Republica Dominicana - "Es Tan Dificil"

Talk about an e-dork... I've decided to take the plunge and create a blog page, primarily for my distant family and friends who may or may not want to keep up with my fast-paced lifestyle. So, welcome, and I hope you enjoy the insite into my adventures.

This first blog is about a trip that I just got back from to the Dominican Republic. This was a reunion of seven old friends, traveling from different parts of the States and Central America, despite the overlooming threat of hurricane season, to visit our friend Ryan who is one year into his Peace Corps volunteering in the DR. Lara, who flew in from Honduras, and I met up in the capital Santo Domingo on August 22nd and quickly jumped on a gua gua (mini bus) headed for Ryan's site en el campo (the countryside) near the Haitian border. Getting to Ryan's campo required a 5 hour bus ride from the capitol to a small town called El Cercado, a 20-minute moto concho ride (motor cycle) to a river crossing, and then another 30-minute hike through mango trees, banana plantations, and rice fields to his village.

Ryan's site was in a beautiful valley filled with friendly people, farm animals, rice fields, coffee trees, and all of the exotic fruit trees one could desire. It was difficult to walk down the dirt road through his village to his one-room house in less than a few hours because from every house that we'd walk by, people would insist that we come in to have coffee or food.

One highlight en el campo was when Ryan's work crew let me "drive" the oxen plow, which is the method that they use to loosen and excavate the trench for Ryan's aqueduct project. The workers all looked on and laughed, as I'm sure it was quite entertaining for them to see the Gringo struggling to keep control of the oxen plow.

After three days of exploring around Ryan's site, milking cows, riding horses, eating fresh fruit and drinking lots of sweet coffee, the three of us set out back towards the capital to meet up with the rest of our motley crew.

Bruno, Bard, and Eric all arrived in Santo Domingo in the evening of the 25th, and had their taxi driver drop them straight off at the bar we were at downtown. It was a wild night of rum and dancing, as we learned the popular local steps of the Bachata and the Maranga.

The next morning, we all jumped on another gua gua and headed for a small town on the south coast call Cienega. Ryan knew a gringa with a house on the beach there, so we settled in for the next four days with a couple cold Presidente cervesas from the colmado down the street.

We had several friendly visitors during our stay here. We made friends with the locals and participated in their evening pick up fast pitch softball game, which was very competative. We swam, snorkeled, boogie boarded, and just bobbed in the warm Carribean waters stumbling distance from our back porch. A couple local kids took me skin diving for crab, lobster, mussles, and whatever else we could find, which made for a brilliant feast one evening.

We took several day trips hitchhiking from our bungalow in the back of pick up trucks, exploring some waterfalls down the coast, a coffee plantation, and a larimar mine/jewelry maker. Larimar is a beautiful blue rock that is only found in the south of Dominican.

Next, we hopped on a gua gua further down the south coast to a Haitian border town called Pedernales. We missed the Friday Haitian market by a couple hours, so we settled in for the evening with some rum and dominos. The next day we lined up a chain of rides that ended up with a fisherman dropping us off for the night at a deserted beach in the national park called Bahia de las Aguilas.

It was a beautiful day of beach bummin with a memorable sunset,

although the sand flies got the best of us once we went to bed. With not much sleep had by anyone that evening, we were excited to see the fisherman on his way back to pick us up the next morning.

And so begun, another epic journey back to the capital as it was time for Bruno and Bard to leave the island.

The next chapter of our adventura took us to the more popularly traveled north coast. Lara, Alex, and I headed on a fancy coach bus for less than $10 (we needed a break from the gua guas) to a beach town called Sosua, while Ryan, Eric, and Margo stayed behind in the capital for a few extra days. In Sosua, we checked in to what was our fanciest accomodations of the trip, which was a nice little villa style place owned by a friendly Dutch couple. A two block walk to the beach, we had a swimming pool, AC, and TV in our rooms, 3 luxuries that were foreign concepts to us up until this point in the trip, and all for about $10 each per night!

In Sosua, we quickly got acquainted with the nearest SCUBA dive shop and signed up for a couple dives. For the next 3 days around Sosua, we checked out the beaches, dove, danced all night at the discotecas/clubs, and got hit on by sleezy local women. Sosua is known for its vast selection of cheap Dominican women, which many old European x-pats travel/move there to solicit.

We took a day trip about 40 minutes down the coast to the even more popular beach called Playa Cabarette. Cabarette is a world famous beach for wind surfing and kite boarding. All we did there was sip margaritas on the beach, swim, play volleyball, and get cheap full body massages... not bad!

Heading back to Sosua at the end of the day, we weren't able to catch a hitch, so Alex, Lara and I all piled on the back of a moto for a cheap ride. That driver thought we were crazy!

On day 3 in Sosua, Ryan, Eric and Margo finally caught back up with us from the capital. Ryan showed us the local car wash, which proved to be much more than just a car wash. In the Dominican, the car washes are equipped with bars and dub as popular places to go drink and dance. What a great idea!

The next day, we met up with another Peace Corps volunteer,

Johnathan, and visited his project site in a Haitian Batey. A batey is a town where sugar workers live. The Haitians, who work for cheap, used to travel to the sugar plantations only for the harvest season. Over time, the migrant Haitians have stayed in these bateys for the off season as well, and now live there year-round.

We were met with open arms in the batey, as Johnathan told his friends that a bunch of gringo soccer players were coming. He set up a soccer match with the Haitians, which ended up in a 2-2 draw. The field was fantastic, with pot-holes, cow patties, and pigs running around... they even had jerseys for us to wear!

A short walk from the batey through the sugar cane fields was a mildy touristy attraction called veinte y siete charcos (27 waterfalls). There we had 2 guides help us hike/climb/swim/scratch our way up these 27 falls/pools. The 27th and final pool included about a 40-ft jump into an area as big as a small swimming pool. We then got to jump and slide our way down the 27 falls back the way we came.

After a few more days on the north coast and hanging out with several Peace Corps volunteers for their 1-year party, we hitched and bussed back to the capital. We did a little stocking up on souvenirs and rum from the local markets, and caught our flight back home. Fantastic trip!