fine fine fine... i'll update already. :)
OK, so I know that I haven't updated in a while, but I have been really busy and all. I'm usually not here in santiago for the weekends (and even if I were, I don't think the computer lab here is open.) and then during the week I'm in class or doing homework or eating or something (which takes a substantial amount of time, I walk home for lunch every day and the classroom building is a half hour walk from my house... So i have to walk back and forth twice, once during the hottest part of the day... so like, at least 2 hours of walking every day. it's pretty sweet. or painful, i'm not sure which..)
But anyway, this past weekend was a trip with all the kids from CIEE (my study abroad program) to the Samana penninsula on the east of the Island. We stayed at an all inclusive resort, which I most definitely had mixed feelings about as I'm incredibly disinterested by "touristy" things, most especially those involving 30+ americans in a group, but it was still sort of fun...
There were 2 swimming pools, an auditorium/club type thingy, 2 open bars, and 3 buffet-meals per day. We were right across the road from the water, which made for easy access to the beach. Although it wasn't the prettiest I've seen, it was still enjoyable.
However, we didn't have much free time during the weekend, because Samana is a 5 hour bus ride from Santiago, and there were a bunch of activities that we did while we were there. Friday, a little while after arriving, we split up into two groups and crammed back into the busses to ride for more than another hour... The group that I was with went on a nature walk, which I was less than thrilled about. The last thing I wanted to do after being on a bus for 5 hours was get back on one, especially when there was a beautiful beach about 100 feet from the hotel that I had yet to enjoy. So not only was it the hour long ride there, but an hour back as well, and the nature walk was only about an hour.
Time wise, it wasn't worth it, I didn't learn much, most of the things he showed us I'd seen before... oh well.
so then we got back and ate dinner and got in the pools because by this time it was kinda dark... and then we all started hanging out at the open bars, sampling the plethora of fruit juices available in the Dominican Republic, and afterward a group of us walked into town (we were in Las Terrenas) to go dancing (since it's the off season, no one was at the resort, & consequently no one was dancing at there). I'm absolutely in love with Bachata, and Merengue as well (two types of music from the area). I'm doing a pretty good job of picking up the styles of dance, though it's a little hard because I'm used to the bouncy rhythm of swing instead of the more rigid latin american dances.
After dancing, probably sometime around 2 in the morning, we were walking back to the resort and decided to go swimming, so we just jumped in the water and hung out til who knows when. Overall, it was... interesting.... and quite divertida tambien. :)
Saturday morning found us piling back onto a bus for another hour+ bus ride, and then onto a boat for an hour+ ride to our destination of the Haitises National Park, where one can find excellent examples of Taino cave paintings (the indigenous indians to the caribbean, all but wiped out by the spaniards) as well as the actual caves in which they were done(seems obvious, because you wouldn't fine cave paintings outside of caves, but I just wanted to emphasize the fact that the caves were incredible.
The largest one we went into was at least 70-100 feet tall at its highest, and had some enormous openings to provide some eerie light, although because it wasn't just one cavern and instead had a lot of interconnected rooms, there were some parts which were almost pitch black. Needless to say, my camera didn't quite capture the... essence... of the ambience. I got a few, though.
I forgot to mention that on the way to the cave we had to get into a smaller boat, which took us through a mangrove forest.. possible the most amazing trees ever... they look like they're growing upside down, as if someone took a tree, turned it upside down and stuck its branches in the water... pictures to follow. :)
Anyway, so then another long boat ride, long bus ride....
I also neglected to note that during my time in the DR, my stomach/chest refused to get any color. I had tried to even out my farmers/back tan by not putting sunscreen on my stomach, but It never seemed to work previously at the beaches, so I thought that the skin must just be different than that of my back.
This is true, but after lying in the sun the entire time the I was on the boats with no sunscreen on my stomach (in the middle of the day, I might add), I did indeed find out that my stomach CAN burn.
... but it wasn't THAT bad...
Anyway, so when we FINALLY got back to the resort and had some free time, we got right to enjoying ourselves on the beach, starting up a game of Ultimate Frisbee which including many diving grabs into the water and face first into the sand, SO MUCH FUN! I haven't really done much exercise since I've been here (except all the walking I do everyday) so it felt really great. :)
Then we swam and snorkled and hung out in the water til the sun started to fade and dinner was ready.
Saturday night was essentially the same as friday, same bar, same dancing, same swimming afterwards, same random conversations at 4 o'clock in the morning... overall a good time.
And then of course there was sunday where I tried to do homework and failed because I was so tired, but eventually got around to doing it during some free time monday.
So that was my weekend!
and nooooooooooooooooooooooow here some the piiiictures...
(sorry to those of you who have a slow internet connection.. you may want to hit up a public library or something... I think there are like 40 pictures or something, so consider yourselves forwarned..........)
this is a dominican kid ronnie who comes on a lot of the CIEE excursions, he's connected to the program in some way, but I can't really remember how...
In the back of the bus on the way to the nature walk, Kara's on the left, Tara on the right, and melissa's the one with the hat. Melissa lives in the sam building as I do.
Tara again, (my foot!) and my muy amiga Kaleigh who I don't think knew that a picture was being taken..
A photo from the bus on the way
Candid shot as we start off on the walk
The roots of palm trees are SO cool, the tree just diffuses into all these tiny little roots which look like worms...
A tree growing platanos. They look like bananas, but they're actually a potato! They can be served in many different ways... when they're cooked while green, they taste (sort of) and feel like a potato (they look JUST like bananas when peeled, it's sort of confusing) but if they're prepared when ripe, they're quite sweet and sort of taste the way rotting bananas smell..... not my favorite that way.
Big mound of termites in the forest...
Our tour dude cutting open a coconut with his machete
We finished the nature walk up at this... I don't know, some random building in the middle of the forest, but it had a good view
tara and I again... (i don't know why she's in all my photos from this weekend haha)
and back at the beach near the resort that evening:
The next day was our trip to the national park:
here we are leaving on the boat, looking out at the bay-thingy
As we arrived at the park, you could see how caves were everywhere in the area
on the way to the mangrove forest...
and the trees!!
Heading into one of the caves, I didn't include many pictures from the caves because my camera couldn't handle it, as you'll see
cave drawings
This was outside of the entrance of a cave
And then, we're back to the resort again... you can see that we were very excited at the prospect of going swimming....
yeah..
let's get the game started!
water....
I just had to take a picture of the clouds in this photo, they lined up too perfectly with the palm trees...
So of course, you had to see the result of the boat-tanning adventure...
Oh right! I forgot to talk about sunday morning! Ryan, Alex and I took motoconchos to a nearby beach called Playa Bonita to just chill for the morning before we had to leave for santiago... sooo
on the motoconchos...
a truck full of platanos... not an uncommon sight
The palms at playa bonita were aaaaaaawesome, so many almost horizontal..
(yeah it's the same one, but I wanted you to see both, since the first has the water too)
ya!
that's about it, hope you had fun and your internet could actually handle the photos...
But anyway, this past weekend was a trip with all the kids from CIEE (my study abroad program) to the Samana penninsula on the east of the Island. We stayed at an all inclusive resort, which I most definitely had mixed feelings about as I'm incredibly disinterested by "touristy" things, most especially those involving 30+ americans in a group, but it was still sort of fun...
There were 2 swimming pools, an auditorium/club type thingy, 2 open bars, and 3 buffet-meals per day. We were right across the road from the water, which made for easy access to the beach. Although it wasn't the prettiest I've seen, it was still enjoyable.
However, we didn't have much free time during the weekend, because Samana is a 5 hour bus ride from Santiago, and there were a bunch of activities that we did while we were there. Friday, a little while after arriving, we split up into two groups and crammed back into the busses to ride for more than another hour... The group that I was with went on a nature walk, which I was less than thrilled about. The last thing I wanted to do after being on a bus for 5 hours was get back on one, especially when there was a beautiful beach about 100 feet from the hotel that I had yet to enjoy. So not only was it the hour long ride there, but an hour back as well, and the nature walk was only about an hour.
Time wise, it wasn't worth it, I didn't learn much, most of the things he showed us I'd seen before... oh well.
so then we got back and ate dinner and got in the pools because by this time it was kinda dark... and then we all started hanging out at the open bars, sampling the plethora of fruit juices available in the Dominican Republic, and afterward a group of us walked into town (we were in Las Terrenas) to go dancing (since it's the off season, no one was at the resort, & consequently no one was dancing at there). I'm absolutely in love with Bachata, and Merengue as well (two types of music from the area). I'm doing a pretty good job of picking up the styles of dance, though it's a little hard because I'm used to the bouncy rhythm of swing instead of the more rigid latin american dances.
After dancing, probably sometime around 2 in the morning, we were walking back to the resort and decided to go swimming, so we just jumped in the water and hung out til who knows when. Overall, it was... interesting.... and quite divertida tambien. :)
Saturday morning found us piling back onto a bus for another hour+ bus ride, and then onto a boat for an hour+ ride to our destination of the Haitises National Park, where one can find excellent examples of Taino cave paintings (the indigenous indians to the caribbean, all but wiped out by the spaniards) as well as the actual caves in which they were done(seems obvious, because you wouldn't fine cave paintings outside of caves, but I just wanted to emphasize the fact that the caves were incredible.
The largest one we went into was at least 70-100 feet tall at its highest, and had some enormous openings to provide some eerie light, although because it wasn't just one cavern and instead had a lot of interconnected rooms, there were some parts which were almost pitch black. Needless to say, my camera didn't quite capture the... essence... of the ambience. I got a few, though.
I forgot to mention that on the way to the cave we had to get into a smaller boat, which took us through a mangrove forest.. possible the most amazing trees ever... they look like they're growing upside down, as if someone took a tree, turned it upside down and stuck its branches in the water... pictures to follow. :)
Anyway, so then another long boat ride, long bus ride....
I also neglected to note that during my time in the DR, my stomach/chest refused to get any color. I had tried to even out my farmers/back tan by not putting sunscreen on my stomach, but It never seemed to work previously at the beaches, so I thought that the skin must just be different than that of my back.
This is true, but after lying in the sun the entire time the I was on the boats with no sunscreen on my stomach (in the middle of the day, I might add), I did indeed find out that my stomach CAN burn.
... but it wasn't THAT bad...
Anyway, so when we FINALLY got back to the resort and had some free time, we got right to enjoying ourselves on the beach, starting up a game of Ultimate Frisbee which including many diving grabs into the water and face first into the sand, SO MUCH FUN! I haven't really done much exercise since I've been here (except all the walking I do everyday) so it felt really great. :)
Then we swam and snorkled and hung out in the water til the sun started to fade and dinner was ready.
Saturday night was essentially the same as friday, same bar, same dancing, same swimming afterwards, same random conversations at 4 o'clock in the morning... overall a good time.
And then of course there was sunday where I tried to do homework and failed because I was so tired, but eventually got around to doing it during some free time monday.
So that was my weekend!
and nooooooooooooooooooooooow here some the piiiictures...
(sorry to those of you who have a slow internet connection.. you may want to hit up a public library or something... I think there are like 40 pictures or something, so consider yourselves forwarned..........)
this is a dominican kid ronnie who comes on a lot of the CIEE excursions, he's connected to the program in some way, but I can't really remember how...
In the back of the bus on the way to the nature walk, Kara's on the left, Tara on the right, and melissa's the one with the hat. Melissa lives in the sam building as I do.
Tara again, (my foot!) and my muy amiga Kaleigh who I don't think knew that a picture was being taken..
A photo from the bus on the way
Candid shot as we start off on the walk
The roots of palm trees are SO cool, the tree just diffuses into all these tiny little roots which look like worms...
A tree growing platanos. They look like bananas, but they're actually a potato! They can be served in many different ways... when they're cooked while green, they taste (sort of) and feel like a potato (they look JUST like bananas when peeled, it's sort of confusing) but if they're prepared when ripe, they're quite sweet and sort of taste the way rotting bananas smell..... not my favorite that way.
Big mound of termites in the forest...
Our tour dude cutting open a coconut with his machete
We finished the nature walk up at this... I don't know, some random building in the middle of the forest, but it had a good view
tara and I again... (i don't know why she's in all my photos from this weekend haha)
and back at the beach near the resort that evening:
The next day was our trip to the national park:
here we are leaving on the boat, looking out at the bay-thingy
As we arrived at the park, you could see how caves were everywhere in the area
on the way to the mangrove forest...
and the trees!!
Heading into one of the caves, I didn't include many pictures from the caves because my camera couldn't handle it, as you'll see
cave drawings
This was outside of the entrance of a cave
And then, we're back to the resort again... you can see that we were very excited at the prospect of going swimming....
yeah..
let's get the game started!
water....
I just had to take a picture of the clouds in this photo, they lined up too perfectly with the palm trees...
So of course, you had to see the result of the boat-tanning adventure...
Oh right! I forgot to talk about sunday morning! Ryan, Alex and I took motoconchos to a nearby beach called Playa Bonita to just chill for the morning before we had to leave for santiago... sooo
on the motoconchos...
a truck full of platanos... not an uncommon sight
The palms at playa bonita were aaaaaaawesome, so many almost horizontal..
(yeah it's the same one, but I wanted you to see both, since the first has the water too)
ya!
that's about it, hope you had fun and your internet could actually handle the photos...