News Room
2024

Power, Pool, Floods

In 2024, Cabarete has settled back into its familiar rhythm, with lively winters, tranquil summers, and slightly challenging autumns. Development continues around the Kite Beach area. In the project next to us only one house continues impacts us with dust and debris, we expect this to be finished by this summer.

Utility issues persist, particularly with power and water delivery. The government has been addressing these challenges by installing new power substations, which, while necessary, have resulted in frequent power outages which has worked our old generator hard Water supply has also been highly intermittent. Despite these hurdles, Cabarete continues to grow, navigating the inevitable growing pains that come with progress.

The Floods

The fall of 2024 proved to be a challenging time, as relentless rainfall put us into full crisis mode. Weeks of continuous rain saturated the ground, followed by severe downpours that caused widespread flooding across Cabarete, Sosúa, and Puerto Plata.

At Dulce Vida, we were initially caught off guard but acted swiftly to mitigate the damage. We installed a pump behind apartments 10 to 103 to manage the overflow.
To further control the situation, we drained the pools to collect as much rainwater as possible, while our drainage system, installed earlier in the year, performed admirably. It activated 30 times during the storm, helping to significantly reduce flooding, in the spring we will have to do some maintenance to our waste water drainage system as it collected silt and sewage due to the volume of water that was pumped across .

Despite these efforts, the excessive water revealed vulnerabilities in our property, especially on the roof. Issues with AC downpipes, pinholes, and leaks in the roofing material came to light, making roof repairs and sealing a top priority for the coming year. We carried  out some necessary electrical work to support the pumps, there are still pending tasks in this area that need to be addressed soon.

The Pool

This year, we had to completely redo the pool, which turned out to be quite a challenge. The original layer of paint, applied about 20 years ago, had completely deteriorated on the bottom, this required stripping everything down to the bare concrete.
Over several days, we used powered wire brushes, power washers etc to grind down the pool floor, removing all the old paint. Fortunately, the sidewalls were in better shape and only needed wire brush and some repair.

Once the pool was repainted—three layers on the bottom and two on the sides—we discovered that we had a serious leak. After extensive investigation, we traced the problem to the jacuzzi, which had multiple issues. There were leaks in the old air blower, the skimmer, and the lights. Identifying the leaks required a long process  of elimination, using cameras and other tools to inspect the pipes.

After a lot of work and persistence, everything has been fixed, and the pool paint is finally in good shape again, however the pool filter and pump are hanging in there as the have been overhauled several times and are in constant repair.

Utilities 

Water:

We're still dealing with ongoing issues with the water supply due to inconsistent pressure and availability. As a result, we now rely entirely on our cistern and pump to meet all our water needs.
Thankfully, the old well has been a great help, as it has seen emergency use multiple times to refill the cistern.

Electricity:

The power outages we've experienced this year were a continuation of the government's efforts to upgrade power substations across the North Coast, a project that began last year.
The situation became particularly challenging during the floods, further straining the system. As a result, our generator worked tirelessly throughout the year, 277hr.
While these disruptions have been inconvenient, we remain hopeful that these upgrades will lead to more reliable power in the future. Progress, after all, often comes with a price.

"Warm" water:

Our propane hot water system is still holding up, we will try to add one more tank to help us through the now colder winters

Network:

No changes this year, overall, things are going well, and our guests appreciate the quality of our network.

Generator:

Due to lightning strike, the voltage controller and the battery maintainer needed replacement, we also been able to repair a couple more issues to keep it running.  I anticipate it will hold on for a few more years, but the inevitable day will come... This year alone we added 277 hours of use. The generator building roof however needs major repair. 

Beach access:

No changes to our beach access agreement, the main gate automatic opener keeps on causing trouble but we keep it working. The access keeps on being appreciated by our guests.

Maintenance works this year

Projects for 2025



Have a nice day.
Hope to see you all soon.

Carmen & Eric