Samaná

Oct. 23-Friday

Hey guys, just wanted to tell you about an amazing weekend I’m having.

Friday we embarked on our trip to Samaná. Samaná is a peninsula in the north-eastern part of DR. It took a 4.5 hour drive, not so bad, compared to the south. So what we decided to do was to rent a house for all us. Its been really cool, just living all together, cooking for each other, living like a family. Only our program could have done it, knowing the other two groups there would be a lot more conflicts. I digress, before we arrived at the house here in Las Terrenas (a city an hour away from Samaná-the city, it’s a province) we went to a cascade named the Salto de Limón. First to get there, the fast way was on horseback. Now normally I don’t like horses, but after this experience I felt more comfortable controlling and riding the horse. Mom and Dad will be proud! :) Anyways, once we arrived at the Salto, it was breathe-taking. The biggest waterfall in DR. Really, but what was cooler is that you could swim in the water. So we did, or most of us, it was really cool experience. The water was so cold though, you wouldn’t believe it. It was still enjoyable exploring the area, and taking pictures. I highly recommend it if you are down here in DR. Anyways, afterwards we rode back, had lunch and was off to the house.

The house here is incredible. I can’t even begin to describe how awesome it is. We are a 2 minute walk away from the beach, a basically private beach that is just incredible. The house here has a gazebo which is just nice to wake up and walk out and enjoy the view of the ocean. Anyways once we arrived we decided to unpack and then go the beach before we made dinner. So we went to the beach 2 minutes from the house and swam, just enjoying the water and relaxing after the adventure at the waterfall. We get to the do the same on Sunday. After an hour swimming, clouds started to form, and we thought it was gonna rain, so we decided to head back and play some board games. So we did for awhile, then people decided they were hungry and we started to cook. However when we started to get all the things together we discovered at the supermarket we forgot to buy items that we already organized! Oh no! It was suppose to be fajitas night, but we didn’t have nothing, no peppers, no tortillas, nothing. So I went with our guagua driver Miguel Angel to look for a place to buy tortillas, peppers or even nachos chips. Nothing, I had only one choice; bread. So that’s what we did. I made chicken, chorizo, onion, and some peppers (hot) for spice. It was ok, but people told me it was too hot. Oh well. Guess I just like me my spice food! :) Hehehe. Worked out ok I suppose. Afterwards, Jenny and I played dominoes against Laura (professor from Spain) and Ana (our professor from DR). We lost, but it was still fun. And that ended out night. Good day.

Oct. 24-Saturday

Today was a blast. Today we went to one of the coolest places I have ever been to; Los Haitises. It is just one of the coolest things guys. This is a must, if you have the opportunity. It’s across from Samaná. Meaning we had to take a boat from Samaná to see the islands. It’s just incredible, no technology or truly developed society has inhabited it. The Taíno only came to the Haitises for rituals, they didn’t live there, because they knew this land was precious and should be respected. The word Haitises has a derivation from a work that means beautiful land that the Taínos used back in the day. Let me tell you, its just pure nature. Really beautiful. It really made me love this country even more, just seeing that DR as this kind of beauty close by. I have a lot of pics, and I’ll put them up when I have time. Been a busy busy boy. Anyways also, we stopped a beach and had lunch and was able to swim. The swimming was great, really calm and just enjoyable again. Sun was strong though, definitely got burnt. Ah, no me gusta. Pero eh, whatever.

Afterwords we went to a house of an Afro-woman who had ancestors from the US. She liked to speak English with us, cause she likes to be proud of her ancestors and speak English, but it was kinda still hard to understand her. But no worries. It was interesting to hear that ex-slaves were invited to live in DR after they were freed. Some stayed, others left. I wanna research more about that, but intriguing. The food she made for us though was worth talking about sooooooo good. Coco bread and drink I can’t really describe. Just awesome though.

Later that night, we had to cook dinner again. So what we did was two pastas; one penne with tomato sauce, and a pesto spaghetti with chicken, gilled with tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and lemon with garlic bread. I made the pesto spaghetti and one portion of the chicken. It was really good. I was proud! :) However we did have one adventure that was pretty scary. All the ovens are gas ovens down here, and when we tried to incite it well….BOOM! Oh man, I was right next to oven too, I was on the stove cooking the chicken, I don’t know how nobody got hurt, but it was just crazy. Oh man, just insane. Everyone survived and we made the garlic bread in the panni-machine instead and it came out just as good. It was a good night, besides that. David and I bought some cigars before we left, got a beer, and went to our “private” beach, and just enjoyed the stars and had a “profound” conversation as we usual do when smoking a cigar. At least with me I like to have intelligent deep conversations with cigars. But we enjoyed the beach and just had a relaxed night. Or so I thought. What happened was we tried to go out to Las Terrenas to dance, but what happened was, they wouldn’t let some two of the girls in our group cause they looked too young. So we tried 2 places and still had problems. Whatever, we back to the house and went back to the beach and just enjoyed the stars. It was just incredible.

Oct. 25-Sunday

Sunday was just a relaxed day. We got up in the morning and Jenny, Stacy and Mollie cooked breakfast for all of us. It was great, omelets with whatever you wanted. Really great way to start the morning. Afterwords I decided to go the beach and walk around for a while and really see the area. It was great, I got a lot of cool pics, I’ll try and put them up when I can. Oh also, we got free coconuts by some of the guys who work in the area of where our house was. Drank the water inside and ate the fruit. It was really sweet. Otherwise it was just a relaxed day on the beach and just enjoying our last day in Las Terrenas. Can’t really explain it that well, you just had to be there. The water was perfect, temperature-wise, color, and calm. Really enjoyable, I definitely want to come back with my family to see it. It was my favorite part so far of DR. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a nice vacation spot away from the city. Well that’s all I got. Thanks for reading and I hope to hear from you guys soon! Email me if you have a question or a comment. I’d love to hear it. Hope all is well!