 so don't have much time to spend in the out islands. They just arrived in Venezuela over a week ago and didn't even stop in Margarita! They weren't even going to stop in Venezuela at all! They may bring the boat to BR so it would be very nice to see what they have done to their boat. We had a wonderful dinner of homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs for dinner. March 23 Wednesday I took Jaime's free bus ride to Makro supermarket this am. One person was overcharged quite a lot so the bus had to go back so this took extra time. We had lunch, put away the groceries and I took a nap. I still seem to have this virus in my system and can't seem to shake it. So, I'm still not feeling 100% and don't want to push myself. March 24 Thursday M/V Dankar, a large Venezuela powerboat, asked us if we wanted to go out on their boat for the day. They were having other people besides us coming also. PLC is just packed to the gills with all the locals here for the holiday week. Larry didn't want to go but I needed to get out of the marina for the day so off I went. We went to La Borracha where we have been to many times. The place was packed with wall-to-wall boats with all the locals seeming to have a good time. Many didn't know each other yet they were all talking with each other. The camaraderie was really wonderful to see. I spent most of the day conversing in Spanish so it was very good for me. There were only 2 people that spoke some English so it really forced me to speak Spanish for the day. Anyway, the locals are very friendly people and they certainly seem to know how to have a good time and party. They told me the problem with Americans is we work to hard and don't know how to enjoy life. I think they are 100% right about that! We Americans seem to want so many material things in life. The locals here don't have nearly as many "things" as we Americans do yet they seem to be just as happy- maybe even more so since they get so many vacations! Anyway, I got back at 5:30pm and the other Nordic 44 Allaban with the people we met the other day, had come into BR. We all went to the restaurant that night for dinner. It was great speaking with someone who has the same boat as us - it's the same year also! March 25 Friday- Good Friday I did some emails in the am and than walked over to see Allaban. Larry had already seen it yesterday but it was nice seeing what theirs looked like and what improvements they made to the boat. I stayed about an hour, came back and had lunch and took a nap in the pm. I just can't seem to shake this virus out of my system. I made pizza for dinner, which we haven't had in a long time. The dough didn't come out as good as normal since the yeast is old. I think I will have to use 2 packets in the future to get the crust to rise. Anyway, today is Good Friday so I didn't want to eat meat for the day. March 26 Saturday I called my college roommate Linda this am as I haven't spoken to her in a while. I did call her once before on the Skype phone and asked her to get the service but she hasn't. I was very glad I called her. Anyway, she told me her husband has prostate cancer so I hope he is going to be OK. He is going to have surgery within the next few weeks so I'll try and keep in touch. I know she needs her friends at a time like this and we have been good friends for about 30 years. I made a wonderful taco salad for lunch and spent the rest of the day working on the computer updating my logs and the financials. I made a wonderful string bean casserole recipe that I got from Susan on S/V Sunrise - it's very good but requires a lot of work to make. I only walked one lap around the marina. We watched the Tom Cruise movie Collateral at night that was just awful. The worse Tom Cruise movie I had ever seen! It's not even worth keeping in our DVD portfolio. I will definitely trade it if I can! March 27 Sunday Easter Sunday I arranged an Easter party in the marina today for around 45 cruisers but I don't expect everyone to come. I made bacon and eggs for breakfast, taco salad for tonight and carrot soup and cooked up some chicken fajitas so spent most of the morning cooking. I called Mom and Dad and Aunt Mary also. Mom said Kenny and the kids would be at the house later that day if I wanted to call back. I don't know if I will have time as I am the one who organized the party tonight but I will try. I was tired from all that cooking so just took a quick one-hour nap in the pm as we are having the party tonight and I don't want to be tired. I did get to call Kenny later and it was great speaking with all the kids- I really do miss them. Anyway, we wanted to get to the party early since I was the organizer so we left about 4:45pm. Most people came around 5:30pm and everyone seemed to have a good time. About 30 people showed up and this seemed to be just the right amount of people - not too many, not too few. I knew when I invited people that not everyone would show up. A good time seemed to be had by all. We usually go to Maremares buffet meals for holidays but they upped the price considerably - its $35USD now for the both of us plus a small tip so it really is to pricey and we didn't want to pay that price. We used to pay around $20 for both of us but now I doubt we'll go back anymore. March 28 Monday Easter Monday- holiday in many of the islands I helped sv Allaban this morning with several things - they will only be here for a few days and needed someone to show them the ropes. It's too bad that they aren't getting to know Venezuela as well as we do - that's the problem when you are on the fast track. I'm glad we never went that fast and have gotten to know most of the islands we have gone to as we have spent time in all of them. Anyway, I sorted the laundry and brought the clothes to the laundry. I spoke to the condo part of the marina to move the cats that were in the front of the condos. The cats kept having kittens; we in the marina paid for them to be spaded but the locals just didn't want the cats there anymore. They had no problem with us relocating them in the marina. Pam, on S/V Anything Goes mostly takes care of the cats, asked me to speak with them since she doesn't speak Spanish at all. It seems all the pay phones in the marina are broken so I had to call from the office. I made appointments to go to the doctor and dentist this week. Giulio called us this am on the Skype phone - he said our box that was shipped by air arrived in Caracas this am. Great! We will probably get it into PLC tomorrow or Wednesday at the latest. Now if only our big shipment via boat will arrive we can schedule our haul out. I am not looking forward to going up on the hard but it is a necessary evil. We haven't hauled the boat in almost 2 years so it really needs to be done. I just want to do it and get it over ASAP so we can get up to Merida. I don't think we'll be leaving to go west until sometime in June at this point. I also hand washed about 12 shirts in the pm that could not be put in the laundry for fear they would shrink. She puts the dryer on high to expedite doing laundry but shrinks our clothes this way! March 29 Tuesday I went to the office this morning to pay our new monthly Internet bill ($20 for unlimited monthly service), call the seamstress, and find out why all 4 pay phones in the marina are still not working. It turns out the marina has changed the pay phones here and we will no longer be able to use the same phone cards we had previously used. Now we have to buy new phone cards which are much harder to use - you have to input long strings of numbers into the phone each time you use the card so it's not very convenient to use. One of the local travel agencies here wants to put phones in all the boats at a cost of $20USD per month just for the "convenience" of having a phone onboard - you still have to pay for all the local and long distance calls but someone can call you here for free. Since we now have the Skype phone service, which can make long distance and local calls, I can't see much sense in getting this service just to receive incoming calls. The marina will accept phone calls for any boater and will tell you if you got any calls. We also have onboard email. I don't think the agency thought this through before they decided to do it - they just thought they could make some money with all the cruisers. As for us, we would only get it if the cost were at least half that price otherwise I'll just go use the pay phone or do emails as we normally do. Anyway, at 11:30 we took Allaban, David and Liz, with us to downtown PLC as we had to go to the doctor and they wanted to go to Xanadu Marine - within blocks of each other. At the doctor, he said we had to use betadine on all the growths we wanted taken off and than come back tomorrow to get them removed. After, we went to lunch at another chawarma (very similar to a gyro and excellent!) store another cruiser recommended to us. We must have passed this place one thousand times yet never stopped. Anyway, we were told it was the best chawarma store in PLC and it was. Nothing fancy and you just sit at counter stools but you don't pay for fancy table service or tax either so it's a lot cheaper. We thought it was excellent and better than the El Amir Palace that we normally go to. We will definitely come back here! We also stopped at the Arabic pastry place next door and again the pastries were better than the other store we used to go too and cheaper too. We got back to the marina in the early afternoon and I spent the rest of the day doing emails until 4pm when I went walking. The pool is closed today for cleaning again. I guess they had to shock it a lot since there had been so many people in the pool during Easter week. March 30 Wednesday I went to pick up the laundry this morning- it should have been ready last night but it wasn't ready this morning either so I'll have to go back later this afternoon. I called the dentist to verify our appointment for later this afternoon. I also made a few other phone calls. Larry borrowed a scanner from Sylvester. He is going through all the old magazines and scanning the articles he wants to keep. This way we can throw lots of old magazines out. We had a lot of them on the boat so they certainly weigh the boat down since they are so heavy. We probably had over 100 magazines on the boat. I am also getting rid of some of the VCR tapes as they also take up a lot of room also. It will be nice to get some extra space on the boat again! In the Plaza Mayor, I worked on my logs until we left for the dentist at 2:45pm. We both got our teeth cleaned- $20USD each! I don't know what it is in the US now but when we left we were paying about $100 and that was almost 5 years ago! While Larry was in the dentist's chair, I walked over to the seamstress to get my refrigerated bag back. She had done a repair to the bag for me. After the dentist we stayed around to wait until 5pm when the dermatologist arrived. He is in the same office suite as the dentist. We both had skin growths removed. I had only 3 but Larry had 26 so had been in the office for quite a long time. We didn't get out of the office until 7:15pm and both doctors told us it wasn't safe to be on the street and we should wait at the clinic around the corner so they could call an authorized taxi only. We happened to know the guard at the medical clinic as the security firm he works for also guards our marina. He remembered me as I had given him a piece of chocolate cake I had made! Anyway, he called for a taxi but after almost a half hour one had not arrived so he just got us an official one from the street. We didn't get back to the marina till almost 8pm and were hungry, tired and achy from the minor surgery. We ate at the restaurant for dinner that night. I thought the doctor's fee had gone up considerably but after talking to another cruiser it seems our price was cheaper than his. We paid about $140 for both of us. Larry needs to return, as he didn't take off 2 larger growths as he said he wanted to do them separately. March 31 Thursday We both didn't get a good night's sleep from the surgery we had yesterday- the Band-Aids were pulling our skin. I was up 2 hours during the night when I just couldn't sleep. We both decided to just take it easy today. Larry is busy scanning his magazine articles into the computer. It's amazing how much time this takes to do. But hopefully we will be getting these magazines off the boat and Destiny will be a little lighter. I worked on my logs and also reviewed our tax return. |