|
Welcome
to the 2001 edition of the annual Olson Christmas update!
The
best place to start is always at the beginning.
January found Ana and I back in Santo Domingo, Dominican
Republic after spending a wonderful Christmas in Canada with our
families. We were
staying in a great apartment with a balcony overlooking the
swimming pool and we spent many nights sitting out enjoying the
beautifully mild evenings.
We
were blessed with lots of visitors this year and the first to
visit were Mark and Linda Olson, who came in January.
I had been hassling them to visit us for a few years now
and they finally got a chance to come!
They had a good time exploring the city and practising
their Spanish on the locals.
Mark & I enjoyed quite a few nights on the balcony
slogging back Presidentes (the beer of the Dominican Republic)
and smoking fine cigars. When
the women could stand the smell and foul language they would
join us for a while!
A
month later our friends Mike and Nola from Chicago came for a
visit. They were
staying at a resort in Juan Dolio so we joined them there for a
weekend then brought them back to the city where they stayed
with us for a couple nights.
We had a great time..except for when Iron Mike came with
me to the gym and subjected me to a punishing workout.
I’m still sore from that one.
Ana
and I decided to take a weekend getaway so we blasted off for
Barbados! We had a
great time there drinking Banks beer at Mojos (thinking of our
friend Karen…), eating flying fish sandwiches, and laying on
the beach. The
“Bajans” as they are called are really great people. One
night we met up with our friend Glyne Hewitt who showed us a
good time.
We
managed to get a week off at Easter so what better way to spend
a holiday than with the Danes!
Our friends Martin and Marianne (with a bursting belly!)
came for two weeks. We
jumped in the car and did a huge road trip around the Dominican
Republic. Memorable
moments included a horrible picnic at a roadside gas station/merengue
bar/car wash, drinking rum from coconuts at Las Galeras then
making Frankenstein noises at the girls, swimming at a beautiful
freshwater cave pool, eating fried parrot fish after a rainy
half hour boat ride to nowhere, and watching a spectacular
cockfight in Sosua!
My
good buddy Earl Bradish, who has the uncanny ability to show up
almost everywhere, met up with us no less than four times this
year! The first two
times were in the Dominican Republic, where we spent a great
weekend away at a coastal town called Las Terranas, next time
was in Puerto Rico, and the last time was at our wedding.
I like to call him “Earl the Wanderer”.
Our
next set of visitors were our friends Tom and Linda Bondy from
Michigan. As well,
Linda’s cool brother was with them. They were staying at a resort in Juan Dolio but they joined
us for a couple days in Santo Domingo and we did a good number
on the Presidentes.
In
March, Ana was offered a job from Shell so at that moment we
became a “Shell Family”. She was quite happy to leave her other job at the web design
company as she had reached the top of the corporate ladder there
and was looking for new challenges…
We
decided to take a couple days off in July and make a long
weekend trip to Cuba! We
stayed in Havana at a great little bed and breakfast and spent
the whole weekend on a moped cruising around the city exploring.
Cuba is one of our favourite places, not just for the
great cigars, but also for the splendid people there.
They are the most modest, good natured, honest, and
friendly people you will meet.
As well, we discovered this restaurant called El Aljibe
where I had the most delicious meal of my life.
Roast chicken, rice, beans, and this delicious pungent
orange sauce that was most amazing!
I found out later that my uncle Michael Olson has also
been there and knows the chef so I hope he got the recipe from
him.
I
can’t remember how many weekend trips we made in the Dominican
Republic but there were lots and they were all wonderful.
One of my favourites was a trip we made with our friends
John Murray, John Stevens, and James Hooley to the Club Med
which is in the area of Bavaro.
Great scenes from that weekend included a torturous, five
hour drive there dodging dangerous Dominicans, an afternoon on
the archery range, Ana accidentally pulling the wrong string on
her bathing suit and having it fall off in the middle of the
beach much to John’s amusement, and launching ourselves over a
giant speedbump on the way home, catching about three feet of
air in the process, then making a perfect landing (Ana at the
wheel on that one..)!!
One
of the things we wanted to do while in Dominican Republic is
make a trip to Haiti. So
one Thursday night we drove up to the north coast then took a
day tour to Haiti the following day.
It was a very interesting place, to say the least.
We saw a typical marketplace, which looked much like a
garbage dump, visited a prison, and saw a Voodoo show which
included a most impressive chicken beheading.
The fun never stops in Haiti…
The
same weekend we had a huge surprise.
As we were sitting in a restaurant in Sosua on Friday
night after our day trip, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned
around to see my old friend Marc Haugen standing there!
Unbeknownst to me, him and his wife were living in Sosua
and he was working as an engineer at a local power plant.
They then treated us to a great weekend and showed us
around all the local hangouts.
A few months later we met up with them and Marc’s
sister Caroline for a weekend in Las Terrenas where we did this
superb daytrip on horseback to a big waterfall near a place
called Limon.
At
the end of July, we joined our friends Mark and Sarah on a
weekend trip to St. Martin.
We had a splendid time!
We did one day trip by catamaran to Anguilla, which was
absolutely divine, especially all the free beer on the boat (in
bed by 6:00 for krissy boy).
The next day we did a trip by powerboat to the island of
St. Barts which must be one of the most beautiful islands in the
Caribbean.
As
part of the project we were working on, we were sent to Puerto
Rico in August. We were happy to be going someplace new, but were sad to be
leaving our friends in Santo Domingo, especially the Consoli
gang (Dave, Paul, Debra, Gian Paolo) who we spent many fun
nights with and our other friends Christian and Belkys. Our time
in Puerto Rico turned out to be a lot of work, but we had a lot
of fun as well. San
Juan, which is the main city in Puerto Rico, is a fabulous
place! It has a
beautiful old city centre, friendly people, plenty of white sand
beaches, and all the conveniences of the USA.
And,
of course, the wedding! After
having a miserable time trying to get back home from Puerto Rico
after the September 11 disaster (you can click here
for more details of that hellish journey…), I finally made it
to Brantford just as all the family and friends were starting to
arrive. I could
write a chapter on the activities of the wedding, but suffice to
say that a great time was had by all.
And I am now a happily married man with the most
beautiful woman in the world!
After
the wedding and subsequent trip to Saskatoon we returned to
Santo Domingo to continue work on the project.
After a couple very difficult and very frustrating months
of work, we decided that it was time to move on and should look
around for something else.
Ana was first offered a position working as a Change
Manager on a project based out of The Hague in Holland but since
they did not allow husbands and wives to work together they
could not offer a job to me.
Since I did not have any leads on jobs Ana told them she
could not take the job. They
then decided to “bend” the rule and offered me a job as
well! So we are now
signed on and will begin work on Jan. 14.
Very exciting!
In
November, we again moved from Santo Domingo to San Juan, Puerto
Rico to finish up work on our project.
San Juan was a great change from Santo Domingo and Ana
was especially happy to be living near the largest shopping mall
in the Caribbean! Dad
and Loretta decided on a last minute trip and flew down to visit
us soon after we arrived there.
Needless to say, we will thrilled to see them!
Even better, the great Toddy Van Hees was working in
Chicago at the time and since it was American Thanksgiving he
came down for the long weekend as well.
We drank lots of beer and smoked plenty of cigars.
We also made an overnight trip to a town on the west
coast called Rincon where we did some boogeyboarding and
surfing. We rented
the ground level of this big house close to the ocean.
It all looked too good to be true until we returned there
at midnight after a great night out and went to bed….only to
be awoken by some roosters cock-a-doodle-dooing.
It was sort of funny at first, until we realized that
there was a whole gang of them living in the neighbour’s yard
and they were not stopping. So it was a very sleepless night for most of us.
It didn’t help that the next day was Ana’s 30th
birthday so she is definitely not going to forget that one!
We
decided to treat ourselves on one of our last weekends so we
flew over to St. Thomas, which is only a 40 minute flight from
Puerto Rico. The
island was really beautiful and we had some delicious gourmet
meals out. To make
things even more decadent, on the Saturday we hopped on an ocean
float plane and went over to St Croix (which is another US
Virgin Island) for lunch! (please don’t hate us!)
The next day we went on a chartered sailboat and spent a
lovely day cruising around the islands. We even set foot on St. John, which is the last US Virgin
Island so it was quite a full and fantastic weekend.
Finally,
we are now back in Brantford staying at Ana’s parent’s place
enjoying the Canadian cold.
Tomorrow, we leave for the Azores and are looking forward
to spending a great Christmas there! After that, it will be on to our next adventure….in the
Netherlands!
Take
care and God bless,
Kris
& Ana |
