Travel Update 16

We just spent a wonderful week in the Dominican Republic visiting Kathleen's cousin Anna. It was short for an international trip but we did pack a lot in.

In Atlanta we dropped the kids off with a sitter and then headed to the airport. Since we weren't sure how long that would take we ended up at the airport pretty early and just walked around. While we were wandering a stranger offered us some pizza saying that they had bought too much. Given that we could figure out how he could have a motive to hurt us and we were inside airport security we decided it was probably safe to eat. Free dinner!

We flew in to the capital, Santo Domingo, and arrived fairly late. Luckily we had Anna to come pick us up at the airport, meeting us with fresh empanadas and fruit juice! After resolving an issue with the Uber that had been towed for illegally parking in a place Anna told him not to park, we headed into the capital to a fun hostel, called "Island Life", where we spent the first night.

 

We explored the hostel a little bit in the morning and it was quite cute. There was a central courtyard where breakfast was served that even included a small pool. They also had several hostel dogs. If we had been staying in Santo Domingo it definitely would have been a fun place to spend a couple of nights.

 

 

However, we didn't have very much time in Santo Domingo so we checked out fairly early and went to go walk through the historic district before catching our bus to the north. There is a lot of history in Santo Domingo, because it was the capital of the first Spanish Colony in the New World. As a matter of fact it was founded in 1496 by Bartholomew Columbus, Christopher Columbus's brother. There were lots of beautiful old churches and we also visited the first hospital in the New World.

 

Then we hopped on an Uber over to the bus stop where we caught the but to Sabana De La Mar in the northern part of the country. The view out of the bus was gorgeous, but the bus was comfortable enough to catch a few Z's since we hadn't gotten a lot sleep the night before.

When we got up to Sabana De La Mar we got a ride on a motor cycle out to our hotel on the outskirts of town. Then we walked back through town to meet a man name Halle for dinner. Halle was our designated tour guide for our adventures the next day in Los Haitises National Park. He was also with the company that had booked us our whale watching tour, so he was able to help us figure out the plans for the next couple of days. He was really friendly and we had a lot of fun with him, both at dinner over the course of the next day. And Sabana De La Mar was a cute little town that we had fun spending some time in.

Central Park in Sabana De La Mar

Hotel where we stayed while in Sabana De La Mar

Restaurant where we met Halle for dinner. 

  

After those two excited days in the north we had a travel day in which we took the same bus back down to the capital and then another huge bus down to Anna's region of Barahona. The long bus rides stop somewhere in the middle of the route to allow people to go to the bathroom and buy some food. The route down to Barahona stopped at an absolutely massive rest area that seemed like the dominican Buc-ee's, with much less branding.

 

Except the "express" busses, all of the buses will pick you up and drop you off anywhere along their route. So when the bus passed through Bombita we hopped off. We spent the next three day in Bombita getting to see how Anna lives her life.

On Wednesday morning Anna put us back on the early bus back to Santo Domingo. We managed to make it from the bus to a taxi and get to airport all by ourselves even with our limited Spanish. We were going to try to use Uber, which wouldn't have required any Spanish, but we got talked into getting driven by a taxi who wanted to take us for less money.

The DR is not without its share of issues, most of which can still be traced back to colonial days. Although the majority of the population has darker skin, people running for government positions almost always have lighter skin and will intentionally make themselves look whiter. The DR is also better off that its island neighbor Haiti. There were several of checkpoints on the way back from Anna's village to the capital where security officers are looking for "illegal immigrants". We were told that this generally plays itself out as them asking people who "look Haitian" (darker skin) to provide identification, and this was in fact how it played out in front of us. Of course, it didn't affect us personally, but it is something to be aware of when traveling there.

Overall we did have an amazing week in the Dominican Republic! To Kathleen it felt like where Guinea could be with about 20 more years of development, and the comparison drawing was constant. It also made her want to get back in the Global Health direction so that she can live abroad again. Andreas loved his time there too but is less sure about wanting to move there.

Bombita

One of the most exciting parts of our trip to the Dominican Republic was visiting Kathleen's cousin Anna in the village where she has been living and working with an organization called COPA. We arrived in the evening to Anna's friend Diego making a wonderful dinner to share with us and the other people living in Anna's compound.

Anna's cat Chinola helping Diego with cleanup.
Photo Credit: Cousin Anna 

The next day was Monday and Anna needed to go to the school where she worked. Luckily we were able to walk around school with her and see classes in session. COPA runs two schools. One is in Bombita.  Anna lives adjacent to that school. The other is down the road in La Hoya. We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to check out both schools. Anna and Kathleen had fun comparing these schools to the school where Kathleen worked in Guinea. Dominican schools have a long way to go before they provide children with the level of education expected in most first world countries, but they stacked up well compared to schools Kathleen experienced in West Africa. 

Photo Credit: Cousin Anna

In the afternoon we went into the regional capital of Barahona to shop. There are groceries stores in Barahona but we ended up going to the local open air market. Again, Kathleen and Anna had fun comparing these markets to those in Labé. Unlike Labé, where electricity and refrigeration are hard to come by, after shopping we had the pleasure of getting yummy ice cream before heading back to Anna's house. 

Tuesday was no school so we a bunch of us went to the beach. Going to the beach is a common fun day off activity for the DR. Which makes sense, there are beautiful beaches everywhere and the water is warm and inviting. We spent some of day relaxing under trees and some of the day swimming in the warm Caribbean. Anna even brought her snorkel so we did a little bit of snorkeling out in the reef.  

After heading back from the beach we went into the sugar cane fields where boys picked us fresh sugar cane to chew on. Apparently this is another fairly common past time. It makes sense given how much cane is growing in the area. It was super tasty and the surroundings were beautiful.

Photo Credit: Cousin Anna

Like all parts of this trip down to the DR, visiting Anna went by quickly but it was great to get to see how Anna is living and get a feel for the real Dominican Republic and how local people live. 

A Touristy Day in the D.R.

Photo Credit: Cousin Anna

Anna scheduled a whale watching tour for our second day in Sabana De La Mar. We woke up early  to catch a "guagua" to town where the boat would leave. In the Dominican Republic a "guagua" is any form of transportation that will take multiple people. This could include anything from a minivan to a bus and doesn't have to be public transportation. In our case it was a small bus, only slightly bigger than a mini van.

We arrived early for the tour and waited at a very empty restaurant area. Luckily the people who helped Anna book the tour sent us with a woman named Reina to show us where we needed to go. Otherwise we would have been very confused. While waiting we were greeted by some shockingly friendly (and overfed) street puppies.

There are street dogs everywhere in the DR. Although against CDC recommendation Kathleen loves to pet them. If you approach slowly and respectfully and kneel down nearby they will often tentatively come up to be pet. In most places we went street dogs wouldn't approach you because they occasionally get things thrown at them if they are too forward. However the dogs in this area were VERY forward. They clearly were used to different treatment (which later became clear) and they ran up, jumping and mouthing.

Eventually tourists started streaming in by the bus load from the tourist town of Punta Cana where they were clearly staying in the big resorts. It was a rather shocking influx of white people. As people started arriving we were served ham and cheese sandwiches, coffee, juice and fresh fruit. Many tourists were taking their sandwiches directly out to feed to the puppies and then going back for more. It explained a lot about the puppies behavior.

Eventually we were all divided onto boats and taken out to see the whales. Whale season in the Dominican Republic is from January 14th to March 14th when the humpback whales come to hang out in the bay. People absolutely love these tours and have an amazing time. Unfortunately for us, the water was VERY rough the day we went. The ride to the viewing area was basically a roller coaster ride that was rather terrifying. By the time we made it to where the whales were, about 10% of the boat was already throwing up.  It got worse from there.

We did get to see whales, which was very cool, but the tour wasn't without a few challenges. Due to the big waves they were difficult to see. We were also all trying to concentrate on the horizon to make sure we didn't join the ranks of the sick and it was a difficult boat to see out of because the sides were high. Needless to say we didn't get great pics but here are a couple. The animals are spectacular and the tour was probably great on a calmer day. As it was, we were all ready to head back to shore by the time we left.

 

After seeing the whales our boat dropped us off on an island to spend the afternoon. The island is very touristy and is referred to as Bacardi Island. They served us lunch and then we hung out on the beach at Playa Cayo Levantado. It was a beautiful beach and it was fun to spend a day relaxing and seeing what the majority of people experience when they go to the Dominican Republic. They also gave us complementary rum and cokes, so we went all out on tropical beach vacation hour. 

 

The boat ride back to the main land (bigger island?) was also choppy but not nearly as sickening. We just ended up with tons of waves coming over the sides of the boat and drenching us. When we got back we looked like we had been swimming in our clothes. Everyone else on the boat loaded up into their tour bus and we went to flag down a guagua. Overall it was a very interesting experience, but probably not our favorite of the days we spent in the DR. 

Los Haitises National Park

Our first big activity in the Dominican Republic was Los Haitises National Park for which we had a guide named Halle.

We woke up early in the morning to catch a moto-taxi, or "moto-concho", down the 10 kilometer road to the park. The trip up the unpaved road was gorgeous! Unfortunately we were all hanging on too tight to get any pictures.

We started our day by going on a kayaking tour, which we wanted to do early because we were told that that would give us the best chance of seeing manatees. While we didn't see any manatees it was still an amazing trip. It started by going down a small river through the mangrove forest, similar to what we experienced in southern Florida. But it was much more fun to be out on the water.

There were many of the same birds as in the Everglades as well as crabs that were living among the roots of the mangroves. Unfortunately we once again don't have very many pictures of this part of the day, this time because we were all trying to avoid getting our electronics wet.

When we came to the end of the river it opened up in a small bay called Bahia de San Lorenzo, which is in the larger Samana Bay. We stayed in the Bahia de San Lorenzo, which was nice and protected and smooth for kayaking. We may not have seen any manatees in the bay, but we did see several dolphins. They were swimming fairly close to us and we hung out for a while just watching them. This time we didn't get any pictures because we were enjoying just watching them too much.

After hanging out with the dolphins for a little while we moved on to a small island where we docked to eat fruit and enjoy the surroundings. Halle brought us bananas as well as a guañabana, AKA soursop. Both were delicious. 

 

 

After the kayaking trip we had a few hours to hang out and get lunch at the Caño Hondo eco lodge while Halle took another group out on a boat trip. 

Caño Hondo is a huge hotel that is built into the side of the mountain. It had amazing architecture and amazing views. They also had a delicious lunch. 

 

The other major perk of Caño Hondo is their pools. They diverted the river into a series of swimming holes coming down the side of the hill. They were gorgeous and a lot of fun to walk around. The day wasn't as warm as we had expected though, and the water was quite cool so we didn't end up swimming. 

 

Anna considered booking us to stay at this lodge, but they said they were full. Which was a little funny because it seemed quite empty. Overall we were all happy with the place we stayed in town, and we got more of the local feel there. 

For the early afternoon section of our trip we took another boat ride with Halle, this time on a bigger motor boat. We went back  down the river and through the bay to caves in national park.

The first cave we stopped at was well known for its pictographs. The cave is full of them and they range in subject from ancient tribal gods to crosses representing the colonizing Spanish. There are also pictures that are thought to represent a slave being beaten.

 

 

The massive cave was cool in and of itself. There is evidence that native people took cover in the cave during storms. It was absolutely massive and a fair amount of natural lighting, so even Kathleen who tends to get claustrophobic felt comfortable in there. 

The second cave was right on the water and had the feel of the ideal cave for a pirate to hide treasure in. We docked on a beautiful beach. 

 

From the beach we took several cool boardwalks into the partially flooded cave. 

 

This cave was also gorgeous and had interesting ancient carvings. The cave is also known for being home to many bats, but we didn't see any of them. Their main roosting area is further back in the cave and is off limits to visitors. 

 

For the last part of our day we went on a fun hike on a trail that Halle and a Peace Corps volunteer helped to build a couple of years ago. It was absolutely stunning. The trail went through one of the filming locations for Jurassic Park. 

And in true Dominican fashion we went stopped and tried all of the different fruits along the trail as we went. 

 

Coffee

 

Bija, primarily used as a dye but also to add flavor to meat dishes.
Also apparently used in some skin care products. 

Star Fruit 

 

Chocolate. The white fruit around the chocolate is absolutely incredible and super sweet.
One of the best things we tasted on this trip. 

Halle had to work super hard to get us some chocolate fruit. We tried throwing things but were unsuccessful. But he was determined enough that he scaled the tree to bring us one down. And boy are we glad that he did. 

There were lots of other cool things on the hike as well, including trees that use thorns to store water and giant termite nests. The hike was a great end to an amazing day. By the time we got back to the hotel on our moto conchos we were very ready for a shower and bed, especially because we knew we'd have to get up early again the next day.