Busy day today.  This morning, Tristan and Tessa got a special behind the scenes look at the tigers. Deemian, the tiger trainer here is a really nice guy. Pablo, the dockmaster, arranged everything and Ocean World even took pictures that they might use in their advertising. Seeing the tigers up close was a thrill for all of us. They make an incredible mewing sound that I had never heard before. They were very playful as they have been raised in captivity since cubs. Blanco, the white tiger, really wanted to get out and play with the kids. There wasn’t a chance of that happening.

 Blanco weighs around 360 pounds and Bravo (the orange one) weighs 340 pounds. Surprising to me, they are very long and very lean. Not skinny, just lean and graceful. Both tigers are male and have been together, with Deemian, since they were a few months old. They are over 3 years old now and absolutely beautiful.

Deemian was great with the kids.  It was always his dream to work with tigers and he is really good at it. We’ve become friends with Deemian and have met his wife and daughter.  He has told us many stories of working with tigers, and I could listen to him all day.

If I haven’t said it before, I will say it now: Ocean World is really top notch, especially when it comes to the animals/fish at the park. The animals aren’t exploited, and you can really see a bond with the animals and the trainers. The dolphins and sealions are served only the freshest fish. The tigers eat top beef from the US. One major impressive point is that Alfred Meister, owner, founder of Ocean World, lives right on the grounds, in a very modest apartment above the operations building. This guy is worth millions and that is where he chooses to live, simply because he loves the park he created so much. Around the marina you will also find a few dogs and some adorable puppies. You can see the guards playing with them sometimes and I wondered how they are treated. Mr Meister loves them, and every stray that comes here, becomes an Ocean World dog.

We were gushing about Ocean World later with Renee and Mike on Jacumba who had come over to visit us. They are not having a good time in Luperon and I feel bad for them. We all went up for a drink, and Patrick, our favorite dock guy, took the kids up to the office and set them up on the computer playing games. The kids were safe, having fun, and we enjoyed a good visit with new friends. I am sure it helped that I made Patrick brownies earlier that day.  The kids said he loved them. We truly say it every day here. This is a little slice of heaven.

It was time for the kids to dig out their boogie boards and head to the beach, so we took another trip to Cabarete. We drove ourselves this time, and Dan was really enjoying driving in the crazy traffic. I am very glad we have insurance on the car. When we were signing the papers, I had asked about insurance and she said that if we had minor dings in the car, it would be covered.   If we had “Car No More” it would be covered up to an amount she showed on the paper. Dan and I looked at each other. Car no more. Hmm. That wasn’t a term we were  familiar with. It didn’t sound good. Maybe we misunderstood. We asked her to repeat it.

“If you have minor damage,” she said in broken English, “you are covered here. If car no more,” and she does a dramatic slashing of her hands, “then it covered here.”

Yes, we did hear correct. Car no more didn’t sound good, but must happen, often, as they had a policy for it. She noticed us looking at her funny and started in again, “Car no more….”

“Wait,” we both broke in. “We don’t want to think about “car no more”. Car no more sounds very bad. No car  no more.”

When we left with the car, we passed some vendors selling vegetables alongside the road. I am crazy for avocados and there were some excellent looking ones at a stand. I said to Dan, “Stop. I want to go there.”

He hits the brakes. Two motoconchos following closely behind us nearly hit us, and did hit each other. We nearly had “car no more” and we had barely gone a mile!! The motoconchos weren’t happy. Needless to say, we didn’t get the avocados. We thought it best just to keep going.

We did make it safely to Cabarete that day and the kids had a great time playing on the beach. The waves were good as there was a strong wind. The beach was crowded and you really had to watch yourself in the water as there were kite surfers and windsurfers everywhere. But, we all had a really good time, and it was fun to drive through the beautiful Dominican countryside

It was late in the afternoon when Pablo the dockmaster stopped by and said he had arranged for the kids to go see the dolphins one on one, with the trainer. The kids of course were ready to go. Dan and I went back to the boat to get our camera while Tristan and Tessa rode with Patrick and Pablo over to see the dolphins. When we were heading toward the dolphin enclosure, one of the male dolphin trainers saw us coming and pointed out where Tristan and Tessa were. We had no idea how he knew we were the parents. We went where he pointed, and Tristan let us in the gate. Laura, the trainer, was feeding them and practicing some tricks with the dolphins. She was very nice and let them touch the dolphin and interact with it. The kids were in heaven.

When they were done, Tristan asked me if I recognized the dolphin trainer who had told us where they were. I said no. Tristan said he was the guy he and Tessa had talked to at Chris and Maddys, the restaurant where we ate the other night for our anniversary. He had been playing pool and Tessa and Tristan had been watching and talking to him. Our kids know more people than we do.