Our wonderful Inspirations - Julia & Carlos

An invitation to a BBQ at Sybille and Ralph

Annual Dinghy Drift

Another rainy Day in Luperon

Today has been a fairly lazy day here on board of Juca, because it has been raining all afternoon. This is always a good opportunity to catch up on things. Once we had finished our school work, everyone was allowed to do whatever they wanted to do. I have been catching up on computer work, Julia and Carlos decided on watching a movie and Sven did take a nap...... everyone happy which is the main thing. Nothing much new has been happening here on board, we are getting ready to move on and starting on a few maintaining jobs of the boat, cleaning and repairing our anchor winch. We have been here in Luperon now for over 3 months and it is time to change scenery, but it has been a good experience, especially for the children. They have been going to school now for over 4 weeks and finally we can see the results of the spanish language, which is great, so all the effort was worth while.In the pictures where Julia and Carlos are wearing Sunglasses, when they were cutting up some onions for me Carlos had this brilliant idea and thought it would help preventing his eyes from crying

If we are not doing homework, Carlos is playing with his friend Almos. They get along very nice and slowly Almos is learning a bit of english so they start to have little conversation, very cute to see that. Almos Dad has taken the two out for a sail, which is also highly appreciated, hoping that Carlos catches the sailing bug, like his Dad did when he was little.

Julia is also going good with her Dinghy driving lessons, the other day Sarah taught her parking the Dinghy on the dog...... still you better watch out when Julia is on the helm.....

I am have nearly finish my Yoga course, that we have started back in the beginning of August, hoping that this will help and count towards my Yoga Therapy Training..... .

A Midsummer nights Dream

I just had a look on our blog and oh gosh, it has been ages since I have updated our blog, but I will post you some pictures from this Friday. A group of sailors have been working on presenting the play from W. Shakespeare .... A Midsummer nights Dream"...... I thought that would be a great opportunity to introduce Julia and Carlos into the Theather world. Julia was very excited and was busy all day Friday to choose the right dress, make-up and what shoes to wear.... finally five o'clock came and made our way over to Puerto Plato where the play was suppose to be. It was a very funny play and Esther had rewritten the play to the scene of Luperon. They had practiced for weeks on end and they did a great job. It was light and funny to follow and Julia and Carlos were both mesmerized by the story, I believe it was helpful that they knew all the actors in person and were wondering why they all got dressed up ?

Afterwards we had a few drinks and Karaoke that night..... I always wanted to be the last person to leave a party and this time I managed.... I stayed to the bitter end .... dancing and singing along to Donna Summer, ABBA and many more stars.... watch out our new CD will be on the market soon..... make sure to reserve your personal copy :)

The downside of all this singing and dancing is, that it nearly took me two days to recover... autsch blister on my feet, sore muscles everywhere and a sore throat..... and very very tired.... because believe it or not I still got up early the next morning for my Yoga session .... only to fall asleep again as soon as I was trying to relax in the Shavasana pose.......

However we had fun all the way and that what is important.......

A trip to Puerto Plato

This morning I met Shanti and Teresa for our yoga philosophy class on our boat. We indulged into three hours of the "Fundamental of Yoga ", and as usual I love it very much. I get so much out of these teaching and always count my blessing that I have found such beautiful souls down here in Luperon. We finished at lunch time and Shanti and Teresa had planned to go to Puerto Plata and asked me whether I would like to join them. I discussed it shortly with Sven and then made up my mind to join them in some fun, I love spontanious outings!

I packed my camera and bag and off we went. We grabbed a Dominican Taxi, see how many people we can fit in one car. This time we were lucky and we only had to share the car with three other passengers and the driver, pretty full and sticky. Never mind we survived it. Once we arrived in Puerto Plata we made our way to the waterfront to have some lunch. We filled our tummy with Yummy wraps. After that we went for a little stroll and a photo session along the beach. The beach is not as pretty as in other places on this island, but it was good enough for our photo session. After that we did a little bit of shopping and then it was time to go home again. My feet were sore and swollen from all the walking in Puerto Plata, but I was really happy and content in my heart.

We all agreed that this was a great afternoon with lots of fun and

laughter and that we have to do it again soon. Thank you Teresa and Shanti for such lovely day!

Julia is taking driving lessons

It takes a whole community to raise a child. Fred was saying that this is a african proverb, but we are taking advantage of this opportunity here in Luperon. Sarah has offered to teach Julia how to drive a Dinghy. Sarah came over on Saturday morning at 9 o'clock and Julia hopped into the Dinghy. Julia was very excited about that and off they went. It was so funny to watch them...but .Julias navigation skills improved by the minute. First she was all over the water, but slowly Sarah taught her to make use of the rudder properly. Julia did really well... I am very proud of my girl.

A trip to the waterfalls

This trip has been on our agenda for a long time and finally we had a chance to go and we took it. This trip totally exceeded my expectations. I had heard that it is worthwhile going and that it is beautiful, but I believed that we would be walking on a nice track along the river until we come to these amazing waterfalls. I was mistaken and experienced a trip of a lifetime....
We met with David and Jan and her niece Ruth at nine at Puerto Blanco. We had to take Julia and Carlos out of school for that, but I suppose that there is always room for a fieldtrip. This time all four of us sat in the back of the truck and enjoyed the ride very much. When we arrived at the Waterfalls in Llanos de Perez, we changed into our bathing clothes. Once we paid for our tickets we got a life jacket and a helmet to wear. Well that should have made me aware, that we were not just going for a walk. We had to cross over 12 streams until we finally reached the bottom of the waterfall. Here Jan and Julia stayed behind, as Jan had done it before and did not want to go again and Julia smelled the adventure well before us :) From then on we had to swim, dive, slide and climb up the waterfall, we actually worked our way up inside the waterfall... The water was cold and refreshing and we had lots of fun. There are 27 waterfalls alltogether, but we only paid to go up to number seven. Though once we reached plateau number 7, our guide made us turn around and now we had to slide and jump down the waterfalls....uuuiiiiiii..... what fun that was. Carlos had a bit of a hard time jumping and sliding down in a couple of places, but he did very well and overcame his anxiety with no problem. We were so proud of him, what an achievement for him as well as for us. When we arrived down the bottom, we were exhausted and I even was a big shaky..... but very happy. We all enjoyed a beautiful lunch afterwards and shared our exciting experiences and decided that we all wanted to do it again, but next time we are doing all 27 waterfalls....... what wonderful adventure and something to look forward to!