Here in Porlamar, Isla Margarita, we have been exploring the city and taking advantage of the opportunities available here. We found a great watch place amongst the jumble of shops downtown and took all our watches in for new batteries and bands where needed. There are also very inexpensive clothing and shoe shops here.
The diesel man visited us at the boat one morning and filled our jerry jugs with diesel, delivered to us at anchor. He has a manual pump and comes right on board to get everything flowing right. We have full jugs and tank now, and it only cost 50 cents U.S. per gallon. We also took our jerry jug for gasoline in to a service station ourselves, and filled it for about 9 cents a gallon for gasoline. That's right, 9 cents! If you're back in the States you probably can't believe that.
We also started our medical and dental treatments here. Both of us have fillings that have fallen out; Larry's filling, done in St. Martin, fell out a month after it was put in, so he's been waiting for some time. Debby also got three fillings. The dentist was professional, using the latest 3M dental fillings. Total cost, for three small fillings, two large fillings, and two cleanings, was $200 U.S., or about one-fourth the price we'd pay in the U.S.