There is a guy here in Luperon harbour named Papo. He is a local guy who makes his living helping the cruisers. He put in a bunch of moorings in the anchorage and he delivers water, does boat repairs, cleans bottoms, pretty much anything that us sailors might need to pay to have done he will do. He will even give us a ride to the airport in his car if we need it, all for a fee of course.
The competing guy here is Handy Andy, he is a younger man who has also started to make a living off supporting the cruisers here. It is said that he is more honest than Papo and cruisers will also tell you he has safer moorings.
I have heard both sides of the many stories you will gather here, some people prefer Papo and some people prefer Andy. WildChild is on a Papo mooring, that he swears to me up down and sideways is perfectly safe and very strong… “Trust me”.
I don’t actually feel very good about being on a Papo mooring but I like the location a short dinghy ride to town and I like my boat neighbour brother Mic. This neighbourhood is actually very quiet, most of the boats around are not occupied and it is peaceful here.
My dealings with Papo have always been pleasant and he seems very kind. He is gentle and he does know some English which helps. When you first arrive here you can just grab a mooring and Papo (or Andy) will come find you later. WildChild had anchored when she first got here and by the next day Papo found us and invited us onto one of his moorings, saying it is safer and only $2 per day. I had waited a few days to get the lay of the land before agreeing. That was on June 17th 2019.
When I first came on the mooring Papo tried to get me to pay for my entire stay upfront and in advance. I had the wisdom to refuse that and told him I will pay monthly. I was not sure if I would stay on the mooring thru hurricane season.
_____________________________________________
So here is the technical issue.
Papo’s moorings are just a 55 gallon drum that he gets and cuts two holes in with a hammer and a chisel and threads an old rope thru and fills with sand and tops off with a bag of concrete. You can see he just ties the rope with a simple bowline and drops it overboard, and viola… one fast cheap instant mooring.
The problem of course is that the rope is always working its way back and forth on the sharp sides of the barrel. Papo has tried to alleviate this with a thin plastic pipe to reduce the wear but it also has sharp edges. Of course the old ropes he uses do eventually get completely encrusted with growth here but so does the barrel. I don’t know if you have ever scraped barnacles off your hull before but they are very sharp too. Papo’s barrels also get barnacle encrusted and that becomes more cutting rubbing on the old ropes he uses. He does not use any sort of chafe guards on his ropes.
So in the last two weeks I have seen 2 boats on Papo moorings cut lose and drift off into the mangroves. You can see them in the mornings tilted over into the mangroves because their keels are resting on bottom, stuck in the mud. Papo will usually go over at high tide and rescue them and drag them back to place and drop a new barrel to re-moor them. The reliability of Papo’s moorings leave something to be desired especially with hurricane season fast approaching.
I think he knows that, because in the last two months he has put a second barrel on every one of his moorings except mine, which he says already had a second barrel put in last year.
What I have heard from other cruisers is that Handy Andy’s moorings are better and safer because he drives a 17 foot auger style spike into the bottom. Originally I had asked Andy to keep me in mind if he gets a free mooring, but I have decided I like my neighbour (being near my friend Mic) and I like the location so I will stay put. We will see soon when the hurricanes come if I have made a HUGE mistake trusting Papo.
__________________________________________
Dealing with the Locals
I am infinitely curious about what I call the soul of humanity, that which makes us unique as humans, which we may call the human spirit. I am endlessly fascinated with both the good and bad side we all have. Nobody is all good or all bad, we are all a mix of many complicated and different parts.
Papo has begun to catch my interest, has caught my attention as of late. He has always been very pleasant and kind to me, the girl alone out here always wearing her pink bikini on her boat. When I paid him my mooring fee last month I had to help him with his book work, because although he can read and write, I don’t think it is much above about a grade 4 level.
It was about a month ago when dealing with Papo (I also buy water from him to do laundry every so often) when he started smiling at me and calling me his flower. “You are so beautiful… you are my flower… I call you my flower…” he says. I don’t really know what to say to that, so I just smile and say thank you. Maybe in his culture he is just trying to be kind and pay me a compliment? I dunno…
See… although I always jokingly introduce myself as Captain Sexy Lexi… because having a pneumonic that rhymes with your name helps people to remember it… and what else rhymes with Lexi…? I do not in anyway consider myself a sexy girl. I really am not that pretty. Like on a scale of 1-10… 10 being super hot porn star… 1 being the fat old wrinkly ugly grandma… and with 5 being average… I would probably rate myself at a 3 or a 4 on the hotness scale. Probably below average looking and built like a sturdy farm girl and not a curvy sexy girl…
So when men start telling me how beautiful I am.. how pretty I am.. I have to wonder about their intentions. BUT… with Papo he is an old man and I know he is married and has kids so I just assumed the best of intentions and that he was just trying to be nice.
Well… Papo has been escalating with each encounter until last week he was telling me how much he loves me and how I am the most beautiful woman in Luperon and can he take me on a date and show me a good time…. ! OH… Geez…
So much for assuming the best of other peoples intentions… despite being married the man wants to get his willy wet in me..! and that ain’t gonna happen… ever.
I was so shocked when he said that I started muttering… “you hardly know me… you are married… how could you possibly be in love with me…?”
BUT this is the culture here. It is perfectly acceptable to have a wife and a young girlfriend. It is perfectly acceptable to have sex with another mans wife or another woman’s husband. They do it all the time… there are special hotels here just for quickie sex rented by the hour and they outnumber normal hotels. I remember the missionaries here telling me how often men try to buy Faith (the young pretty 22 year old white gringa chic) from her husband or just take her.
What is interesting about them here… is that they seem to lack any identifiable Christian sexual morality (it is a Catholic country) when it comes to men doing anything they want… but somehow they are anti-Gay. Being married and having sex with a young girl is totally fine… but two girls being together is terrible. Its weird.
_____________________________________________
Doing Business with the Locals
One of the biggest mistakes Gringo sailors make when they come here is to pay for things upfront. When gringo’s arrive and throw money around the locals line up to pick your wallet as clean as they can get it. They are just so friendly and pleasant about it. See.. they are poor here… and they are good at getting your money out of your wallet… but you will never get their money out of their wallets… oh no no no.
When I first arrived Papo tried to get 6 months mooring rent out of me upfront… but I refused.
There are many stories here of people paying locals to repair their dinghy engine… they take the money take the engine and go away… a month later people track them down… hey is my engine fixed yet…? excuses excuses… money gone.. engine not repaired… what are you gonna do…? My friend Alain the french guy paid in advance to have his fridge fixed on his boat… then left… fridge not fixed and I am now trying to track the guy down and get him to do the work he promised. Should be fun.
Well… when my Texas friends came here they pre-paid for their Papo mooring for 8 months in advance.. then changed their minds and decided to sail the boat home. They asked Papo for a refund on their mooring… of course that is never gonna happen… So instead what they arranged was to have their “Credit” for 7 months transferred to my mooring. Papo agreed to this and in front of Wendy so there could be no later claim that he didn’t understand what he was agreeing to.
Well lo-and-behold yesterday Papo arrives to my boat saying my mooring rent is overdue… It was due on the 17th… and I have to pay…! Completely ignoring his agreement with the Texas guys and trying to get more money. He has already rented out (again) the Texas guys mooring they were on to somebody else thus getting double rent on it.
I said oh no no no Papo… don’t try to say you do not understand… you know full well this mooring is now pre-paid. I do not owe you anything… my mooring is paid until January. If you want we can go confirm with Wendy that you agreed to this.
And this gets interesting now…
Papo’s response…
He tells me… oh no no… Wendy has nothing to do with his business… this is his business… he needs money… I have to pay…
He points over to a nearby blue masted schooner and tells me… see them… last year they come… they pay for 1 year… but they go away sailing for a few months and come back… they say they want their mooring back… I say to them no too bad.. you left.. I rented it out again.. this is my business.. I have to make money.
There is also a Gringo story I heard that a while ago another gringo sailor here prepaid his mooring until December and went sailing down to Ocean World for a weeks stay and came back and Papo had already rented out his prepaid mooring to someone else. Same story… too bad… this is my business I have to make money in my pocket.
Is that interesting or what…?
Like we westerners are conditions with these crazy ideas like “business ethics” and courts enforcing fair business practices. BUT…. they have no such ideas here. In Papo’s mind he is being perfectly reasonable. Gringos (the local word for us white skinned rich foreigners) come here and love the freedom of the place… there are very few rules.. and the courts exercise very little impact over the society… but it goes both ways. The law here is not likely to kick your ass… but it is also not likely to help you either. Wild West.
Americans are so extremely conditioned to fear Lawyers.. their whole society is built super overly litigious… and their for profit prisons are so hungry for victims… and they have more people in prisons than any other country in the world (and not per capita either… just raw head count) that Americans are just conditioned to fear and believe in the legal system.
Papo cannot do that.. I will get a lawyer and take him to court… what lawyer… what court.. ? He knows there is no ruling system he has to worry much about. Sure it exists… but it is pretty far from here… and not likely to interfere. Us Gringos are not going to waste $1000 in legal fees to argue in court 10 months from now about $200 worth of mooring fees. We want to leave at the end of hurricane season.
So doing business with the locals is a tricky thing. Gringos have to understand the rules are different here. The courts are not going to help you or protect you. The locals know how to play you… how to hustle you.. it is their livelihood. When you come here you have to not be a sucker. Do not flash your wallet around. Pay only for services AFTER they are rendered. You do not have to do everything they tell you… there is the gringo price for stuff and the local price for stuff. Be smart and figure out the local price.
The people are very kind and friendly… but they are poor.
Cheers sailor fans…
Captain Lexi… the curious and amused today