I saw this sculpture and couldn't resist posing my little (150cc) motorcycle next to it. There is a sculptor around Puntacana who has been very busy making welded-steel pieces that can be seen around the area. This one is the most gimmicky one I've seen, and the only painted one I've seen.
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I rolled through south, central DR a few days ago, near the capital. There is an area just north of the main airport where about seven Major League Baseball clubs have facilities, or "academias de beisbol". I'm not sure if MLB players ever stop in or train there, but they are likely scouting and training facilities for the farm league. Many Dominicans play on Major League Baseball teams, including perhaps the best known, Sammy Sousa, who grew up near here. UPDATE: The Seattle Mariners officially opened their facility on Feb. 13. Here is what the DR1 Daily News had to say: Seattle Mariners have new academy in Boca Chica Kevin Mather, president of The Seattle Mariners, general manager Jack Zduriencik and star player Robinson Cano were at the opening of the new baseball academy built by the Seattle Mariners half an hour's drive from Santo Domingo yesterday, Thursday 13 February 2014. The academy is not far from where Cano grew up. The team spent US$7.3 million to build the state-of-the-art training center in Los Farallones, Boca Chica. The Mariners is the team that recently committed to major contracts for two Dominican stars in the World Baseball Classic winning team, Robinson Cano and Fernando Rodney. Some 40 prospects have already been signed and are training at the new academy, as reported in Listin Diario. Built by architect Jose Mella, the new facility includes three full-sized fields, dormitories for housing up to 80 prospects at a time, classrooms and computer labs for young players to study English and other programs. The Mariners previously shared an older facility with the Dodgers in the Dominican Republic. You can see the facilities in Google Maps. Enter "Boca Chica, Dominican Republic" and look to the northeast. What the heck am I doing? Only a few weeks here and I’m trying to change the country! Well, those who know me know that this is one of my annoying little habits; I like to dream. Since I got here, I haven’t watched whales, I haven’t been to a waterfall or on a zip line, I’ve rested on a beach for, oh, maybe an hour. I like to just sit on my motorcycle and ride, and plot good things. 1. Bridge over the River Yaque OBJECTIVE: To improve the hanging pedestrian bridge across the Rio Yaque del Norte between Los Calabazos and a nearby community. Okay, this place is lousy with beaches - and I've seen plenty - but I took some time off today to just relax on this one, the public beach in Las Galeras. The little town is in the northwest corner of the island, way at the end of a peninsula. It's so far out of the way, that the tourist there have a feeling of being special, like they don't hang with the regular tourist crowds and only they know of this special place. They're right, Las Galeras is a special place indeed, and if you come here, don't tell anyone about it! My first destination when I arrived in the Dominican Republic was Mao and a small village nearby, where about a half-dozen men from Columbus County had been building a church. It took me a while, but I got the story and photos together, and Fuller Royal (I think) put it all in a full-page spread in The News Reporter last week. I have some video interviews that I hope to edit for you soon. Thanks everybody! When I'm not gloating about the beautiful weather and beaches down here, I have to admit that this 5-week trip has not been a cakewalk. Trying to find decent places to stay on the (very) cheap has been a real challenge. (In case you're wondering what class I'm travelling in, I've averaged about $20 US per night.) I've been in some nice rooms, and some not so nice. I've refused rooms that looked like hangouts for ex-cons trying to get back into old habits. I say all that because last night I found a beautiful place. I'm in Las Terrenas, on that little peninsula that points toward Puerto Rico, in a quaint apartment at Casa Robinson. This place looks like it was built in the 1950s and has a very "Catskills summer cottage" feel. It's very open, with louvered windows all around and I can just imagine the many families who have come here for wonderful vacations, and returned again and again in family traditions. I have plenty of room to spread out, a real table and chairs, and the noise isn't too bad. Anyway, my point is, I'm more forgiving here, and those who know me know that's kind of rare. The place isn't perfect, but where I would look at flaws with dread and disdain in other hotel rooms, I see them here through a different glass, with giddy ease, like I'm on my first few dates with a woman, and not plotting divorce. Things are prettier through this glass and I wish I could see everything, all the time through it. I wish people could always see strangers and friends with this warmth and grace. I wish U.S. citizens could view immigrants this way, for example, and if the Israelis could see Palestinians through this glass, we wouldn't have generations of destroyed lives there. What the world needs right now is a whole lot of forgetting about the things in the past that divide us, and a desire to look into the future with earnest hope to come together. The lead security officer at Haiti Communitere, where I stayed in Port au Prince for a few days, gave me a motorcycle ride to the bus station. Here are clips that pretty well represent some of the less damaged parts of the city.
Why would I pay $1.25 for a garbage bag? Well, I got caught in the rain about 30 miles from my hotel. It wasn't a heavy rain, but enough to soak me. I found these guys who ride in the rain for a living - they hang out on their motorcycles near bus stops and give people rides for "the last mile." I gave the guy 50 Pesos after he ran and got me a bag and custom tailored it for my arms and neck. And besides, he at first offered to give it to me.
Well, it started out that way. I walked to the beach with Miriam, a new friend I made while staying at the Gypsy Ranch in Sosua on the north shore. She's taking kite surfing lessons and instructors set up these cool structures to stake their claims to parts of the beach. Surfing is popular here, as the waves are really long. "Get on one of the big waves, "a surfer said to me," and when you reach the beach, you have a long walk back."
I'm hesitant to post many photos of Haiti because so much has been shown already, and without being able to spend time with people, I only have these "drive-by" shots, this one was from the back of a "tap-tap" shared taxi. i stood on the bumper and held on. Just wanted you to know that even through exhaustive efforts by thousands of people, things are still a mess down here, especially in the Port au Prince area.
I started this morning in Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic amid poverty I could not have imagined a week ago. Then I traveled to Haiti. Consider if you can; what if your child was born here? Simple notions that may have helped propel the thousands of volunteers who come here to try in their own ways to give Haiti a new future. I have been collecting loads of material in the past few days and have had very little time to process it. I'll be in Haiti a few days and then I plan to head to the northern coast of Hispaniola where I should have time for more thorough updates.
Anyone ever see advertising inside airplanes? Amazing, but that's what I saw while flying Spirit from Ft. Lauderdale to the Dominican Republic. Several of the luggage bins were covered with ads. Sorry I didn't get a pic, but I was a bundle of nerves for several reasons.
The plane was fully loaded with partying tourists speaking several languages I didn't understand. The crowd behind my non-reclining seat did not know how to use their "inside-the-airplane" voices and they passed the two hours like they were in some kind of raucous bingo game in the middle of a drunken livestock auction. Click Like if you agree that air travel sure has changed. Landed in Santo Domingo and caught a cab to a hotel in town. I hope to get up to get up to Mao tomorrow to meet Darryl and Paul Whittington, Ted Williams, Ken Clark, Mark Creech, Doug Lane and Neal Turner as they work on the church. I had started this day with a few delicious eggs cooked by my Aunt Lucille in her Stuart, Florida home, and I'm finishing it with an apple that I bought here for 32 pesos. Leaving tomorrow (Wednesday) for Fort Lauderdale. Maybe I'll visit some relatives before flying out Thursday. Then while on Hispanola I hope to:
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