Swell is from NE direction and 13 seconds, so should produce some very good surfable waves here in Cabarete. We are thinking about going over to surf preciosa on wednesday, small crew, maybe Danniel a professional photographer from Canada, who will probably the designated surf photographer for Swell Cabarete surfing camp.

Quick update on the construction of our surf hotel in Cabarete
-Floor in the main area is being finished today with polishing
-Building will be painted this week
-Garden is looking nice green and tropical
-Bathroom fittings are all in by the end of the week as well.
-Kitchen should be done mid next week.

Here’s some pictures of Preciosa, as you can see, when it’s good , it’s real good.

After almost 5 hours of back-breaking and sweaty work, we had unloaded 4 very large pallets of items and checked the contents of 22 more boxes.  Driving backwards and forwards between Ocean One and Swell we have stored many of the items in the garage of a good friend of mine who was kind enough to offer (thanks Claire).

Nest Tuesday, I am told that the rest of our shipment will arrive.

Things are moving very quickly at the camp now; there’s a team of 25 or more people working there on electrics, plastering, etc.  We are always impressed by how hard working the Haitian men are – they are mixing cement by hand all day long.   It’s amazing; standing right in the sunshine and bending for hours on end.  Right now, the air temperature is around 100 degrees – we don’t know how they do that and stay so cheerful.; respect.

It’s been a busy trip for both of us in diffferent ways and we have enjoyed it, but both of us are looking forward to getting back to each other, our home, our dogs and our surf camp project.

It will be the last trip we make outside of the Dominican Republic for a while as from now on, our focus will be completely on preparation to open Cabarete’s newest and coolest budget accommodation.

Hasta Pronto…….

Today, we will be going back for more planting - 5 more Royal Palms and 2 Coco Palms will arrive this afternoon and then later, we meet with a lighting specialist to see what special effects we can make for the lighting of the pool and the gardens.

The new Swell Surf Camp website is now online and can be seen here , and we thought we’d add a blog to keep you up to date on everything that is Swell Surf Camp related, like the construction (for now) special events, special prices, pictures etc.

• Construction on Swell Surf camp was started about 8 weeks ago, and the progress that the builder has made so far is phenomenal. They are basically putting the first floor roof up this week.
• Since the launch, our website has “won” 2 web design awards from CSS drive and Unmatched Style which I , as the designer, am very pleased about. Clare gets equal amount of credit for giving good feedback during the design process as well as being a great text writer.
• Clare and myself have started doing paddle surfing here (SUP), since that’s a sport we also want to promote at Swell Surf camp. We found it a great sport and also realise that cabarete is an ideal spot for it. Muscles have been sore form it the last 2 days, but we are definitely going to continue.

Now I am going to make sure that this Blog gets a good look and then Clare will probablly take over, since she has turned into the inhouse blogging expert and can write way better than I can.

Hasta Pronto, Jeroen