(no subject)
The week trip told by one of my travel companions Kathleen
happy easter to everyone this weekend....
we had the chance to see a lot more of this beautiful island this past week, departing last Saturday morning from Santo Domingo, the 11 of us from CMU headed north, making a stop at some gorgeous waterfalls which we hiked back to, then proceeded to jump off ledges into gigantic pools of water before continuing on our journey. We only saw three of the waterfalls, but apparently there are about 28 that you can spend a whole day hiking to and swimming in, I noted the location of this place for further exploration. We spent a few days at a resort in Puerta Plata, yes, a resort. Not my preference of places to stay, but it was prearranged for us, so i sucked it up, while we drove from a beautiful Dominican town full of life, into the paved resort suburbs, with gates, and full of tourists with neon colored bracelets. focusing on the postitives, we did have a gorgeous room, opening right onto the beach, and definitely self-idulged with all you can eat food buffets, where they accomodate the mass number of guests at once, and have unlimited abouts of food, deserts, and beverages of your choice. we also took advantage of the wind-surfing, snorkeling, kayaking, volleyball and dance disco-techs, and blended in with all the other foreigners. This was a strange feeling, and to see how nice everything was here, and the comparision of the real Dominican,, at the resort, the only Dominicans we saw were the ones serving food and cleaning rooms. It was odd to overhear Enlish here as well, because I never overhear English in Santo Domingo, and this really caught me off guard, as we have all noticed our English getting considerably worse, I do not know if this is normal or not we being around spanish all the time, but most of us have noticed that we structure our English sentences very strange now, and leave out words,,it can be comicacle, or embarassing?!
We also ventured to place in the Samana Peninsula, which is filled with mountains completely covered in palm trees, and rode horses down some narrow trails covered with rocks and coconuts to a gigantic waterfall at El Limon. Unfortunatley these horses were not fed very much, and I have basically no experience on horses, and am convinved the horse is not bilinigual in understanding neither Spanish or English, or my lack of proper pulls and kicks, thus making my attempt to control the horse more difficult. My trusty guide , Barney, walked relatively close to me, and was able to grab the horses tail when we began to canter, or bust through the barbed wire to the fields of grass. The waterfall was the tallest one I have ever seen, and was so refreshing to swim in after a semi-frightening horse ride. I{m told that horses can sense when you do not feel comfortable, and I think my horse definintely picked up on that feeling from me, so I gained my confidence after my swim, and rode back a lot better, but spared the horse from carrying me up the treterous hill again, so I got off and began walking up, sure that I would kill it if I rode it any further,,,, I then turned around and found my guide Barney riding the horse instead. oh well, i tried.
Staying a few nights in the Samana Peninsula we all enjoyed a day at a goregous island with amazing colored water and wihte sand,,, it appears as though a paintbrush was stroked around the edge of all the water here ,because the color is so breathtaking. I am not even sure if the pictures capture it purely enough. I spent a few late nights swimming under the stars in gigantic waves and mornings watching the sunrise on the beach with a great peace to start the day with.
At a particular place we stayed at , we were the only ones that spoke English, which left us in a great mystery to figure out the 'contest' going on the stage of our small outdoor restaurant. There was a bullentin board on one side with playing cards and bingo cards , and they would call random names from the audience, and speak really fast in either German or French (which none of us knew), then the person would through the dart and have to do whatever was written on the back of the card, but that was written in either French or German as well, so this left everyone of us laughing and throughoughly confused when a few of us Americans were called up,,my stomach still hurts from laughing so much!
We also stopped at a place called [Dudu Lake Lagoon, not sure if the name means anything, but it did have a very blue lagoon to take a rope swing into! Amazing how refreshing a quick jump into water can revive you! After our lagoon discovery a random person showed us some caves, but we didn{t have any flashlights with us at the time, so we could only explore as long as his burning piece of brush lasted, which was only about 3 minutes.
Our CMU group was heading back to Santo Domingo, but myself, Alice and Mary were feeling a bit more adventerous, so we got dropped off on a corner in some village to venture on for a few more days because we have this whole week off from teaching, so why go home , right?
It began on the back of moto-chonchos, then we were squished in a gua-gua, where i tried to have a conversion with my seat neighbor, but we were having a tough time communicating, then we finally told me he was from Haiti, and spoke only French. That made more sense. The gua-gua finally stopped, everyone got out, so we did too, and waited in a cement, three sided room, where they only sold gummi-worms, rum, cans of tuna and ketchup. As we waited for our next mode of transportation, the batachta-merengue music is blaring and before i could do anything a barefooted high-school age boy hopped off his moto, ran over, began dancing the batchata with me, then hopped back on his moto, asked if i would come with him, and after i declined, we sped away smiling and waving. The three of us laughed, and just then a truck pulled up, and having the strongest Spanish skills, which isn{t saying much, asked them their destinition, and was glad to hear it was ours as well! So we jumped in the back of the truck with many others. At one point we wondered if this was just a family trip, and they perhaps were wondering why these 3 girls had hopped in, but figured even if it was, thats just the way transport works here. The hour ride through the mountains was the best ride i{ve been on yet here, the mountains are completely filled with palm trees, something i have not seen before, and the little villages that we passed through are so quaint they make me want to stop and spend some time there. Arriving in Las Terranas without reservations we were wondering if it would be possible to get a room somewhere because this is the Samana Santa week, or Holy Week here, which means the 2 million people from Santo Domingo leave the Capital and spread themselves thin out to every beach around. This makes accomodation almost impossible, and is the busiest week of the year. Fortunately our 3rd attempt we did find a room for only about $8 a person, and only a minute from the beach. The next day we spent most of the day going from one place to the hotel and to the next, jumping in the ocean, going to the next hotel, trying to find a place, with no luck.
The sun was settting, we had just had rice and beans, and I had not had nearly enough water to drink, and we were on our last hope of finding a room, walking down a dirt road, when a truck passed us , heading the other direction, we looked at it, hopped in, and they tried to help us find a room. They had been fishing, so we were sitting in the back of the truck with a bunch of lobsters which I secretly wanted to throw back in the ocean, but realized they needed the money. Our attempt to get gas at the Petrol station went bad when the only gas station was out of gas, but we continued on, and stopped at a few places were they were trying to sell their lobsters, with no luck though. I was very tired and dehydrated at this point and had no energy to attempt spanish conversation, but had to when i was confused about the hotel owner who was next to the truck. I did not know if he wanted to lobsters for dinner, or the 3 of us as guests, meaning he had an empty room perhaps? yes, he did , but it was more money than we had with us. So we left, thinking we were left to crashing on the beach for the night.
One last attempt by our truck drivers at a hotel went through ! Feeling so estatic to have a room to sleep I didn{t care that the delapitated mattress raised off the floor by a few cinder blocks, because of the cockroaches running about on the floor, and the bed was too small for the 3 of us, the one pillow was filled with pieces of foam. With no electricity and just one bucket of water to shower with, I was thankful to have a candle with me. Finding a small store we purchased a 5-gallon jug of driking water, which i proceeded to drink about 2 gallons, slept like a baby and made our way back to Santo Domingo today, with the only problem of being stuck in a town with no phones, and no buses because of the holiday. No problem, somehow things worked out , and we ended up here in Santo Domingo a few hours later.
I realized that i really do enjoy each moment here, as easy as it would be to complain about the unorganized fashion of things here, that is just in comparision to the way we are used to living, I enjoy the spontinatity of the moments here, and knowing that somehow things will work out, just not exactly how. Not letting any blood pressure rise because of it, just relaxing and letting things be the way they are. The common Dominican phrase is (¡No Problem!). The people here are incredibly friendly and helpful, which reminds me so much of the people from Ghana. I especially love getting to know this culture, its relaxed pace of life, the conintuous spanish music here, the smells of the mountains, the salt water, the never ending sand on my scalp, and the fresh fruits....
Returning to Santo Domingo today I realized I forgot to take my keys with me, so am locked out of my house for a few days until my family returns from their trip..no problem...I{m staying at Marys house, so will readily have email until they return..
happy easter to everyone this weekend....
we had the chance to see a lot more of this beautiful island this past week, departing last Saturday morning from Santo Domingo, the 11 of us from CMU headed north, making a stop at some gorgeous waterfalls which we hiked back to, then proceeded to jump off ledges into gigantic pools of water before continuing on our journey. We only saw three of the waterfalls, but apparently there are about 28 that you can spend a whole day hiking to and swimming in, I noted the location of this place for further exploration. We spent a few days at a resort in Puerta Plata, yes, a resort. Not my preference of places to stay, but it was prearranged for us, so i sucked it up, while we drove from a beautiful Dominican town full of life, into the paved resort suburbs, with gates, and full of tourists with neon colored bracelets. focusing on the postitives, we did have a gorgeous room, opening right onto the beach, and definitely self-idulged with all you can eat food buffets, where they accomodate the mass number of guests at once, and have unlimited abouts of food, deserts, and beverages of your choice. we also took advantage of the wind-surfing, snorkeling, kayaking, volleyball and dance disco-techs, and blended in with all the other foreigners. This was a strange feeling, and to see how nice everything was here, and the comparision of the real Dominican,, at the resort, the only Dominicans we saw were the ones serving food and cleaning rooms. It was odd to overhear Enlish here as well, because I never overhear English in Santo Domingo, and this really caught me off guard, as we have all noticed our English getting considerably worse, I do not know if this is normal or not we being around spanish all the time, but most of us have noticed that we structure our English sentences very strange now, and leave out words,,it can be comicacle, or embarassing?!
We also ventured to place in the Samana Peninsula, which is filled with mountains completely covered in palm trees, and rode horses down some narrow trails covered with rocks and coconuts to a gigantic waterfall at El Limon. Unfortunatley these horses were not fed very much, and I have basically no experience on horses, and am convinved the horse is not bilinigual in understanding neither Spanish or English, or my lack of proper pulls and kicks, thus making my attempt to control the horse more difficult. My trusty guide , Barney, walked relatively close to me, and was able to grab the horses tail when we began to canter, or bust through the barbed wire to the fields of grass. The waterfall was the tallest one I have ever seen, and was so refreshing to swim in after a semi-frightening horse ride. I{m told that horses can sense when you do not feel comfortable, and I think my horse definintely picked up on that feeling from me, so I gained my confidence after my swim, and rode back a lot better, but spared the horse from carrying me up the treterous hill again, so I got off and began walking up, sure that I would kill it if I rode it any further,,,, I then turned around and found my guide Barney riding the horse instead. oh well, i tried.
Staying a few nights in the Samana Peninsula we all enjoyed a day at a goregous island with amazing colored water and wihte sand,,, it appears as though a paintbrush was stroked around the edge of all the water here ,because the color is so breathtaking. I am not even sure if the pictures capture it purely enough. I spent a few late nights swimming under the stars in gigantic waves and mornings watching the sunrise on the beach with a great peace to start the day with.
At a particular place we stayed at , we were the only ones that spoke English, which left us in a great mystery to figure out the 'contest' going on the stage of our small outdoor restaurant. There was a bullentin board on one side with playing cards and bingo cards , and they would call random names from the audience, and speak really fast in either German or French (which none of us knew), then the person would through the dart and have to do whatever was written on the back of the card, but that was written in either French or German as well, so this left everyone of us laughing and throughoughly confused when a few of us Americans were called up,,my stomach still hurts from laughing so much!
We also stopped at a place called [Dudu Lake Lagoon, not sure if the name means anything, but it did have a very blue lagoon to take a rope swing into! Amazing how refreshing a quick jump into water can revive you! After our lagoon discovery a random person showed us some caves, but we didn{t have any flashlights with us at the time, so we could only explore as long as his burning piece of brush lasted, which was only about 3 minutes.
Our CMU group was heading back to Santo Domingo, but myself, Alice and Mary were feeling a bit more adventerous, so we got dropped off on a corner in some village to venture on for a few more days because we have this whole week off from teaching, so why go home , right?
It began on the back of moto-chonchos, then we were squished in a gua-gua, where i tried to have a conversion with my seat neighbor, but we were having a tough time communicating, then we finally told me he was from Haiti, and spoke only French. That made more sense. The gua-gua finally stopped, everyone got out, so we did too, and waited in a cement, three sided room, where they only sold gummi-worms, rum, cans of tuna and ketchup. As we waited for our next mode of transportation, the batachta-merengue music is blaring and before i could do anything a barefooted high-school age boy hopped off his moto, ran over, began dancing the batchata with me, then hopped back on his moto, asked if i would come with him, and after i declined, we sped away smiling and waving. The three of us laughed, and just then a truck pulled up, and having the strongest Spanish skills, which isn{t saying much, asked them their destinition, and was glad to hear it was ours as well! So we jumped in the back of the truck with many others. At one point we wondered if this was just a family trip, and they perhaps were wondering why these 3 girls had hopped in, but figured even if it was, thats just the way transport works here. The hour ride through the mountains was the best ride i{ve been on yet here, the mountains are completely filled with palm trees, something i have not seen before, and the little villages that we passed through are so quaint they make me want to stop and spend some time there. Arriving in Las Terranas without reservations we were wondering if it would be possible to get a room somewhere because this is the Samana Santa week, or Holy Week here, which means the 2 million people from Santo Domingo leave the Capital and spread themselves thin out to every beach around. This makes accomodation almost impossible, and is the busiest week of the year. Fortunately our 3rd attempt we did find a room for only about $8 a person, and only a minute from the beach. The next day we spent most of the day going from one place to the hotel and to the next, jumping in the ocean, going to the next hotel, trying to find a place, with no luck.
The sun was settting, we had just had rice and beans, and I had not had nearly enough water to drink, and we were on our last hope of finding a room, walking down a dirt road, when a truck passed us , heading the other direction, we looked at it, hopped in, and they tried to help us find a room. They had been fishing, so we were sitting in the back of the truck with a bunch of lobsters which I secretly wanted to throw back in the ocean, but realized they needed the money. Our attempt to get gas at the Petrol station went bad when the only gas station was out of gas, but we continued on, and stopped at a few places were they were trying to sell their lobsters, with no luck though. I was very tired and dehydrated at this point and had no energy to attempt spanish conversation, but had to when i was confused about the hotel owner who was next to the truck. I did not know if he wanted to lobsters for dinner, or the 3 of us as guests, meaning he had an empty room perhaps? yes, he did , but it was more money than we had with us. So we left, thinking we were left to crashing on the beach for the night.
One last attempt by our truck drivers at a hotel went through ! Feeling so estatic to have a room to sleep I didn{t care that the delapitated mattress raised off the floor by a few cinder blocks, because of the cockroaches running about on the floor, and the bed was too small for the 3 of us, the one pillow was filled with pieces of foam. With no electricity and just one bucket of water to shower with, I was thankful to have a candle with me. Finding a small store we purchased a 5-gallon jug of driking water, which i proceeded to drink about 2 gallons, slept like a baby and made our way back to Santo Domingo today, with the only problem of being stuck in a town with no phones, and no buses because of the holiday. No problem, somehow things worked out , and we ended up here in Santo Domingo a few hours later.
I realized that i really do enjoy each moment here, as easy as it would be to complain about the unorganized fashion of things here, that is just in comparision to the way we are used to living, I enjoy the spontinatity of the moments here, and knowing that somehow things will work out, just not exactly how. Not letting any blood pressure rise because of it, just relaxing and letting things be the way they are. The common Dominican phrase is (¡No Problem!). The people here are incredibly friendly and helpful, which reminds me so much of the people from Ghana. I especially love getting to know this culture, its relaxed pace of life, the conintuous spanish music here, the smells of the mountains, the salt water, the never ending sand on my scalp, and the fresh fruits....
Returning to Santo Domingo today I realized I forgot to take my keys with me, so am locked out of my house for a few days until my family returns from their trip..no problem...I{m staying at Marys house, so will readily have email until they return..