La Vida es un Carnival

Carnival is a huge celebration in many Spanish-speaking countries, and the DR celebrates throughout the month of February, ending on the 26th (the day before independence day.) It is tradition for the various celebrating cities to put their own twists on the costumes and festivities. For example, I went to La Vega and the entire day was a huge parade that took over a span of about 10 blocks long, 4 blocks wide. It was organized chaos; people walking, dancing, drinking and just having a good time. The parades across the country are accented by “devils” dressed up to represent different legends and regions. The devils definitely live up to their name, for they parade around with football-size, decorated balls on strings that serve as whips. The ancient tradition was that they used dried animal bladders, thank God that got old. Basically they wander around and smack people (especially American girls) in the ass with the rather hard balls. Let’s just say I am still nursing some bruises…

Next step = whale watching in Samaná. With a little bargaining, we wound our way up to the northern coast, found ourselves a comfortable and cheap hotel, set up a whale watching appointment and had a great night exploring the town and playing games. The DR is all about the people and the connections, so luckily the bus driver we found also knew a guy who worked with a hotel AND a whale watching company… they took care of us. Our whale watching was quite the adventure; we opted for a smaller boat so we could have a personalized excursion including a beach-stop and lunch. By small, I mean small. We squeezed 13 people into the boat, with no room to spare. To answer your question; yes, if a whale would have come to high-five us, we would have been capsized in a heartbeat. Our hotel worker/whale watching guru told us before we set sail; “You no see whale, you no pay.” After about 30 min we were worried that we would be getting a refund, but… we found some whales! We saw probably 4-5 different whales, and got close enough that one might say it was a stone’s throw away. Our little beach stop was a slice of heaven; completely deserted except for the 2 restaurant workers that were shocked we spoke Spanish and knew Omega. All in all, a complete success that saved us money and got us up close and personal to some whales.

Barahona is a fishing port town on the southwest coast… aka destination #3. On Wednesday morning I took off with one back pack (and ONE pair of shoes, Dad) and 4 friends for Barahona. After a long drive (which we also bargained a price on) we arrived at a rather pricey hotel. We decided to pass it, agreeing that we could settle for a RD$2200-ish price room for the 5 of us. When we walked into the next one, equally as fancy, we were sure it would be way out of our price range. Our mouths hit the floor when the receptionist told us it was RD$1300, and took us up to see the 2 double beds, balcony and large bathroom. Needless to say, we were sold. We spent the rest of the evening exploring the small beach outside our hotel and called it an early night. We woke up early the next day to see the sunrise over the ocean/mountains… one of the best ideas of the trip. (Almost as good as pushing our beds together to fit 5 comfortably or as good as spending RD$320 on PB&J materials for all of our meals) We headed out on a long-4 hour drive to Lake Enriquillo, the largest salt-water lake in Central America, and the lowest point below sea level in the Caribbean. Our driver dropped us off on the side of the road, in front of a “national park.” The park cost us RD$10, so we figured it would be worth it… or not. The park consisted of a sidewalk, covered with (large) iguanas, that led us down to the lake more or less. We couldn’t really see the lake, it was shielded by trees. We ate lunch and took off on foot for a cave that we had heard about; hoping a guagua (public transportation) would stop to pick us up on the way. Unfortunately, there were no guaguas, for we were in a completely deserted part of the lake and we saw literally nobody. As if we were in a movie (mountains on one side, huge salt-water lake with crocodiles on the other), we walked on, under the blazing sun, on the side of the road for a good 40 min until we reached the cave. We climbed up a small mountain to look out on the lake from the cave decorated with “ancient indigenous drawings.” Great view, nice break from our hike… Spent some time back by the hotel at the beach, played some truth or dare and called it a night. The next day seemed all too familiar as we tried to make it to a beach on our way out of town. It was Independence Day, so we assumed without a doubt that a guagua would come by and pick us up off the side of the road, after about 5 min. Add 40 to that, and that’s when we found our guagua. Good thing, too because we were about 25km from our destination, which turned out to be totally worth it – a beautiful beach with soft, washed over stones instead of sand. A total steal, and very independent trip on a very Independent weekend in the Dominican Republic.

My last stop for spring break was to meet up with my roommate/DR-BFF, Elizabeth and her family in Caberete, a mild-tourist town in the North. It was a slight adventure getting there on my own, because I thought when the bus dropped me off in the neighboring town, Sosua, that I would be able to ask someone at the station’s desk how I could get to Caberete. Funny thing, there was no desk… no building… actually not a single building, because the bus dropped us off on the side of a road. Go figure. Luckily I was sitting near a nice Dominican woman who was on her way to Caberete and willing to pull me into her concho (public transportation) with her. Got out of the concho, had to do a little backpack walking on the side of the road (yet again), but finally made it safely to Elizabeth’s rented condo. I had a lovely time relaxing, eating and beaching with the family. Instead of going out, like the typical spring break Saturday night, Elizabeth, Kelli (her little sister) and I went to the local Texaco to buy a bottle of rum and 2L of Coke (RD$125) to bring back and share with the rents. Spent the night sipping the famous Cuba Libres, munching on popcorn and chips & salsa, watching a movie with the family. It was a wonderful way to wind down my spring break, getting my taste of a friendly family to take me in as their own… and not to mention, yet another beautiful beach.

And thus concludes the adventures of my spring break. Definitely a fantastic one and one to remember! I got a lot of practice venturing out on my own and speaking Spanish. It’s funny how well you can speak the language when you have to.

Next up; trip to Dajabón (a boarder town between the DR and Haiti) and the Mirabel sister’s museum (from In the Time of the Butterflies book/movie)!!

Love you all<3

No es amor, lo que tú sientes… Se llama “obsesión.”

ps- I'm having some trouble uploading a picture right now, but I'll try to get one up soon!