I'm on a boat

One of the highlights of the trip so far was our boat excursion out into the Caribbean. The 14 of us (plus our friendly driver) boarded a catamaran and started our trip along the beautiful coast. Luscious greenery, including palm and mangroves, continued up from the coastline and incredibly blue water to distant mountains. The captain stopped the boat at a sandbar a good distance from shore. With my snorkel gear all ready, I followed the rest as we swam from the back of the boat over numerous sea stars, sea urchins, and sand dollars that were scattered around the sandbar. I watched as one sea star made its way several feet across the sand. A big-eyed puffer fish remained still in the sea grass as we stared, hoping it would puff up for us.

After roaming around a bit there, we continued northwest towards the Samana Peninsula. We approached these huge cliffs, and a few of us through out the terrific idea to jump off of them. So we stopped there. No worries though, we stopped to snorkel – the only jumping was off the boat. The water was completely clear all the way to the bottom at least 40 feet below. It got shallower as we floated towards the rocky island, where numerous fish were tooling around. There were some brightly colored ones, and a school of at least one thousand of the tiniest of Silversides swam right below. We were careful to avoid the small jellyfish – only a few randomly lingered a couple feet below the surface, almost the perfect depth for us not to notice at all. We also saw an eel (ugh but cool).

Small town DR

Took this video as we drove through one of the few towns we passed on our drive to Miches.

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Introducing Miches

Just got back from Miches. It was amazing!

The roads were not in great condition so it took 4 hours for our bus to bump along about 60 miles. The scenery was beautiful. There were not many other cars along the drive – people travel mostly by motorcycle, scooter, horse or foot. After being at the hotel for two weeks I had almost forgotten this is still a third world country, but the drive down dirt roads and by the humble houses was a resounding reminder.

From the moment and we drove onto the beach to get to the Coco Loco Hotel I knew it was going to be a wild time. We were split into groups of threes and went to settle into our casitas, one-room mini houses, as a storm was approaching quickly. Of course I ran to the bathroom after the bumpy ride, and as I opened the toilet I startled the frog that apparently had been resting under the lid. It jumped way up and splashed into the pot as I maybe just slightly overreacted, and the lid went crashing down. We did not really know what to do about that situation and my roomie flushed the toilet only to find the frog back in there next time she opened the toilet haha. Next on the agenda was getting the cockroach out of the toilet. The extent of my participation in this was solely holding my camera to capture the moments.

Then, an intense thunderstorm rolled directly overhead and lightning even hit the side of one of the casitas, leaving a little burn in the grass next to the girl sitting on the porch.

Much more to follow soon…

Off to Miches

We are off to the small town of Miches tomorrow morning for the week. We were told there is one of the most beautiful beaches in the DR near it, so I’m really excited. It is unlikely there will be internet at the small hotel where we’ll be staying, but I’ll upload some pics as soon as I can :-)

Playa Blanca

A few of us girls took the free shuttle to relax at another beach in the resort for the afternoon. There were maybe eight other people on the beach or in the restaurant because it is still the ‘low’ season. Someone had the great idea of taking the lounge chairs into the water. The potential enjoyment of this situation quickly declined as the strong winds washed up bits of sea grass to stick to our legs and backs, the start to seriously distasteful tan lines.

From this beach you can make out the two bulges where the waves begin to break – there are two separated and overturned halves to a large boat that apparently came too shallow long ago. I heard it is pretty cool to snorkel out to and see, but from my previous experiences with the snorkel, I doubt I’ll be making that journey.