Lessons Learned

Things are getting settled down.  We have been really busy the past while getting our lives all setup.  Now we have keys and a place to put them.  On the same day two-weeks ago we moved into our new place (owned by some Canadians from Ontario) and purchased a vehicle.

The house is great – three bedrooms, big open kitchen and living room, pool and a one-room guest ‘cabana’ beside the pool. There is also a fully equipped gym – Carmen says we should start selling memberships.  The kids spend most of their free time playing on the deck, in the pool or watching TV.  Today Cohen was watching Phineas and Ferb in Spanish (even the them song was translated).  We went to the beach today for the first time in a couple weeks.

Our vehicle is a 2003 Mitsubishi Montero Sport, which is kind of like a Toyota 4Runner in size.  It is a 4x4 but I am not planning on going anywhere that I will need it (however, some people in this hilly town need it to get to their homes – sometimes our flat beach road with its potholes and mud might require it too).  Doing anything in a language you don’t speak or read is difficult.  Buying a car privately is really difficult.  We made it through with a combination of a dictionary, Google Translate, an excellent friend and a patient mechanic.  At one point I sat at the mechanic’s house on his computer having a conversation using Google Translate – because my dictionary didn’t include phrases like “tie-rod ends”, “wheel camber” or “door gasket”.

Schedule

Weekdays start at 7 am by getting the boys ready for school.  We usually get to the school at 7:45 over the single-lane, bumpy, muddy last half kilometer.  The problem with a single lane road is two-way traffic.  It is an interesting negotiation between lines of cars as to who goes when and it actually works rather well.  Will that road ever widen to fit two lanes?  A new house is going up at the mid-way point of the road across from another house.  By the placement of the fences there is no possible way this road can widen.  There is about a 400m stretch of our beach road that is one lane, too. If anyone ever decides to develop the empty lot in the middle of that stretch there will be almost no way to allow vehicles to pass one another.

Most days Cohen cheerfully hops out and goes into the main schoolyard.  Chase still has issues.  He acknowledges that he likes school – everyday when we pick him up his day was “great” or “awesome”.  He just doesn’t like getting to school.  Some days he cries – a couple of days he has melted down.

Cadence, on the other hand, loves her little school.  It has toys – lots of girl toys.  There are the usual blocks, puzzles and paints but there are also princess dresses, fancy shoes and critters.  She loves all the animals.  The school has two hamsters, a hermit crab and a jar full of tadpoles; plus all the stray dogs around the school.  The other students are girls and I think she is really starting to figure out how to play with people who are not her brothers (which usually involves far less screaming, crying and somebody sitting in time-out, I hope).

Her school starts at 9:30 to 12:00 and that gives Carmen a little time to re-group.  The boy’s school ends at 1:30 after which we have lunch. 

Dominicans typically have a later lunch (after 1:00 pm) and often don’t work again until 3:00 or 4:00.  Some sleep; others just try to keep cool.  This means that many businesses (like the grocery store) aren’t open in the afternoon -- which coming from Canada is hard to adjust to.  You can’t drop by the supermarket for a couple things because it isn’t open.  They do open again in the late afternoon, which is also the best time to be at the beach (best surf, although we have yet to start boogie boarding).

My work day still isn’t regular by any definition.  The goal is to get up early, work until lunch then occasionally have some meetings in the late evenings.  With our Indian teams 10.5 hrs ahead and the main office 2 hrs behind it should be possible.  Currently though I am getting up early, working throughout the day, getting online in the evenings – this is all inter-mingled with errands, interruptions, dips in the pool and in the later evening, mosquito control.

The sun goes down at about 7:00 pm and the mosquitoes start their assault at about 6:45 pm.  So every night just around supper-time we are closing up the house to try to keep the blood thirsty CO2 magnets out.

Mosquito Patrol

Right now the mosquitoes are quite a problem.  First, there is something about me that mosquito’s love (honestly, what is not to love?).  Second, I seem to have passed this gene onto my children – which is unfortunate for them.  Third, the concept of “weather stripping” isn’t a strong one here, so although the windows have screens, there is a 2 cm gap above the doors and between some of the windows.

Our first night in the house the kids were eaten alive.  Carmen put calamine lotion on Cohen and counted 176 bites.  I fogged the house that day with insecticide.  The next night was better but there were still new bites.  The worst part is if you do keep covered up with a blanket (remember it is still 28 c / feels like 38 c with humidity every night) they bite your face.  Poor Cadence looks like she has chicken pox with red welts all over her face and neck.

So, we try to keep the bedroom doors closed during the day to keep them mosquito-free.  In the evenings I have a kind of electrified tennis racquet that I carry with me and I swing at anything that flies.  I usually patrol the house and bedrooms 3 or 4 times.  Our last trip to Santo Domingo we purchased mosquito nets for over the beds.  I will be looking for a chemical called Permetherin to soak those nets in which is safe for people, but not safe for insects.  The goal is to keep most of them off of us and any that try to get at us through the netting – they will die.

We are also having the property sprayed.  Don’t get us wrong, we understood that mosquitoes, spiders and cockroaches were going to be a daily part of life.  But when your children are covered in welts … that is a different story.

Back to Canada for a week

I am back in Canada right now to be back in the office and to take care of some last minute things at our house.  We packed (most) of our stuff into our basement and will be renting the house for the next year.  We don’t plan to be away the whole year, but finding a place to live when we come back is a ‘next year’ problem.

Right now, however, some of the stuff that we didn’t pack needs to be put away – along with some other things like having the carpets shampooed and whole house cleaned.

One of those things that you learn the hard way through experience caused us some grief and travel last week.  It all started when we remembered we had some banking related to our mortgage back in Canada.  As everything is jointly held the bank requires both of us to be present to sign the mortgage papers.  I am back in Canada; Carmen isn’t.

So, the bank indicated that power of attorney is the best way to allow me to sign the documents.  In Canada you would have a POA witnessed by a Commissioner of Oaths or have it notarized.  Our bank didn’t think it would accept a foreign lawyer’s notary stamp so we were in a pickle – how do you get a signature on a document authenticated in another country?

Had Canada and Dominican Republic both signed the Berne Convention of 1981 it is a relatively easy process.  But they didn’t.

I went on the Canadian Embassy in Santo Domingo’s website and saw that the embassy could act as a Commissioner of Oaths and could notarize documents.  I called and spoke with someone who said this would be possible.  The bank sent me the boilerplate POA that they would accept and I prepared the documents.

The idea was to get up early, drive to Santo Domingo, get the papers signed, do a little shopping and head back.  The kids would miss a day of school and we would be cooped up in the car for most the day – but it was either this or Carmen would have to fly home in a couple weeks to sign the documents.

We got up early, but not really early and it took us way to long to get going.  We wanted to get to the unfinished highway (which cuts the travel time significantly), rather than taking the twisty, turny, jaw-dropping-scenery, finger-nails-in-the-dashboard mountain road.  But to do this we had to get there before the security guard arrives.

Between the security guards at the beginning and the end of this highway, the road is mostly done.  It is completely paved while there are a couple places where it has been patched, but there are no lines, lights, reflectors or guard rails.  This road goes through the mountains too – but not as high.  We know this because on our first trip back from Santo Domingo we came through in the evening after the guard had gone home for the day and we drove around the barrier.  It was a huge time-saver and if it had been daylight – the scenery is even more impressive.

Before getting to the highway we needed money and gas.  There are three banks in town.  Ours is the last one on the way out of town.  We stopped at the branch but the automated bank machine was out of service.  Rather than driving back I figured we should have enough money to buy some gas, then we could get more money in the Capitol.

We arrived at the new highway but the guard said no, so we turned back around.  This added 30 minutes to the trip (but it would have saved 45).  We headed back to the old mountain road. 

This road is very roller-coaster-like.  It has dips, turns, gravity-defying loops and diesel fumes from the rickety cart in front of you (ok, roller-coasters don’t have the diesel fumes).  So imagine being on a roller coaster and getting a good whiff of acrid smoke regularly … that is when Chase turned white and said his stomach wasn’t feeling good.

We got off the mountain and on the flat road.  That is when Chase threw up.  Luckily it was mostly on his clothing and blanket.  We stripped him down to his underwear, put the soiled clothes in the back and continued on.

We still had no money and our gas tank wasn’t magically refilling so I took a risk that the airport would have a bank machine.  Sure I would pay a couple dollars extra, but that would be one less thing to worry about.  We took the 10-minute detour off the highway into the airport. There was a bank machine. WIN! The security guard told me it was recently (days, weeks, months?) installed but never put into operation. FAIL!  Back on the road.  By this time Chase was feeling much better and was laughing.  WIN!

I knew there was a bigger gas station coming up near the top of the capitol highway turn-off and I gambled that they would accept credit cards.  They did.  I had to prepay for gasoline and when my tank was full they gave me cash back for the overpayment.  YAY!  Gas and money.

We arrived in Santo Domingo and went to the Embassy offices.  On the lower level is a mall, which meant we could get Chase some clothes – because he couldn’t walk around with his big head, toothpick body, milky white skin and red underwear.  He was mortified that he had to get out of the car.  We put his pukey shorts on him (they weren’t that bad) but he cried because they were damp (and pukey) and he was half-dressed.

We kept telling him that we were going to buy him clean clothes, but he preferred to wail.  All the way through the mall he was crying while I am feeling the pressure of wanting to get up stairs before the embassy staff go off to lunch.  Eventually we found him a shirt and he felt much better.  By this time it was 11:00 am and I had hoped to be at this point of our journey by 9:30 or 10.

We arrived in the Embassy and stated the purpose of our visit.  While I was doing that, Carmen and the kids went into the special waiting room.  On the left was the waiting room that had Dominicans sitting in chairs, waiting.  On the right was the empty place where citizens wait.  A very nice, Canadian man stopped to chat with Carmen.  He is our Ambassador.

He asked if we had lost our passports – because I guess that is the key reason to visit the Embassy.  He said they actually don’t see many Canadians.

I was called back to the main desk to be informed that the consul couldn’t witness Carmen’s signature.  They would if it was on some other document, but not on a POA.  The said instead I would need to get a Dominican lawyer to notarize the document, then take the document to the Dominican government who would authenticate that the lawyer’s seal was valid, to which the consul would attach her signature.

I explained that I didn’t think this would work because what the bank seemed to really want was a Commissioner of Oaths to actually witness the signature – not authenticate that two other non-Canadians signed the document.

I insisted that their website says they could do this and that it didn’t matter that it was a POA – they weren’t giving legal advice on the POA, just watching my wife sign it.  They asked me to wait.

BTW, our bank has a handy POA form on its website for their investment services group.  That form allows me to let my representative buy and sell my securities, bonds and other investments.  It can be witnessed by anybody.  ANYBODY!  Yet to borrow money from the bank, the POA needs to be ‘officially’ witnessed.  I guess when it’s your money they don’t care if someone fakes the POA, but when its their money …

We waited.  Children grew restless, noisy and hungry.

Eventually we got called into a room that reminded me very much like those rooms in prison where visitors meet with inmates.  There was a heavy, bullet-proof door that locked behind us; two chairs; a telephone; and a glass window with a secure sliding tray.  The consul came in and said that she wouldn’t witness the signature on the document, however she would witness the signature on another document written on Embassy letterhead.  This document would be affixed to the POA and a series of official stamps applied to show that the documents were attached and related.  We would have to find someone else to witness the POA signature.

Will this work?  I will find out later this week at the bank.  If it doesn’t work I will be singing a new POA in my name for the bank to witness so Carmen has my POA.  If she needs to come back she can take care of this whole thing.

The lesson learned – if you are planning to be out of the country with your spouse for any period of time, do the Power of Attorney documents and leave them in Canada (because they are useless in the other country because Canada didn’t sign that Berne Convention …)

More lessons learned

We got out of the embassy and went across the street to Burger King.  Good food; bad food – it didn’t matter because they had a play place.  This was exactly what three children stuck in a waiting room (and their parents) needed.  The plan was formulated – stop by the “Home Depot” equivalent; then IKEA (the real one) for mosquito nets; then the “COSTCO” equivalent “PRICESmart” for some shredded cheese and other groceries; and then home.

IKEA went really well because our children went into their supervised play place which left Carmen and I alone to talk and browse in peace.  It was lovely. PRICESmart was going well too until the rain.  It was raining hard.  I went to get the car and I was soaked.  We had to wait probably 30-minutes to park under the canopy to load the car because trying to do it in the parking lot everything would have been full of water.

The streets were rivers.  There are no lane markings when the roads are dry – however a sidewalk on either side defines the road.  Where do you drive when you can’t see the sidewalks?  Anywhere you want.  UGH.  So, that was stressful.

We finally get to the main highway that leads out of town and to the airport.  It took us an hour-and-a-half to move 5 km.  It continued to rain but now it was getting dark.  When we finally got onto the highway we realized a couple things:

1.     Our headlights suck

2.     Our windshield wipers suck

3.     There is no lighting on Dominican highways

4.     Oncoming traffic is all high-beams

About 10 minutes of this and we both agreed that it wasn’t safe to continue.  We were on a divided highway and couldn’t tell where the lanes were.  The two-lane highway back to our town would be treacherous.  The previous week we were on that highway in the daytime and saw how many cars were in the ditches because of the wet roads.  Not worth it.

We had stayed in a hotel near the airport a week prior so we knew that it was clean, relatively inexpensive and would allow 5 people in one room (many won’t).  When we arrived, the rate they gave us was double what we paid the week before – but Carmen had booked that room on Expedia. 

I pulled out my laptop and since I remembered their wifi username and password from the week before, I used their Internet connection to book a room at half their rate.  Crazy. We all went to the little restaurant for something to eat, then up to the room to pass out.

Remember how my schedule is still all over the place – well I had a 6:00 am meeting the next day, which actually worked out great because the hotel had a little business area.  Again, I pulled out my trusty laptop to connect with the team in India.  All was good.

Later that morning, we got home safely, albeit 14 hours later than we had planned.

The moral of this particular incident is that we were really lucky – our reliance on infrastructure (supermarket hours, convenient bank machine locations, gas stations with credit cards, windshield wipers that work, roads with lines …) in Canada doesn’t transfer elsewhere.  Even getting Chase clothes – we have had a similar incident while travelling to Medicine Hat one long weekend where we knew there was a Walmart and a complete wardrobe change for $20 just 30-minutes away. 

The night before when I realized we didn’t have a full tank of gas or extra money, I should have gone out and taken care of that.  When we travel from now on we need to pack for overnight and figure out where we might stay if we need to.  I have heard that the unofficial motto of the Dominican people is “It will all work out” it probably will but the irony is that without all those things we are so used to relying on it will work out much better with some planning.

Comments are welcome.  Please subscribe and check back soon because I will be posting some images and videos now that I have better Internet.

Water

People think about the carribean as the beautiful glowing blue/green ocean.  We have that, it is amazing.  The next question is what about drinking water.  We have bottled water for drinking and tap water for washing and it seems to be working out fine for everyone.

I drink at least 3 litres of water every day -- half of that before noon.  There is a scene in the movie Jarhead where a General explains a Marine's daily regimen in Iraq including 'you will hydrate … and you will hydrate some more'.  We picked the boys up from school the other day, the first place they went when they got out of class was to fill their water bottles.  Before we got to the car, Chase drained his.

It is hot and very humid.  We understand it is hot in Edmonton this week - about 31c.  It is nearing the temperature we are at, but with the humidity it feels like 42c here. Right now the nights don't get much better either.  The thermometer says it gets down to 25c, but with the humidity it still feels like 36c.

It won't stay like this, most people agree that this is the worst and will start becoming more temperate into October.

We Canadians love to talk about the weather -- so why stop?  The other fascinating weather related event is Hurricane Katia.  Although she never stopped by our little paradise, the surf over the past couple days has been incredible.  We haven't been in the water since Sunday when it was just starting to get going, but someone we met today said the boogie boarding has been fantastic the past couple days.  

Tropical Storm Maria looks like it is tracking this way.  We will know by Saturday if she will come knocking.  If you want to follow the storms, the best site in general seems to be NOAA http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ and to get it from people who live here, go to http://www.dr1.com/forums/weather-beyond/115613-hurricane-season-2011-a.html.  We could be in for some crazy weather -- it is raining crazy hard now with the sun shining in the background.  I have seen rain like this in Edmonton this summer, too (but never with the sun shining so brightly).

Don't worry, we have a hurricane plan -- get to the all-inclusive resort where there is power, water and food, although at this point the predictions are Maria will pass between Irene and Katia's paths … not as close as Irene but closer than Katia.  My guess is more big swells and good surf is ahead.

First Day of School.

Friday was Cohen and Chase's first day of school.  The day before we visited the school because we were asked to bring Cohen in to do a 'test'.  I wasn't sure what that would entail, but I was hoping it would be a conversation with a teacher to guage his French-language comprehension.  It wasn't that.  It was a serious paper and pencil test invigilated by monsieur le director.  Cohen did fine.  Actually, in math he did really well (le director was suprised).  His french was also good but he has trouble conjugating verbs.

We also dropped into Chase's classroom and met his teacher, Eric.  Eric has visited western Canada last winter to ski Lake Louise.  He speaks good English and, we understand, Spanish.  He was very nice and welcomed Chase.  Chase, however, was not enthused.

Actually both boys lacked in the enthusiasm department.  We think Cohen felt trepidation because of the whole new school /  new kid in school thing.  Chase is a different story.  He didn't stop crying every time I dropped him off at playschool last year until Ms. Laurel suggested that he shouldn't cry everytime -- that was in April.  Chase would be attending a French Immersion program at home so he would need to deal at some level with the language issue.  The whole new school thing is a huge issue too not the least of which is how different the physical school actually is.

On Monday morning we crammed into the prison-like compound with all the other families. There are literally doors with bars and security guards outside with a chain-link fence surrounding everything.  The school is three sets of long single story buildings surrounded by a sea of grey gravel punctuated periodically with tropical plants and flowers.  Each building houses a number of classrooms and other ammenities like bathrooms.  The classrooms have windows with louvered shutters (but no glass).

Carmen stayed with Chase for most the morning.  Chase stayed away from almost everyone and everything for that period of time as well.  Carmen saw Cohen at one of the breaks standing alone in the yard, looking very sad.  She spoke to his teacher who confirmed that he comprehends very well.

By the end of the day, Cohen was quite positive about the whole thing and I think is looking forward to going back.  Chase -- not so much.  Carmen plans on staying for a bit with Chase tomorrow, but can't stay too long because we have some errands to run including looking for a place to live.

On that front we have two really good contenders so far.  The first is a three-bedroom unit in a kind-of apartment complex.   There is a swimming pool in the middle which is share by about six three-story blocks that have six units in each.  It is about 200m from the main beach (not a great beach, but not the worst either).  It has a nice open terrace on the front with a sitting and eating area.  The second is a villa with a guest cottage and a small pool.  It is a two story, three-bedroom place with a huge deck, fully equipped gym (who wants to exercise in the heat?), great kitchen, laundry room, outdoor living area, outdoor eating area, outdoor shower for the pool ... It is about 200m from a nicer beach (but still not a great beach).

Tomorrow we are going to look at a villa in a complex with a central pool.  Tuesday we will be looking at a villa in a private gated community with a private beach (near where a really nice beach is located).

Update:  I have a Dominican bank account.  I needed a letter of reference from a Canadian bank and two letters of reference from local people -- which luckily the owners of the complex we are staying at and the husband, Jose, of the family who runs the local library both agreed to write letters.  Jose has been a great help with both the banking and car-search.  I hope in some way I can repay his generosity in some way.  Tomorrow I am going to sling a paint brush to help prep the library for a new play-school program being offered by Jose's wife Annette (which Cadence will be starting with on Tuesday).

Another update:  Playa Coson strikes again!  This time it was Chase.  He was coming into the shallow water when he placed his mask on his forehead -- then it was stripped off by the next big wave that knocked him over.  Now both boys have learned a hard lesson to never put your mask on your forehead.  We searched for the mask but the rough surf likely carried it out a way.  I need to find some kind of strap-add-on that will make the masks and goggles float.  When I am back in Canada I need to get masks for the boys again because we have so much fun just floating in the gentle water with snorkels looking at the fish and coral.  Anyway, lesson learned -- again. 

Keys, phones and sunglasses.

When you get home, where do you put your keys? I used to put them on the little counter where we charge our phones in the kitchen.

Where do you put your keys? Now imagine that that place doesn't exist anymore. All those places you put your keys, purse, wallet, important papers, pocket change, cell phone, sunglasses ... Hey, if you needed a pair of scissors, I bet you know where they are.

Even little things like pockets, in Canada I wear dress pants and a dress shirt most days. My wallet goes in the left pocket along with my phone. My keys and change in the right pocket. Notes, reminders, business cards, etc. go into my shirt pocket. Here I wear shorts and swim suits without any pockets. Shirts are only worn when we leave our residence and they don't have pockets either.

We have none of that routine defined ... yet.

Tomorrow (Friday) the boys start school. Next week Cadence goes to play-school four mornings per week. That will help. I also need to get back to work, too. Nothing has fallen apart without me, but I look forward to getting back to it.

The other piece that is missing is having a place of our own. Right now we are staying at a kind of home resort. The proprietors live in a villa across the pool and there are about four units on the property. It is really pretty with lots of vegetation, a big deck surrounding a great pool and lots of flowers.

You know those expensive "Bird of Paradise" flowers you get a couple of in a bouquet? We have a half dozen in an arrangement in our bathroom. They grow beside the house. I was saying to Carmen today that people always comment when one of our hibiscus flowers at our house. The street we drive down has walls of hibiscus flowers 10 feet tall.

We have given ourselves lots of time to find a place. We didn't want to rush into anything from Canada just to realize the place we leased was between a garbage dump and sewage treatment plant. On the other hand we also needed some kind of stable homebase for long enough to figure things out. So we booked one month at this resort.

The question is how long can you go without having a place to put your keys?

Money, homes and beaches.

Every day in the Dominican Republic is  a good day.  There are ups and downs but when you are coming home looking at the blue water, the endless sandy beach and spectacular sunset -- it has been a good day.

My current stress is money -- I need to get some money here.  We met Steve and Eileen from Virginia on the beach one day then met up again the other night.  Steve asked me how the whole money transfer thing works -- I told him to ask me again in a couple months when I know more. 

When we were researching our little plan, I had read somewhere that you would need about $5000 to get set-up. in DR That person was single.  I figure a family of five needs more like $25 000.00.  Let me explain -- there is rent, utilities, purchasing a vehicle, insurance, school tuition, one time household purchases and more that I am sure will come as a complete surprise in the next month or so.

I didn't go into this blind or without some planning.  I spoke with our banks in Canada on how to access funds from overseas and was given perfectly reasonable answers -- they just didn't include some important details.

A. I learned that I could use Interac email transfers to immediately transfer money between Canadian banks with no hold periods.  What they didn't mention was you can transfer no more than $2000 per 24 hour period (not per calendar day) between Canadian Banks using Interac email transfers.
B. To transfer money between international banks you can use Western Union (and they take a cut of each transfer).  Missing was that you can transfer no more than $1000 per 24 hour period between international banks via Western Union (who takes a healthy ~$50 fee)
C.  I have a ScotiaBank account in Canada which waives the Instant Teller (ABM/ATM) fee because there is a Dominican branded ScotiaBank system.  They omitted that you can withdraw a maximum of 5000 pesos (about $125) daily -- or that the ScotiaBank here cannot otherwise access your Canadian account.
D. To move more substantial amounts of money you can always do an international money transfer between banks which has a fee.  I had to do these a couple times in the months leading up to our departure -- to make deposits on accommodations and school tuition so I was aware of the process and fees.  What I didn't realize was the Catch-22.  To move money between a Canadian and Dominican Bank you need a Dominican Bank account.  NO BIG DEAL -- come to the country and get a bank account.  BUT to initiate the wire transfer, I have to be standing in a Canadian bank branch. 

You need to be in country to set up the bank account but back at home to get money to that account.

In retrospect I did have options had I had all of the information.  I could have:
A. Opened a joint account with someone who would remain in Canada and who I absolutely trusted.
B. Transferred a large amount of money to someone in Canada who I absolutely trust not to spend it and who will wire the money when needed.
C. Carry large amounts of cash on my person (I can only imagine the poor Dominican bank teller whose next client pulls out bundles of US $20s wanting to make a deposit in a new account.)

Oh and I don't even know where the next part goes yet -- but of course moving more  than $10 000.00 will trigger the anti-money laundering forces of Interpol, CIA and MiB (I am sure).

And finally, as you start to transfer money between various bank accounts from another country all of your accounts get flagged and frozen for suspicious activity.  In most cases this is probably a good thing.  In our case it meant being on the phone to Canada with multiple banks and multiple banking agencies.  Skype is fantastic, BTW.

We will figure all this out … just like everything else.

And we forge on … speaking of which today we stopped by the Orange cell phone store to buy more minutes for our brand new Domincan cell phone (which is another story in itself I will get into some other time).  Next to the Orange store was a realtor, so I dropped in.  Michel, the owner, came out to greet me.  I asked if he spoke English; he asked if I spoke French or Spanish or German or Dutch …  So we sat down and for the next 5 minutes I used all of my broken French, non-existent Spanish and occasionally an English word or two (trying to stick with the German cognates of course) to explain our real estate needs. 

He got quite excited and I decoded that he knew of a place that would fit our needs, not be too expensive, only 100 meters from the beach and would I like to see it RIGHT NOW!  He was quite surprised when we went out to find my rental car filled by my little family.  Luckily Carmen's French is much better than mine.  He hopped on his quad (oh, people drive quads on the road -- illegal everywhere else but here BTW) and we zoomed after him.

The place was very nice. A good size, nice pool and just down the road from the beach.  We are meeting with a couple more (English) realtors in the next couple days, but this is place is a contender.

Speaking of beaches.  We have been to a different beach everyday.  If I knew more about oceans, surf and sand I would write a guide to the beaches in this area.  In layman's terms here are my observations:

Playa Coson -- I don't surf but I expect the surf is strong enough to surf on a bit.  The sand is nice with a steep slope to the water.  In the water the bottom is mostly sand.  We played in the surf and never had an issue stepping on something other than sand.  The little restaurant "Luis" is good food, too.  We had lots of fun here until Cohen lost his mask in the surf.

Playa Bonita -- One of my favourite beaches for two reasons: a) the sand was so soft -- not like fluffy blow away sand, but iike walking over warm ginger snaps that you just sink into but it remains firm, and b) a grassy knoll between the sand and the road -- perfect for drying off kids and cleaning sandy feet before getting back in the car.  The surf was not too strong and there is a nice sandy bottom however getting in there are some rough rocks at the shoreline.  Cadence wasn't paying attention to anything but the dog who was following here everywhere so getting in the water she didn't see the rough rocks and stubbed her toes.

Playa Ballenas -- Where we were you can go out about 20 feet with a sandy bottom before a sea grass and coral plateau starts (and then continues for a long time).  Nice sandy shore with lots of commercial development including restaurants, hotels and bars on or across from the beach.  Good for playing in the water and sitting in the sun.  The boys were a little freaked out by the sea grass shelf.  It was about 2 feet deep as the tide was coming in but we swam out over it for a while.  Everything that Cohen saw as a sea urchin until I eventually found some coral and showed him what they actually look like.  Chase hung onto my shoulders as I swam while he was face down/snorkel up looking at everything.

Playa ?? -- This beach is just west of the Il Portillo all-inclusive resort.  This is a great beach for little snorkelers.  We had a great time there today.  The water never got deeper than 5 feet with a wide sandy bottom interrupted occasionally with little coral "cities" (as Cohen called them).  The coral is surrounded by fish and shells, and it has lots to see.  We swam between these cities and saw lots of sea life.  Chase, who is five, is a pretty good swimmer and can float really well with a snorkel and mask on.  For the most part he could stand up almost everywhere (sometimes only the snorkel was sticking out, but he could still breathe :) ).  At a couple points I would stand in beside the coral and would hold onto the boys as the floated over top of it to get a better view.  When we had enough snorkelling there was lots of sandy areas just to play around in without worrying about scraped feet.  The beach itself isn't as nice as the others -- the sand is more packed down.  On our way back to the car there was little crab running into the surf.  We had a lot of fun because the kids couldn't see him with the surf -- the he would pop up just as they were looking in some other direction.

Tomorrow?  More banking, more realtors, another beach.  "Reality" begins to seep in on Friday as the boys start school then ever more so next week when Cadence starts school and I have to get back to work.