Sandbags and Sandia

This year the ocean has decided we had too much sand, and it took it all away...I remember last year, the boats were parked in front, but not this year!

This is a picture two weeks ago, when the "sea wall" went in. The big earth mover dug up a bunch of little rocks and piled them up in front of half our house. But over the course of the next weeks, the tide came over, the sand got washed away, and all the little rocks fell down. Fishermen helped us with our sandbags, after the sand in front of our gate finally got washed away.

They were beautiful new steps...until high tide!

Note the new bag holder, the old one couldn't be reached anymore, so I put a new one on this side, but after the sand got washed away, it couldn't be reached either, so bag holder 3.0 is on a pulley.

We had invited the Romero family over for Americana Norte Comida on Saturday, we had agreed on 1pm, we had hoped that when the men got back from fishing they would help us redo the sandbag steps, but they must have had a good day, because 1pm came and went, and the boats were still out. The ladies all showed up about 1:30 ish, and we went ahead without the men, thinking they would be back shortly.

I got the ladies to all have a glass of Sandia (watermelon) wine, and Mike started the grill. We visited and had many photos, the girls loved having a place to pose.

Dominica is taking modeling classes, and was ALL ABOUT THE PHOTOS! Mama Lola's birthday was last week, and I had finished her present, a driftwood cross, they all loved it.

We ate hamburgers, macaroni salad and potato chips, and even tho the men didn't get back til late, we had a good time with the ladies. I pulled out the string, shells and beads and the kids and I made necklaces before it was time for home and naps. It didn't turn out exactly like I had planned, but a good time was had by all. It was nice the ladies didn't have to cook, I think they enjoyed that, and a nice Sandia wine buzz didn't hurt.

Update on the new monument next time, so...stay tuned, the adventure continues!

REALLY High Tides

We came home the other day from a bus trip to Bahia, and saw that the fishermen had moved their boats, and were helping move the unattended boats. Some men were working to get fence panels off the vacant lot next door, and that lot became boat parking. 

Other boats ended up being tied to the remaining fence, and then other boats were tied to each other, and then to a post or structure. Where we usually have many boats parked in front of our house, now we have none.

Another interesting thing we have noticed in the past few weeks is the sand, here in front of the house the sand has been washed away and you can see what used to be the old sea wall. Usually the sand covers most of these rocks and only two of the largest stick up thru the sand. We noticed the opposite further down the Boca, where the "ruins" are, in these pictures you can see the sand is covering up almost all the ruins, usually there are big pools, and you can see these walls much higher above the sand.

Mike took a long walk last week up forwards Punta Bikini and there he noticed a change in the sand as well. The sand had been washed away and left lots of rocks, so many that being barefoot he could not walk as far as planned. So interesting the ebb and flow of the ocean and the shore, so nice to be living such a simple life, that we get to notice stuff like this.

Back to the high tides, we had some empty sand bags, so we decided to fill them and put infront of the gate, the fishermen came over to help us, Fernando, Raphael and Mike secured our courtyard.

We heard rain in the night, and when we woke up, we found this...

We did get ocean (the spoon is evidence) but actually half of this water is from rain coming off our roof and the neighbors. After we got some of the water swept out, we saw there was much sand that had come in on the tide, it was a bit of a mess, but nothing a little drying time and sweeping wouldn't cure! We talked to Fernando, and he said they would do more sandbags, and maybe two more, and we would be good.

The morning high tide came close, but didn't bring in any water or debris.

We filled a couple more bigger sandbags and woke up this morning to dry courtyard! (Last nights high tide was 10:30ish) Yippee!

So, the moral of this story is...be prepared and know your local fishermen, and you'll be alright. I gave up being concerned with a little sand in the house, or in the yard, I mean we did choose to live on the beach. These tides happen once a year, and now we know. Our friends will look out for us, and tell us when to worry and when not to. People put up with a lot from the weather, some of it you can change, and some not. We decided we didn't want to live in the cold and snow anymore, so now we don't. No more shoveling snow, but maybe once a year we shovel some sand into sandbags...I still say it's a great trade.

So, stay tuned, our adventure continues!