Please Blow Your Nose Story

1968

This true story happened in the Dominican Republic

Written 05/26/2016* 796 Words

#145 By Howard Yasgar

In 1968 and I had finally talked my good friend Miguel Marquez into traveling with me to the Dominican Republic.

I had a theory that I was trying to prove.

My theory was that once I found the actual colony of Isabella, I would be able to find locations of where some of his unruly colonists had buried the gold they had taken from the Taino Indians.

On this trip I had a 1776 map given to me by my friend Dr. Marc Bulliet the chief archeologist in Haiti.

By using this detailed map, I was hoping to be able to prove my theory correct.

We left Miami, flying direct to Santo Domingo the capitol of the Dominican Republic.

Once we were there, we rented a car, and stopped at a grocery store and loaded up the car’s trunk with canned food and soda. I knew that once we reached the north coast of Hispaniola there were very few stores, so it would be better if we had some food with us, just in case.

As usual, in Santo Domingo we stayed at the Pan American Hotel.

In the morning we made the drive to the city of Santiago De Los Caballeros, the second largest city in the Dominican Republic.

In Santiago I had a favorite Restaurant called “EL Garden de Eden”, it was on the right side of the highway, up on a hill.

Then, after a long ride over the Cordillera Mountains, we headed for the city of Puerta Plata.

By the time we reached Puerta Plata, everything in the car was falling apart.

It was 1968, way before the government paved the highway over the mountains.

In Puerto Plata we stayed in the big old wooden hotel that was overlooking the ocean.

I had stayed there a couple of times so the manager now treated us like we were regular customers.

In the morning we headed for the colony of Isabella, and that’s where this story takes place.

In the Isabella area there are really no stores to get anything to eat, that was the reason I bought bread and different kinds of canned meats when we were in Santo Domingo.

At lunch time, Miguel and I thought about making a sandwich. The problem was, as foreigners we attracted a lot of attention from the locals who always gathered around us wherever we went.

Eating in front of the local people was always embarrassing as they never had of the kinds of food that we had.

So, Miguel and I decided to drive somewhere where there were no people watching us and we could eat in peace.

We got in our car and I drove down a dirt road until we reached a river.

The river was several hundred yards wide with a big dry area right in the middle. Miguel checked the river and said it was only about 6 inches deep and had a hard bottom.

I drove into the water and onto the dry area in the center of the river.

I looked around and there wasn’t a person to be seen in any direction.

I opened the car’s trunk and got a loaf of sliced bread and a can of spam.

Then I got into the car on the passenger side, as Miguel was in the driver’s seat, his back and his head rested against the window.

The car was air conditioned and all the windows were up.

I tore open a brown paper bag and put it on the seat between us and then I opened the can of spam and made two sandwiches.

Miguel took a sandwich, and he took a big bite out of it, I did the same with mine.

As I was looking at Miguel eating his sandwich, a small round mulatto face appeared in the window next to Miguel’s face.

It was a little boy who couldn’t have been more than 5 years old.

His two hands were tightly gripped on the outside of the car’s windowsill and his face was pressed into the window, staring at Miguel.

He had the biggest green snot running from his nose all the way to his mouth.

Miguel nearly choked on his sandwich and he screamed at the kid in Spanish, “Go and wash your face.”.

The little kid released his grip on the car’s windowsill and I saw him go and wash his face.

Miguel got out of the car and gave the boy his sandwich, we had both suddenly lost our appetite.