Vacation Journal – the next part

Wednesday, June 17th 2009

Today, our alarm went off way too early! At 5:40 am we were up and getting ready for our tour. It was a bit gray outside, but the weather here can change within 5 minutes so we did not think anything bad off it. We already had our bag ready, seeing we prepped it last night so we could sleep just a bit longer this morning. Around 6:30 the driver arrived and we were the first in. 10 minutes later, the second Dutch couple was picked up. We chatted along the way and all seemed to be going quite comfy and OK. Shortly thereafter, another (older) couple got in. Then we had to wait a while for Wimpy. But he, unfortunately, had some bad news. His captain had called him, informing him the weather was too bad to be going out on the boat. It would be of no use to us, seeing the water was too wild and the clouds and rain would spoil the rest. So we set another date, next Friday, and were all taken back to our hotels.
There, breakfast had just started so we headed towards the hall immediately. It really was bad weather seeing before we were in, the rain hit us hard! It was almost dark outside and the rain fell down like it had a bet on being the fastest rain ever! We were really glad we were inside at this time!

After breakfast, we went back to our room and cleaned up our stuff. Around 9, Laurent of Neckermann would be at our hotel. We decided to take a small, free, selling tour he was offering to a small cigar factory. It was owned by a German family. So we booked our trip there, so we could still see something this day, and keep dry seeing it was inside. We made our appointment and were being picked up around 11 the same day. Seeing the weather really was not nice, and we had some time to kill before heading out (again), we decided to go to the bar between the reception and the second pool. We had bought some postcards with Laurent, which we decided to write there while enjoying a (non alcoholic) drink.

Here you can see George writing a postcard! Yes his first in many, many years! If you click on the picture, you can see that he uses a very “female colored” pen *smile*. Steph was the proud receiver of the card, by the way.

When it was a bit dryer again, we went to the room to put some stuff away and get ready for our trip to the cigar factory.

We were picked up in time and the drive there took about 25 minutes. It was a small “factory” which was quite cozy and also very interesting.

You can see one of the workers with a large cigar. Smoking while working, some people would be very jealous here (seeing it is not allowed here anymore).

At the end of the informative talk only Joyce and I bought a small prezzie for some people at home. A souvenir one would call it *winks*. Then we were taken back with the small van.

After we came back from our little cigar tour, we went to “Pikalo” for some slices of pizza and chicken nuggets with fries. But it started to rain, again, so we hurried back to our room. There we put away the souvenirs and stuff we had ready for the tour.
Then we took the USB card reader and went to the internet center. It was a lot more expensive than our internet is and it is slower as well… But we already knew that beforehand and that’s why we decided to go online once a week. We’d check our mail, update my Photobucket, send some mails to friends with the link to the pictures. And George would also check nu.nl since he’s addicted to that site. George and I both took a PC each for one hour. Joyce and I would share. George was busy arguing with the website where he would be able to check his mail online. But since he’d never used it before, he did not know how to work it. So he got aggravated… When I was ready, I let Joyce use the PC and helped George out. Luckily I succeeded *winks*.

After the hour was up, we went back to the room to bring away the memory cards and all and took a PSP and books and went back to the bar where we wrote our vacation cards earlier that day. But the two irritating “gay guys” from the plane were there. And due to all the rain, it was very stuffy there. So we went to the bar above the pool and there we played our games and read our books while enjoying a nice drink. Because of all those drinks, Joyce had to go to the loo. But it was very difficult to open the lock and she got her finger stuck… So she came back with a thick and bloody finger. I urged her to ask a cup of ice and keep her finger cool. It would not make it all go away but it would help against the swelling and bleeding. So she did what I “told” her to and it did help a bit. But not enough so we went to the room for a bandage and we also took along the GameBoy for George.
We stuck around till a quarter past five and then went back to the room to get ready for dinner. Around six we were back at “Pikolo” We enjoyed another drink and then headed for the diner. But Joyce and I first wanted a toilet brake before dinner. But two toilets were really dirty and the third (and last) one had no toilet paper. So we decided to have dinner first and then head for another toilet after that.

We had another lovely meal and then visited the loo and headed on towards the beach.
I wanted to make some more lovely sun set pictures, but unfortunately I was a bit too late.

But we did have a nice walk, which is very good after a very good meal. And I took some very nice pictures after all, which could have been more, if George was not getting cranky for me stopping to make pictures every five steps or so I made…

After about an hour we headed back to our room. George ran to the toilet and Joyce and I smeared ourselves with “DEET”. Then I started to write about this day in the journal Joyce and I have been keeping so far. George and Joyce played with the PSP’s and after a while, we closed our eyes.

Thursday June 18th 2009

This day started out really well but ended kinda blurry and nauseated… But let’s start at the very beginning (a very good place to start, according to Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music” movie *1965*).

Not everything is 100% clear in my memory and we really could not write a decent journal entry about it because it “happened” to both Joyce and myself. But I will so my best to be as accurate as I can. Here I go:
We got up and dressed and went to breakfast, as we usually do. After breakfast, we got into our bikini’s and grabbed our books and all and went to the first swimming pool. We had a lot of fun playing with our ball and enjoying the sun. We ate at “Pikalo”. And then Joyce and I met up with some Americans and enjoyed a few drinks with them. Seeing it was our friend Sabine’s birthday, we had promised her to toast a drink (or two) on her. So we did. After a few beers we had some Mama Juana shots. I will provide you with some extra Mama Juana information (in addition to the Wikipedia link that is in the previous sentence) before going on…

Mama Juana information

Mama Juana is the indigenous drink of the Dominican Republic. It is a brew of twigs and bark and herbs, with rum and red wine and honey. Some love it, some hate it! Some claim that it is an aphrodisiac for men, but also that it cures all of what ails you, purifying organs and acting as a medicinal supplement. As a medicinal supplement and as an item that you will be ingesting, bear in mind any allergies and go slowly the first time trying Mama Juana. There have been strong —and dangerous— reactions.
There are suggestions for how to make a recipe of Mama Juana, but no hard and fast rule.
Start by soaking the roots and twigs for 3 days to 2 weeks in rum or red wine or a combination of both. At the end of that period, throw out the liquid. Then refill with equal amounts of rum and red wine and honey. You may choose to leave out the red wine, but then it makes it a really strong drink if the only liquid is straight rum. The wine, with a lower alcohol level, lends flavor while watering it down a bit. Top it up with the same ingredients in the same general proportions.
The measurements are very loose and the recipe is forgiving.
It may take a couple of batches for you to decide how you like it best. You can pour it off once steeped to your taste and get the next batch going. The longer you leave it to steep, the stronger the flavor will be.
Opinions are mixed on whether you should leave the roots to dry out again. If you like the wine or like it sweet, you can leave it sitting in the wine or honey water to infuse. You would then have to throw out that soaking liquid if left for an excessive amount of time. You can drink it straight or with fruit juice or as you would use rum in a cocktail.

You can consume and refill the same bottle for 10 years. After that period, the bark and roots will have lost its potency.

So Joyce and I did not really know what Mama Juana was and we did find out today! Even though I must add that the drink they offer you at the hotels are really made quickly and, compared to the "real" Mama Juana, are lousy reproductions of the original. But there are many recipes and many people make it different ways. But one thing in all recipes is the same: wine – rum – honey. But the hotels use cheap (watered) wine and much rum and no honey (too expensive). So we already had some drinks and also drank some shots of this stuff. We had a lot of fun. The Americans called the bartender Brad Pitt. But I offered he should be called Obama! He had the same color and every time you asked for a drink, he could do it. So: YES he can! That made everyone laugh and got us another round of drinks.

While we were enjoying drinks, we were photographed by the hotel photographer. *we later tried to get hold of these pictures, but they were extremely expensive, so we did not buy any*.
Then there was a water polo game around 3 pm which turned into a Dominican versus American game. We were cheering for the Americans while getting another drink (and another and another…). At one moment I felt myself getting sick and sicker and I knew it was too late. I tried to get out of the pool, put on my slippers (gosh what a job!) and at the time I finally reached my chair, I vomited… I know it isn’t something I am proud of, but I just could not stop it anymore. I know that George then came up to me and he wanted to take me to our room. I wanted to find Joyce because I could not find her before and I was afraid I lost her. Silly me. George had to drag me along, or so he told me, because I only wanted to go back to find her. I can’t really remember. The only thing I know was that I woke up, I guess about 4 hours later, and felt nauseated. So I threw up, again and again, also not something I am proud of either. But I looked around and I saw Joyce laying beside me, George was not around (he was eating dinner) and I went to bed again. I felt so tired…

We were supposed to go with Wimpy on his tour the next day…

Friday June 19th 2009

…but that morning we let Wimpy know that it was not possible to go along. I did not go to breakfast, Joyce and George did, but I just kept in bed. I was still tired because, though I did sleep in between the going back and forth to the toilet. It was all too much. Too much alcohol running through my system. And believe me, I did not drink any alcohol for a whole week after this fiasco!

When George and Joyce came back from breakfast, Joyce was angry. She had lost her glasses and she could not find them anywhere. When she was awake around 6 am she had even gone to the front pool to search for it. And while she was there, she told Wimpy’s driver we would not be able to join. Though I did send a text message in time, Wimpy had not informed his driver yet… So it was all arranged. Except for the glasses… Joyce and George did bring me some breakfast, but it did not taste good and only made my stomach twist and turn again.

You know, I will post this blog now and will write more as soon as possible again. I hope you don’t mind. But if I keep on writing, I will never be able to put this post online… So I will send this and please keep checking for journal updates :)

TTFN Cyn xxx