Life in Luperon
Karen
This is a looooooong one. 4 months in Luperon have been an incredible experience. Here are some highlights!
Friends
The sailing community is full of life here. We have the joy of getting to know people. For Christian and Flo it’s been a real change of pace - they now have a pack of kids to runaround with. The marina is so laid back that they have freedom to roam, to spend time doing crafts or practicing gymnastics along with a few boat jobs like laundry, garbage or filling water tanks. There are 2 families staying on the dock, so if they head to the marina there is sure to be another kid or 2 to hang with. There are weekly pool parties, beach walks and daily events to join if you are in the mood.
There is a lovely hike close by. We take our dingy over to a small beach, and can then walk through the forest and up to a viewpoint that has a 200 degree view. You can gaze out to the ocean, in the direction we arrived from with no glimpse of land. Just ocean and waves stretching as far as you can see. You can see Luperon and the beaches we visit, and look up and down the coast at rugged hills coated in lush green rainforest, dotted with homes and the outlines of farmers fences.
The other day we rented a scooter & a quad bike and went exploring. A gorgeous winding coastal road took us east to La Isabella, another picturesque small beach town west of Luperon. We passed through rural communities, farms, pastures with horses, donkeys cows and goats, and families hanging out in the shade of trees bursting with crimson or magenta flowers. The vibe of the people is laid back and happy.
It’s so friendly here, we are constantly meeting new people. The friends we met a few months ago now feel like old friends.
An activity we love is getting a crew of kids together in the dingy’s and heading out to the outer bay for some swiming, snorkeling and to cool off. The inner bay in Luperon is nick named ‘pooperon’ for the amount of liveaboard boats, so we dont tend to swim there! The outer bay is great though.
Flo’s 10th Birthday party - we invited all the kids to a pool party. We at pizza, cup cakes and played pass the parcel. This was the day her uncle arrived which made it extra special! More on that visit here: https://www.sailwejammin.com/blog/mayo-man-visits-luperon
Flo and I attend weekly Yoga on Mondays and Fridays - such a treat. Our yoga teacher even does haircuts!
There are daily events in Luperon. We attend the captain’s table each week and shut her down once in a while. There are also Bingo fundraisers and we found out that Flo is a beast for Karaoke night!! I even attended a Komubucha making workshop with the kids.
The banjo player
During Crusing season, there is a series of 3 shows called the ‘Harbour Companion’ that is put on by a group in the bay. We attended the first one, and saw there was a music component, so Michael got to work preparing to be a part of the 2nd one. He met Bruce, a fantastic guitare player and together they stole the show. Bruce accompanied Michael on some traditional irish tunes and they sounded just awesome together! This led to many more jam sessions and 2 more perfomances. Seeing Michael up on stage, playing his music was incredible I was SO proud of him and blown away - he’s actually really good!!
Sewing!
Flo and I took a shopping trip with our friend Terry to check out a fabric store in Puerto Plata. Its been wonderful to have a freind so into sewing! She is a quilter as well as having made many canvas items for her boat. She even lent me her Sailrite to do some repairs to our Genoa. I was in heaven.
Jarabacoa
We booked an airbnb with our friends on Wildly Intrepid and headed for the mountains to cool off and go for an awesom hike. It was great to experience the countryside
Halloween
For Halloween, I organized Boat Trick or Treating in Luperon Harbour. We got a great turnout of kids and had over 10 boats to visit. Michael and I knocked up some last minute costumes as Greeks using our bedsheets - Michael was a hit as ‘Testicles’. Christian was a bank robber in order to run around in a mask with a fake gun, and Flo dressed up as the tooth fairy with her friend Jen-ai as a doll. Their dingy of kids was rounded out with Leah’s 2 boys Artie and George. Fun!!
Food
It’s a well known fact that you can’t buy provisions in the Bahamas - the stores have very little to buy in the small communities we cruise in. We also didn’t find many restaurants. So like most people we provisioned in the US and I have been making all the meals since we left St Augustine. Which got a little challenging when we lost our stove for 2 months, our fridge and freezer for a month and our water maker. But being a sailor means rising to these challenges - we had a bbq and a large selection of canned goods and dry food so I just got on with it. It made arriving in the land of plenty that much sweeter.
Luperon is small town in a third world country with a thriving sailing expat community. The locals love us. We feel welcome, so safe and cared for here. There are services for every daily need - water & fuel delivery, laundry service, farm fresh egg delivery, a weekly veggie truck and yogurt, all from local farms. There’s even bacon smoked on a boat. The food is so fresh! Avocados bananas mangoes and papayas grow from the trees. It’s eden like.
We live among animals. Chickens and roosters roam freely in the streets. A herd of goats might make its way through the main streets of town. Cows graze anywhere and may make an appearance at your pool party. These cows are svelte, and live with their babies and entire families. They come in at night when their keeper whistles. There are horses and donkeys in corals, ready to saddle up. It’s like taking a step back in time, to when our daily life included tending our fields and animals that nourish us. So beautiful and healthy. No wonder people here seem so content.
There are so many places to eat out in Luperon. Local wage for 1 day labour is $1000 pesos or $20 usd. So a lunch plate in a local restaurant is $200 pesos or $4. This includes rice, beans, chicken or pork and salad, in a huge portion and so delicious you won’t need to cook dinner! You can take it to go but we mostly enjoy eating in, and soaking up the ambience.
At seafood restaurants, I usually order fried fish + plantains. This is fresh fish deep fried and is incredibly delicious with lime & a bit of hot sauce. You can also get it in fish fingers. This will run you about $350-400 pesos ($8). There is also street food - empanadas for 30 pesos or BBQ chicken. One of the most popular places is the ice cream shop - it’s in the Center of town and really hits the spot (ice cream is $1 so how can you say no?).
European food is available at other restaurants frequented by our sailors community. Gourmet burgers, chicken curry, pork schnitzel & mash etc. There’s a lovely spanish themed cafe with AC and wifi frequented by those working remotely.
So what’s missing? The other day I had a long conversation with my friend Anne about cheese. She is from France and it’s the one thing she misses dearly! We have been buying whole wheels of Gouda here, and I found some Parmesan. The mozzarella is also really good. But good French cheese cannot be found. The other missing thing is chocolate. It’s a tough one to keep on a boat because of the melting point. I spotted a huge bag of chocolate chips at one of the grocery stores recently, in the back of a fridge. I came back a few days later with my insulated grocery bag and it was still there, waiting for me. I greedily grabbed the bag, took it to the cashier and didn’t look at the price. It’s now sitting in the back of our fridge and was decadently added to the brownies I baked yesterday.
I got to know our local butcher. Again all the meat is so fresh and local, I look forward to really filling our freezer when it’s time to move on. For now we are enjoying the bounty of salads, fresh meats and putting back on a few of those sailing pounds we lost when our rations were low.
Domingo, the super friendly and fit fiftyish man who services our boat, invited us to his house for his wife’s birthday, so naturally we were excited to go. We took a taxi part way, then walked up the dirt road, through farmers fields and country shacks. We arrived at his house to join his family - cousins, kids, grandkids, parents, sisters and brothers, playing dominoes and hanging out in his back yard. Along one side of the yard were pens with goats, ducks, chickens. There were also 2 roosters in separate cages, who are being bred and trained for cockfighting. In 1 corner of the yard, his nephew, who works in Santo Domingo, is building a house, as yet just the concrete structure is built until he makes enough money for the next step. Domingo’s house is simple, tin roof, wooden slats, a main room /kitchen area without running water and a bedroom. A fridge/freezer but not plugged in. Flo used the washroom and came back to let me know they have a compost toilet just like us! She easily slipped into playing games and used google translate to communicate with the other kids. Christian played catch and flee a kite with some other kids. Domingo’s lovely wife lived in French Guyana for a while, so we were able to speak French. They barbecued pork and chicken dinner and we shared the beers we brought and learned how to play dominoes with the family. Michael chatted with everyone, using his few Spanish words to their fullest. When it grew dark, Domingo organized rides for us back to town on the back of motorbikes. It was an incredible evening. The strength of family and community is so clear. People share what they have and enjoy simply being together, we felt really lucky to be invited in.
The social side of Luperon is incredible. However spending the summer here does have its challenges. Here are couple biggies:
The Heat
I tried to take a photo of how sweaty my face is - didn’t quite capture it. You can see a sweat tear but I also have drips on my chin, and my whole face is covered in beads. The sweating starts at about 10am. From then on, if I make breakfast or decide to sweep the cockpit I have sweat dripping down the backs of my legs. Christian will be saying to me, ‘mom wipe off your sweat moustache.’ The breeze usually picks up around noon which really does help, as long as you are in a position to feel it.
We have 2 sunshades attached to our boom that help keep the boat cool. If you decide to walk in your bare feet on the deck midday, on a patch that is full sun, it burns your feet - shoes are definitely required! To me this proves the sunshades do work, although Michael is not convinced and doesn’t like the fact that they cause our boat to sail around the mooring ball as they are not air permeable and catch the breeze. Well, I’d rather have 2 degrees cooler in the cabin thank you very much!
We tend to hide inside more now, which really contradicts my Vancouver girl instincts, where every hint of sunshine needs to be enjoyed to the fullest!! But after enough blistering sweat-soaked mid-day walks, I’m doing more what the locals do, and enjoy the cooler indoors during the heat of the day.
Michael and I sleep in the vberth at the bow, which has the most delicious breeze, until 1 or 2 am when it dies completely. That’s when I’ll wake up sweating. Is that Luperon’s fault or perimenopause? Could be a bit of both.
The bugs
We have been on a mooring ball here for 6 weeks, a great spot close to the marina, on the edge of the mooring field that is bordered by mangroves. The location is great, we can sip a Presidente on the marina patio and keep an eye on our floating home. Plus, there are no neighbours to the north which makes it feel a little more private.
The only issue is the bugs. I have been a mosquito magnet all my life. My dad had strategies to keep our boating and camping adventures mosquito free - screens on all windows doors and I can see him now passing through with a can of ‘Off!’ before we went to sleep. He was on it! But that was big fat inexperienced only-have-2months-to-practice west coast bugs that could be thwarted this way. Since living in the tropics I’ve gotten to know the noseeums,spiders and mosquitoes that live here and have all year to adapt and learn how to torment you. After staying out past dusk, my next week will be spent madly scratching and trying to ignore that relentless itch. Some bites are the big puffy ones I am familiar with from home. But noseeum bites are hard and round and do not give up for a week solid. They particularly love my ankles. Some bites get a white puss inside similar to a pimple.
I recently learned what a ‘Jam Boy’ is. When the British ruled India, they would employ a local to follow them around, covered in Jam, to attract the mosquitoes and lure them away from the officers. It’s a barbaric practice that shows the inhumanity of British elites. I realized that I am the Jam boy for my family.
Over time I have developed a system that has reduced my discomfort. Here are the rules I live by:
Bug spray. At the first prick I spray all my exposed skin. I have tried a variety of bug sprays and this is my current favourite. It lives in my purse and goes everywhere with me.
Look for wind. Bugs are small and can’t fly if it’s windy, so find that outdoor fan and keep it close!
Cover up at night. It’s much more pleasant to sleep unencumbered, but that makes me much too easy of a target. I use my sarong and the lightest garments I have to keep every inch covered
The biggest game changer though, has been moving the boat.
We had our first wind event 2 weeks ago. Sunday is a special day in Luperon, where Alex & Bart open their home and host a pool party, where you can buy drinks, wood fired pizza and homemade ice cream and hang out for the afternoon. It’s a day we all look forward to each week. So this particular ’Sunday Funday’ I had been craving some alone time to do a 90 minute meditation, so I stayed behind and Michael & the kids headed out. Once done my session, I got in the dingy to go meet them. The bay was eerily flat and calm, the air heavy with humidity. Large grey clouds formed over the hills to the west. Very unusual. I made my way towards the dingy dock, and as I rounded the corner, the wind picked up and I was bouncing up and down wildly. I turned back, thinking I should probably just stay with the boat. Rain started coming. By the time I got back, all the boats in the bay had swung into the wind and our stern now faced the mangroves. But the really concerning part was our boat neighbour, now also in that direction, was looking dangerously close to hitting our bow!
We hadn’t met this neighbour yet, but I saw him pulling up in his dingy, and he also saw how close we were. I went to the bow to take a photo, but we were going to touch so instead I had to push us off the other boat! I quickly went to the stern, grabbed a big fender and went to the bow to tie it off. Dylan by this point was there to help. When we swung closer he pushed us off with his feet. I got the rest of our fenders out, and Dylan got his motor on so he could steer away from us. The rain continued to bucket down, so I removed my soaked clothes and stayed in my bathing suit to enjoy a free shower, and Dylan got his rain jacket on. We kept watch and got to know each other. He’s in his early 20’s, from South Africa and works as a welder. His Dad also lives in Luperon, on land and works as a carpenter. He was on the phone with the owner of the boat, who has had it anchored there for 7 years, and only recently had some problems with the anchor slipping, a month earlier losing his port lifelines in a collision with another boat. He had subsequently changed the anchor and let out 150 feet of chain - which would work great in an open anchorage, not so much in the middle of a mooring field. There were some disputes around if he dragged or not, but in the end an easy solution was to pull in 20 ft of his anchor scope, which Dylan did. The rain subsided and MK and the kids were ready to get picked up.
Following this incident, we decided to move moorings. Our boat is a bit big for the ball we are on and so we moved a few spots over, away from the mangroves, favourite breeding ground of mosquitoes and noseeums, and into a windier spot, with more neighbours to get to know. It’s been a week and I can now joyfully confirm that this spot has less bugs! Although I still live by my 3 rules outlined above. I only get eaten alive if I get carried away at the nighttime festivities - which seems fair.
