This morning we were off early for our p-day outing. We spent the morning collecting sea shells at the beach. First we drove to Elder & Hna. Whitaker’s apartment to borrow their “Sea shell mining” equipment. Then we were off to the same beach the Whitaker’s took us to on April 24, 2010, Capella Beach in the town of Juan Dolio. It is East of Santo Domingo and from our apartment it took us an hour to get there.
On the way there the Express Way we drive, “Ave. Las Americas”, hugs the coast line most of the time. We were really impressed by all of the blow holes we saw blowing sea water high into the sky. We saw a dozen or more and they were all working very well this morning. One of them had a convenient spot to pull the car off the road so I took a bunch of pictures.
We arrived at the beach and set up our “Mining” operation. In about 3 feet of water I scoop sand into a wire mesh sieve. The water rinses the sand away leaving the shells behind. Repeating the process about a dozen times yields about a gallon bucket full of shells. Unfortunately the haul is mostly broken pieces and coral. When my basket is full I take it up to Hna. Johnson where she sorts through all of the broken pieces and saves only the whole pretty ones. We did this from 9:30 until noon. We brought home about three gallons of very beautiful premium sea shells. We had a lot of fun “Mining” for sea shells today.
Now for the BAD NEWS! My first trip into the ocean this morning to “Mine” sea sells I forgot that my camera was in the pocket of my swimming suit. It was completely submerged before I realized what had happened. I dried it, shook out the excess salt water, opened all of the compartment doors and set it in the sun to dry. I’m afraid my wonderful Panasonic X10 Zoom, 9.1 megapixel camera is dead and beyond salvaging. By the end of the day, after drying for hours in the sun and under the hair dryer it is still dead. Next I plan to carefully take it completely apart, clean and dry it, then reassemble it. Hopefully it will work again.
But in the mean time we have a back up camera. Hna. Johnson’s Kodak, X5 Zoom, 12megapixal camera works great so I still have a good camera to use. I will miss the extra zoom though. I am so sorry I ruined my mission camera. It has served me very well for the past year. It has taken some great pictures for me.
After we finished our sea shell mining we got cleaned up and went to eat lunch at “El Meson” restaurant right across the street from the Capella Beach. This is the second time we’ve eaten there and we like it a lot (See May 8, 2010). The food is great, inexpensive and the same mother cat came over to beg food off of Hna. Johnson.
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