What a day. What a frickin' day it was… To start the day, we left our hotel early, but not too early. Our scheduled departure time was 9 am and we ended up leaving around 8:30 am. The hotel we left was called Casa Bonita and it was just that. A beautiful house! It was one of the top 10 hotels in the world in 2009. Breakfast was some toast - not really toasted though, just somewhat warm - more fried cheese, and cereal! I love cereal. Zucaritas to be exact (Frosted Flakes). I also got some fresh orange juice - all juice here was squeezed daily and it was just delicious.
On our 6 hour drive, Pedro - the bus driver - is crazy! We were all surprised we never crashed. They are soooo crazy there, they don't have car insurance either. I asked why they don't have insurance and I was told that is was because people rarely got in accidents that it wasn't needed. It's so congested that if there was an accident they would probably keep on driving and not care. One girl had to go to the bathroom about an hour into the trip so we had to stop… We finally find a place that looks somewhat decent and pull over and then we are bombarded with street vendors. They surround the bus and hold up anything and everything to the window to see if we would buy it from them. I decided that I don't want a car charger for my phone or a phone case. I also didn't want any pineapple, grapes, or mango. Sorry guys!
We get going a little farther and we had to stop. We were surrounded by a few people with a little more authority. MILITARY POLICE! My adventure tour leaders Adolfo and Liza were getting a little heated in their arguing for about 10 minutes.
Finally we get to go through and we all ask them what was going on! They told us that they wanted us to get off the bus so they could search it. They wanted to search us and all of our bags too. For what? I'm not sure, drugs? They had their machine guns and rifles of either side of their bodies. It was so surreal. Off to Jarabacoa!
We've made it to the Gran Jimanoa hotel. Mountains on the other side of the river. I am right on the river! It's so pretty. There is a karaoke bar across a rope bridge. It's so neat! At this place we have to have wristbands to eat so hopefully they stay on for white water rafting and rappelling! For our first dinner we had a very American meal. French fries, chicken tenders (NO BONE!), and rice. of course there's rice in there. Haha!
June 2nd, 2010
I've made it to Rancho Jarabacoa.
I had my helmet on. My life jacket. I had my paddle all ready to go. I was just waiting to get on the raft for some white water rafting. NOT!! I was so scared. I'm not a water person. There was a bit of drama when no one wanted me to be on their raft since I was a "baby" about it. Whatever. Anyways, I got on with 3 other girls from my group and 2 random people that wanted to go rafting that day. My guide was awesome! Oh Eduardo. After the practice of "forward, backward, left forward, right backward, stop, and GET DOWN!" we finally got to go down the river.
Our first drop. BAM! Water up the nose. We were off to a bad start. We were about to do a level 3 drop (5 is the biggest) and the raft in front of us was stuck at the bottom on a rock. We couldn't stop so Eduardo ordered us to get down and hang on. We all did that but we hit them and we stopped right there. The other raft got off the rock that was holding them up. Everyone in my raft went forward or could see where they were going. Since I'm so short I couldn't see over the girl in front of me so I couldn't jump out. I ended up going backwards off the raft and it hit me in the face making me go under the raft and underwater.
Since there was such a current I couldn't get out from under it either. Then I was under water for a while. I was told that I disappeared for a minute or so. I finally got out and someone threw me a rope from the side. It was considered an emergency situation. AH! I grab the rope, start going down the river on my back like they told us as a precaution and slowly pull myself to the side. The guy let go. So yet again I was free floating down a raging river. IT WAS FANTASTIC! My shoe came off too, but someone got that down the river a little bit.
I was coughing up water and hyperventilating, half crying, and not wanting to get back in the raft. I went with the guides for a little bit until I could pull myself together… Everyone else was fine in the raft so they went without me. I eventually got back into my original raft with Eduardo. Every rapid we went down after that he grabbed my life jacket to make sure I didn't fall out. He challenged us to standing up over rapids and then he just jumped out. So we jumped out too! I felt safer floating down the river than in the raft.
Needless to say, I will not be going white water rafting ever again on my own free will. Chicken tenders for dinner again. More French fries, salad, and rice-a-roni stuff. It was delicious. I also had coffee cheesecake! I ended up calling my parents after the rafting incident just to tell them and to let them know I was alright.
June 3rd, 2010
Last night was awesome! When we got back to the hotel we had dinner. It also was an alfredo type dish. Delicious! Then I tasted one of the girls' mojito - delicious - and someone else's tequila sour. Ew. Then we went to the karaoke bar and danced for a while and then I went to bed.
Time to go back to Rancho Jarabacoa! I was a little more excited for today than I was yesterday. Today we are going to be rappelling down cliffs next to waterfalls. I'm soooo excited! Pancakes and a banana for breakfast today. That was very delicious!
We get to the rappelling spot and I get my helmet on since the wetsuit was already on. Why is it that when we have to wear a suit, mine are always so tight?
I think it's the height problem I have… The first rappel was not very high, but it was high enough. The second… OH. MY. GOODNESS!!! It was about 110 feet high!
But the view from the side was awesome. Breathtaking actually. I just wanted to sit there in my harness for a loooong time!
The whole crew finally posed for a picture!
Then to get back we had to cross a few wooden bridges suspended over the water from the waterfall. It was gorgeous! Incredible. I could definitely use a nap about now. Another night of dancing ahead! I can't wait. I just need a nap first. Let's sit by the river for a little bit…
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