Our hotel has gained a strength now from it’s guests – quite hard to explain really.   With each week that goes by, the new arrivals seem to be ‘carried’ through their first ‘awkward’ feeling (if they have one at all) by the people who have been in the camp for a while, with friendly greetings and a warmth that makes everyone feel almost instantly at home.   Jim and I are enjoying the camaraderie that exists in the hotel and seems to go on and on, regardless of who arrives these days.

Below are some of the photos we have taken of our guests and my son Drew in the last days as they surfed or kite-boarded in this great town.

For those who have surfed in Costa Rica, for example and had 4 hour post ‘plane transfers to find themselves in the middle of nowhere – facing good waves, yes, but otherwise nothing more, they are blown away by the fact that Cabarete has good surf AND so much to do and see afterwards.

Nick, one of our guests exclaimed, ”I can’t believe I didn’t know about the Dominican Republic before, but at least I have found it in November, giving me a chance to return again this winter”.   The surf is good here, sometimes it is fantastic, always fun – but it’s the town that gets people again and again.  We are starting to refer to the phenomenon as the ‘first day fall’ , meaning that however good the intentions of staying sober, that first night out on the town, where the atmosphere on the beach could well be unique, is resulting in most of our guests spending their first full day sleeping off the night before.

Don’t know who this fellah is , but he hits the lip very nicely.

15 kids all ran for the water – shouting with joy as they paddled out.  What a life they have here!   The waves were fairly big and they all entered the water just as a large set came through; some of them didn’t make it out with the pack, but all persevered until they reached the line up.  I sat and watched the sun begin to rise over the glassy water.  God I love that place at that time – I took some shots and I’ll post them in a bit.

This afternoon, we take delivery of another big container of furniture, etc. More and more enquiries to deal with each day – it looks like Christmas may already be pretty full!

We are not taking photos now (for publication) until completion as all the items currently being done are the finishing ones and we’d like to keep them under wraps until everything is ready.

There’s also a photo of our pool table, which everyone told me would have to be put together by an expert. Not true – Jim and I did it in a few hours without a cross word! We have it in the apartment right now for safe keeping (and a bit of practice of course!).