Caribic rythm from Sosua

Panama

2011-01-16T04:54:00.000-08:00

When it is time to escape the tranquillo life style and see something more metropolitan, good choice is to go visit Panama city. With an average GDP per capita of $11,700, Panama has been among the top places for retirement in the world. Panama City has a dense skyline of mostly highrise buildings, and it is surrounded by a large belt of tropical rainforest.

Republic of Panama is well known of its main income, the canal, which has been operative sinceo 1914. The canal can be reached from Panama city easily by getting a cab and by asking an offer for the price in advance. You should be able to negotiate the price down under 20 dollars pretty easily. Canal itself is a place to visit at least once in a lifetime for everybody.

After a day spent with shopping on Avenida Española and Albrook mall visitors should check attractions next to city limits. Metropolitan national park offers nice variation of walking trails including wildlife from titi monkeys to exotic birds. Taxi from city center to Metropolitan park should cost around 5 dollars.

Isla Tagoba and Casco Vieho (the old town) are also something to concider by tourist visiting Panama city. Isla Taboga serves those who want to enjoy day at the beach, and Casco Vieho serves those who want to rest their eyes in seeing beautiful buildings and enjoy exotic tastes found from local fish market.

There are many tours visitors can take from local hotels, but as a real highlight of a vacation tourists should visit Lago Bayano, and the project with many features offered by local entrepreneur Antonio Mojica.

In lago Bayano visitors can enjoy real Panamian nature by horse back riding, boat or hiking. Especially indian villages located on the area are attractions which can win visitors heart.

By boat tourists can reach exiting places like caves, canjon rivers, and much much more. Go check http://lakebayano.com/bayanoadveng.html and enjoy your vacation!

If you need to escape

2011-01-01T17:35:00.001-08:00

What are the best ways to go explore other islands and countries located in the area? What if you need to escape back to Europe!!! Simple questions and five tips to be shared as an answer for transport solutions:

1. Go explore by Copa Airways www.copaair.com

- Copa Air is the largest airline operating in Latin America. You can especially find flights to South America. Copa operates mainly from Panama, so usually transit pasanger do their thing in Tocumen airport (Panama city) to reach destinations like Equador, Guatemala, Honduras etc. Love it! I use copa to fly elswhere from Santiago, D.R.

2. Try air Cubana www.cubana.cu

- Cheapest way to go check the health status of Fidel. Direct flights from Santiago and Santo Domingo to f.ex. Havanna.

3. Enjoy Air Berlin services! www.airberlin.com

- Fast way to Europe and even from Bavaro up to mighty Finland. Really good service, reasonable prices and exellent time tables. Air Berlin operates every two days from Puerto Plata to Germany.

4. Fly cheap with Jet Blue to US. www.jetblue.com

- Direct flights from Puerto Plata to Miami and New York. This airline also once hired the most famous flight attendant, Steven Slater! Google him!

5. Try Iberia direct flight from Santo Domingo to Madrid. www.iberia.com

- Explore the European accent of spanish in mother land of latin temper.

So why did I wanted to share all this with you? Of course I had vacation between Christmas and New Year! Me and my wife escaped to Panama with Copa Air to explore natural wonders, and what ever other things that are totally different to my current work among mobile services.

And of course one point of being public is that I wanted to share a picture of me comparing my belly size with one of the mighty giants of the local rain forest. Still going strong! Or what do you think?

We have had really nice vacation in Panama. The city has offered it all... lots of Pellados, eye candy, new year celebrations and good food. I recommend this place to all hitch hiking heroes wondering the globe. For families this Metropol might be too much compared to lovely hometown Sosua, D.R. Or atleast book your hotel from nice resort outside of the vortex called Panama city.

Team to open first mobile content sales in DR

2010-12-04T14:33:00.001-08:00

After two years of struggling the moment has become close. We will open first mobile content service in the island. So let me introduce our high tecnology team working alongside with me after dealing with all "comission beggers" and wrestling with the byrocracy.

Tobias will be our country manager, and responsible to open also services in Venezuela. He has three kids and he has been living in DR almost all of his life. Tobias will take care of major clients like Coca Cola, Brugal and several magazines from now on.

Enrique will be dealing with content rights and is also responsible for delivering services to Brazil and Argentina. Enrique will be responsible to take care of content rights like Aventura, Anthony Santos etc. This Bachata specialist will showcase the island also some Merengue ring tones!

Night out with friends from Holland

2010-12-04T05:29:00.000-08:00

In Sosua it is pretty easy to make friends. In the image above you can see me and my father getting known to a great person called Jos from Holland. Jos and his wife Tanja are football fans and so the night was full of Litmanen, Van Der Vaart etc. Actually I was lucky enough to wear a camiseta (T-Shirt) of FC Barcelona carrying number 10 in my back. So the shirt I wear belongs to mighty Jari Litmanen who is known to all football speaking world.

My father enjoyed cicars with Jos and they were singing probably all known singalongs from "O-Lay-o-lay-o-lay-o-lay We are the champs" to "Elvis".

Thank you for the wonderful evening Jos and Tanja. I hope we will see again soon. Also extra thanks and greetings belong to the owner of the Cuba Libre bar called Fred. You had made yourself nice birthday arrangements!!

Little fixes

2010-12-01T03:31:00.000-08:00

Hello all Bloggers,

after year of silence I´m back to the island of thousand stories. But before entering any delightful details I´ll share a blog post of first preparations after returning to a house where no-one has been living for a year.

The first shopping list contained basic grosseries and helpful goods:

Water, bread, cheese, pasta, minced meet, ham, juice, milk, coffee, vegetables etc. I also prepared on the future by buying huge quatities of cleaning gear including toilet paper. Those we got from local super market Playero.

Dogs got their welcome backage, so Gina and Chichi received their footballs and some tasteful snacks. The third dog we still have called Pubi has become a street dog and he doesn´t seem to want to enter the house anymore. He still understands my signals and comes to say hello from time to time and does join us to the morning walk on the beach. Anyways he is either in love with neightbour labradorian or just wants to show he is 100% independent.

During the year away our fourth dog Picky had gone missing. Our gardener Andy had put up some missing dog signs, but it seems that dog either found a new home or has entered the dog heaven. We will miss you Picky and will keep searching for you!

First days here have been totally hulabaloo... I have fixed our third toilet pot, been cleaning the pool, called house maid Micaela to help us, fixed some plumming, got new cable TV box, fixed the car, changed light pulbs and now ordered a local street guy to fix all woodwork that had been grilling under hot Caribean sun.

This work is ongoing and therefore this means also additional trips to Santiago and Santo Domingo. I´ll keep you posted on how things keep settling down for us. Go get a good grip on the chair where you sit and keep staring at the display. More updates are soon to be published!

Blog is on hold

2009-07-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

Thanks for reading my posts. I will be offline for some time now from Blogger, but you can find me from Facebook. I will update there all my interesting adventures in Dominican Republic. Also join my Facebook friend list to see more!

What is a tortilla in spanish?

2009-02-27T03:46:00.000-08:00

I was having tortillas (=Read after this Burritos) with my spanish teacher Enrique a couple of days ago. The night actually started the way that Enrique asked me: "What are we going to eat tonight?" My responce to his question was: "Tortillas". After the word "Tortilla" had been exposed he had a weird grim in his face...Half laughing and half desperation.

The night continued and we started eating in one point. After awhile I asked Enrique: "How is your Tortilla?"... Enrique experienced somekind of shock, and almost spit a mouthfull of food back to his plate! He lauhghed at me: "Don´t you know what Tortilla means?!?"

Well I bet all you blog readers who are not spanish specialist don´t know the answer!

And the answer is... In spanish speaking countries word tortilla means that there are two ladies making a hamburger type of structure of themselves... So a kind of a love affair!

No more Tortillas for me, I am just ordering Burritos!

"La Costera" burger tower and Kimmo

2009-01-21T17:50:00.001-08:00

If you think over that the guy in the picture (Kimmo whose street gangsta nickname is "Que paso?") is over 6 feet tall (That makes the burger height atleast a feet), and he is a real sports man with a slim figure... would you be able to accept that he finnished the tower burger, and even ordered some desert?!?

Answer is YES, "bazura" ate it all! Feel free to try it yourself by going to a restaurant called "La Costera" near hotel Club Recidential in Sosua, D.R.

Remember to order "The mighty Tower Burger"!

Delicious!

Story of a house wine

2009-01-18T16:13:00.000-08:00

Almost a week ago me and William decided to go and check the overall intense level of tourism in Sosua. For Tuesday night it was kind of obvious that we would be disapointed on the action level, but it was worth to go and enjoy some glasses of red wine anyways! I am a lover of good wines, and always ready to experience new tastes!

For a rainy Tuesday night the atmosphere was lame and I proposed William that why don´t we go to the shittiest rat hole in Sosua, and then return back to the main street, and maybe...the cards in our hand look more promising for the rest of the evening.

We ended up to a drink bar where the average age of customers was around 60 and those ever green party animals were dancing somekind of weird mixture of moonwalk, merengue and robo dance. So why not enjoy one vino tinto here, and adapt to the atmosphere! Atleast I tried...

So I ordered the wine list and got as a responce answer that there was available only house wine. "Ok, bring me the vino!", I stated...And they brought it...I was looking at it...A bit weird colour, but overall it looked like red wine...

So señor Pepe, zip it in...And I did...But the aftershock was a lot more horrible than with any other drink I have tasted! Mr. Forsberg was in serious trouble!

I had to spit the zip of vino to the nearest plant and start swearing! William was laughing at me when he saw me going into plum colour and bubling something extra terrestial language to the bartender. William knew that the guy had been sold VALDE PLATA, cheapest wine ever produced on this galaxy!

The Canadian bartender prowdly showcased the bottle of their luxury house wine... I was so speechless that I just gave him a huge tip, and I left the rest of the vino untouched...We escaped from the house of horror, and in the street everything looked a lot more promising!

It was a psychedelic experience, but the Finnman flies still in the streets of Sosua! Long live Valde Plata, but never in my wine cellar! Actually that´s why I put as a picture of this blog writing me holding a bottle of Carlo Rossi. It is exellent wine and local bars can import it here fairly easy from California...Just giving you little bartender bricks some hints that I wouldn´t have to clean my pants after every zip of your "exellent" house wine.

Coño caraho!

Removing stiches, running out of rum

2009-01-15T06:18:00.000-08:00

Again the picture tells you more than thousand words. Doctor wanted me to go and remove my stiches to his appointment, but nope...Me and my friend Kimmo decided to do it ourselves with a little help from a bottle of national drink...RUM!

Survival strategy here actually engourages you to do such things yourself that in modern world we take for granted and part of the societies services.

No infections yet, so I quess we did good job Kimmo!

Since we are so tallented with our hands, when are we going to finnish the sauna?!?

Teaching strange, but true street language

2009-01-15T04:49:00.001-08:00

In Sosua there are many Chicas (=Prostitutes) that seem to harrash you no matter where ever you try to turn your head. By time I have been able to develop all kinds of strategies how to protect my privacy when drinking coffee or even when drinking red wine in a restaurant at night time. So from here onwards the language will be suitable for adults, kids go to bed!

Easiest and the most polite way to have 5 minutes of privacy is to tell the girl that "Tengo esposa, viene aqui en cinco minutos" (=I have a wife and she will be here in five minutes). I was using that frase in the beginning, but the problem was that when the girls saw that the wife doesn´t come they started to harrash even more aggressive and actually in the end very rude way. So the finman had to improve his spanish once more..

Next phase I did was that I went to a restaurant with my friends (I will protect their privacy and won´t mention any names) d:o) The strategy was that when chica approached I told her that "Soy sanky panky, es mi chulo" (= I am a male hooker and this guy here is my pimp). WOW! The outcome was highly effective and the girls were actually smiling. The problem with this approach is that even more girls want to hear the story directly from you. I assure you that the stories do fly in their ant colony like communications systems!

Let´s go even further... Next phase to have total privacy is to tell one of them that: "Tengo Sida" (= I have aids). You can imagine how all the girls will leave you alone and you have plenty of room to enjoy your copa de vino tinto (= Glass of red wine). However this is also so small place that such rumours might end up outside of the working girls society. And therefore one more idea for you to go!

Since all the Caribian girls are atleast fairly cute, and it is almost impossible to generate fat here, the next phase was to create something that made the girls out of the customers buying criteria. Let me introduce you "Rompe inodoro" (= Toilet breaker). So by stating "Buscando Rompe Inodoro!" you actually state that you want to have a lady that is fat enough to be able to break your toilet pot by sitting on it. I hope you take the last one as a joke, anyways a real Finnish latino does use it in tough situations!

Composing songs again!

2009-01-05T17:18:00.001-08:00

In the picture you see dynamic trio performing a song called "Computer is a type writing machine". Great lyrics for the catchy chorus were written by my god son Sami while the rest of the song were put into words by the other Uusikumpu family members. Especially our band manager (father of these wonderful kids) Kimmo put lots of effort into the total project. His innovative brainstorming kept the power struggle among the band low and furthermore the team spirit high up!

We had our world premier for the song yesterday, and what a success story it turned out to be! Petra performed as lead singer and I must admit that this 7 years old power package does have a musicant living inside her. Perfect tuning and understanding of rythm made our show easy going for the mighty audience.

"Computer is a type writing machine" -song contains three chords (G, C and D), and straight forward beat. I am proud of our kid band, well done Niños... The old Vieho feels like he is willing to compose songs again with these three chords!

Horse, me and a carrot!

2009-01-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

I am speechless once more! It seems like the horse shoe in the foundation of our house brought a horse to our front yard! This little creature has now spent a week near our property doing a job of our gardener Willy by trimming our yard as a lawn mover. And the work he does is excellent! Willi you are FIRED!!!

I started today to tame it, and hand feed it with carrots. Eventhough he is bigger than me I think he started to respect my little tricks. So gates will be soon open 24hour a day for our horse to enter our back yard as well.

It would be nice to have a friend who looks and talks like me. Anyways I think I still smell better!

Official happy new year!

2008-12-31T14:40:00.000-08:00

So open up your champagne in Finland, we have still few hours to go! This team will now head over to Puerto Plata and celebrate new year in Williams fathers house. Where is my rocket launcher?!?

Feliz año nuevo!

2008-12-31T13:41:00.001-08:00

Happy new year! As you can see the celebration already started in Haiti yesterday. Pretty scary, eh?

In the perfect world I would not see images like this, and it is really amazing that only 100 kilometers from the place I live this is a common sight. Who the hell gives these kids firearms?!? Pendejos grande, que paso?

My Godson dives better than your godson!

2008-12-31T06:35:00.000-08:00

Wow! Incredible! My godson faced giant dolphin in an element that he seems to like the best...Aqua(=Water). The holiday of family Uusikumpu has highlighted how tallented this guy is diving, jumping head first into pool and furthermore sitting in Jacuzzi enjoying tropical drinks. Pretty impressive from 5 year old kid! He is certainly the new Michael Phelps!

For the godfather it is important to avoid underwater nut craker torpedos in our swiming pool. And that is not a joke! Santa Claus brought him as a Christmas present two torpedos, and those military equipments give my godson underwater overpower! Also the fact that he also received super soaker as his Christmas gift creates an environment where the water fun has moved to the whole garden area as well.

Credits of the picture taken in Ocean World adventure park belongs to family Uusikumpu who will today return to our house to enjoy rest of their holiday in the beautiful island of Hispaniola!

Problemo con mi mano

2008-12-30T16:15:00.000-08:00

First I appologize that I have not updated my blog for a long time. But I guess you feel atleast some bit of supportive grin since I am under dominican medicine (might be somekind of antibiotics?) and have my arms covered with street respect!

After a small accident I had to go to see the local witch doctor for the first time. He was highly impressed on Finnmans ability to ask weather I could implement the stiches my self like the mighty John T. Rambo in eighties top seller hit movie.

To be more serious the doctor was really professional in treating me. He tried to keep all the equipment clean and participated to calm down the patient with Rambo related male talks. So I give recommendations to the medical center of Sosua. Thanks for letting me in bleeding even when it was almost midnight.

Next step of the cure process will be getting rid of the stiches, and I am planning to do it myself. So that might be the topic for my next blog writing unless I get back the feel into my right hand fingers before that moment of true glory. Now this writing job is way too difficult...Well try to impress your mom by showing her how fast you are with your keybord using only the left hand fore finger!

Armoured with the greatest luck in order to survive

2008-12-13T13:51:00.000-08:00

In the picture there is an item which should alert the part of your brain that generates interest towards a gringo life style, and towards gambling in our everyday life? Hmmmm... With shaking hands you watch at your computer screen and state: "Has the blogwriter turned into gay since he has weird hand decoration on, or has he been injured, or... Lots of options, but...

Nope for all that, the wacko is just turning into more Dominican. So if in the next picture you see the same man with a casual shirt buttons open, wearing same decoration, and even having more sun tan in his used to be a sportsman belly, and wearing a red neck type of baseball cap...Then that is the moment when you can say, now the guy is a true Latino!

I have not received any worm inside me from the food I eat here...yet...but I´m losing weight in the ultimate summer doing all kinds of things I used to do when I was teen! Wow! You don´t think that´s luck, but I do. I feel more than happy here, eventhough the modern lifestyle does have its benefits as well.

The decoration I wear in the picture in away helps me to survive. Tambien (=Also) the locals in the villages see that I have been on the island quite long when wearing such material and they don´t right away try to pellado me.

I have enough privacy to change a spare tyre without anybody disturbing unless I need help...That might be also because people are still giving first aid to the wounds they suffered when I was passing by with my flat tyre and the sparks were flying. Who knows..

So, you are still a bit uncertain weather the decoration brings me good luck? Can you state otherwise when you know that in the past few weeks I have managed to nail two times out of three tries number 14 in a roulette table after I have put all my leftover chips into that particular number for the last roll!
Think about the odds!

Tambien (=also) La Policia the societys friend tried to bust me and do pellado, but their car broke down. Oh no..So again a kiss for my lucky medallion! Well actually one cop stopped a motoconcho (moto taxi), and followed me to a place where I parked my car. In stead of throwing me into a jail he was satisfied with 100 pesos. Everybody was happy, and me and my Dominican decoration made the police hezitant on the magnitude of the pellado he was about to perform.

I love my decorative rotten piece of animal skin. I feel like I am armoured with the greatest luck in order to survive! Feliz Navidad to everybody sharing throught the blog the time I spend here in the Caribia!

Trabajo de arbol (=Wood work)

2008-12-10T16:04:00.000-08:00

More funiture pieces of the Mexican style rustico theme William designed are coming out of the factory. It has been more than interesting to see how f.ex. the box seen in the pictures was developing during the production and it came out perfect!

Usually the well made quality art work takes more than a week time from a team of three. This is due because the weather generating wet wood and fighting over to get all necessary materials is time consuming here were the word Mañana has a meaning "later if I feel like it". In this particular box even the nails were self made in order to have perfect rustico feeling.

Agening process requires special skills, and so the honorary master piece was sanded and stained multiple times before the boss William gave a green light for the truck to pick it up from the factory and to deliver it to our villa.

Trapajo de arbol muy bueno y Merengue tipico en la casa grande.

Perfecto!

El Dia de la independecia de Finlandia

2008-12-06T14:55:00.000-08:00

It is time to celebrate the independence day in Finland! We are blue, we are white, we are Finnish dynamite! With the words of J.V. Snellman: "A people, who don't know their own history, have no future". I would like to introduce you some general feeling related to word Finland and its past as struggling small piece of land in northern latitudes.

As a member of the European Union, Finland's northern location on its map is nowadays a mystery to nobody, our high standard of technological know-how having brought us a measure of international recognition and even fame. Nevertheless, the Finnish language, belonging to the Finno-Ugric linguistic family and related to Estonian and Hungarian, remains in the dark for most, while its importance as the main language in the country is often belittled by the powers-that-be.

For centuries, Finland has been in a tight squeeze between the Swedish and the Russian Empire. Since 1590s the Swedish rule was particularly bleak for Finland, used by the Swedish Empire, not only as a buffer against Russia, but also as a colony to be ruthlessly exploited economically and whose male population could be and was used as canon-fodder in meaningless and devastating wars. The Swedish Administration were intent on wiping out the Finnish language. Since the 17th century only poor elementary teaching in Finnish was allowed, while all higher education was given in Swedish. In order to advance in a career it was necessary to change one's Finnish family name for a Swedish one and to speak only Swedish in public. As a consequence of this, the Finnish language was on the verge of withering away, not unlike Irish in Ireland.

From the Finnish point of view, the beginning of the Russian rule (1809 - 1917) was auspicious. Finland was granted autonomy and toward the end of the nineteenth century, the Finnish language became an official language together with the Swedish and then, finally, the first official language.

The situation deteriorated, however, toward the Russian Revolution and at the end, in 1918, our ongoing war of independence against Russia partly degenerated into a civil war. The socialists, fortunately, lost the battle, but as a consequence, to a great extent, the Swedish-speaking upper classes managed to establish too strong a position. Under pressure from Sweden, the Swedish was declared the second official language in spite of the fact, that only 10 % of Finns were native Swedish-speakers. At present, the percentage of Swedish-speakers has dwindled to a mere 5,6 %, of which only 1 % at the most are incapable of fending for themselves in Finnish.

Since year of our independency 1917 Finland has been able to protect its freedom, even in World War II. So we killed ten times more Russians than they us, since there are other values more important than just having over power in war machinery. I am talking about national spirit and innovative collective braining in generating war strategies. There are no other way to explain why f.ex. capital Helsinki was saved in the bombings. For those who don´t know, innovative Finns knew the Russian mentality to always attack on night time and by the book. So the innovative Finns made bond fires and Russian dropped their bombs usually 10 kilometers before city center of Helsinki. Thanks to our fathers who gave us freedom and possibility to create Nokia wireless techniques for the rest of the world to enjoy! Congratulations Finland!

Source: http://www.suomalaisuudenliitto.fi/inenglish/index.php?group=00000038&mag_nr=16

Waiting for Christmas

2008-12-01T16:32:00.001-08:00

I am a guy who loves Christmas. As a young boy I was always willing to reward all my friends with gifts and demanding that our family have to have a Christmas tree. There was no Christmas without seeing all neightbour kids on the streets and compare the hightech features good old Santa brought us.

Now that it is 1st of December and the wait for Christmas has officially started...I would like to remind all of you here in the island, and everywhere else in the world to think of your loved ones. Stop for a while to think how the world has changed from those days when you were kids. Are you an asshole with a big ego, better than all people around you or have you been able to maintain the spirit of the bright eyed kid inside you, even when there are Pellados around you?

On my opinion some of you are punch of pussies, but more important is that some of you are real friends without hezitation. You deserve your Christmas gifts. Thanks for your existance, I promise that if I am able to help you in anyway, I do have the Christmas inside me. That is what I feel is important to understand atleast on one day each year: Christmas eve, Christmas day or even both!

In the picture you see our Christmas lights and military way of officially opening the wait for the Christmas with Obama. In Finland, people also wait for our independence day on 6th of December, the day our mighty nation celebrated on year of the Lord wearing Finnish flag, 1917. And I have the flag with me, so let´s see what will happen in this blog on 6th of this month!!! Jingle bells, jingle bells...

Nuestro casa

2008-11-28T09:53:00.000-08:00

Buying a house from Dominican Republic was rather simple process that has three phases. First you need to do a offer of purchase where people usually wire some "comitment" money to the seller. After this has been signed and contract has been fulfilled the house is officially off the market.

Second phase is a purchasing contract where the buyer and the seller agree on the deliverables. In buyers eyes this means the scedule when the total amount will be paid and also a list of delivarables the buyer is expecting to get done on the sellers expense before signing the final contract.

If all parties have fulfilled their oblications before the due dates in the purchasing contract, the final contract can be signed and no sanctions will be filed againts the other party. It is recommendable that the buyer delivers all money wires to Escrow account provided by the real estate agency handling the purchasing process.

In addition to that, usually it is wise to use a local lawyer to ensure that everything goes by the book. In this country there are a lot of foreigners who try to get advantage of the system and run their pellados as real estate professionals. The truth might be far from it! Caveat Emptor! (=Buyer must beware!)

In our case we used a company called Century 21 Juan Perdomo, and we can warmly recommend them and their super real estate agent duo Alex and Anabella. Their services have still continued eventhough the deal has been done months ago. They visit us frequently and check everything is going well and deliver us valuable contacts for being able to get everything in place for our luxury living in the tropics. Century 21 in here can be also found from internet http://www.juanperdomo.com/

In the pictures of this writing you see our house back yard. Reason not to show case our beautiful enterance is that I just wanted to highlight that the pool is something really tricky and new experience atleast for a not so experienced Finnman to maintain and to keep clean. But with lots of clorain atleats I can develop convincing white eyebrows. Hmmm, I have white teeths as well! d:o)

La Cama muy bonita

2008-11-27T14:15:00.000-08:00

The main unit of the Mexican style rustico bedroom set is ready as you can see. It is actually quite confortable piece of tropical luxury! And the first couple will test it on 14th of December onwards. So welcome to the island of Hispaniola family Uusikumpu! We will try to make your stay pleasant and fulfill it with lots of experiences to be carried back home, unless you go a bit crazy and purchase a lot from here like we did!

The Ultimate DEC (=Dog Education Club)

2008-11-27T09:58:00.000-08:00

I am glad to be able to announce that our dog Gina Obama Forsberg has now graduated from first level of the DEC. First steps of education in the Ultimate Dog Education Club contained the simplest tricks like running after a stick thrown into sea and to return it back to the thrower, to obay to sit down, to give a hand shake and of course to protect the house.

In the picture we went even beyond on what to expect as a behaviour from a puppy. So there is no way she is allowed to jump into bed. She has a clear line which she is not allowed to cross or she will end up to serious problemas! Pretty good job?!?

We also have now a game what we love to play atleast couple of times a day. It is more clear in Finnish language and I guess the Finns have a smile on their face when they picture me running around living room shouting to the dog "Lällällälläl lieru, et saa kiinni, lällällälläl lieru, sulta pääsi p...u". In english the same would be in more narrow context: "You can´t get me, you can´t get me!"

It is nice to feel young from time to time! I hope my bones won´t break in these events, I think I am getting old anyways!

A real mountain view

2008-11-27T08:24:00.000-08:00

I got a hint from William of a perfect place to relax and enjoy coffee with a spectacular mountain view. I am actually afraid of the heights, but that fear is easily forgotten when entering these kind of places. Just pure breathtaking nature with lots of potential mountain hut locations. By dreaming of that you might lose your focus on curly mountain roads, so beware!

People of mountains are extremely poor, but really friendly and hard working. They have coffee plants, ranches, banana trees...basically everything that you can consider to be included in the ultimate organic way of living. Now due to some UN funding these people even have electricity, which makes everyday struggling with household a lot easier. Also since it rains every now and then on the location of extreme weather change, these people are poor only moneywise. They have water to drink and fruits of nature to feed you with. That´s why atleast I am impressed how few real Pellados I´ve seen during my journey among the poor people. Only some Government related Bendehos seem to be the cause of corruption related criminality that does exist in bigger villages.

There is actually two roads between Sosua and Santiago that cross the mountains. I prefer the road that goes first pass Cabarete and then turns right to Moca. The restaurant seen on the view is right after village called El Caimito where Dominican Army has a check point. I told that only due to possibility to face a small Pellado! d:o) So have the 50 pesos ready in your vechicles ash tray and enjoy the view!

La comida muy rico

2008-11-21T17:39:00.000-08:00

This writing is without a picture just for you to practice your imaginative brain cells or your nose in case your neightbour is cooking! So let´s talk about food (=la comida)...Can you get more serious than that?

Imagine, that you are checking your fridge, cross your fingers...You hope there is more than just a light waiting! Nope, you need to put your shoes on and go out to find something to eat...

Here in the D.R. the Haitianos and Dominicanos I know seem to like a dish called Dominicano Tipico. It is widelly sold and contains (simple as this) chicken, rise and beans. Sounds jammy, but maybe the truth is sometimes different...Why so...Well, eh...Let´s refer again to William who said the answer to this quite straight forward way: "Pepe my dear friend, you just go and eat that dish and you will find yourself from Cabarete whining in the hospital!"

It seems that the locals have stronger bellys than the gringos tend to have. These guys are used to drink the street water, and that is filled with bakteria. So the newcomers are a bit behind in developing their immune system!

I don´t wanna disapoint everybody by regulating not to try something local, actually I would like to engourage you to do just the opposite. Just remember the basic rules:

- Don´t eat anything green unless you know that it was purified with clean water
- Always double check that your food has been cooked
- If your drink contains ice, check weather they have a hole in them
(Then you can be sure they are industrially made and clean)
- Go to the restaurants where you see other people, usually reputation flies and those who try to sell Bazura (=Garbage) are quite fast out of business.

William has paid his penalty since he once got salmonella by eating contaminated fish & majonaise alongside with it. So the possibility of an error should be minimized, and the only person entitled to do it is you.

In touristic areas like Cabarete, Sosua and Playa Dorada (Puerto Plata) you can enjoy mostly safe international cuisine. So there are all kinds of restaurants from Italian pizzerias to German Schnitzel houses available. Also supermarkets sell all groceries needed in order to build a perfect family dinner. In these events the food talk can be pretty severe sometimes. People might even need the western societys sophisticated knowledge of wines etc.

One small example: We were invited for a dinner to Williams place a week ago. His wife Emi made tortillas and alongside with that some pasta and sauce. Wow for the food, but I forgot to spread cheese on top of my pasta...Mistake...And right away Williams father saw his moment to tease "the boy of the eskimo lattitude" a bit, and the truth hit me! Guilermo said: "Pepe, I wonder what kind of lover of Italian food you are since you don´t use parmesan cheese on top of your pasta!!!" So even after turning into Dominican mode, we should stay focused! I tried to convince Guilermo of my knowledge with wines, and the evening went perfect! I love these warm family oriented people.

Since the whole dinner we had was delicious, we must Thank Emi! Great manowers from the cook, and tasty outcome! I hope we will get more invitations in the future!

Obama and Coldplay

2008-11-20T18:22:00.000-08:00

My dog Obama takes everything Tranquilo (=relaxed). Only thing that wakes her up during her beauty sleep is the Mighty Coldplay! Chorus of our favorite song "Fix you" makes her usually bark and sing or something in between. But I quess it is all about the lyrics:

Lights will guide you home
And ignite your bones
And I will try to fix you

So please my beloved Obama, stick with your bones and do not eat any more my shoes! I still have couple of pairs left in case I decide to visit Europe someday. I woudn´t like to jump to see the modern world bare footed! Seems like she took my sun glasses as well. Grrrrrrrr!

The Cow Express

2008-11-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

First time in the history of this blog the writer made you speechless? A picture can tell thousand words, eh? I am not sure what the animal rights activists would say in Europe about this kind of cow transportation. My analysis would be that the cow seemed to be doing ok, also the guy behind her was petting her frequently. So let´s not try to put a spoon into a soup we don´t understand. Or we just understand things in our way.

The photo explains a common sight here in the land of freedom and no regulations. People do their job with the cards they have in their hands. This organic way of life has let me first time to eat f.ex. real tomatoes, real meat, and to drink real milk. Actually the products I mentioned are tasting different, in deed...and way much better than the gene manipulated mass production material they feed us in Europe. Nowadays I am pretty much convinced that everything considered fruit of nature in Europe is more or less ruining the original context of the word organic. This is again a statement that you understand only by visiting this area.

Am I getting a dengue fever?!?

Me & William y trabajo de cama (=bed)

2008-11-14T13:30:00.000-08:00

Some of you have heard of my intentions to become a furniture manufacturer. Actually it seems to go the way that William is teaching me to learn the real Dominican carpenter skills.

After a morning coffee three days ago William stated that let´s build a bed...You come and help me with the prototype, and let´s sell the piece of art after we are done or place it to your guest bedroom. Well can you say no?

So I said yes, and here we are after couple of days in radio silence with the blog. Bed is done! And it is a masterpiece!!!

This Queen size bed is Williams design and the first piece of collection we are planning to sell to Gringos in need to lay down. There will be also night tables and some other innovative pieces available after William has done some brainstorming with the designs. I am just the apprentize who has amazingly lots of responsability in cutting, sanding, screwing etc. Just name it, atleast you can catch the feeling from the picture above if you think over how dirty we really became after productive day in work!

Thanks to the team members! William, we did good job with this one. Also Edgar the sander & everyplace help deserves credits of the outcome in which even Clint Eastwood would whip his buddies with a smile on his face. Conjoy Caraho!!!

La Policia y 50 pesos Pellado

2008-11-11T14:30:00.000-08:00

Today I made a roadtrip to Santiago...There is nothing special with that since I tend to do that quite often, atleast once a week. What equals word special is that a driver should always store something small valued like 50 pesos (= approx. 1 euro) into the ashtray of a car or just somewhere close in case the policia is standing on road side and you decide to stop because he is signaling you to do PARE (=stop). If you have the 50 pesos alongside with 2000 peso notes, I assure you the pellado will grow in parallel of the dineros (=money) you let this corrupted Bendeho to see. There are exeptions to these Pellados like trafic police, so let´s go these scenarios through in more detail.

You have three options from which all of them are quite common to be used:

1. You stop and if the policia is not familiar looking face you start acting Gringo. This means what ever he says you just state No Comprendo (=I don´t understand), and point a finger to Diccionario (=Dictionary) and then repeat No comprendo multiple times. In most of the cases they will just let you go and do nothing else. Case solved. You just saved 50 pesos!

2. On second scenario you decide to stop and the police questioning you seems to be familiar and he knows you are local. Oh, shit...It is pellado time! So open up the ashtray and give the guy 50 pesos and you are good to go.

To be more accurate, there are two rules with these...If the police is in blue & gray outfit, then you need to cooporate with the pellado (=state trooper) or if the outfit is green, then nothing helps you...Not even the 50 peso pellado. You just got ticket and you need to pay it in a bank and go to showcase the stamp of the payment at the police station where ever province you comitted your trafic violation.

3. Third option is straight from movies, so just hit it and accelerate as fast as you can since these troopers have only piece of Bazura (=garbage) as their vechicles. Most commonly this can be performed when driving from Puerto Plata to Santiago in the morning since the police are most likelly trying to do their Pellado on the opposite side of the road compared to where you come from since they don´t like to stand on direct sun. So just scedule your return in the afternoon when the sun is again on the opposite side of the road from where you come...Then the stupidos will be looking for the shadow on the other side of the road.

Simple rules in the country of total freedom! Caramba!

Nuestro nueva perra, OBAMA!

2008-11-07T13:48:00.001-08:00

As you can see I have fallen back to the level of a dog! So in the picture above you see a gift I got from William yesterday...And what a package she is!!! That girl knows how to protect a house, bark at Haitianos, chew your shoes and to urinate to bendeho neightbours front door "Because I am a puppy!".

Feel free to let your imagination fly, and see me today morning having my new solid scedule as a proud dog owner. Simple as this, I just have to follow the path of a dog (=Perra when when female, perro when male) and kneel into its level to do some crazy manowers to get it understand this funny clown. I will go out with her from now on every morning to the beach and in the evening to the Playa Laguna neightbourhood. Daytime fun happens in the garden.

For example, this morning we practised how to pick up a stick, and to deliver it back to the owner. By the end of the day the same trick was performed with a ball she has as her toy. I would call that dog intelligence or me being able to adapt and equal the level of a dog. I quess you all know the answer, and as a hint it was in the first sentence of this blog writing!

El Amigo numero uno las costas del norte de Republica Dominicana

2008-11-05T11:35:00.000-08:00

On the picture you can see the constructor of the house I live in and the best friend I have here in the in the Island of Pelados (=Rip off), Fiesta (=Party) y Luz de sol (=Sunshine). So let me introduce you the man himself...William, el Patron (=the boss)!

If you have been wondering why my Spanish has been improving so rapidly, it is highly likely because William has been educating me to have the insight into the latino mind and culture. I know now all the important words from Pedazo de basura (=Piece of garbage), Porkerilla (=Out of order disaster) and Pesadilla (=Nightmare) to the more advanced wording like Bendeho, Paraguayo and just simplier Idiota for generating confidence into my everyday problem solving.

William has here a wife (Emise) and a kid whose name is Valentino. He hasn´t said this straight to me, but I think the boy was named to tribute great Moto GB driver Valentino Rossi. I think so, since William likes motor bikes, and might even buy one from here someday.

William states me always that he loves to get his hands dirty and has never been scared of doing work himself. So actually he has probably the best reputation among Haitian workers here since he usually jumps into the work site, gets his hands dirty, and loves it! Pretty rare in nowadays Europe?!?

Actually that has been one of the reasons I decided to give up the perfect life in Finland, I just needed to see somebody like William to understand that there are other values in life than money...like to mean something or do something that is touchable and generates happiness.

Me and William are united in many ways in the world of Pelados. We love to go to Casinos, drink sprite and have innovative brainstorming. It has been really great to have a friend like William over here, otherwise our achievement wouldn´t have been possible. Thanks William and saludos... Let the Geoge W. and the boys have their Pelado and we will do our Pelado in the Ocean world casino proximo Sabado (=next Saturday). Do we agree???

Tengo la mariposa en el jardin!

2008-11-05T08:51:00.001-08:00

Today I found a really large and beautiful butterfly (= la mariposa) from my garden (=el jardin). As you can see, it is almost size of my hand! And those who know this guy with amazing grip, know that these hands are atleast comparable in size with the hands of a Average Joe from Finland!

Overall the flora and fauna of Dominican Republic is really stunning. So I decided to list you top 5 animal attractions/musts you can/will find from here.

1. Tropical fish and water mamals

- The island of hispaniola is surrounded by coral reefs and so there and planty of underwater colour. After the reefs and tropical fish we have Dolphins, Barracudas, Sharks, Sail Fish, Marlin and the Mighty Humpback Whales that gather every Primavera (=spring) to peninsula of Samana.

2. Insects

- Just bring over your mosquito spray if you come here on rainy season. Compared to European relatives, these mosquitos are smaller, sneaky and hard to locate before the sucker has finnished its task. We have flying cocrodches, flyes, grasshoppers, and all kinds of weird bugs that seems to get stucked into your mosquito net. Never the less they will let you be if you don´t harrash them...It is just tropics!

3. Birds

- Wow, they are just gorgeous! I have seen Colibries, Parrots, Ibis, Hawks etc etc. So many of them and they will give you a real concert if you just have time to stop and listen.

4. Alligators in Lago Engurillo

- Just one vulcanic lake here has them. The mighty American Alligators have been on this island for centuries and they still have a mighty population in that particular lake. Go to see it, but dont go swiming!

5. All the other things crawling, running, flying and yelling!

- We have snakes, but no poisonous ones. We have Gekkos, Spiders, Centipedes, Dogs, Horses...Just name it. This place is 24h a day zoo!

Pedazo de basura, Porkerilla y Pesadilla de carros

2008-11-03T08:43:00.000-08:00

The title and the picture guiding reader to this blog writing state that sometimes things are not perfect with cars here in the Dominican Republic. As the exact translation to the title states (Piece of garbage, out of order disaster and the nighthmare of cars.) I have had some problems with flat tyres (see the picture below) and loose back mirrors (see the picture above).

So here the old Italian verse is more than valid "Caveat Emptor = Buyer must beware". Otherwise the pelado will highly likelly happen and buyer has a piece of garbage in his hands (=Pedazo de basura).

The cars I use here were purchased from a guy I know, and who is not local (Usually safer in order to gain atleast somewhat quality). Never the less it must be a thing in this country that all cars seem to cause atleast some bit of a Pesadilla (=Nightmare). As on the picture where you see a Chrysler Sebring Convertable...It has just been standing in my garage and by time (in less than 3 weeks) the pasenger side front wheel has turned flat. Porkerilla!!!

On the picture from interrior of my other car (Dodge Grand Caravan Sport) the rear mirror has just dropped down due to glue that doesn´t seem to stick in this kind of extreme heat. Porkerilla!!!

So my day here will contain again some bubling with my extra terrestial Spanish and trying to convince somebody atleast to try and repair these minor Pesadillas. Saludos Amigos!

In the footsteps of Viljavakka

2008-11-02T15:38:00.000-08:00

Dominican Republic as a country doesn´t produce too many goods to be exported, but ofcourse the local innovators have done something in the footsteps of a finnish Utopia society Viljavakka that was brought here by a Finnman called Oskari Jalasto in very early stages of previous century.

The remains of this vegetarian group (all together approx. 100 Finns) have left to this island as their heritage some booze factories, sugar plantations and lots of good memomories to be spread mouth to mouth even now hundred years later. So it is relatively easy to be a Finnman here and have some chit chat with the locals.

Following the footsteps of Viljavakka, I would recomend next list of TOP 5 goods to be taken as a gifts from here to your home:

1. Rum, Brugal family knows the Finns and so a bottle of rum is highly recommended item to be purchased here. The local drinks to be made from it are Cuba Libre and Santo Libre. (Rum & Cola and Rum & Sprite)

2. Coffee, Santo Domingo is coffee that tastes great and is always made from fresh coffee beans collected from this island. Highly recommendable!

3. Cigars, Davidoff Family is from Dominican Republic and actually even from Puerto Plata province. These world known cicars can be purchased either by knocking a Davidoff family member door or by knowing people that have access to these high priced status symbols.

4. Handicraft, everything from puppets to wooden barrels helps the local poor people in their everyday struggle to earn living. The picture above shows a typical dominican puppet, and by selling it parents can afford almost a month for their kids to go to a school.

5. Larimar, a stone that is found only in dominican Republic. Beware of the fake jewellery sold on the beaches by sneaky dealers who will do a real Pelado for people falling to their trap.

Happy shopping!

Family Reunion

2008-10-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

I didn´t plan to write to you from New York, but since the cold weather has forced me to fill in the warm buble bath and turn the heat on, I had to end my tourism and share with you a bit of the atmosphere here in the big Apple.

Compared to trankilo chilling out in Dominican Republic, I have seen Korean bendehos claiming me that their square piece of garbage (Samsung mobile phones) are going to beat Nokia blah blah b....hit! So that tells you the story, the hotel from where I write this spectacular brainstorm is located between 5th and 6th Avenue in a neightbourhood called little Korea!

Well I don´t mind of the competitive attitude people here tend to have since as you can see from the picture and the title chosen to be in this story...Simple as this, My cinderella found me in this city of Angels!

So Korean wanna-be walkie talkies, try to get your technology to this century, stop copying and give up bothering the mighty Finn with your mobile phone related glumsy chit chat openings, since he doesn´t care!

I am here trying to beat the jet lag out of my wife, and already dreaming of the wonderful Dominican Republic without the extreme little Korean winter. Tomorrow we will once more fly home!

Finland 1 - Korea 0 and it is Fulltime.

Gracias Korean Bendehos! Buhuhahahaaa! Samsung! Buhuhahahaaa!

New York, New York

2008-10-29T04:58:00.000-07:00

Today I will fly to New York to do some shopping and receive a special package. The cinderella on the snap shot seen above will meet me there and I will be accompanied by my loved one here in the Dominican Republic as well.

So there will be a bit of a break in my blog writings, but don´t worry. When I´m back I have a plenty of stories to tell.

To keep you starving for the stories, I heard yesterday of an worker who were asked to go close a car window because it started raining. The Patrón who made that wish asked after the job well done..."So did you get it closed?"...The dominican worker answered: "Not totally, my hand was on the way in the end!" So this hardworking lady tried to close a car window from outside, through the window and almost got his arm stucked in between.

In the world of new innovative products there are so many tiny little things we take for granted. Here the everyday life is learning new things in a world without regulations. Actually William stated it perfectly: "We are in a land of total freedom!". You can understand it by experiencing it yourself.

See you soon after New York!

Outdoors in North coast or take it Trankilo

2008-10-27T17:25:00.000-07:00

Unbelievable! I have run today 5 kilometers, been swiming for an hour, been deep water fishing and shooting golf balls at Playa Dorada golf club. And alongside with that I missed today to go karting, water park fun, hiking, rafting, biking etc. So in this country the everlasting summer just demands you to move your body in outdoors.

There are many things a tourist or a resident can do here in the island of perfect climate. Sometimes humid + 30 C weather burns the calories for you by just sitting out side. The self made adrenalin rush can even be too much in this comfortable heat, and so it is wise to store some extra drinks for all day long usage what ever you plan to do...even when that is absolutelly nothing...just chilling out...so take it easy! (=Trankilo)

Loving is sharing my friend, I decided to publish some cool links for you to do some expedition tours & see cool destinations in north coast of Dominican Republic. Feel free to ask me questions, atleast in case the vacation here sounds like a proper choise for your dream holiday.

Pepe´s top 10 Outdoor links in North Coast of DR:

IGUANA MAMA

Great young and fresh tour operator with best expeditions in DR

OCEAN WORLD ADVENTURE PARK

From diving with dolphins to exiting encounters with tigers etc.

GO KART RACING

Karting is always such a fun

PLAYA DORADA GOLF

Really decent priced beautiful golf course near Puerto Plata

KASKADA AQUA PARK

Water fun at its best!

PLAYA GRANDE GOLF AND BEACH

Beautiful and long beach, alonside with a must to be played once in a life time golf course

GRI GRI LAGOON

Mangrove forests flavored with fruiful flora & fauna!

KITESURFING IN CABARETE AND BEACH

They organize even Kite surfing world cup once a year in Cabarete. Beach is also great!

SAMANA, WHALE WATCHING & EL LIMON WATER FALL

Samana nature park is stunning. Whale breeding season is from January until March when 20000 humpback whales gather into the peninsula of Samana. They are unbelievable sight and the water burst is high!

SOSUA DIVING & BEACH

Coral reefs suround the Island of Hispaniola. Really colorful underwaterlife and easy to access reef from beatiful beach of Sosua!

Conjoy Caraho y Patrón

2008-10-26T07:05:00.000-07:00

Wow! Son of a gun! Things really turn upside down here in a speed of a lightning. As you can see from the picture above William hired Andy back! And that automatically let me to hire him as well...And my family van is shiny and bright once more. I am back in business!!!

So Andy swallowed his pride, apologized to William, William gave him a bit of lecture...And the problem solved! So I hope that Andy will now learn his lesson, atleast today he has been extremely productive. No leafs on the yard, shiny car, no pelados and the patrón sitting happy in a ivory tower.

Bendeho, Pariguayo y Palomo, three ways to be stupid or idiot in Dominicanos mind

2008-10-26T05:52:00.000-07:00

Alright! After first week of Spanish lessons my wonderful teacher Enrique has also been preparing me to enter the Dominican mind. To be able to have that skill you need to know three important words Pariguayo, Palomo and Bendeho. All those words mean idiot or stupid in a different context.

F.ex. if we take word Palomo under analysis, and create imaginary situation where you as a tourist walk in the streets of Sosua and hear a local caballero state in a sarcastic way "PALOMO". Either as in orginal context Palomo (=bird) has just made droppings to his fore head or you see three persons sitting in a bar chatting. (One Dominican female, one Dominican male and one gringo). If the second option prevails, it is most likely that what you witness is a Gringo (In this case a tourist who has fallen in love) talking intensively to a Dominican or Haitian lady. The third person is actually the ladys boyfriend who is a pimp. Usually the ladies introduce the third person to the gringo as their friend, nothing to do with their actual relationship. These Palomos are a topic to laugh about here, and considered "Idiots" who have been ripped off (=Pelado). There are just a lots of decent and real wife material around who don´t want money for their services. The rest you can guess, but I must highlight here the real possibility to end up into real "PELADO"!

"Bendeho" as a statement is usually heard from the distance. There are multiple ways to descripe it, but I guess the most accurate one would be somekind of "Motherfucking asshole, you stupid piece of shit!". So in a real life situation you have done something stupid that generates high blood pressure. The redface guy who yells it is highly likely serious, but also the blood pressure drops fast and situation calms down easily. So don´t worry, just keep going and don´t think about it too much. It was just a little mistake you did and everybody is alive!

"Pariguayo" means in many cases that someone challenges you face to face into either a fist fight or to a verbal high blood conversation. In these kind of situation you should play humble and state you are very sorry that you tried to steal someones girl or boyfriend. Playing stupid might help, so keep your side of the conversation in english and by time things calm down. Actually "Pariguayo" is the most rarely seen situation (exeption might be the payday on Saturdays). Dominicanos are peaceful and smiley persons who like to be with gringos, to help them and sometimes to get tips from them.

Welcome to the Latin America, where the emotions and bonds between people play key role. I just love this place!

Dos Patróns y muchos trabajos

2008-10-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

"Conjoy caraho!" That is a statement I use in trafic when the Dominicanos do something totally weird. Anyway, this time "Fuck! Holy shit!" describes the speed of changing environment on the Williams work site in the near by lot, in the garage and in the back yard of the house I live in. The picture above states that señjor William had to fire Andy today (the haitiano who has been living in my garage).

In away William had no options, since the guy kept insisting that he was right and over the opinion of the the boss (=patrón in spanish). So after three tries to convince him to listen what the patrón had to say about the future work (=trabajo) and same amount of interupting overspeaking by Andy, William calmly stated to him to go and pack his bags and leave... even from my garage! So with Donald Trumps words...You are fired! The outcome is seen in the picture...The matress perfectly rolled into the corner of Andys former apartment, and the shadow of a photographer sharpening the machete since the security issues are no longer solved!

I feel a bit sad for the guy since I didn´t actually need him for anything, but I kept paying him a bit of looking after my property and picking up the leaves from the yard. He also washed the car couple of times, and it really felt good to drive the Shining family van into the town of Sosua.

Things might change in speed here, and so after talking to William today when going for day time coffee, he said that never say never...Andy has been fired three times earlier and always hired back. It might be permanent or just a awakening call for him for future trabajos in Williams company.

To convince you that something here seems to be solid as well, in the picture above is my house maid Micaela. She is also a Haitiano, like the most of the helping hands in gringos work sites...She is really hardworking package who cleans the house every Friday. I might hire her now for three days a week since she helps me a lot in learning spanish, and I think my bubling of extra terrestial spanish seems to improve her english skills as well. Business term here would be a real WIN-WIN situation.

So the things in the Dominican Republic are not bad at all, as you can see! The retired bastard just sits here writing to the blog, and stares from the ivory tower like a real patrón when others do your laundry. I think it must be a time for a weekend drink! Saludos amigos!

A nightingale in a golden cage turns into happy face eskimo

2008-10-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

Today I heard first time in a month western music...And guess what it turned out to be! Rare Nightwish song (Finnish band), actually a bonus track called Escapist, was played on a radio. Somehow the lyrics made me really emotional and the first time I felt a bit strange after leaving everything familiar behind.

The strange thing that lead me felt like this was that my closest friend here and the designer & constructor of the beautiful house I live in (Señor William) made me an unvelievable palm and cactus combination with monumental lighting seen on the right hand side on the picture above (behind my ugly face). A nightingale has been sitting on that palm all day long entertaining me and my spanish struggling with her singing. And since it all starts with a lullaby, people who see me here call me the happy face eskimo.

So here we go with the lyrics of the last verse and chorus of that particular song:

Journey...homeward bound

A sound of a dolphin calling

Tearing off the mask of man

The Tower...my soul guide

This is who I am...Escapist, paradise seeker

Farewell, now time to fly

Out of sight, out of time, away from all lies

A nightingale in a golden cage

That's me locked inside reality's maze

Come someone...make my heavy heart light

Come undone...bring me back to life

It all starts with a lullaby

- Tuomas Holopainen, 2007

Escapist in Youtube

Arkanofobia, creaturas y criaturas

2008-10-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

That little black spot behind my head on roof edge is a thing called brown spider. You see them frequently wondering around the house and most certainly also inside your castle. These little creatures bite and can cause you sleepless nights unless you fight back and give them some what military training.

So in general when you spot them, they have two options: Either to run from your house or as in this case to run into your house. In my house the regulations go that if you have not knocked the door, you will have a machete sticking out of your forehead. And that is exactly what happened! See the picture below.

Brown Spiders can grow almost the size of your hand, but not as big as the mighty Tarantulas. I have not seen one yet, but they say that here should be some. In case I will have my webcam witnessing the encounter, I will add episode 2 into my introduction of creaturas y criaturas. Saludos Amigos y Buenas Noches!

Welcome to the Dominican Republic

2008-10-22T04:54:00.000-07:00

After a huge struggle inside my head I realised that my new home is located in Caribia, in the beautiful island of Hispaniola. People around me don´t speak my two preferred languages finnish and english. Also the alternative ones swedish and german are not accepted...So what to do? Sign language might help, but I decided to go to knock the door of Hotel El Colibri language school and start the learning curve in order to survive. So Hola! all bloggers and blog sniffers, and that one word was in perfect spanish.

First days here in Sosua have been really exiting. All new things from learning unbelievable driving behavior to ordering motoconcho pizza have been keeping me busy. I have found a lots of new friends alongside with the bonds I still have towards my place of origin...Land of thousand lakes and impressive wireless technology, Finland.

First picture of my journey was taken in Playa Grande by tallented Estonian photographer "Helene Wait", so excuse me of the Pelado (=Rip Off in english) since I am still struggling with the infrastructure and can´t publish yet my own material.

Other than that everything here is great and I am really settling down. Even the Haitiano living in my garage, and his friends trying to get job from me have been great. So no voodoo so far, but I´ll keep you updated!