Hand-Made Cigars in Boca Chica

Thursday, July 26, 2007
The Dominican Republic is a major producer of cigars… and for that matter a major exporter too, with numerous brands having attained an excellent international standing. Being so close to Cuba perhaps that is no surprise because the local climate allows for equally abundant tobacco growth. Directly from Boca Chica we are pleased to be able to bring you cigar fans out there a little inside tip on the subject of Dominican cigars: you can now buy genuinely hand-made quality Dominican cigars in Boca Chica and even watch them being made right here in the center of town.
Basilio Pascual is the man behind this new venture when four months ago he moved his two-year old business from nearby Andres to the main Duarte Street in Boca Chica. He arrived bringing his 12 years of experience in the cigar industry to Boca Chica where he can be found at his extremely well stocked “Fabrica de Tobaco” (Cigar Factory) immediately opposite Banco Popular.
He concentrates exclusively on his self-created “Gran Selecto” brand which comes in five principal sizes: Churchill, Torpedo, Toro, Robusto and Corona. To bolster this and offer a complete range he also produces the smaller “Petit” format and the extra special “Premium”. In the two years since its launch Gran Selecto has established itself nationally, in numerous export markets such as Switzerland and France and even as far afield as the Ivory Coast.
The tobacco leaves he uses are treated and classified according to national standards and come from Navarrete in the heart of Dominican tobacco country near Santiago. He claims his creation is a unique fabrication particularly because of the extremely low level of aroma pervasiveness when lit.
The Boca Chica tobacco “factory” is the only place of Gran Selecto production in the country and the entire production process can be observed by merely stepping through the main door. In addition to the work benches, dozens of cigar boxes can be seen piled in different corners of the premises ready for direct sale to the public. The ultimate tip is that instead of buying a full box from Basilio you could, of course, try a “Robusto” for size at the Playa Vista bar and see if the refreshing sea breeze and marine view, together with a traditional hand-made cigar really suit your style!

One Way to Ease Sciatica in a Bar

Monday, January 8, 2007
An extremely good Playa Vista friend is our hero number 1 these days… not only for the purposes of this story, but even more so because he has been helping us uncommonly altruistically and manfully in the Playa Vista Bar in recent weeks. We say manfully not just because of the excellent supportive role he has been playing in the Bar, but also because a very painful dose of sciatica makes it difficult for him to operate without the smooth cooperation of that infernally irritating nerve.
His own diagnosis told him that the solution could well be a course of cortisone injections. After quite some understandable procrastination he finally bought himself a small bottle of what he thought would be the necessary liquid and a syringe. He then just had to find somebody competent to inject him. In the middle of the day he tried a couple of private 24-hour service clinics, but they were both closed! He then went to the public clinic where, to his great surprise, the doctor, who is normally sitting with a great long line of people waiting to see him, was all alone. The next surprise was that the doctor immediately discarded the cortisone idea and promptly gave our friend an injection of Dexa B-Tres (for the medically minded this is based on neurotropic vitamins and dexamethasone) which he said would be much better. Our brave friend of course took the rather painful injection in his stride and immediately thereafter limped to his computer to verify on the internet what he had actually been injected with. ‘Approximately 100 times the strength of cortisone’, he told us after the check! He was quite delighted with this, and all was well and good, but… this was a Friday and the doctor would not be available over the weekend for further injections.
On Saturday morning our friend turned up just as enthusiastically as ever with the one proviso of uncertainty as to how on earth he would be able to get his daily shot, as he placed his packets of Dexa B-Tres hopefully on the side of the bar. Exactly what his level of hope, or even his thinking, was… we don’t really know, because within a few servings of Piña Colada, Coca-Cola and Presidente beers an entirely first-time Playa Vista customer leaned over the bar to order his own variety of refreshment, noticed the packets and straight out asked if our brave bar helper had a problem with sciatica. “Why would you be asking that?” our friend replied in astonishment. “Well, I happen to be a doctor and I know all about that product sitting on your bar counter”. Almost before the next coke could be decapped the doctor newly-in-the-house took the matter fully in hand. He jumped right behind the counter and administered the injection there and then in good old natural Playa Vista style. Our friend clearly thanked the doctor and offered a well earned discount on his tab.
With Saturday’s injection well taken care of that just left Sunday to be negotiated, still without clinic and even without the new-found doctor. At this point another Playa Vista customer stepped up to the plate. One of the best patron’s of Bohemia beer that Playa Vista has ever seen was willing and eager to do the necessary ‘shot’ the next day. “Fine,” said our friend… “on the simple condition that you don’t start into your daily Bohemian ration until after the exercise has taken place!”
Sunday came and our trusted customer certainly achieved the goal of a Dexa B-tres injection, but… there were a couple of stumblings along the way. Firstly, he broke the capsule with the substance in it and cut his hand… and while they were trying to stem the bleeding, our indispensable bar-helper friend and faithful ‘Playa Vista soldier’ stood with his bare feet on the broken glass! However, once the bloody mess was cleared away injector and injectee went successfully about their business. Whatever the truth might be about keeping to his promise of leaving the beer alone until after the injection, the bad news was that ‘good customer cum-injector’ was off to Costa Rica in the coming days.
So it would seem… the next weekend would probably require a whole new seemingly coincidental Playa Vista saga to get the job done!

World Record Holder Goes Swimmingly

Thursday, December 7, 2006
If you had ventured down to the Boca Chica beach early on Sunday morning, you would –apart from yet another beautiful sunlit Caribbean morning– also have been able to see the beginning of an extremely audacious journey. At 8.20 am a young Dominican man going by the name of Marcos Diaz launched himself into the gentle waters in front of the Hamaca hotel with the intention of swimming not just the length of the tranquil Boca Chica lagoon but out into the open sea in Andres, against the currents that would have driven any normal mortal straight back into the bay, around the Caucedo peninsula and all the way down the coast to the Malecon in Santo Domingo – a distance of an impressive 50 km in all.
He began the swim with a great cheer from a large number of well wishers and was followed by a small escort vessel and also a very vociferous group made up largely of youngsters running along the beach enthusiastically encouraging him along. The aim for Marcos Diaz was twofold: to break a Caribbean and central American record for 50 km swimming in open waters and to do so in front of the Dominican public for the first time.
The brave swimmer was certainly unknown to us before Sunday –and surprisingly to rather a lot of Dominicans too– hence his desire to establish a record in home waters. In actual fact Marcos Diaz is a Dominican long distance swimmer of world renown. He has swum the English Channel and holds the world record for a return swim across the Straits of Gibraltar… and on Sunday he achieved his goal in the record time of 10 hours and 36 minutes. So, rather nice to know that the world famous also swim in front of Playa Vista even if they don’t necessarily have time to stop for a drink!

Evolution in Boca Chica?

Thursday, January 27, 2005
After a quick refreshing cold beer break (check last blog entry) we are on request back to the current state of evolution in Boca Chica.
As you may or may not know a number of businesses, for God only knows what reasons, have been closed recently in the Boca Chica main street (Calle Duarte).
As reported in our blog of 17/1/05 the ‘Cosmos Discotheque’ and ‘Zanzi Bar’ were closed because of internal misunderstandings between the two businesses and the owner of the building… a case completely unconnected to the closure by the authorities/police of several bars last week,
No firm reasons have been given although rumors as usual are aplenty. Some say that everything, for better or for worse, soon will be back to normal… some that it is all part of the new government’s plans to permanently ‘clean up’ Boca Chica… whatever that means. If the ‘permanent clean up’ rumor is true we welcome it, that is if it means a long awaited and frequently promised removal of the all-too-many illegals and criminals roaming, and in some ways ruling, the streets and the beach.
However, Boca Chica is still alive and kicking although somewhat subdued. We can absolutely reassure you that service at Playa Vista continues as before and that there are, as usual, plenty of adventurous activities to go for on the Boca Chica beach and all over this exotic Latin Caribbean country in general.
So… why not make Boca Chica your port of entry and Playa Vista your base camp, as you explore further the Caribbean adventures on offer?
Hasta la Playa Vista!

Is Change on the Way?

Thursday, October 14, 2004
The extraordinary hurricane activity of September seems a long time ago now. The only visible evidence that something untoward happened is the still debris-strewn reef which is either waiting for the local council to get their launch out there with a cleaning team or for a very high tide to release the stranded material mostly consisting of bark-denuded tree branches.
As is usual for this time of year beach visitors mid-week are none too plentiful but the weather gives us it’s best with a recent sequence of stunning sunsets that as always can be viewed ideally from the Playa Vista terraza.
Bar talk frequently refers to the new government still getting its feet under the table. Much is reported nationally on a daily basis regarding changes. The peso appears to have reached a stability midway between the value that the previous government inherited four years ago and its lowest point to the end of their administration currently, for better or worse depending on your viewpoint, about 32 pesos to the dollar. Lack of electricity continues to present difficulties in many parts of the country but happily in Boca Chica we are spared almost all inconveniences. Long may that continue and hopefully spread further afield too. The more underlying changes will almost certainly need more time to bear fruit.
Meanwhile… as tourism is one of the cornerstones of economic development in the Dominican Republic in general, and therefore needy of government attention, we remain very hopeful that planning and support of international standard tourism will be further spurred on in our small corner of the country in a way good old Boca Chica deserves!

Meanwhile seven years later:
Frankly speaking not even the most enthusiastic PLD/Fernandez supporter can claim much progress was made for the man in the street. The peso has been kept under that 40 to the dollar level throughout that Fernandez administration and the second that has followed however the polls currently indicate that Hipolito Mejia is favorite to be the new president next year as a very disappointing signal to that PLD/Fernandeez government over these last seven years.

Global Warming but Coastal Cooling in Boca Chica

Friday, August 22, 2003
The Pan American Games are over and the enthusiasts on our island seem to be very pleased with the outcome, not least the haul of 10 gold medals and even more silver and bronze for the Dominican team across a range of sports from 400 meters hurdles to table tennis. After the voluble celebrations of the Brazilian soccer silver medalists at Playa Vista and the coming and going of many other participants we are now left with our usual summer influx of visitors, the peaking summer temperatures and most important of all our truly international range of friendly customers who trek from even further afield than the Americas to visit our little town with surprising regularity. We ourselves have been experiencing a little streak of high temperatures in the last few days but that has to be tempered with the knowledge we are getting people from middle and southern Europe cooling down here in their escape from exceptional heat and forest fires back home.
Meanwhile seven years later:
Global warming is given as the reason for such peaks of heat. However, the coast of the Dominican Republic seems to continue to bask in that accurate perpetual June observation from Christopher Columbus

Honesty is an Individual Choice

Wednesday, August 6, 2003
Here is a little sunshine story about honesty in the Dominican Republic. Little Reyito (or Riquitin to others) is a schoolboy who often picks up empty soda bottles from the beach at the weekend and sells them to us at one peso per bottle. We were reminded of an incident demonstrating his honesty quite some time ago by another of equal charm recently.
The first endearing story involved him trying to pass three bottles to us in one go… unfortunately one slipped from his hand, fell to the ground and smashed. He apologized clarifying that it was his own fault this had happened and backed that statement up claiming he only wanted two pesos as a result. Thinking that he should be rewarded for his honesty we didn’t hesitate in fetching three pesos but he insisted and refused to accept any more than two – impressive, eh?
The latest “honesty” story is that he brought several bottles and in the growing gloom of the early evening we didn’t notice that we accidentally gave him a five peso coin amongst the several single peso coins in the handful offered up. Some ten minutes later he returned to exchange the “wrongly” received five peso coin for a single peso. What a pleasure to deal with such an honest gentlemanly thing especially at the end of a busy Sunday.

Meanwhile seven years later:
It would seem to stand as a testament that honesty is an individual choice. Reyito was very young, certainly poor and had plenty of contrary examples to lead him astray. We presumed that his family was probably very influential in his inspiring attitude.

Playa Vista Sponsors Coca-Cola – Finally, The Real Thing

Thursday, July 31, 2003
PS
As of 12.15 pm today after 18 months of haranguing the promotional department at Coca-Cola we have four new brightly colored parasols proudly standing in front of our property officially announcing our sponsorship of one of the world’s larger companies.

Meanwhile seven years later:
Finally, Coca-Cola well and truly sponsored by the “real thing” – Playa Vista!

High Hopes to Slim Pickings

Wednesday, July 2, 2003
Should you ever make a visit to Boca Chica hopefully also granting us at Playa Vista the honour of your presence, we would then like to take the opportunity to pre-introduce a recent acquisition who helps us out especially at the busier times of the week. Carlos is his name but very commonly called “Flaco”, a nickname accurately translateable as “Slim”. Slim he is indeed and easily tall enough to make it into most basketball teams although we have tended to keep him busy enough to keep him off the court. We are very pleased to see him enthusiastically and politely helping out in most departments where he lends his helping hands and on top of it all his English is coming along all the time, so if Spanish is not one of your strengths and you are lounging around enjoying the sun and local views then we know he would be only too pleased to exchange a few friendly words with you.
Hasta La Playa Vista… Baby ! (as our motto goes)

Meanwhile seven years later:
Unfortunately in spite of our best wishes and endeavours over time Flaco could not resist the urges of his ego. We tried on numerous occasions to get him to consider the grander scheme of things rather than constant ego gratification but he would not listen attentively. His ego continued to rule his roost even some time later after gaining a very good employment position at the Hamaca Hotel. The hotel also had to ask him to pursue a future elsewhere.

Coca Cola sponsored by Playa Vista

Sunday, June 29, 2003
As you may know we do like to keep you up to date on the parasol situation here at Playa Vista because it is so dear to our hearts and the latest is a major breakthrough with Coca-Cola. Unfortunately it comes at a cost of… well, money actually.
We did omit to mention in a previous entry that in addition to daily parasol put-outs we also have four eight-foot diameter parasols which stay out the full 24 hours. Originally supplied by Coca-Cola – thank you very much, but poorly supported thereafter. In spite of them very kindly coming up with 3 bright shiny replacement Coca-Cola canvases for the very sadly faded originals about one and a half years ago (remember we needed four) the intervening period of coaxing, cajoling and then almost begging for just one more yielded a big zero. Until this week that is, when our desperate offer to pay for half the cost of production tempted them out of their reticence. The cheque has been issued, the order has been made and we are now eagerly looking forward to be able to brag about Playa Vista actually now sponsoring Coca-Cola! – The Real Thing!

Meanwhile seven years later:
The Coca-Cola franchise went through a lot of difficulties in the intervening years which we presumed were due to the transfer of its ownership. Things seemed to recover because we even ended up getting a brand new replacement refrigerator.