take 31

Well, friends. Not much to report these days. Back at Playa Bonita, back to walking up and down the beach, horsing around in the waves, sitting on the veranda and exercising a lovely routine. Life is still slow and simple. Sometimes there are novel little scenes - like the pups pictured above - but mostly the variations are minor - weather and sea changes, a sailboat on the horizon or frigate bird in the sky.

One variation has been the presence of film crews on our peninsula these last couple of days. (We were able to ignore them until today, when they came between us and two well-deserved pina coladas.) This morning, after an hour's walk along the beach to our favourite spot, we found our fish shack closed, and the area occupied by a film crew, 2 policia, and a half dozen life-size barbie dolls in thick makeup. Our desert island oasis of elderly bikini-clad Europeans had been transformed into a holding pen for would-be reality t.v. stars. Insupportable! Turns out they were filming a new NBC show called "Love in the Wild." Just what we all need.

But it was all right, really. A local man from the fish shack gave us a couple of cold sodas when he saw our downcast, thirsty faces and in typical Dominican style (I love this about the people here) he told us just to pay another time because we didn't have the right change. We left the strange scene, and one of us plucked down a coconut from a tree and hacked it open with his new machete (guess who?) and we scooped out the flesh with our fingers like hungry shipwreck survivors. And then, of course, we hallooed in the waves for a good long time. Beat that, Love in the Wild.

...