Day 6

Day 6 – I don’t have enough energy to give a blow-by-blow account of the day’s internet search, but here’s the basics :

- I used the verizon store for an hour and ½ - I was able to check up on the past week’s e-mails. Nothing mind-blowing, and I was able to send out cries of help and explanations of my incommunication, but the keyboards were set up for Spanish punctuations, and you had to guess where the @ and the ‘ symbols were.

- we went into Samana, -18 miles away – the nearest city, to look at an internet café. We took the gua-gua, which is the local public transportation system. It’s basically a pick-up truck or a van that tries (and succeeds) to pack in as many people as possible. Today I had an older woman holding a 5 month-old baby sitting on my lap. It’s the cheaper ride around and, while not speedy, very entertaining. Amy’s Spanish skills make for mucho networking on the gua-gua.

In Samana, we looked for an internet café. It turned out to be closed on Saturdays and Sundays. Again I encountered the strange experience of getting a wireless ntwork on the laptop, but being unable to get on the internet. Then we looked for a cellphone store, so Amy could get cheaper international service. The phone store was closing 3 hours early, because (we were told) the power was going out.

When we returned, I stopped by Cyril’s to ask if I could use his network. He was a little more businesslike – he said okay, but I could only use his network early in the morning, and we would discuss a fee.

After that I stopped back at the verizon space, and checked for answers to my missives from earlier in the day. A couple arrived, including one from a client who informed me that there wasn’t an issue of the magazine this week, giving me another couple days breathing room.

We tried to sneak into / investigate a local hotel (Villa Serena – maybe the most beautiful hotel we’ve seen here) tonight to use the pool and have dessert in their restaurant. We headed to the pool first – the kids were splashing away when we were approached by a hotel employee who informed us that the pool was for guests only. When Amy went to the reception desk to ask about us using the pool / restaurant, they informed her that we would be very welcome to do so if the hotel weren’t full, and to stop by in the middle of the week sometime. We taught the kids (okay, and me) how to say “sorry” and “thank you” on the way out, and we made a dignified exit. We then went to a restaurant in town – Chez Denise – which was almost filled with French adults. We got very fast service with our ice cream and crepes – I think maybe because the French adults wanted to get the kids out of there ASAP.

Today may have been the first day I’ve taken in more calories than I’ve burned since we’ve been here.

Holy hola – look at all the non-techie adventures we’ve had!

If nothing else in this 5 months, I hope we can find one good restaurant.