When I came home from a coffee date last Tuesday I heard what sounded like the tire losing air. My girlfriend with me disagreed, so I agreed. I failed to look at the tire on Wednesday, but was able to drive to a lunch date nearby, but on Thursday when I wanted to go out with the kids the tire was finally noticeably flat. Sure enough, something that looked like a nail bent in half was sticking out of the rear passenger tire. After calling Scott (because that's just what I do when I'm facing a car problem or any problem for that matter :) ), I drove to a nearby Shell station. At the Shell, a gentleman put air in the tire and then I headed down the road to the shop (Hylsa) where we get the different liquids changed out in the car (oil, transmission, etc). The shop is also a tire shop, but I found out once I was there that you can only buy tires from them, not repair tires.
The first lady at Hylsa who tried to explain to me where to get my tire repaired had no mercy on me just because I didn't understand her Spanish. Flustered, I went back out to the car and called Scott ;). He recommended going back in and having her draw a map...no why couldn't I have thought of that! In the process of asking the lady to draw a map, a gentleman asked me if he could help and in very slow Spanish (he chose to have mercy on me) gave me directions to the nearby reparacion de gomas. Only dos izquierdas (2 left turns) and I should see the reparacion de gomas. On my way to the one he directed me to, I passed a teenage boy repairing tires and thought "surely I'm not on my way to a tire repair shop on the side of the street". Oh, but Ann, little did you know that you'd be returning right back to that teenage boy after seeing the line of truckers at the other reparacion de gomas!
It was all a harmless expedition, but just a funny one, being the only gringo around with my two year old none-the-less. Now I know that getting your tire repaired in the DR means finding a reparacion de gomas on a small side street.
Scotty and Adeline ventured back out to the spot on Saturday to take a picture, drink a coke, and see where I had to hang out for about 20 minutes. 
Just in case you need a snack while getting your tire fixed....
Adeline drinking coke from a glass bottle - only 17 pesos..about 50 cents. Don't worry I'm sure Scotty put the coke in the plastic cup on the bench instead of letting her drink from a recycled bottle :). 
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