November 2010 Domincan Republic

Kim and Jason on Thanksgiving 2010. She promptly invited us to Thanksgiving dinner the day she met us!

A feed to Lake Enriquillo from the pools.

Jason ignores the heated discussions with the armed guards at the roadblock. He's busy chatting up the local women while the others try to persuade the guards to let Freddie through with us. Freddie is the Haitian girlfriend of our driver but the guards don't want to let her proceed .

Chief Enriquillo, for whom the lake is named.

The motley crew who went to see Lake Enriquillo.
The big beers come in their own mini wrappers to keep the sweat from dripping on us. A couple of rounds and then back into the car to try to make it past another checkpoint.

Lake Enriquillo, Dom Rep as seen from afar. We stopped for a rest and had our snack of chicken feet prepared traditional Haiti style. Mine was too slippery to hold on to and ended up on the ground. Shucks. You basically just slurp the skin off the toes.

"She's the one who caused all this trouble" Curtis is saying as he points to his Haitian girlfriend, Freddie. We had quite the ordeal getting through the armed roadblocks set up to keep Haitians from entereing the country. We had to leave Freddie at one to continue, then couldn't get back through them with her in the vehicle, either. It took us all afternoon to get back!

Pools at the head of Lake Enriquillo.

A few beer bottles behind the Club Nautico near where we anchored in Barahona, DR<.

They just drive these heavy treads along the road and traffic must swerve around them.

Curtis liked the pumpkin dip I made for Thanksgiving.

Jason and Karen Thanksgiving in Barahona, DR

Our Thanksgiving feast at the yacht club

New friends and their families enjoy the feast

The harbor at Barahona, Dom Republic

A coal pile to power a huge sugar factory in the distance. The ship's bow is out of the water but later that week, it was laden with sugar and left.

The yachts at Club Nautico in Barahona. The big trimaran is Kinky G, a project our fellow Americans are working on to rebuild into a tourist cat.

The local boats at the yacht club in Barahona

YOLO in Barahona, Dominican Republic

Cliffs as we approached Barahona. A definite line in red and white in the cliffside.

Dec 2010 Cayman Brac

Jagged coral all over the bluff and shores.

Jason in the Bat Cave. Several holes in the ceiling where rock has collapsed let the light in.

Looking straight up into a chimney like hole in the ceiling of a cave.

One of our guides, Greg, in the 'nose' of Skull Cave.

A chunk of stalactites that has fallen to the floor of the cave.

Inside Skull Cave. We were free to wander around in these caves, but tried not to touch the formations. Still, they were awesome and it was so cool to get up so close to them.

Flowstone formation in one of the caves. These formations are beautiful and amazing and so pretty up close.

Stalactites

Karen standing between a couple of floor-to-ceiling stalactites in Nana's Cave.

Karen next to some big stalactite formations in Peter's Cave.

Keno, our knowledgeable guide in the entrance to Nana's Cave. We had to climb down some jagged rocks to get into this one, but it opened up into an awesome spectacle of a cave!

The entrance to Nana's Cave.

One of the biggest displays of blow-up Christmas 'ornaments' I've ever seen! They lined the side of the road for at least a block. All from one individual's collection.

More Christmas blow-up decorations.

Looking out of a hole in Peter's Cave.

Karen near a cave formation in Peter's Cave.

The Bubble House. Guess why??

A stalactite formation outside the Bat Cave. Doesn't it look like a big tree?

Bat Cave formations.

Greg and Jason in Rebecca's Cave, named for an infant that died from pneumonia after the family used the cave for shelter in a hurricane back in 1936.

Big waves crashing against the dock on the north side of Creek, Cayman Brac. The day before this shot, we were moored at a mooring ball just beyond the foaming waves to clear into the country and it was quite pleasant. A cold front moved thru and whipped up the wind and waves so this dock was unusable.

Cayman Brac Reef Resort on the SW corner of the island.

Looking down into the Cayman Blue waters off the boat.

A Cuban refugee boat now on display at an intersection. There used to be lots of Cubans that fled here, got food and water and went on to Central America and then crossed the border to the US via Mexico. Now folks get into trouble if they give them food or water; they must move on or Immigration cracks down on them.

View of the bluff on Cayman Brac as we sailed around on arrival.

Cayman Brac is one of the friendliest, cleanest and most interesting islands we've visited in a while!