Unhurriedly

This day goes out to Mikey:

Sadly there was no sleeping in today. In our favor we knew what our day had in store. Waking up at 7AM (6AM EST/5AM CST), all of us flopped out of bed and barely got out of the door on time. From our resort, we piled into taxis which took us out of Costambar and to the “highway” to catch the tour bus that was waiting for us. From there, the bus took us west along the coast. During the ride, which lasted more than an hour, a guide on the bus gave us some history and perspective on the country. It turned out that he was a somewhat famous soccer player at one point in his youth and several British passengers recognized him once he told us his name.

Sleeping in again today made me very happy. Between my love of having my head on a pillow and the excessive amount of drinking done last night (the final grande el Presidente is was really did me in) the extra few hours of sleep are just what the doctor ordered.

Bethany made a breakfast of eggs, tomato and cheese. We’ve been using essentially one spice when we cook, an adobo concoction of salt, garlic and oregano that we bought at one of the local markets. So, last night’s linguine tasted like today’s eggs.

Sleeping in was very nice… We woke up late and they were still making breakfast. After some tasty food, I was able to get online for the first time and make my previous post.

We made a trip via taxi into Puerto Plata to get some more cash from the bank and see the sights a little bit. Our taxi driver, Yovany (like Giovanni) was a gruff but nice older man who gave us a little impromptu tour on the way, pointing out bits of the city. Yovany cautioned us about not walking in the streets and dropped us off at Banco Popular which was recommended by out concierge at the resort.

We’ve elected to leave our iPhones here in the good ol’ U. S. of A. For various reasons, mostly involving money, we thought it would be a bad idea to bring them, including; $1.99/min voice and $0.016/KB data (thats $16.384/MB!) and the potential replacement costs should something happen. Staying behind as well will my trusty MacBook Pro.

So, we are going on a bit of a technological camping trip. You know, deprived of modern conveniences and forced to rough it like the pioneers. Packed with me are; an old 3.2 meg Sony Cybershot with a whopping 128 MB card, an ailing 4th Gen 20GB iPod, a 1st Gen 1GB iPod Shuffle as a backup and a 3+ year old Dell Latitude C400 running Debian Etch loaded with Picassa and Gimp for photos. I’m also lugging around my non-iPhone work cell, a rugged Motorola ic502 and my Nintendo DS with a few games. Oh, and a book, Samuel Delany’s Dhalgren which I’ve read a few times through.

I know, talk about a rough time… It will only get up to the mid 80’s while we’re there too!

Bethany is taking her new Kodak Z812 and her video iPod to pull photos with, so she is not slumming it as much as I am for a change.

There are claims of internet access, so hopefully I’ll be able to update while I’m down there. It’s not going to be a live-blog by any means, but I want to at least post some twitter and a photo or two.

See you there!