On December 1st I built a Sandcastle, and other adventures in Las Terrenas

Due to Thanksgiving we had a 4 day weekend so we decided to take full advantage of it by heading to beautiful Las Terranas. It was quite the adventure! Here is the story of our trip.

Friday: We woke up bright and early to catch the 7am bus from Santo Domingo to Sanchez. We arrived at the bus terminal, bought our tickets, and learned that we would have to take the 8am. So we killed time by playing Euchre (I still haven’t gotten the hang of it). The bus was fantastic, probably the comfiest seat I’ve ever sat in, and the view was amazing! We drove through the mountains and jungle, saw rice paddies and other farms. We arrived in Sanchez, where we would take a taxi the rest of the way to Las Terrenas. Sanchez is an interesting little town…when we got off the bus we had no idea what to do. Men were yelling in Spanish trying to get us to take their taxis. Finally we found a nice taxi and were on our way. Here is what we saw on our drive:

Once we arrived at the house we rented we ran to the bodega to grab some provisions (mac n’ cheese) then headed to the beach! The house was so cute, and it felt like we were in the jungle!

Saturday: We woke up early because the roosters were crowing (literally, there were so many chickens) and we wanted to see the sunrise.

We spent most of the day at the beach, or relaxing around the house. I think we all read more this weekend than during all of our student teaching combined, I know I did. I have really missed having time to read! The beach was so perfect, it doesn’t even look real.

That afternoon we headed into town for dinner and shopping. First we found the ATM. I randomly withdrew 5000 pesos because I am bad at math and never know how much money it is, but this will become very important later. We checked out the souvenir shops for a while then found a little Italian restaurant. This is when things started to get weird. A man on crutches came into the restaurant and started begging us for money in French and showing us all sorts of injuries. We couldn’t get him to leave and the restaurant workers were not doing anything. Finally he left. Then we sat at a little beach bar when a man with a guitar came to sing for us. It was very strange, then he asked for money. We decided to find somewhere else to hang out when a man (very intoxicated) started following us and trying to get us to buy illegal things from him. It was scary because he would not let go of Bret’s shoulder and we tried everything to lose him. Luckily, we happened upon the taxi who had driven us into town so we quickly hopped in and took off. Then the taxi charged us an insane amount, but we were just glad to be back to our house.

Sunday: I spent most of the morning enjoying the hammock on our porch before heading down to the beach. (Notice my tan is not coming along very well)

At the beach we played in the waves, relaxed in the sun, and I built a sandcastle! It did not seem like it could possibly be December, but I know that it is snowy at home!

At 3pm we took a taxi back to Sanchez to catch our bus home. We got our bus tickets, but the man told us it would be a 4 hour ride home! With that as our only option, we ran across the street to a store to pick up some snacks for the ride. We were planning to catch the 4:30 bus. A bus pulled up at 4, and we ran over to get on. The bus driver said this was not the bus to take to Santo Domingo, and that we needed to wait for the one that would come at 4:30. That was all fine, we just thought the bus was early. We went to sit down in  the bus station and the ticket seller started yelling and banging his hands on the desk. He said we were supposed to get on that bus! Apparently the next bus was completely full and the last bus of the day. What were we going to do?!? Our options were: stay in Sanchez (not really a town I’d like to visit again, let alone sleep there), get a taxi all the way to Santo Domingo (so much money!), call our host family to come get us (such an inconvenience for them). The angry ticket man ended up helping us out by saying he would have a taxi take us to another station to catch a bus. He said our taxi was there and we walked out to find not a car or van, but 3 motorcycles. To have a picture of our faces at that moment… So, we rode 3 deep, with our luggage, no helmet, flip flops, through the mountain jungle, with strangers who didn’t speak English. I refuse to ride a motorcycle with my boyfriend, while wearing a helmet, in a town I feel safe in, but I didn’t have a choice here so I got over my fears right quick. The motorcycle Laura and I were on pulled off, and all I could think was that this was the beginning of a scary movie. We are getting kidnapped. Luckily Bret and Katie showed up and we went to a gas station.

Then the motorcycles were 1000 pesos each. Everyone else just had some random coins with them, maybe 50 pesos. That wasn’t going to cut it. Then there was me, with my 5000. (It’s so weird to say I took out 5 grand from an ATM) I was so glad that I’m so bad at math, because I don’t know what would have happened if we didn’t have the 3000 pesos to pay these guys.This is where we were dropped off:

So we waited at this gas station for the next bus. We were thrilled to find that the guy working there was from New York, and spoke English! And they had a credit card machine so we could buy some snacks. We were so nervous about making our bus, otherwise we would sleep at this gas station. We tried to get on the wrong bus twice, but the nice New Yorker saved us. Then the correct bus showed up, but every seat was taken! We convinced them to let us stand in the aisles for the 2 hour drive back to Santo Domingo.The nice man I was standing next to gave me his seat after an hour.

Finally, we made it to the bus station. I’ve never been so happy to be in the crazy city of Santo Domingo. We grabbed a taxi and headed home where Adela, Estela, and Lula were so happy to see us. They cooked us some amazing chimichangas and it felt like the best meal I’ve ever eaten after a day of eating only chips.

Overall, it was the most relaxing, yet most stressful trip I’ve ever been on. Thank goodness for Sam who speaks fluent Spanish, and for my bad math at the ATM. Otherwise we might still be in the Sanchez bus station.

Happy December everyone!

First full weekend in the Dominican

The weekend is just flying by! We have been having so much fun.

On Friday night Winston (he is the son of one of the ladies we are staying with) took us out with some of his friends. We happened to meet a guy who attended Western Michigan University while we were out, which was a funny coincidence because it is Central Western Weekend. He said that he felt obligated to hate us because our schools are rivals, but he taught us how to dance anyway. Salsa dancing seems so easy, but most of us struggled with it. I should have taken lessons before coming here!

On Saturday we went to the beach at Boca Chica. The water was beautiful and the perfect temperature. We played in the water, walked on the beach, and did a little shopping.

This is 5 of us with Estelle (one of the ladies we live with, in the blue) and Bernadette (the director of the international school, in the pink).

We also went on a banana boat ride, which was a blast!

Later on Saturday we went to dinner at Pizzarelli (a pizza place on our street) and then had a movie night. We watched the Great Gatsby with Spanish subtitles.

Today we just went to our professor’s hotel to work on lesson plans and then stopped by the mall for lunch. Now it’s time to relax and prepare for another week of school.