It is hard to believe we have spent another year house sitting. From New South Wales in Australia, to Puerto Rico, then Thailand to India. That was 2022 – done TICK
A few months back down under to regroup and reset with friends and family and we are off again.
We have decided to do things a bit differently this year. Each year we have been house sitting we have started at the beginning, gone from house sit to house sit and made our way from one country to the next, optimising our time and following a course which eventually leads us back to New Zealand, about a year later. This year we will return to Australia between big trips. So this trip will only be 3 months long.
So start in Malaysia, only a nine hour flight from Queensland Australia where we have been recently based.
KLIA Express, direct from the airport to Sentral Station
First stop Kuala Lumpur, one of our favourite cities. We are very excited to be back in Malaysia. The food is outstanding and the people are always so warm and welcoming. We stayed in a small basic hotel right outside the main entrance of the NU Sentral Mall, which is part of Sentral Station. The public transport is so efficient and really easy to understand. It is a very simple commute from KLIA international airport straight to Sentral Station, and right to our accommodation. The warmth and smells that great us are overwhelming, sparking fond memories – WE ARE BACK!
Old and new
We had 3 nights here, re acquainting ourselves with the cuisine. Eating our way around all our old favourite places. We were very close to the Indian quarter and found restaurants with all the Indian delicacies we were enjoying while in Chennai.
Roti CanaiIdly and Sambardelicious
Kuala Lumpur is a super modern city, but still holds the charm of the old world. China Town and Little India are like walking back in time, yet you go to the Petronas Twin Towers or the Berjaya Times Square and you are immediately transported to the, almost , futuristic state-of-the-art centres with everything on steroids! We love both, maybe erring on the side of the oldie-worldie but loving the super modern, bright and shinny too.
We spend a lot of time walking around and pointing out places we have been before, restaurants we have been in, 7Elevens we have frequented and found the cheapest beer. But also discovering new things, new sights, especially as we have not been here since COVID and we do notice a change. China Town seemed very quiet now – still busy by our terms, but not that frantic business that was the total manic vibe of the place. There were not as many street hawkers or market stalls. Our old ladies pushing carts full of ice and cold drinks were nowhere to be found. It must have been pretty tough here during the pandemic, very sad.
China Town
Petronas Twin Towers
Brickfields Little India
In amongst the chaos of this busy incredible city is the Botanical Gardens. A beautiful piece of green-belt right there, hidden away from the madness. We spent a few hours here and thoroughly enjoyed the change of pace. It is a little run-down in places, but still a great respite from the heat (in all ways) of the city.
It’s a lot hotter here than what we have been used to for the last few months, we are very thankful for our air conditioning in our room. It’s a welcome relief to get onto the trains for the cool of their air conditioning. It is so cheap to ride the trains and as I said, so easy! Just have to find the right train line you want to go on, use the touch screen to say where you want to go and boom, out comes a little blue token and off you go! All over the city, anywhere you want to go for about equivalent to $1.
A few nights back here is like coming home, it had to be done, but we have puppies to look after!
Our next stop is Langkawi, an Island off the west coast right up by the Thailand border. We have been there once before for a week vacation, this time we will be there for 2 months. We love the city, but we have had our fill, lets slow our pace down a bit and get ourselves back to some Island Time!
Chennai, India. We never thought we would go to India, it was never on the “bucket list” so to speak, but here we are and it is almost time to leave.
Chennai, on the Bay of Bengal in eastern India, the capital city of the state of Tamil Nadu. We are based in an apartment right in the thick of everything, Besant Nagar, only 15 minute walk to the beach. We were told this was a good first place to visit in India as it is safe and friendly. A good place to “get the hang of it” before you take the training wheels off.
We haven’t been any further than the city this trip, I would love to get out and see the country side, but that will be the next trip. It has been great to really get to know one place. This is one of the things we love about house sitting, you get right off the tourist route and generally stay longer than just a holiday so you do get to know the local people. It has been harder here to get to know the locals as there is a very definite language barrier, but that doesn’t stop us trying! A lot of Indian people can speak English, but they have such a strong accent, it is hard to believe that we are speaking the same language.
We get a lot of attention here as we look so different. It is the young, probably late teenage girls who stare mostly at me, but when I look at them and smile, wow the smiles that break out on their beautiful faces just melts my heart. They sometimes say hello, or just shyly wave. I am thinking that seeing me, dressed in my ordinary, colour-less western clothing, must be like us in New Zealand seeing someone dressed in a bright coloured Saree walking down our main street. I guess we, also, would take a second look.
This city is a place of extremes. It is so loud and so colourful. I don’t think I have been in a place with so much vibrant colour. The pride in their presentation is palpable. Mens crisp white shirts ironed to within an inch of their life. The small children, immaculately dressed. Girls in beautiful dresses and sparkly jewellery that you would only expect to see on dolls in shop windows in the western world. The little boys with waistcaost and tie, hair slicked down perfectly. And the women, I try not to stare, but they are so beautiful. I cannot tell you how many different colours, shades of colours, colour combinations, depths of colours there are. I don’t think I have seen two Saree the same. Sparkle, silver, gold, flowers, all on their person, it is just stunning. I am guessing when I say 90% of women are wearing traditional Saree, or if not Saree, then other traditional dress like Shalwar and Kameez, and you can tell they wear it with pride and respect. Whether they are selling bangles on the side if the street or at the beach, they are still wearing their Saree – blows my mind!
FUN FACT, the Saree, sometimes spelt Sari, is made from hand woven, uncut cloth and is on average 8.5 metres long. It can be draped over 100 different ways. The first Saree can be traced back to 2800 and 1800BC. The word “Sari” is believed to be derived from a Sanskirt word meaning “strip of cloth”. Traditionally worn alone until the prudish Victorian era, when it was recommended to wear a petticoat and blouse underneath. AND, if you do it right, (the drape) then you don’t need any safety pins! I would so love to try one on! 11 Million people are employed by the saree cloth weaving industry!
Indian people are so business minded, if you don’t have a physical shop, then set one up on the street. There is a guy down the road with a sewing machine on the sidewalk under a tarpaulin. Sometimes you see him cutting cloth on the concrete. What fascinates me most about this one is that behind him are some old wooden shelves filled with books. They look like fabric sample books. This is literally on the street, out in the open, and not very well protected from the weather, this is his office and workroom, just amazing.
Then there is the man fixing suitcases, nothing goes to waste here it seems. The guy fixing bicycles. Mending bikes so old and rusted, they look like they have been around since the first Saree.
The man stuffing fluffy cushions to sellThe shoe selling lady, sandals and jandals all piled up on the footpath ready for you, the customer.The lady sitting on the concrete, painting terracotta pots to sell.
And then there is the ironing guy. This is the one I like the best. The irons are cast iron and full of hot coals, they look so heavy. There are often two people ironing in the little hut on the street, all day, ironing, ironing. I guess no ironing is done if it is raining.
The bicycle cart which sells fruit and veg and coconuts, the ladies sitting at a table on the street all day, every day, tying flower garlands. The man on a bike with a flask and paper cups selling cups of coffee. The man with the Samosa on a tray on his head, he carries a plastic box too, so when you want to buy, he puts the box down as a temporary stand – he has obviously got this down to a very fine art.
When they do have premises, they can be so small. No bigger than a cupboard with a counter at the front. All their goods hanging all around the opening. Everything from sweets to mobile phones. Fruit, veg, brooms and baskets, you name it! Rice? What kind of rice do you want? There is a counter with about two dozen trays of different rice and grains, there is always a line at this counter. They choose what they want and get a sack of it. So many shops, we often wonder how they all keep a float.
Chennai’s answer to “drive through”
And then there are the shopping malls. No city is complete, anywhere in the world, without a shopping mall with the same high street stores and restaurants. Starbucks, McDonalds and Dominos, they are all here, Marks and Spencer, Sephora, Pandora, Tommy Hilfiger etc etc.
I mentioned extremes, there is great poverty here too. It surprises us sometimes the smallness of the gap between the two. I don’t want to dwell on it, it is a fact of life in every city. But everyone seems happy, I guess it is all perspective.
Chennai is a sensory overload. The colours, the smells and the sounds, all on steroids, an assault on the senses. But we love it. This adventure was not on the bucket list……….. Sometimes you just have to take the plunge, take the acute angle and give it a go, you might just be surprised at how good it is – because life is far too short not to!
Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed our story 🙂
After 3 weeks of holiday and visiting friends – its time to get back to work. We took the overnight train from Padang Besar to Hua Hin, Thailand. A driver was waiting to take us to Pran Buri where Cristina has a home with 37 dogs. We have done this house sit before for Cristina but she was on the island of Koh Phayam then and there was only 16 dogs.
It was so great to see Cristina again and see the wonderful place her and her husband Paul had created. It felt like it was just yesterday that we had last seen her. 10 of the current 37 dogs were there last time and we think they may have remembered us……. Of maybe that’s just being romantic.
Bob and YakBob and Yak, maybe they remember us
We spent nearly a week with Cristina and along with the care of the dogs, she showed us around the town of Pran Buri and Hua Hin. We were armed with lots of tips on where to shop and where to eat. She left us with a car and introduced us to a few people we could call on if needed. What could possibly go wrong!!
Feeding time is a little chaotic. The first time we just watched and frantically wrote down all the details. 37 dogs, we don’t know their names yet, how are we ever going to remember who gets what! There are three different types of food, vitamins and medicines for some and liver and chicken treats hand made by a wonderful volunteer Chris, some get and some don’t. Not quite as simple as a cup of biscuits each! When we looked after the dogs on Koh Phayam, we cooked the food every day and we thought 16 was a tough gig!
So we set off on the feeding program ourselves. Cristina is still here and she is just pottering over there, sweeping the floor, the odd little suggestion when we get it wrong, or reminder that the dog I referred to as she actually had a penis. She must have been having quite a giggle to herself watching us try to put it all together.
Showing us the ropesDear wee Muffin and Queen Feisty waiting their turnOur book of instructions didnt last the distance
Once we took the training wheels off and started fending for ourselves, we got into a fantastic routine. We got to know all their names and didn’t put up with any of their shenanigans. We fed them in groups and, all in all, they were very well behaved and knew when their turn was coming. Occasionally one would “slip” into the wrong place and try to get another bowl. Bob – the policeman of the pack, would stand guard over the old girl Poon’s food while she took herself out for a pee half way through her meal. We thought this was very admirable of dear Bob, until one day we saw he had an ulterior motive.
TinTin – not much between the earsGiGi and Big Mama – soft and gentleHowie – Ladies man through and through
Dogs can be so smart! Buttercup was a bit of a food junkie and could not help herself when any food was around, so at feeding time, she would jump into Nimbus’s sleeping crate (she could get in but couldn’t get out) and just wait her turn, she could not trust herself with all the other bowls of food around. How about that for discipline!
Feisty – 17 years old, food coma after the excitement of breakfastTilly – the newest addition – fur is starting to grow back
There is a gate between the kitchen area and the garage area and when feeding the group in the garage they all rushed up to the gate. But we just opened and closed the gate, just like herding sheep into a pen, yes-no-yes-no, the odd one got through but we got is right most of the time. They could be so quick! Sometimes I would turn around and there was one I wasn’t expecting, looking up with big brown hopeful eyes – and where did YOU come from?? Then it was the mad rush to pick up all the bowls before someone peed in the empty bowl, some with incredible accuracy!
Mumble – a bit wary of us, he has no back pawsTruffel – short for Trouble!King Louie and Blossom – ready for bed
The property is about 2 acres. They bought it as bare land and have done an amazing job of creating a paradise for the dogs. There is a big pond, several shade houses, big boulders and concrete pipes for playing on. It is fully fenced with internal fenced off areas for some of the dogs and the house section. It rained for days at the beginning, and this did cause a bit of mud in places, particularly the walk way down to the big paddock where the pond was. Some would go through but most were “NO! not doin it” haha Those rainy days were quiet, the dogs just hung out and didn’t want to go out, we just hung out with them, we even managed to watch a couple of movies.
Nobby keeping an eye on thingsBut I have to sit ON you!Yak and Mouse – digging up treasurePonfuu only has 3 legs, but still watches out for his best friend Nimbus Toffee and OscarPlay time in the paddock
We got to know the dogs really well. They all have their own personalities and problems or attitudes. Some don’t get on with others, some are obsessed with others. They love attention, I likened the pack to a group of children on more than one occasion. They had this massive big playground, a paradise for dogs, but would they go out to play? No, not unless you went with them. We got into a lovely routine every evening – once the path was passible, once the last food bowl was picked up, lets go! Down to the paddock. They would all run off barking and excited, it was so much fun. We would sometimes take a beer down and try to sit on the platform. We gave this up pretty quickly as they all followed up the stairs, and at least 2 wanted to sit on our laps, or at least sit right by you and demand attention. Dirty wet paws all over us from a swim in the pond – Oh it’s a dogs life!!
Oggie – precious little guy with a big personality, doesnt let his missing leg slow him downjust a bit of space please
Whenever we say to people that we are house sitting in Thailand and looking after 35+ dogs, we get puzzled looks, really? 35+ dogs? Why? Who for? Is it a dog sanctuary? Well yes, that is exactly what it is. This is a self-funded rescue shelter. Cristina came to Thailand from Denmark about 7 years ago, she is incredibly selfless, she feels very deeply for the dogs on the street who have been miss treated or injured and not cared for. She will not only look after and provide for her own pack, she will drive around the neighbourhood feeding street dogs. She knows them all and they know her. She has taken in and rescued most who are there today. She tries to get them adopted and occasionally they will get to go to a forever home. Buttercup was one while we were there, she got to go to a loving family which was awesome. So our original 37 is now 36! It takes so much dedication and time to rehabilitate some of the sorry stories, not to mention money.
Cristina loves and adores every one
Out of the 36 that are there now, we had 1 paralysed from the waist down, 4 with malformed or missing paws or parts of legs, 2 with only three legs, 1 with one eye, 1 with one ear and 1 with fur just starting to grow back. There is 1 Great Dane, 4 Chihuahua, at least 1 purebred that I know of and a whole lot of loveable mutts of every description in between. It’s a motley crew! But every one of them has been loved and cared for unconditionally.
Nimbus is incredibly agile considering he has no use of his back legs Such a loving boy
We spent 12 days on our own and were exhausted. Cristina does an amazing job and she is on her own most of the time. Her husband Paul works abroad, he is home as often as he can be. There are two wonderful volunteers who come and help out a couple of times a week, Sue and Chris. They both also have a passion for dogs and put their heart and soul into their care. Picking up poo is done with a smile! Chris cooks treats for them every week. Together with Cristina they sweep and scrub, bandage and brush, administer meds and creams, clip and snip, hug and kiss, they are a great team.
Volunteer SueVolunteer ChrisChris feeding the dogs in the communityNimbus needs his back legs bandaged to protect them from the ground
Remember if you see a stray dog on the street that looks in such a bad state of neglect and full of skin decease and you feel afraid because you think that dog is most likely aggressive, so you just walk on by, most often than none you are very wrong. Because under the superficial scaring, wounds and skin decease is a wonderful dog that once rescued, treated cared for and loved will in turn love you for ever.
Taken from Cristinas facebook page
This is one of Cristina’s stories,
Gi Gi.
November 2020. Cristina noticed Gi Gi tied up by the side of the road, skinny and scabby with no fur. She was told the dog was a street dog and they were trying to help her with no luck. Cristina started caring for her by going to the house 3 times a day and slowly the story began to change. Gi Gi is a purebred Thai Ridgeback and was bought together with a male to breed. After she had puppies without proper nutrition and tick protection, she got sick. No longer useful, she was given to the owners brother, who kept her tied up on the side of the road with no shelter or protection. This is where Cristina found her. They claimed they were looking after her but this was very obviously not the case. Cristina managed to negotiate with the man and took Gi Gi home. It took a lot of time and love, along with good food and supplements, but she slowly built up her mussels, her fur grew back and she blossomed into the wonderful dog she is today.
BeforeNowMiss Gi Gi
This is just one of many success stories. Working in Thailand has its challenges and Cristina does an amazing job especially when, at times, her heart is breaking with the neglect and cruelty.
BeforeNowAnother example – meet Mr Cody
Everything Cristina does is totally self funded, she depends on the help of her volunteers, any donations and sponsorship. It is humbling to know that there are still people like this in the world and we found it a privilege to have been part of it. If you are ever in the area, get in touch and go and check out this amazing operation, you will be welcomed.
SueSue cant get enough cuddlesFlipFlop and BaileyMuffin gets so excited, she dances in circles on her hind legs – she is adorableThe puppies looking guilty in Rufus’s bedTime out for the humansFixing Little Mama’s bed after Cody pulled it apart
And then it was bed time. Navigating 6 in the bed was a challenge at times, but we did it!
We had a wonderful time. At times the noise would get to us, and at times we felt so grubby we would never be clean again! But we loved every minute, Challenging? YES! Rewarding? YES YES YES!!!
We now have 36 best friends!
I know you are not supposed to have favorites …………. If only I could take you home to NZ Toffee!!!!
Thank you for reading our story
I have mentioned 31 of 37 in this story, Twiggie, Biscuit, Latte, Mr G, Big Ear and Gizmo, we love you too!
After almost 7 months on a house sit in the Caribbean, it is time for catching up with friends and having a holiday. We had a fabulous week in Boston, now lets head to South East Asia.
We are going to Jakarta to visit with a friend we met 5 years ago, while in between house sits, on Pangkor Island, Malaysia. Pangkor is predominantly Muslim, and we were finding it difficult to find beer. The strip of restaurants had entrances on the roadside but they also had entrances from straight from the beach, they went right through. You could sit at the tables on the sand out the back, very cool. We had just walked into this one place, to find, yet again – no beer. We pretended to look at the beach and then, as we turned to leave, a voice came out of the shadows, “hey bro, you can get beer at the shop over there” What? Who was that? And how did he know what we were looking for? We had a good laugh about this and arranged to meet him later at the beach for a few beers (bought from that 1 shop). We ended up having dinner together and Chris and Nitin have remained good friends ever since. We have tried a few times in the last five years to catch up again but one thing and another got in the way – COVID was one rather large thing. But here we are flying 14.5 hours from Boston to Tokyo, change planes and another 8 hours to Jakarta. Arriving at midnight, Nitin was there, bouncing with excitement, and so were we! So good to be here!
We had a wonderful week catching up on the last five years… We ate so much wonderful food – oh how we have missed Asian food! AND we didn’t have any problems finding beer! Nitin looked after us so well, took us to amazing restaurants, we met his parents and girlfriend and felt like part of the family. Nitin’s Mum taught us how to make Chapati and I showed her how to make the bread like I had learnt on Vieques. We followed this “sharing of knowledge” with a wonderful family meal. We had six days of great laughs and loads of fun!
We are very sad to leave but so thankful, yet again, for these wonderful people coming into our lives in the most unexpected ways!
Now up to Penang, Malaysia for a week of rest.
We are staying in a little place called the Rassa Motel, at Batu Ferringhi Beach. Very basic but at $30NZD a night we cannot complain. One street back from the beach. We have stayed here before and know the location is perfect. AND, it is just around the corner from the best Roti restaurant in Malaysia – according to the “Donna and Chris research group”. So, every morning we would walk around the corner and see the Roti maker and enjoy our favourite breakfast with thick dark coffee with a splash of condensed milk – match made in heaven!.
We went for a walk up to a waterfall one morning after our Roti. The track got smaller and smaller, but we were confident that we would find our way and maybe even join up with a walk along the aqueduct, which we did last time we were in Penang. Well it did, but not until we passed through a hole in a padlocked gate. What could possibly go wrong? It was a lovely walk, and we end up in the area that we recognise. Cute buildings periodically along the trail. An Aqueduct will move water by gravity flow alone and this one is still channelling raw water to a treatment plant in Tanjung Bungah.
But we were not meant to be there-apparently! So that was what the lock on the gate meant…. A car of 4 guards drove by and stopped and asked where we were from……..
New Zealand!
No, where have you come from, you shouldn’t be here!
Oh OK.
Leave now!
Yes sir!
We reached the entrance after 17000 steps to be met by a police officer who gestured for us to go back, go back the way you came! Really? Sending us back into a restricted area for another hour and a half? You cannot come out this way! He relented in the end and let us out, whoops! Our host at the hotel said that it has been closed since COVID. We really did think there for a minute that we were going to have to walk another 17000 steps, but thankfully that was not the case – it was a great walk!
After 6 nights at Batu Ferringhi we took the hair raising bus trip to Georgetown for 1 night before we take the ferry to the mainland to get the overnight train to Thailand. A walk around the old town of Georgetown is a must not miss! The street art and old buildings are fantastic. Great markets and food halls and very safe.
As we check out we bump into a man from Pakistan. He was checking out too. He said “are you going to Langkawi?” we said no, we are going to Thailand. He said “oh, we want to go to Thailand, we will follow you!” Then him and is 3 friends did indeed, follow us to the ferry. It was all a bit confusing about where they were trying to get to, but they liked the idea of Krabi (Thailand) – but they kept saying they were going to Langkawi (Malaysia) Oh well, they were big boys. They were so funny and casual about where they were going to end up. They came on the ferry with us and then, after a 4 hour wait at the train station, came on the Komuter train to the Thai border, that is where we lost them. I would love to know where they ended up. Chris asked them if they liked beer – if they were going to Langkawi, it is a dutyfree town. Oh no, we don’t drink! Then one of the guys sidled up to Chris and whispered….. “I like alcohol” he said he had half a bottle of vodka in his suitcase, would he be able to take it with him across the border? Poor man! Oh we laughed at this for days.
The Malaysia – Thailand border at Padang Besar is interesting. You line up and go through passport control to exit Malaysia, then walk around the back of the offices and line up again to go through another passport control, in the opposite direction, back into the same hall, to enter Thailand. There is a fence between that you cannot get through, but it is right there, it’s all in the same space. The guy who stamped our passport leaving Malaysia had forgotten to change the date on his stamp so had us leaving the day before. We got escorted, bags and all, back around the offices, back to the immigration officer for a correction in our passport. Meanwhile, the train was sitting there ready to leave and the conductors were being told there are 2 more passengers, don’t go without them! This has been the most bazar trip!
Finally on our way to Thailand!
We are on our own now, no family or friends with us and we spend a lot of time talking and thinking of all the wonderful people in our lives. We are grateful to the friends we are making during this adventure, and the friends we can reconnect with while travelling. We also take the time to think about and feel so thankful for the ones at home. Our wonderful friends up and down New Zealand and Australia, our families who love and support us in these, sometime crazy adventures. We miss you so much and so appreciate your love and understanding that we are not in your lives day to day. Some of our friends and family are struggling with illness, loss and other things that life sometimes throws at you. We don’t forget this and hope that we can help out, as best we can, when or if the time is right. The world has become a smaller place with the ease of communication, and although we keep in touch via messages, facebook, emails and calls, we understand that it is not the same as being there. xxxx
It is now November 2022. We have just spent the last seven 7 months on the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, which is in the Caribbean. We are leaving the island with a few tears as we say goodbye to many people we have come to love and will sorely miss.
But, this is the end of only 1 chapter in the book of our adventures, AND as we leave the island we have this amazing little distraction – a tiny puppy called Iain.. While here on Vieques, we have been walking the dogs for the Vieques Humane Society and we offered to transport a pet needing to be taken to USA. We were thrilled to hear, four days before we were leaving, that there was indeed a little puppy that needed to go to Boston to a foster family to wait for his forever home.
A very welcome distraction indeed! And the best little travel companion. Iain was so chilled, he took to the car ride, ferry ride, trip to dinner and another long car ride to San Juan airport, all in his stride. We arrived at the airport at 9pm, our flight was not leaving until 5am, so we had a very long wait. The time went by very fast with Iain to keep us entertained. He was so popular, everyone wanted to give him a pat. So, we were able to, mostly, kept him awake. When we finally got onto the plane, he was so exhausted, he just went to sleep in his carry cage under the seat in front of me. When he woke, he sat on my knee and snugged back to sleep again – until the steward discovered him – ooops! “He must be in his cage for the duration of the flight” – but look at this little face!! Cant he just stay on my knee?
We arrived in Boston 4 hours later. Iain’s foster family were waiting and fell in love the minute they saw him, and then he was gone! We have heard since that he has found his forever home already and is a very loved member of the family. It was so cool to have been part of that story!
We have a week here in the north east of America. A few days in Boston, a few days in Kennebunk then back to Boston to fly out to Jakarta. This part of the trip was primarily for seeing friends. We were so lucky to be able to borrow Pam’s car to drive up to Kennebunk to see Joan. It was perfect as it meant we could take her out and about while there. We got to see part of the New England coast too, which was so beautiful.
It was so much colder than what we had been used to, we only have hot weather clothes with us! So as soon as we arrived in Boston, Pam and Kim opened up their wardrobes and said go for it! Fleeces and sweaters, jackets and thermals! Girls! you are life savers!!
We had one spare day so took the train up to a small town called Salem. As it is Halloween next week, this was quite a timely visit to the home of witch trials and superstition. The whole town is dedicated to the “scary” . More than 200 people were accused of being witches between 1692 and 1693. 30 were found guilty and 19 were executed by hanging right there in Salem. It was the deadliest “witch hunt” in the history of colonial North America.
Pam and Kim live in central Boston, but they have a holiday home at Cape Cod, would we like to go? Hell yes!! The four of us pile into the car and travel the 2 hours to the Cape. Wow! We were so lucky to have this opportunity! Cape Cod and Provincetown are so beautiful and we were blessed with perfect weather! We ate so much and drank far too much! We had so much fun. Their house is right on the beach. There are oyster farms along the coastline and Chris managed to find some rogue oysters in ankle deep water. They were immediately shucked and eaten with a cold beer to wash them down. It was a beautiful warm day. It still really amazes me how this part of the world can get so very hot in the summer time and then turn around and be frozen solid, snow up to the window ledges and frozen water pipes come winter – it is so hard to imagine.
It is only days before Halloween and there was a “Tea Party” on in Provincetown the weekend we were there. So we, all four, dressed up in kind-of-scary but really it was just kind-of-crazy-pretty – yes even Chris! It was so much fun dressing up and doing fake face tattoos, we had a ball! Some of the costumes people were in were amazing, there had been a lot of effort put in and it was so much fun! It was a different story in the morning-we had all sorts of hilarity when we tried to get the tattoos off our faces! Then …. more oysters, more wine in the sun and then back to Boston – we have a plane to catch!
What a weekend! We haven’t laughed this much in a long time! Pam and Kim!! You rock!
Now it’s off to South East Asia, Thank you for reading our story, we hope you can join us for the next one….. coming soon xxx
At the end of one of my stories about Vieques, I mentioned that its “quirkiness is it’s magic”. This is so true! Vieques is a quirky little place, full of colour, vibrancy and life. There is color everywhere you look. The turquoise ocean the blue skies the white puffy clouds, even the iguana’s are bright green, and buildings of every color you can think of.
I am sure you have seen enough pictures of the amazing beaches, coconut palms and sunsets. There is a lot more to this place than that. Though that seems to feature highly in our priorities, and why not? we are, after all, on a Caribbean Island. So, I wont bore you with the same old, here is a slightly different look at Vieques.
Check out this rainbow of houses.
There it is – Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo and Violet – all present and accounted for.
As we walk around this quirky little place we are never short of amazement at the next colour combination we come across.
We have the Brights……
And the Pastels……..
And then all these awesome combinations…..
And this is just a small example of what is here.
How many different colours can you see in this scene? Love it!
Even the masks are all colours!
Our time here is almost up. We leave in 9 days! It is so hard to believe that it is over six months already, it has gone super fast! We have been really busy, it hasn’t all been hanging out at the beach! We have both put in many hours volunteering to various places. Chris has done many days with Kim, watering gardens when it was really dry and weed-wacking when the rain came and made it all grow again. I have helped at the kids art camp during the summer holidays and done some admin for Our Big Fat Caribbean Rescue, which is a non-profit organisation dedicated to improving the lives of Vieques’ animals, during their free Neuter and Spay clinics.
Both Chris and I have been walking the dogs at the Humane Society most weeks – Friday, our favorite day of the week! We have been very creative in the kitchen, creating wonderful dishes with the, often, lack of available ingredients. We have immensely enjoyed our social gatherings, and sharing all these wonderful culinary creations with dear friends, whom we are going to sorely miss!
We have had our own property here to caretake for, there has been gardening, painting, building and maintenance to carry on with. I have been going to Zumba and Aqua Aerobics a couple of times a week. We did several trips to the big island for various supplies, and had our fabulous yet disastrous visa trip to the Dominican Republic AND had pretty bad storm (Fiona wasn’t quite a hurricane as she went past us) – No wonder the time has gone fast!
This says it all!!
So where to from here?
Boston (USA) – Jakarta (Indonesia) – Penang (Malaysia) – Hua Hin (Thailand) – Chennai (India) – NZ all by Febuary 2023!
One of the most fun things about travelling is trying new cuisine.
We have a Kiwi friend Kim, who has lived here on Vieques for nearly two decades. He comes for coffee fairly regularly and I could just about guarantee that every time, we end up talking about food. Some of the conversation is about what we miss from home and remembering the things we had as kids – Back in the Day. But more often than not its about the cuisine we have sampled with our travels around the world. If you were to sit outside our window during these conversations you would hear a lot of groaning and sighing as we all reminisce about the flavours we have tried and loved over the years. Thai food is up there, with their distinct pungent flavours, right alongside the amazing bread and cheese of France! But lately Souvlaki and Feta cheese has been on our minds and a plan was hatched.
So here we are, in the middle of the Caribbean and we managed to pull off the best Greek dinner! What made it even more spectacular was that we found enough of the right ingredients to make it work.
Sarah found feta cheese for a Greek inspired couscous/chick pea salad, with the fresh flavours of cucumber and lemon. Kim found real Greek yoghurt to make enough Tzatziki to last the rest of the month. Betsy even found filo pastry and made the most amazing filo cones with Greek style custard and cream filling and orange zest – yes oranges!
These took us right back to Leros
There are no Greek style pita bread here on the island so we made our own, with great success I might add! Add some home made hummus and babaganoush made with zucchini’s (only had to visit 2 stores to get those) and sliced aubergine – BOOM!
Pork marinated in oregano, lemon and olive oil was our souvlaki, char-grilled perfectly and served on a bed of red onions.
We dressed in white or blue for the occasion-a huge success, our Greek friends would be proud!.
Kim and Betsy
If you have read any of my other stories you will have already heard me say that it is the people we meet while travelling that make this adventure so special. The meeting of cultures, beliefs, traditions and outlooks. We had this around the table last night, American, Irish, Cuban, Puerto Rican and of course us Kiwis (which actually outnumbered the rest) fascinating conversations, hilarious stories. Life time friends have been made here and our lives are so much richer for it. It will be hard to leave in a few weeks, but sadly, that is part of the deal.
We will miss our dear friends
So much fun! Who would ever think we could pull off a full on Greek meal on this tiny island of Vieques in the middle of the Caribbean!
Note: Not plates were harmed / broken in the making of this story!
We are here on this tiny island as if in a time warp. The time goes by so fast. One minute it’s the weekend and then the next it is Friday night again, how does that happen? We have 6 weeks left of this house sit, we have been here for over 5 months already!
I sit here on my deck chair under a coconut trees shade, at Caracas beach. This is one of our favourite places on the island. Not because it is the most beautiful, there are some spectacular beaches, I think it is because we have the best memories here. Last time we only had bike power for getting around and this was the best beach we could reach by bike – still a 9 km cycle over the spine of the island. We were so much fitter then! And it is just as memorable now. The water is as clear as crystal, gently lapping on the perfectly white sand. The sky is deep blue and the clouds are so white.
Playa Caracas
Today is very quiet. It is Sunday, it is usually “Sunday Fun-day”, where crowds of friends and family gather for a day at the beach. Bringing with them BBQ’s, hammocks, cooler boxes groaning with food and alcohol, chairs, tables and gazebos and music. That’s what we are missing today – Music! The thump thump thump of the Puerto Rican rhythm. It is very distinctive and very conspicuous in its absence.
This is the off season. Not many tourists come to the island at this time of the year and a lot of the businesses close down for a month – 6 weeks. Holiday rentals shut down, restaurants and bars, some tour operators, it is very quite. The supermarket and the roads reflect this. The fruit truck doesn’t have as much to offer at the moment. We didn’t notice this the last time here as we had just had Hurricane Irma, it was a very different place then.
It is so hot! I have just been reading through my story of the last time here. It got to “feels like” 46°C then! It hasn’t got to that this time – well not that I have captured! So hot though. You can’t have a cold shower because the water out of the cold tap is always warm. I am sweating buckets every day! It drips off my chin and runs in my eyes, and that is just going outside to the washing line! The temperatures are so consistent, 27deg – 31deg every day! When we have a bit of rain we celebrate! But then if it rains for more than a day, everything starts to feel damp, your clothes, bed sheets, cushions even the floor. And my hair!! Humidity frizz! I would like to make it a new fashion statement, but no one in their right mind would want this! So, the best thing for it is to get into the ocean. The water temperature is 29.3°C – I just looked it up. Slightly cooler than the air temperature. Though I would like to challenge this. We have a hot tub – yes, it’s true!! here at the house and it is constantly sitting at 32°C and that is with no heating, just the ambient temperature and I am sure the ocean is warmer than that tub.
Disease-causing organisms??
We are smack bang in the middle of hurricane season, in fact the peak of hurricane season was on Saturday. It has been really quiet this year, so much so that, for the first time in 25 years, there have been no named storms during August. But we are still feeling a bit nervous to be honest! There are lots of different web pages and Facebook groups that we keep an eye on as we know that there is always a bit of notice if there is something coming our way that we need be aware of. We have been collecting water and have bought extra canned and dried foods just in case we do lose power. It was 5 years ago this week that Irma came through, caused 10 days of power outage then 4 days later Maria made an appearance and…… well…… that was power, and water gone for quite some time. We have bought a GPS tracker which can also send messages through the satellite system if standard communication is lost. We have done a couple of tests and it works well. Having all communication gone was one of the hardest things to cope with. We were alive a relatively well, but family on the other side of the world did not know this. Tough times, don’t really want to go through that again!
For our Hurricane story and photos, check out the link below
There has been a lot of Sahara dust most of the time we have been here. They say that this dust, which blows all the way from the deserts of Africa, helps to ward off hurricanes. It chokes out the systems, and they don’t have enough moisture to keep going, then a hurricane can’t form. Though the dust is a pain in the butt-ocks, makes it hazy and the windows get filthy, we like the idea of it being our “hurricane angel”
Being on a rock of 135m2, sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, makes for interesting weather conditions. I studied weather for my skippers licence a million years ago, we had to recognise and understand clouds, and what they represented for predicting weather……… Well, I didn’t do too well in that section! I can hardly tell one cloud from the other. But I do remember there being the “castle clouds” the Altocumulus Castellanus clouds. I have always wanted to see them; they don’t seem to form in NZ. Here on Vieques there are clouds every day and we often see the Castle Clouds. We don’t usually get just a plain blue sky, like at home, and these clouds here are the whitest I have ever seen. The sky here is amazing, moody and bright, the sunsets and sunrises, the rainbows and clouds are so vibrant and brilliant.
Altocumulus Castellanus clouds take their name from their resemblance to turrets of castles and are often a warning of thunderstorms
Things can be difficult here, but we are all in the same boat. Everyone can’t get that special ingredient to make that dish they want, and that’s after trips to 3 different stores in the hope 1 will have it, and then you pay the earth for it. I needed cream the other day and had a route mapped out of the stores I would try, if I couldn’t get it after store number 6, we would go without. I got it at store number 3!! So glad too because it was for Betsy’s amazing bread pudding!!
Perfect with caramelised banana and whipped cream
Everyone has to wait for months for contractors or parts for broken cars, so many cars are in poor condition because of it. The power goes out and the water slows down for no apparent reason at times, this affects everyone, one Barrio at a time it seems. The fire ants and mosquitos are pretty unbearable, but everyone has them. Oh, the heat and the sweat – we all sweat buckets, it is never offensive and everyone has a sweat rash somewhere! It doesn’t seem to matter here, everyone just gets on with it, you just adjust that recipe or menu to suit what you find at the store, you hold your car together with duct tape. It is just part of the charm of Vieques!
It’s quirkiness is its magic, and we all love it!
It’s a great life here and we feel so privileged to have had not one, but two chances to experience life as a local on Vieques, Puerto Rico. 6 weeks to go and we will be very sad to leave.
What a cool holiday! 5 days of pure doing nothing but eat and drink and swim, read and sleep! If you have read our last story, you will know that we had a pretty tough time getting out of the DR, but that has not spoilt our memories of a wonderful holiday.
Boca Chica is a 10 minute ride from Santo Domingo Airport. Don’t get fooled by Booking.com telling you it is a 40 minute ride and charge you accordingly. We only paid $12USD on the way back with Uber, compared to the $40USD on the way in.
The Hotel Zapata was basic but totally adequate, and it had air conditioning! We had a restaurant and bar on site and breakfast was included, which we always love! It was a mere 30 meters from the water with nothing in between but sand and a security fence and gate. Our thatched roof bar was on the sand right beside the lounge chairs we occupied each and every day. What more could we want!
We had the best part of the beach as there were no restaurants out the front of the property. This was an area where locals would come in their family groups and set up camp for the day bringing home made food in huge pots, blankets, hammocks and music. The atmosphere was great, there was no hassles on this beach as we were expecting. There were street vendors all day every day but when you said “no thank you” they respected this and moved on.
There is an outer reef about 300 meters off shore, so the water inside was calm and shallow. Only about waist deep at the most almost right out to the reef. The water was crystal clear, Caribbean blue, and so warm. Beautiful white sand and so many coconut palms. This reminded me so much of out at One Foot Island in Aitutaki, Cook Islands. So beautiful. I really feel we found a absolute gem!
Many restaurants lined the beach and the shore to the east of us and to the west, a city of beach umbrellas over tables filled that part of this super wide beach. We walked up and down this many times, stopping at the little stores in the streets behind the beach, to get cold beers and sit on the sand.
There was a big police presence both in the streets behind and on the beach front. There were the normal police and the tourist police, who ever knew there was such a thing! It felt safe.
Dominican Republic is well known for its “All Inclusive” hotel deals where it is a one-stop-shop. Where there are restaurants, bars, beaches, pools, everything you could want, all very safe and included in the deal, they are very cost effective. We went to one for the day, just a walk away at the end of the village. It was great fun, I lost count of the cocktails we tried after I ran out of fingers! We ate plenty and wobbled our way back to the Hotel Zapata and crashed at 7:30pm. It was a good fun day but we were so happy with our little hotel and the location was just perfect! Even if you are travelling with children, I would recommend this part of the country.
The one thing we were not so impressed with was the food. If you read any of our other stories you will know that we love exploring food. I have said it before, the humble supermarket and even more so the local markets are our favorite tourist attraction in any country we visit. The food here was very average. Not horrible, but very definitely, not special. Not to worry, there was more than enough other beauty to make up for it – and the beer was Dam good!!
Thank you for reading our story, I hope you enjoyed the photos!
We are travelling with 10-year multiple entry Visas to the USA. This allows us to be in The States for up to 6 months at a time. Our house sit here in Vieques will be slightly longer than 6 months, so we have to figure out a Visa run, ie leave The States and come back in again to re-start a 6 month phase. There are plenty of islands around us here in the Caribbean, some really close. So, we have to think of what will be the quickest and easiest and of course the most economical place to go. Tortola? That’s BVI, could work. What about St Thomas? No that’s Part of The States, so that’s no good. What about Cuba? We tried to go to Cuba following this house sit in 2017 but didn’t make it due to the hurricane. Cuba is now fully out of our price range for a Visa run! Bahamas? Barbados? Colombia? All too far and too expensive. Dominican Republic? Yes! That will do us, its so close and well-priced.
You can’t exit The States to Canada or Mexico for a Visa run. I’m not sure why, maybe as it is a land border? Not entirely sure so we are looking at our 36-minute flight to the DR and hoping that it is going to be far enough and we are away long enough to satisfy the Visa requirements. Time will tell…… we are committed, tickets in our hot little hands!
It is an easy run through, everything in order. Stunning flight right over Puerto Rico. The e-ticket required by the DR Government worked surprisingly well, a QR code saved to my phone, not one hick-up, easy place to get into.
E-Ticket required by DR Govt. for landing
We have 5 awesome nights.
But it is time to go. We can’t stay on holiday indefinitely…….. or can we? That’s a story for another time! We have been so impressed with Boca Chica, the beach and the people, just wonderful. We get an Uber, it costs about $12USD, much better than the $40USD on the way in, through booking.com
So, this is the part where we start to wonder if maybe we won’t be granted another 6 months. Remembering this is a “Visa run” trip so there is a definite possibility that we will come across some problems with said Visa. The US Govt. have said that it would be up to the agent on the day on how the “staying in/staying out” part is interpreted, there is no set amount of time, unlike Europe for example which is 3 months in – 3 months out. But that’s all that could go wrong, right? ……. Wrong!!
Here we go.
We are at the airport with loads of time. Its 1215, flight leaves at 1403.
The CDC rescinded the need for COVID testing, pre-flight and on arrival, in June, so we didn’t think to take our vaccination cards. The first thing we were asked to produce – while standing in line, pre-check in – yip! Our COVID vaccination certs! Oh crap! Chris finds a photo of his, I couldn’t find mine! I had a photo of it somewhere in the 1000’s of photos on my phone. Everyone is waiting, scrolling scrolling, getting hot, scrolling, getting hotter, had I deleted it? When had I taken the photo? oh man! Finally, I find it and then we both sign a piece of paper which she files, very carefully(not), in the drawer. Name, signature, todays date – that’s it! not sure what this is going to prove, oh well. Then, when we get up to check in, the check in lady also wants to look at our vaccination certs. But somehow while I was signing the paper, I had deleted the image by mistake. How the *#@ did I do that!! So she called the other lady over and they accept that the cert. has been sighted. We didn’t see that one coming, of all the problems we thought we would have!
It takes an hour and a half to get through security and into the airport air-side. This is where we stay now for the next 24 hours……. Yip!!
We are leaving from terminal A, check the board for the gate closer to departure time. OK. Our flight is direct Santo Domingo to San Juan, departure time 1603. We have time for lunch then wait in terminal A. We are supposed to be boarding at 1518, its 1500, still no flight F996 on the board. We found one larger board at the far end of terminal A and it said change of gate, B1, but the departure time was showing as 1638?? but now delayed to 1644. That’s weird, oh well, it’s delayed, no biggie, now leaving from B1, sure, let’s go.
We get to B1 and it is total chaos, no room to move. It’s now 1525, there is a line to the gate door at least 4 thick and no one is moving. We get past the crowd to the other side, close to B2 and sit down out of the way. Chris keeps getting up to check the board, no change, no instructions to be at the gate, no indication that it is boarding. No announcements that the flight has started boarding. So we sit and wait.
1630 we decide to go wait with the millions of other people; it has to be boarding soon. I txt Lidia, our friend who has driven from Ceiba to meet us at the airport, and say I think our flight is delayed again, we still haven’t started boarding! She is already nearly at San Juan to pick us up! Almost immediately after that the sign on the screen flicks over to Fort Lauderdale. What? Oh, they must be loading that plane first. The huge line starts moving, yip, these are passengers to Fort Lauderdale. 10 minutes later we think, should we ask what’s going on? We make it through the throng of people to the podium and ask. Wait for it………..
Your flight has gone!
What??? Gone where?? When???? How?? But we were right here!!!! All frontier staff have disappeared, these are Spirit staff, they even point to their logo and are very clearly NOT INTERESTED! So we try to find a security guard or someone, we so need to talk to a Frontier rep. Up and down the airport we run looking for someone who will talk to us! No One! So many staff here with various colour uniforms, lanyards, walkie talkie radios, but no HELP! No one wants to know!
Oh My God, what do we do? We have missed our flight!!! How did that happen?? We are both feeling quite stunned, nobody wants to know, we are stuck here, can’t get in, can’t get out!!
There is a JetBlue flight going to San Juan, maybe we could talk to them and try and get on that flight.
That flight has a 2-hour delay, leaving at 2030, but totally full. The girl at that gate was so lovely, she went to find a security guard to escort us out through immigration. We were to wait there, and security would come and get us in 20 minutes. 90 minutes later, this lovely girl sees us again and is surprised no one came for us. She goes off again and when she returns she said she can take us through, yes! we are getting out of here. We follow her down the back corridor, down the stairs, only to be stopped and told “you can’t come through here” even our JetBlue lady was surprised, she had been told we could. Oh well, back up the stairs and into the terminal.
The JetBlue flight has been changed to gate B1 now, so we should go down there and wait, maybe get on stand-by, or at least find someone who can help. Mean while we have been trying, with the dodgy wifi, to find new flights. I am in communication with my friend Sarah on Vieques, she is looking for flights for us, as this wifi keeps crashing!
Back at B1, less people around now, JetBlue leaving in half an hour, still hoping for a miracle that we can get onto this flight – No, not going to happen. OK, fine.
The last flight out of this airport tonight is 2110. We are starting to realise that we are here for the night, thoughts of that movie with Tom Hanks where he is stuck at an airport – that’s a familiar feeling for us right now.
As the airport empties, the wifi gets better and we find a spot to figure out what the heck we are going to do. I started a chat with Frontier on messenger. They were very good and because the flight hadn’t been registered as a “no show” yet, we could change to another date, now this sounds hopeful! BUT…. The next flight with 2 seats is next Monday, do we want it? Oh Man! We can’t stay another 8 nights here. We take the cancel option, we end up with a $58 credit after all the fees. 2200 and our lovely JetBlue lady appears, she is heading home and offers, once again, to take us through. We decline the offer as we are just starting to get somewhere online (I am in the middle of the chat with Frontier) We find out later that we would not have been able to go through anyway, so nice of her to try though, she has been the only one.
Right, what to do, flight now gone, stuck air-side of the international airport in The Dominican Republic – not how we expected our day to go.
We find a flight for tomorrow with interCaribbean, leaving 1345 to San Juan via Tortola. $300 USD each, done! Booked! Right we really need to get out of here, we can’t check in to that flight while being on this side of the airport. Oh and I haven’t mentioned our checked bag? Where is? Did it go to San Juan without us? Will we ever see it again? No flight should ever go with an unplanned, unaccompanied bag, right? Must still be here somewhere. They would have had to off-load it. We hope to find it in the morning.
Back down to B1, no one even wants to make eye contact, it is so bizarre, the airport is basically empty except for the cleaners and these other people with lanyards, who knows what their roles are! We talk to one big fella, and he says he will go find a security guard to escort us out, just sit here and wait – this sounds familiar! So we wait and wait, nobody’s coming are they. We never see him again.
About and hour later we talk to a lady, who takes photos of our boarding passes and passports and tells us to wait there, this sounds promising! ……. We never see her again either.
Finally at 0130 a nice man comes to our rescue. We explain, his English is pretty good, and he takes us down the back corridor, down the stairs and into an immigration supervisors office. Oh my! She was not happy that we had missed our flight…..Why did you miss your flight?? HMMMM? Tell me! We don’t know, we didn’t WANT to miss the flight! Please Miss, let us go! She scanned the passports and scribbled out the dates on the original stamps and let us go. We are free, now officially back in The Dominican Republic. The nice man shows us where the Frontier office is to try to find our bags, they will be open about 0800. We find a quiet spot and try to get some sleep. Like that’s going to happen!
This is turning out to be a long story, I hope you are not bored, but the best is still yet to come!………
We are feeling really bad, really stupid. How could we have let this happen? We are experienced travelers….. what went wrong? How did we drop the ball so badly!
Good News flash! We find our bag! Sitting in the Frontier office, right, we are back on track.
Check in opens for our interCaribbean flight at 1130. We line up at 1100, 3rd in the queue. When we had good wifi last night I found a copy of the deleted photo of my vaccination certificate in Google photos. So we are ready.
The staff start appearing and the pre-check in girl comes to us and asks to see our passport. Can I see your onward ticked from Puerto Rico? What? Why? We don’t have one, we have a B2 Visa. You cannot fly today without an onward ticket Sir! Yes we can! They let us through yesterday without one, and the prior 3 times entering The States on this Visa! No you can’t, step aside! Can you imagine how we are feeling at this point – total disbelief! WHAT THE ACTUAL!! We go to the interCaribbean rep we had talked to earlier and he really wanted to help and listened. He was willing to confer with a Frontier rep to see why we had been let through yesterday, he didn’t get it either, but they didn’t open until 1300.
I ran back to the office behind the check in counters where we found our bag, and asked that lady to come out and tell these interCaribbean people that they had it wrong. She wouldn’t, of course – I get that. We are feeling so wrung out by now with stress and no sleep, we are probably not making rational sense. Anyway, she tells me that different airlines have different rules. You have got to be kidding!! Really?? Visa requirements and immigration are up to individual airlines?? Not the Government? This is unbelievable!!!
I run back to Chris, he is starting to look, with the dodgy wifi, at flight options to satisfy this supervisor so she will let us fly today. We put our heads together and find a flight on Frontier for end August, San Juan to Santo Domingo, $66 each, one way, no bags – booked! I could hardly get our names into the fields on my phone, I thought I had gotten hot and bothered yesterday……. Time is now running out, it is now 12 o’clock and we know from yesterday how long it takes to get through the next bit. The supervisor glances at the booking on the phone and nods, that’s it! Nothing recorded anywhere, just the “NOD” and we get our boarding passes and told to run! You are kidding me, all this time here and we are now running!! And what about our COVID certificates, they don’t matter today??
Screen shot
But wait, a bit more good news! The next bit only took 10 minutes today – perfect, straight to the gate – you guessed it B1!
Beef I is Tortola………for this flight anyway
It is the same as yesterday, total chaos and mayhem. The board shows 1 flight to Tortola, 1405 departure, flight number 0411…. We are 1345 departure, flight number 0413….. Really, not again!! So we ask and are told that there are 2 flights to Tortola, but only 1 on the board. Crazy place! No wonder people get confused. Anyway, this is getting too long, so long story/short…. This flight is delayed, so is flight 0411, people are arguing, getting stressed, shouting. The ground staff are getting stressed. They seem to be only using this one gate in terminal B, where they are trying to load planes at the same time as disembarked transit passengers are trying to come though. I lost count of the number of flights that got loaded from here, but we kept asking – we CANNOT miss another flight.
B1
We were being so hard on ourselves about yesterday, but seeing it all again today and really taking note, it is no wonder we missed the flight. Total disorganisation, no communication, the information that was available was incorrect. Nightmare!
Finally at 1600, we board the plane to Tortola……
Ok. So we are all (12 of us) sitting in the 30 seater, twin prop plane, no AC until airborne, so hot, plane looks to have come off the arc. Doors shut, port engine starts, then stops. Captain comes out of the cockpit and tells all the passengers something in Spanish then opens the front door and the two side doors. What’s going on? Is the plane is broken? I’m just waiting to see the Roadside assist truck appear! Will we ever get off this island??!!
Doors open waiting, don’t know what’s going on – but we are on the plane at least!!!
We do end up taking off!!!!
Beautiful flight over Puerto Rico and into Tortola, we stay on the plane while the other 10 get off, they load some more people, and we take off again. We made it – touch down in San Juan at 1900.
Entry into Puerto Rico – So simple – we have a Visa!!! Come on in folks, and why don’t you stay till February! You are aloud!! WHEW!
And our wonderful friend Lidia was there to pick us up – for the second time!!!
Quite the adventure – don’t ever want to do that again! Remember I said it was a quick 36-minute flight???? And it would be an economical destination for a visa run?……….HA!
Kiwis Do Fly 