(no subject)
Hola,
So i'm now in my last morning here in Jarabacoa. We're leaving in about an hour back to Santo Domingo to spend a few days there shopping and whatnot before we leave, the three i'm traveling with back to their homes in boston and chicago and me off to guatemala.
So my time here in Jarabacoa has been awesome. Well, awesome except for our first full day here. That day we decided to go horse back riding around el rio yaque de norte, the largest river on the island (and it's pretty surprisingly big). i got a lesson how to ride and it was a very slow walking tour with a guide. it was actually really really enjoyable and absolutely gorgeous. However, after 45 minutes we were going up to the place where we started the tour to end it, and my horse started walking towards a tree. i tried to move him, but he (she?) didn't move, and he/she smahed my knee into the tree. it hurt A LOT. right afterwards, i didn't think it was anything, but as the day went on it started to hurt more and more, as if i had broken the bone. i immeadiatly went back to our hotel and spent the entire day lying down, to try and not aggravate it and see what happened with it, to try and figure out if it was in fact broken or not. Over that day, that night, and the next morning, i became almost certain it was broken, and consequently started freaking out because a broken bone means a cast which means i can't travel which means i'd have to go home 6 weeks before my trip was over. i was freaking out mroe than i could ever tell you. The next morning i went to a clinic and got some x-rays, expecting the worse. thankfully, the x-rays didn't show a broken or cracked boned. the doctors said i just screwed up the tendents where my quads connect to my knee, something that would heal itself in a few days. absolutely biggest relief of my life.
that day we went to Santiago de los Caballeros (or just santiago), which is the second biggest ciyt in the Dominican Republic next to SAnto Domingo. We went sort of late in the afternoon (around 2 or 3) and it was already very cloudy and rainy. So our trip there was a little bit anti-climactic as we walked around the main shopping area, trying to find cheap jeans (all of our jeans don't fit us anymore), and then trying to find some place to eat dinner (which we couldn't find either). so it was sort of a bust, but it was still cool to see the other big city in this country and it really was beautiful.
Jarabacoa is known for it's waterfalls, so yesterday we decided to go to one. We went to a super market and bought bread, meat, cheese, and lots of other picnic food, packed up our back-packs, and got a taxi out to the waterfall. The taxi ride out to the waterfall was absolutely gorgeous. the landscape up here in the mountains is some of the most beautiful stuff i've ever seen in my entire life. Once we got to the waterfall, we had to walk over lots of wooden plank bridges leading up to the waterfall (salto jimonoa). the waterfall itself was enourmas and absolutely beautiful. There were tons of benches under an overhang so we sat there, eating our sandwhich, enjoying the waterfall. It then started to pour rain, but our taxi driver wasn't coming back for another hour and a half so we just hung out there, enjoying the beauty of the area and talking. We finally left and came back to jarabacoa and spent most of the afternoon in the hotel room relaxing and chatting.
So today we're going back to Santo Domingo. We're going to do some shopping and then head off. Maya, from chicago, leaves on Wednesday. Kudret and Dianne, from Boston, leave on Thursday. I leave for Guatemala on Saturday. During those two days I think I'm going to see if i can stay with a friend from my community who goes to university in the capitol, but we'll see.
Jason
So i'm now in my last morning here in Jarabacoa. We're leaving in about an hour back to Santo Domingo to spend a few days there shopping and whatnot before we leave, the three i'm traveling with back to their homes in boston and chicago and me off to guatemala.
So my time here in Jarabacoa has been awesome. Well, awesome except for our first full day here. That day we decided to go horse back riding around el rio yaque de norte, the largest river on the island (and it's pretty surprisingly big). i got a lesson how to ride and it was a very slow walking tour with a guide. it was actually really really enjoyable and absolutely gorgeous. However, after 45 minutes we were going up to the place where we started the tour to end it, and my horse started walking towards a tree. i tried to move him, but he (she?) didn't move, and he/she smahed my knee into the tree. it hurt A LOT. right afterwards, i didn't think it was anything, but as the day went on it started to hurt more and more, as if i had broken the bone. i immeadiatly went back to our hotel and spent the entire day lying down, to try and not aggravate it and see what happened with it, to try and figure out if it was in fact broken or not. Over that day, that night, and the next morning, i became almost certain it was broken, and consequently started freaking out because a broken bone means a cast which means i can't travel which means i'd have to go home 6 weeks before my trip was over. i was freaking out mroe than i could ever tell you. The next morning i went to a clinic and got some x-rays, expecting the worse. thankfully, the x-rays didn't show a broken or cracked boned. the doctors said i just screwed up the tendents where my quads connect to my knee, something that would heal itself in a few days. absolutely biggest relief of my life.
that day we went to Santiago de los Caballeros (or just santiago), which is the second biggest ciyt in the Dominican Republic next to SAnto Domingo. We went sort of late in the afternoon (around 2 or 3) and it was already very cloudy and rainy. So our trip there was a little bit anti-climactic as we walked around the main shopping area, trying to find cheap jeans (all of our jeans don't fit us anymore), and then trying to find some place to eat dinner (which we couldn't find either). so it was sort of a bust, but it was still cool to see the other big city in this country and it really was beautiful.
Jarabacoa is known for it's waterfalls, so yesterday we decided to go to one. We went to a super market and bought bread, meat, cheese, and lots of other picnic food, packed up our back-packs, and got a taxi out to the waterfall. The taxi ride out to the waterfall was absolutely gorgeous. the landscape up here in the mountains is some of the most beautiful stuff i've ever seen in my entire life. Once we got to the waterfall, we had to walk over lots of wooden plank bridges leading up to the waterfall (salto jimonoa). the waterfall itself was enourmas and absolutely beautiful. There were tons of benches under an overhang so we sat there, eating our sandwhich, enjoying the waterfall. It then started to pour rain, but our taxi driver wasn't coming back for another hour and a half so we just hung out there, enjoying the beauty of the area and talking. We finally left and came back to jarabacoa and spent most of the afternoon in the hotel room relaxing and chatting.
So today we're going back to Santo Domingo. We're going to do some shopping and then head off. Maya, from chicago, leaves on Wednesday. Kudret and Dianne, from Boston, leave on Thursday. I leave for Guatemala on Saturday. During those two days I think I'm going to see if i can stay with a friend from my community who goes to university in the capitol, but we'll see.
Jason