Meaning to Life | Exotic Caribbean

Saturday, May 14, 2005
Every cloud has its silver lining. The cloud, if you should remember reading our blog of 08/04/05, was the frustrating delay we experienced when we finally made our move and asked Verizon to take us into the modern world with a high-speed DSL internet connection. The silver lining is now double layered for we remain not only as pleased as ever with this new service but we are also able to announce laptop friendly WiFi connections anywhere within the Playa Vista territory including the sunbeds on the beach! This service – that finally scatters away the remains of the cloud and lets the sun shine through – is available to all good Playa Vista customers free of charge and is made possible by the kind sponsorship of DR1, via their donation of a wireless broadband router and the installation skills of good old Rob.

Wednesday, May 4, 2005
We are pleased to say that we have a couple of genuine ‘good-guy stories’ in the pipeline for you… the first goes like this:
Massachusetts Man, our good-guy number one, has developed quite an onerous but benevolent habit of carting something like 150lbs of produce down from Boston to donate to the local Boca Chica high school “Elvira de Mendoza“, and this he now does a couple of times a year. In good old entrepreneurial fashion he saw a market opportunity that he has developed over the years… with the single entrepreneurial omission that he doesn’t make any money out of it!
One fine day he noticed a lot of good paper was going to waste around him at his place of work. The match up was that he in his mind’s eye saw this paper being well used in poor old Boca Chica and where better than one of the local schools he thought. He had the brilliant idea that a lot of the notepads and business paper pads, when finished with, could simply be recycled by using the blank obverse sides. So, he made a point of asking all his work colleagues to put these pads and papers aside for him. From this simple beginning he has extended his product range asking all his friends and colleagues for any kinds of paper pads, pens, pencils, pencil sharpeners or anything of that ilk, that they might be able to spare to add to his haul. Not satisfied with that he also visits the local dollar stores just before setting off to see if he can pick up some additional inexpensive bargains to make up the full load. This is of course working very much counter to pure entrepreneurship because this now involves money actually coming out of his own pocket. However, a recent market diversification has him back on track spotting an opportunity for low value products with large potential demand. He came across the chance of 200 free sample tubes of toothpaste with toothbrushes and promptly stuffed them also into one of his carrier bags and brought the whole thing down to Boca Chica. Once in town he phones the school to make an appointment with the principal of the school in order to present his offering. She, as well as all the contented recipients, is quite rightly very thankful and everybody is now more than ever looking forward to welcoming the creative and generous packhorse the next time he can make a run.
So… if you see our Massachusetts Man struggling through either Boston or Santo Domingo International Airports you might like to give him a hand with his baggage knowing that it is all in a good cause. Perhaps others of you out there have some other creative ideas along the lines of Massachusetts Man’s… we would be only too pleased to pass the information on and keep the supply of good intentions running if that were the case.

Monday, April 18, 2005
Randall, again not the infamous western-Kentucky farmer, but the author of ‘The Xpatriot’ (see March 2, 2005 blog posting), may have helped to reawaken a general reading interest as well as start a welcome trend, because we have been asked quite a few times by some of our regulars if they could have a sneak preview of his book by borrowing from our slowly growing library. His Xpatriot book, by the way, has generated a lot of positive comments… and judging from the commonest one of all: “Yes I enjoyed the read”, it strikes us that the borrowers were doing more than sneak-previewing.
While we are on the subject may we mention that Playa Vista does have a small library of magazines and paperbacks, all but a select few unsigned copies, for customers to borrow. This mini-library can be easily found in the corner of the bar as you enter the door on the left. There is no ticketing system whatsoever… we just ask for people to observe standard rules like return the books when finished in the condition they were borrowed. Naturally if any of you would like to add to the library that would be appreciated by all the thirsty re-aroused readers around here too.
Now back to the welcome trend because Greg – from that other but much larger North American country – is the latest to provide us with a personally signed copy of a publication that he contributed to in a major way. It is titled ‘A Chronicle of Images – Canada/Republica Dominicana 50+’ and contains both photos and text on relations between the two countries over the last 50 years. It is a very well presented compilation with text in Spanish, English and French. Gregg himself was, among other things, responsible for the art direction, design and production. By all means ask at the bar if you would like to view this nicely documented work, as was Gregg’s intention when he handed it over!

Friday, April 8, 2005
So… it was a DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) internet connection with a new line that we wanted… and after a bit of a tour, as you will see if you persevere here, we did in fact get!
A swift piece of research revealed that Boca Chica does have Tricom as a fixed-line option but this particular company does not offer any kind of internet service, so… in spite of the breaking of the Verizon (Codetel) monopoly, here in Boca Chica, we remain wholly at the mercy of Verizon as internet service provider for now. With that fact established we were presented with a number of options to go for on our new venture with the new www connection – known by the dynamism-inspiring name of ‘Flash’ – details available, in line with modern ways, either on the Verizon web page or by calling the Verizon call center.
Unfortunately we did not get off to a very ‘flashy’ start because right from the beginning we were told in no uncertain manner that anybody requesting a new line must have a credit card! That was certainly not the case in the past and a very strange request we thought, particularly in a country where it is a minority of people who possess such a luxury. After two more phone calls and several telephone assistants later it was grudgingly acknowledged that we could after all pass directly on to having a personal evaluation… if a cedula (personal identification) number was provided. The evaluation department called a few days later, when for once we were absent, and on calling Verizon the next day the assistant boldly announced that when the new line applicant is not locatable after a single call… the entire enquiry is dropped! The company’s presumed expertise in communication doesn’t appear to extend to leaving a call back number or even calling again! Blimey, we had to start from scratch and request the evaluation procedure all over again. A number of days later when they called us back, we were ever so fortuitously on the premises and even able to deal with the incoming call on the spot. The evaluator had a standard questionnaire including matters such as personal income and in general wanted information that we immediately deemed to be too private to offer up merely for the installation of a new telephone line, especially as at the same address we of course have a long standing standard account which has always punctually been paid every month for upwards of six years. Thankfully at this point we experienced a kind of miraculous quantum leap when suddenly without further ado the evaluator came completely around and stated that we very soon would be called by somebody for the installation process to commence. Flash was truly beckoning now, because after the promised call and within the promised 1 to 10 days the basic line was efficiently and correctly installed actually by a company sub-contracted to Verizon.
We now thought we were virtually home and dry just needing the DSL internet connection to be linked up according to procedure, because we had of course right at the outset ordered one new line with a side order of DSL. However, the line-installation technician sowed the first seed of doubt concerning a flashy finish, when he stated that the DSL connection was a completely separate matter! It was so separate it hadn’t even been registered that we required the internet service when making that ground-breaking forward jump with the evaluator!
Therefore in reluctant obedience to Verizon’s practices we again had to place our order for the DSL service. Numerous phone calls from our side revealed varying attitudes to this new situation from various Verizon employees. The majority though were of the opinion that, in spite of our repeatedly placed order for the infamous DSL link, it was not possible to request the internet facility until the full processing of the line installation had been completed… which clearly in Verizon’s eyes meant something far more than an up and running line, because each time we contacted the dear old company we were communicating without any trouble whatsoever on this very line. Finally, after innumerable calls on the perfectly working new line, one of the representatives kindly explained that this separation was necessary in order for us to qualify for the special offer of free installation that currently applied. Good one Verizon… clearly, we liked the ‘free’ sound, but the question, “Why the great separation?” still hangs in the air.
Anyway…the requisite number of days passed, the request for DSL service was finally registered and accepted and we were given a code number which allowed us to visit the central office in Santo Domingo where you get the rare opportunity to talk face to face with Verizon staff and pick up your internet modem kit. This little maneuver allows you to carry out the auto-installation for RD$600 (US$20) less than the cost of asking for a real live representative to visit you. The kit was tucked under an arm, returned home and installed in a jiffy. After that happy brief interlude of speedy accomplishments and personal contact we now had to return to the bad old habits of repeated phone calls to try and move us to the end game.
The first of a new series of calls revealed that between 1 and 7 working days the modem line would be opened. Meanwhile a friendly chat with a valued acquaintance, actually close to the very heart of DR1, concluded that all they have to do at the Verizon end is “flick a switch” in order to open up service on the new modem. At Verizon they were regrettably adamantly opposed to “just” flicking that switch, because in spite of receiving a promising call on a new day 3 from a representative in the data-department where a guy told us he would call us right back after checking the line and knowing that all was properly installed at our end… he didn’t! Nobody did! The following day we took the initiative again and called to ask what was happening. Dramatically, the appeasing story of “completion between 1 and 7 working days” now focused exclusively on the 7! As we got very near to day 7 the Verizon representative clearly felt squeezed by the egg timer rapidly running out of descending granules and emphatically announced that by 8 am on day 7 – if we still didn’t have service – we “officially” would be able to phone up and claim that the company had not complied with their promises. At 8.30 am on day 7 the representative – always a different one and thereby amply abetting the discontinuity – made a temporal recalculation and offered that we could call after 3.45 pm because that now would, after the improvised new calculation, be 7 full working days. Lo and behold – by 3.45 the long awaited green lamp on the modem signaling an open line remained just as subdued as it had always done!
The next phone call of ours duly acknowledged that 7 completely and entirely full working days had passed and that we now could have a ‘numero de reclamacion’ (complaints number) to pronounce on any subsequent calls we might wish to make. The memory bells were jangling with this ‘numero de reclamacion’, because we had been precisely in the same place the last time we had the “Verizon blues” as explained in our blog posting of Aug 31, 2003… you could even call it a ‘flash’ back. Nothing could be done on that passing seventh day but the next day, unflinchingly with the empowering complaints number in hand, we called again. “Yes, the connection is still under review,” the representative this time said. “Absolutely at maximum just another two days to complete the job,” the optimistic representative continued… “Only two more processes to go!” Hmm… we thought that switch-flicking was only one process!
As a pleasant surprise we got a phone call from Verizon on the ninth day, a very nice phone call actually, whereby an amiable member of the personnel called to innocently ask what our problem was! Extraordinary, with all the phone calls we had made and all the computer tracking systems in operation she really didn’t know! Well… patiently we told her and she thanked us politely and said she would investigate and hopefully somebody would open the line the following day! Which indeed somebody surprisingly did! So with patience and a little help from a long row of willing but team-wise not very flashing Verizon staff we did get there in the end.
Was it worth all the effort? Unreservedly yes. Our Flash connection works like a dream and has already proven to be indispensable working up to 7 times faster than the old dial-up service at 384 Kbps. The satisfaction is matched only by the new-found contentment of being freed from the tedious habit of calling Verizon on a daily basis for the last month!

Monday, March 28, 2005
In the years we have been in Boca Chica we have seen the same explosion in telephonic communication just as anywhere else in the world. Most eye-catching of all is the now entirely universal use of mobile cellular phones. A short résumé of the cellular options lists four distinct companies offering services. They are, probably in order of customer base, Verizon, Tricom, Orange and Centennial.
A casual ‘Playa Vista survey’ reveals that any important differences among the four options can be summed up rather like this:
The service of each fully covers the largest center of population in the country, namely that of the municipality of Santo Domingo also conveniently encompassing Boca Chica. Orange would appear to be the most economic with Centennial too offering some very competitive deals. However, Verizon, being the longest established, has wider coverage in the country as a whole. People visiting from overseas and already subscribers to Orange’s system can even conveniently arrange to have their phone activate the moment they walk off the airplane in the Dominican Republic with a warm and welcoming “bienvenido to the DR” message. This roaming facility is also an option for visitors with Centennial and Verizon phones but such a convenience is generally considered to be far more expensive than simply activating a completely new account on arrival.
The increase in internet usage is less directly visible but still countable in the sense that there are now quite a number of sites dotted around town where visitors can drop in to maintain their usual contact with the outside world and read the all important DR1 Blogs section. The range of services offered is now far beyond the single dial-up speed through the single national operator Codetel (renamed Verizon last year) that we encountered when we first arrived more than seven years ago. Cable TV companies too, though mainly restricted to Santo Domingo and Santiago, have even joined in offering internet services. Diversification has also come to landlines because the same single national operator was joined by Tricom firstly in 1992 with long distance services and then later on with full telephone services. This and the entrance of other cellular companies to the market were made possible by new government legislation specifically to encourage competition beginning in the 1990s.
So… what has all this cellular talk to do with Playa Vista and Boca Chica you might ask?
The answer is that the motivation to report on the subject as a whole has come as a result of our own need to increase our telecommunications network and install an additional line affording a speedier connection to the WWW. But… more about that patience-trying Caribbean adventure next time. Meanwhile you may or may not like to check in the archives to see how Verizon (in those days Codetel) treated us the last time we had purpose to write about them well over a year ago in the blog posted on August 31, 2003.
So until next time’s speedy delivery… a quick over and out!

Friday, March 11, 2005
We receive quite a number of e-mails from people responding in some way or other to our Boca Chica/DomRep blog. The norm is to be asked for more information about something to do with the country in general, Santo Domingo in particular or, of course, good old Boca Chica. We did on one occasion, October 8th 2004 to be precise, post a piece of interesting correspondence in its entirety received from Sarah Frey in order to help keep the entertainment rolling. In her letter Sarah took us back to the late 1950s early 60s. It would seem that Fred of Washington DC was in town just after her as he refers to the civil war: of 1965 we presume. A war, by the way, that was relatively easily and quickly ended but not without a little friendly help from neighboring Uncle Sam. Since then the country has been moving ever forward on its increasingly politically democratic and peaceful path.
Fred says:
I came across your blog- love it!
As a child, I lived in Boca Chica during the civil war, on Calle Duarte. Of course, back then Boca Chica was a sleepy little village and not much happened. I remember how people would go the park and watch the novellas (soap operas) on the park’s TV. Anyway, I bet Boca Chica is quite different these days. I will continue checking your blog to see what’s up over there.
Regards,
Fred- Wash DC
We were wondering if there is anybody out there who can provide even more detail of that immediate post-Trujillo period or perhaps go back still further – amongst you native English speakers we some how doubt it, but we keep on being surprised. And thank you Fred!

Wednesday, March 2, 2005
We claim, and there is plenty of proof-positive, that Playa Vista attracts a very wide spectrum of individuals from around our little planet earth. All kinds of types, from all kinds of backgrounds earning their living in all manner of ways far beyond the rudimentary list of tinker, tailor and candlestick maker, gather in this crazy but entertaining corner of the world.
We hadn’t seen Randall – and for regular Playa Vista visitors we are not referring to the vacationing sunbather extraordinaire farmer from western-Kentucky – for some months, but brightly and breezily he came to the bar one Sunday lunchtime and generously handed us two personally signed copies of a work of fiction he has recently had published.
We are particularly pleased by the association because as he placed the books on the bar top he proclaimed that perhaps as much as 70% of it was written while ruminating here in the heart of Boca Chica relaxing on a Playa Vista sun lounger. For those of you who are general Dominican aficionados you will be interested to know that the content of the story clearly draws extensively on Randall’s more than two years of experiences in this country as well as his own extensive military background.
For your further information the writer’s full name is Randall H. Miller, he teaches and lives in Santo Domingo and the book, independently published by ‘iUniverse’, is titled “The Xpatriot”.

Saturday, February 19, 2005
Heavy-metalpecker

Knowing of our strange relationships with woodpeckers here at Playa Vista over the years one of the good friends of the house showed us the following piece from his Lonely Planet travel guidebook on the Dominican Republic and Haiti the other day. The word by word piece quoted below opens a somewhat quirky window on a peculiar point of view shared by the original inhabitants of this island – namely the Taino Indians:
Woodpeckers and women
Taino mythology is rich – and often bizarre. According to Taino elders, in the beginning the human race lived in two caves that could not be left on sunny days lest the people be turned into stone by the sun’s rays. Angered by the sun, an Indian named Guaguyona decided to leave the caves, and he convinced all of the women to join him. As days passed, the remainder of the men grew upset that they had no women. They went out to find some on rainy days, but to no avail. Then one day the men came upon several persons who were neither male nor female. The men tried to catch them but the genderless creatures slipped through their grasps like eels. A chief then sent for some people whose hands had turned rough from a disease, and with their roughened hands the diseased people were able to catch the slippery, sexless creatures. The men held the genderless creatures against the ground, bound their hands and feet, and covered their bodies with woodpeckers!. The birds pecked at the place where the woman’s sex organs would be, effectively turning the creatures into women. And this, according to Taino mythology, is how men again came to enjoy the company of women. Conveniently, the sun’s rays stopped turning people into stone from that day forward, and people were able to go about freely during daylight hours.
Bringing the subject right up to date we can resolutely and thankfully confirm that people, gendered or genderless, do indeed continue to go around in daylight hours free from any fear of woodpecker attack or being transformed into stone for that matter. It goes without saying that in this land of almost continuous sunshine it would be perversely restrictive if people felt they could only venture out on rainy days.
Clearly the woodpeckers are equally free to roam around for in spite of our last entry on the subject (November 8th), which even portended the end of our association with Woody, he is very much still out and about. Our inhibiting plastic mesh most certainly ended the incessant rapping at the kitchen window where he had been so active but after lying low he seems to have come back with a vengeance though be it in a different style. For several weeks there was no sign of him until he, totally out of character, quietly appeared again at the other, unmeshed, kitchen window just staring at his own reflection. The further good news is that he now starts his visits later in the mornings and is very much less physical towards the window and therefore less disturbing of the peace. The bad news is that he then flits upstairs where he has found renewed vigor and interest in the frame of the reflective glass door which by way of a new challenge is aluminum. He comes to rest almost in exactly the same place each time; he admires himself in the window as before and now generates a remarkable staccato drilling sound with his heavily aggressive beak on the painted metal frame. As yet the metal has held up but unfortunately his toilet control hasn’t… for after each visit he leaves an acidic pile of waste material immediately beneath his hammering station on the nicely polished wooden floor.
So, we wonder, is it that our newly re-named “pecker” is in this bizarre way trying to relive the days of yore and re-staking his claim to a bigger piece of the action as the Taino Indians clearly allowed his ancestors to have… or has the crazy little head-banging heavy-metalpecker just brain-damaged himself with his indiscriminate pecking and finally gone totally mad?

Sunday, February 13, 2005
We do, where it is possible, like to give credit where credit is due and so due it is to a certain medium-sized casual furniture supplier in Santo Domingo. The company is known as ‘Aire Libre’ and can be found, if with some difficulty, in the heart of the Herrera industrial zone on the western side of Santo Domingo.
It was one of those usual bright warm Dominican ‘winter’ Saturday’s as we journeyed into Santo Domingo with a friend of the Playa Vista family, “Tio”(Uncle) Bob. The story began quite spontaneously as things often do in this tropical idyll: “Where did you get your sun loungers because I need one for my mother-in-law?” Bob asked. “Funny you should mention it,” we said, “we are on the verge of beefing up our own sun lounger collection for all those extra sun worshippers that thankfully keep popping up, and just the other day we got a lead on a place that could offer a very competitive price on our favorite brand… much better than even Ferreteria Americana where we bought our original supply some five years ago.” We actually started the popularity of this particular brand when we discovered the attractive looking reasonably priced ‘Master’ design and in subsequent years noticed the proliferation of this very same design up and down the length of the Boca Chica beach.
Anyway…. back to the mutual mission that we now had going in Bob’s little green Jeep where we checked back to Base Camp Playa Vista for directions to the recently acquired lead on the company in question. This was to be the only hiccup in the entire exercise: finding that particular company in the maze of the industrial zone. They were located on Calle (Street) ‘B’… only B did not have any direct relationship with A or C or any other letter for that matter. After asking a myriad of people, who just confirmed that by getting to A, C or even D wouldn’t necessarily lead us to B, the local firemen came to the rescue finally giving us good clear directions so that we were able to arrive at the front entrance… 30 minutes after closing time! Amiable Dominican spontaneity was in our favor because the staff, fortunately still on the premises, opened up the door, let us in and showed us their wares… and the deal was consummated both for Playa Vista and the needy mother-in-law in one almost seamless exercise. Her particular sun lounger was more urgently needed, so we set off with just this urgent one tightly strapped to the roof of our vehicle with the promise of a call regarding a follow up delivery of 10 more after the weekend.
On Monday the phone rang to ask if we wanted the loungers delivered that day at the very reasonable charge of RD$500. “Sure thing,” we said and a few hours later the delivery man turned up exactly as promised without any difficulty in finding us, sun loungers neatly wrapped up, and offloaded them into our store room ready for use the next day.
So why don’t you pop by and check the new batch out for yourselves while you soak up the sun, lounging in style!

Thursday, January 27, 2005
After a quick refreshing cold beer break (check last blog entry) we are on request back to the current state of evolution in Boca Chica.
As you may or may not know a number of businesses, for God only knows what reasons, have been closed recently in the Boca Chica main street (Calle Duarte).
As reported in our blog of 17/1/05 the ‘Cosmos Discotheque’ and ‘Zanzi Bar’ were closed because of internal misunderstandings between the two businesses and the owner of the building… a case completely unconnected to the closure by the authorities/police of several bars last week,
No firm reasons have been given although rumors as usual are aplenty. Some say that everything, for better or for worse, soon will be back to normal… some that it is all part of the new government’s plans to permanently ‘clean up’ Boca Chica… whatever that means. If the ‘permanent clean up’ rumor is true we welcome it, that is if it means a long awaited and frequently promised removal of the all-too-many illegals and criminals roaming, and in some ways ruling, the streets and the beach.
However, Boca Chica is still alive and kicking although somewhat subdued. We can absolutely reassure you that service at Playa Vista continues as before and that there are, as usual, plenty of adventurous activities to go for on the Boca Chica beach and all over this exotic Latin Caribbean country in general.
So… why not make Boca Chica your port of entry and Playa Vista your base camp, as you explore further the Caribbean adventures on offer?
Hasta la Playa Vista!