Early rise = before sun.
Pancakes with honey (not a honey person)
Sitting in the back of the bus. 5 people to 4 seats.
Broken trailer axle.
4.5 hour bus ride.
UPHILL. Curvy, bumpy, but amazing views.
Beach across the street.
My list explains it all. Woke up super early only to make sure the trailer didn't fall apart after Pedro (the bus driver) and Adolfo "fixed" it. On our way to Las Terrenas. The views were incredible. Mostly mountains with coconut palms. I guess those suckers grow anywhere. Ha! Our hotel is absolutely amazing. From the outside anyway. We couldn't go to our rooms since we had to get going to our activity right away since we were running behind with the trailer incident. There is even a beach across the street. Literally. Across. The. Street. Of to Don Franco's Ranch to go horseback riding to secluded waterfalls!
Ok so these people are extremely confusing. First my horse's name was Cologne. Ka-low-nay. Then it was Luigi. Then it stayed Luigi. It was weird. I thought I was going to break the dang thing. He was so tiny and small. Just extremely short and he looked frail. He didn't want to do anything I was telling him to do. He just wanted to be first so he had his head on the rear of another horse and was pushing through. I couldn't get him to stop.
Then when he got out front… He took off! It was so scary! Only because I realized WHY he wasn't listening to me. His bit came out of his mouth. So there I was, riding a horse I had no control over and he starts to run. AAAHHHH!! I was rescued by Adolfo (go figure?) and Don Franco himself. It was scary. But once the bit was back where it was meant to be, he listened to me.
On the way to the waterfall, we crossed a river 3 times. The water was a sky blue that looked salty. Only it wasn't a salt river, it just looked pretty.
We were walking along the top of a mountain on a tiny trail.
It was absolutely gorgeous. We got off, tie our horses up and pose for some pictures. Then we start our trek down the mountain to the bottom of the waterfall.
UGH! The hike was so long. It was seriously a hike. It took forever to get down there. We swam and went under and around the water that was falling down and jumped around. It was amazing. Posed for more pictures and headed back up the mountain.
Oh Luigi. He fell. Butt first he slid as we went down some rocky parts. It was so scary I almost screamed and cried and just about lost it. We get to an open area and Don Franco told us that if we wanted we could keep up with him and gallop. Oh man did I take the opportunity. I made sure everything was secure and away we went. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. Again, Mom, we are going to go as soon as possible! I loved Luigi once he listened.
Time to go back to the hotel and get some dinner. Pizza.
The hotel is amazing. 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, AIR CONDITIONING, living room, kitchen, front porch, the whole works. I just can't believe that I am in the Dominican Republic in a 4 star hotel and I am only 21 years old. I never would have thought I could do something like this ever!
June 5th, 2010
I woke up and took a shower only to be late for breakfast. I missed the pancakes so instead I got yogurt with some frosted flakes and a little bit of juice. We got on the bus for about an hour to go kayaking and caving. We were in Samana for the day and once again in Los Haitises National Park.
We got onto a big catamaran and went to an island that used to belong to a pirate. On one side of it there is a coral reef so ships can't get through. On the other side the pirate would hide out and wait for the British Navy to come through to get him and this pirate would have his guys on either side of the opening and just blast the British Navy away. I can't remember the pirates name at all. :( He was a smart guy though. Too bad he was a pirate…
We get going in the kayaks and go through some mangroves. A habitat for many, many endangered species. Including jellyfish. I hate jellyfish. But these were little white ones and I guess they don't sting. I didn't want to find out so I didn't swim here.
The kayaks were a lot of fun. We went into a cave and it was scary. We couldn't see anything! We learned a lot about humpback whales and took lots of pictures. We went around small egg shaped islands and just had a blast. This was all before lunch too. Lunch consisted of grilled chicken, not fried or baked, a pasta salad, a real salad, and orange fanta. Lots of orange fanta. Delicious! For dessert we had banana chunks with REAL chocolate shavings. Real cocoa. Yum.
Then we went and toured the St. Gabriel Caves and saw many different formations and heard many things about the caves and the people that used to live there.
Can you see the face?
This is the formation of St. Gabriel. He is facing the picture above this and it's supposed to be "Good vs. Evil."
The Indians that lived there many many years ago used to bury their relatives sitting down instead of laying flat. The Tainos were running from another tribe so they ended up to be cannibals. Ew. I saw some pictographs! Real, in front of my face, pictographs. Finally some historical pictures! Then some group pictures and I sat in the "throne" of the tribe leader. :)
June 6th, 2010
Today was nothing but a travel day. I got my things all packed up and ready to go to the surfing town of Cabarete! I am excited. Time for the hustle and bustle of the city again, only it's a beach town. How cool?! We stopped a few times on the way there though. We went to Playa Diamonte (Diamond Beach) just for pictures. We couldn't stay long. The water was so shallow it was to the point of almost being HOT!
We headed to Laguna Dudu for some swimming and hanging out. We couldn't stay long though. So I just took pictures.
We finally got to Playa Grande. The big beach. It was absolutely amazing. It was the best time ever. I had what was supposed to be a pina colada but there wasn't coconut in it. It was just pineapple and rum. Haha! Oh well. I'm not a huge pineapple lover, but I had almost half of it anyway.
Then I did some swimming and picture taking and just had a blast. Then we got back on the bus and ended up in Cabarete to relax for the night.
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