A new YT video for you!
Behind the Walls of Puerto Plata
or: Free Breakfast Will Get Us Every Time
Hello wonderful crew members. I'm happy to deliver our latest Youtube video for your viewing pleasure. I would love to hear your takeaways from these videos...Love 'em? Hate 'em? Want more of something? Let me know.
The odd thing about making these videos is that I feel less like a YouTuber and more like a slightly demented historian—always living in the past, and no idea what country I am in.
As we race toward the British Virgin Islands this morning, this video still has us firmly in the Dominican Republic, which means I get a second chance to savor the good moments… and groan about the others.
We hope you enjoy...
Further reflections on Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic which didn't make it into the video: When you arrive in a new country by boat, there’s always a brief window where you are technically nowhere. Not cleared in-you are able to see the new country but not be in it. That doesn't go down very well with a dog who hasn't peed for 27 hours. Mercifully Gypsy and I were allowed off the boat, but not back on.
So we sat there on the marina steps like abandoned luggage—panting (both of us), polite (just Gypsy), and increasingly judgmental—while Ken handled Custom's inspection of the boat: smiling, gesturing, bravely deploying his three words of Spanish, (banos, cerveza and denero - there is a fourth, but its not repeatable) and at one point distracting the officials with his guitar playing.
I am not saying his guitar playing is bad, but it is definitely distracting.
What I am saying is that language barriers, paperwork, and administrative gravity eventually gave way, and we were finally allowed back on our own boat. Victory.
The video features us doing what we always do: poking around, asking questions, wandering into places we’re not entirely sure we belong, and trying to show you what cruising life actually looks like—free breakfasts, trying to be "cool tourists" while butchering foreign place names, and all.
As always, thank you for being part of this strange, floating experiment.
⚓
Kirsten, Ken & Gypsy 🐾
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