Luperon, DR
19.54.025N
70.56.934W

You think the U.S. has bureaucracy? You've never been to Luperon! We waited for the Commandantes to come to our boat until 10 am. We were in the process of giving up and taking off for their office when a boat came up with 3 men in it. One of the people in the boat was wearing a green fatigue uniform (the Commandant's representative), another was wearing blue denim utility uniform (the Navy's representative), the last was wearing street clothes (the interpreter.) This was the first of 5 meetings and the first of 2 inspections.

The paperwork was conducted in the cockpit by the Commandant's representative, ably assisted by the interpreter. Once completed, the Navy's representative came down the stairs, walked forward into the guest stateroom/storage area, proclaimed that we were "good", walked back to stairs, ascended and returned to the others. He didn't walk back to the rear of the boat to the master stateroom where we keep our nuclear weapons and underwear but since we were pronounced "good", we weren't going to argue. We were then instructed to pick up our papers at the Commandant's office prior to leaving. (Supposedly only the interpreter spoke English, but when Dale cracked a joke about the interpreter's boat, I noticed that all 3 laughed.)

Next, we proceeded to the Immigration office, which was actually, 3 offices in one trailer. We were instructed to obtain our visitor cards at the first table. Then we were ushered into a private office of the Immigration official where we filled out more papers, had our passports stamped and the visitor cards stapled into our passports. Then we had to go back to the first room and complete our paperwork for the port fees at the harbor master's desk and then finally we were instructed that the agriculture officials would inspect our boat by 3:00 pm. Naturally, each had their own fees. All in all, we spent about $60.00 US.

We walked through the town, exchanged our dollars for pesos, then returned to Steve's Place, an ex-pat, who has developed a one-stop shopping establishment (restaurant, laundry, internet, fresh veggies, rental motorcycles, you name it, he has it or can get it for you.) The town pretty much closes down from 12 - 2:00, so we returned to the boat and waited for the agriculture inspectors to arrive. We waited until 4:30, hailed Doc-No-More (who was also waiting) and agreed that if they didn't show up by 5:00, we'd take off for the happy hour we'd heard about and check in with them again tomorrow. Needless to say, they showed up as we were literally getting into our dink to leave. They came aboard, we showed them our veggies, they inspected our refrigerator (for what, we don't know), they filled out their paperwork and we paid our fees and all was good to go. Now all we have to do is remember to run by the Commandant's office prior to leaving to pick up our entry papers. A little backwards but as long as it works for them, who cares.

At the marina happy hour, we met up with Dan & Jan, who are fairly well traveled cruisers and Roger & Elaine. We talked travel, politics, religion, weather, engines, and where we were headed next. Dan & Jan are about a week ahead of where we are but since we keep running into them, you'll probably hear about them from time to time.

I was sorry that Anders and Elizabeth (a couple we met at the dinghy dock) hadn't shown up. Anders is Finnish and Elizabeth is Canadian. Elizabeth speaks in a high, almost childlike voice but the stories she tells are incredible. Apparently, Anders missed sailing but Elizabeth had never sailed. They joined a yacht club and when someone asked if anyone was interested in bringing back a boat from Turkey, she volunteered. I not sure if they're terribly courageous (Elizabeth says that Anders is fearless) or incredibly stupid (Anders version when Elizabeth isn't chattering). They've come all of this way without charts. Their GPS died a one point, in fact they lost all of their electronics at one point, they've run aground, they've entered the wrong port, just about everything has broken on the boat at one time or another, Anders patches it back together and yet, they should make their Florida landfall within the next month. You meet the most incredible people in this little sailing community, I would have loved to listen to her longer.

Tomorrow we're back to Steve's for laundry and internet.