Dominican Republic pt 1

With my birthday money I bought a ticket to the Dominican Republic. I came to visit Mandy!

I arrived yesterday late afternoon after riding a taxi from my dorm to the airport, a plane to the DR, taxi to the bus station, bus to Jarabarcoa, taxi to Mandy's school..... I was exhausted, but happy to be in such a beautiful place. 

Yesterday evening we went out to eat at "Pica-pollo." Had a delicious dinner from a street cart... that cost less than 4 dollars.. and it was a huge dinner. I love great deals! I had to work on my Cuba exam last night (to send in via email) so I wasn't really able to do much other than that in the evening. 

Today was much more fun! I went to school with Mandy and I met her class. I jokingly asked Mandy if she had given her class coffee for breakfast. They had LOTS of energy. But it was fun.... and before leaving I sang them a song in Spanish. Hehe.....

I went to the market and bought about every vegetable possible. I made a very colorful dinner for Mandy and her roomates. 

Later this evening was my favorite part. Mandy had to go to church to teach her youth group and I decided to stay home. I took a walk and bought a coke & cookies. I found some little kids and shared my cookies. We get to talking and before we know it we're playing games in the street.... my favorite was one where you stand in a circle and the kids all sing this funny song... and someone dances in the middle... its sort of depressing when 6 year olds can move her hips better than me.... oh well. 

The kids were so cute... fighting over who got to hold my hand... or getting my attention. They all had new ideas for games and I would be the one who decided what we played. I just felt so special and loved!!! I was sad to leave to come home....

Today, I definitely miss Guatemala...... this place reminds me of it SOOOO much. <3

Weekend in Paradise (Island of Vieques)

I have been sort of a bum about blogging lately. Partly in that I have had actual homework.... and the other part being that I don't have internet available all the time. I think that is actually a good thing because that means that I no longer waste countless hours on Facebook, Youtube or Netflix. Now I work on getting a tan or exploring Puerto Rico. I'd say its a good trade.

The weekend of September 17th we (a group of university students) went camping on the lovely island of Vieques. This is about a one hour ferry ride leaving from the eastern side of the country. When we arrived at the dock of the ferry we were informed that there was a strike of some kind and that the 1pm ferry would no longer be running. We had to wait until 4:30pm.

Here is the "light packing" I did:

Goodbye Puerto Rico! 

Mother nature decided to give us a going away party. Here is the sequence:

Storm entering from the east....

We literally saw the rain getting closer and closer. BAM!

Cue waves!

I was on the outside part of the ferry. 

I played storm chaser and took pictures.

.... and sang the theme song to Gilligan's Island. 

We saw plenty of little islands where we could have been shipwrecked.

We arrived!!!! Here was another ship coming in as well.

Cute little fisherman.

Waiting for our taxi....

Anyway with the delay this put us in Vieques around 6pm. Normally that wouldn't be a big deal right? But... it gets dark here around 7pm. By the time we got our shuttle from the ferry to our campground, it was dusk.... and I used my handy dandy flashlight to illuminate or tent pitching. 

Here is our cute tent (pic taken the next day!) I am in love with this tent! It’s a 2-3 man tent… and it has a mesh top so that we can see the stars! BUT! It has a little rainfly that we can pin on it so that no rain enters. (It DID rain one night, so YES it is waterproof.) The best part about this tent is that it only cost us $30 bucks! We will hopefully get to use it again to go camping on another island… or possibly in the rainforest! J

(notice how close the ocean was to our tent! we fell asleep listening to waves....)

The reason we made the trip with the other students was because of the “International Cleaning of the Coasts” event. So, naturally Saturday morning we cleaned the coast close to the campground. 

After that and lunch/ etc… we went walking along the coast. We found TONS of really cool shells. (And other cool animals/ objects) I feel like a hoarder because I can’t seem to get enough of them. I will probably have half a suitcase of shells. I don’t know WHAT I am going to do with them…. Odds are, your Christmas present will probably have to do with shells.

This crab can run reallllllly fast.

Beach chair......!??!!

GIANT sea horses.

We found a place to do a little snorkeling. I saw some cute little tropical fish…. And one big-ish one… that was really slow. They told me it was in the family of the puffer fish.

The Caribbean is great. Everywhere you look there is a cool new flower... animal... shell.. Its awesome!!!!

That evening we did the COOLEST THING I HAVE EVER DONE IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!!! :D A small group of us went night kayaking to see the bioluminescent bay. This activity was number ONE on my list of things to do in Puerto Rico. Imagine that you’re paddling through dark water, but where your paddle goes, the water lights up like glow stick liquid. Or… you splash up a handful of water and let it trickle down your arm…. It falls down in little slivers of light. Sadly enough, it isn’t really possible to take pictures of this… and even if I could get a so-so one… I wasn’t willing to risk damaging my camera. So… here is a picture from the internet…. Obviously edited, but you get the general idea.

Sunday morning... .was interesting. We all got to the pier on time any everything.... but in line for the ferry we got cut off from the rest of our group.... we were a group of about 25 people. Christine and I were left behind.... and because of the continuing strikes, we were unable to catch a ferry until around 6:30pm. This ferry then had to run to another island... and then go back to Puerto Rico. We were on the ferry for about 3 hours, instead of 1. (We were supposed to arrive to the dock in Puerto Rico at 2pm, but arrived at 10pm!)

At first I was kind of stressed out... I mean... we were supposed to catch a ride from where the ferry would drop of off in mainland Puerto Rico back to campus.... about an hour and fifteen minute drive. Thankfully a friend of ours from church (Moises!) messaged us… just by “chance” in that moment… we called him and without asking he offered to come pick us up. Now that our ride was figured out, we were able to relax a little bit.

This is the dock where we waited.

This is Christine making good use of her time!

See the cute doggy in front? He hung out with us all afternoon. His name is Anon.

Remember the bio-luminescent bay I mentioned? This dog is our tour guide's pet...

we met him on our journey. He came out kayaking with us. He is just the sweetest dog ever!

We *luckily* had the cooler of the group with us and we found a bunch of hot dogs! (see red cooler in the picture)  We ate a few…. But then we started feeding them to the fishes. Tropical fish love hot dogs! We had so many come to us…. And then came this giant…. Sort of ugly thing.

Tropical fish chowing down on hot dogs:

Big fish came to play.

You can't see the big fish very well, but you get the idea of how big he is compared to the little cute ones.

We made friends with some locals who were fishing.....

And we also found our church!!

I walked around and took some pictures of the cute little town. Here are some of my favorites:

After I saw these little boys sea shell searching there.... I went and found some too!!

Rainbow of boats. One of my favorites as well. 

I like the birds on the buoys. Count them 1, 2, 3!

DANGER ZONE! 

Basically, if there is an earthquake... DONT BE HERE.

Barefoot in the Caribbean. 

This. Is. My. Life.

They all stood in line... and then after I took the picture, they all stepped down.

My favorite is the first pigeon in line, and how he is looking at me with his head tilted. 

Vieques ALREADY!! :) One of my favs.

I love how the little boy is looking up to his older brother.

It was about time to go.... and we saw a beautiful sunset. A wonderful end to a wonderful day.

Goodbye Vieques! I hope to return.... and maybe see a dolphin or a sea turtle....???

Labor Day in Cayey

We went to Cayey..... its on the east side of the island... south of San Juan.

It was a fun day with sports/ cookout/ etc. I mostly just hung out and chatted with people.... I didn't feel like getting all sweaty in the hot Caribbean sun. No thanks. But I did like the company and I LOVED getting out of San Juan. From this activity we made some friends who want to go to el Yunque (the rain forest!). So, we are going to try and get a decent sized group together and make the adventure!

Here are some pics I took at the activity:

This was something surprising: soccer.... while in my pic they are playing it.... their true sports here are BASEBALL and basketball.

These are my friends: Shiree, Christine and Moises.

Aren't they just adorable?

Well, it wasn't a Labor Day Weekend in Glen Arbor, MI like I was used to..... but, it was very nice and happy just the same.

Piñones

Finally this weekend we did something!!! :)

Friday night was the dance in Caparra... it was SO fun. I danced lots of merengue.. a little bachata and a little more salsa. I found someone who was a little more patient that tried to teach me how to spin in salsa..... my steps always get messed up.... I was mostly unsuccessful but there is another dance on October 7th..... SO.... I will have more time to practice shortly.

THEN! On Satuday we took a trip to the beach (El Escabron (again...) ) but we decided to go the same time that a storm decided to go. It was still very pretty.... sitting in the warm water... watching the water drops splash onto ocean water.... and the castle of San Cristobal off in the distance....

That even a friend of ours called and invited us to go to Piñones. This place was so cute! It was a lot of little shops that sell the typical foods of Puerto Rico--- almost everything fried, hence the name for them: friaturas.

Christine and I got "pinchos." It is something similar to a shishkabob... but greasier and yummier.

Then, we went and walked the boardwalk... and met a night fisherman! We talked to him for a bit about his trade and continued on our way.

Sunday was normal... church, etc. A friend from Puerto Rico went with me and we walked around Old San Juan. He taught me about some of the history/ etc....

My favorite part was going to the castle and seeing the lawn FILLED with people flying a kite. Really, the picture does NOT do it justice.

Now... its Sunday evening and I am beat! I am excited for tomorrow! YSA event in Cayey--- because of Labor Day! We're having a big sporting/ games/ etc event. It should be fun..... I hope its not *too* hot.....

Island: Mata la Gata (Kill the Cat)

Today was an excellent day! We (Christine and I) went to a YSA activity all the way to an island called Mata la Gata – in English, Kill the Cat. It is a lovely island. We had to drive 2 to 2 and a half hours to get to the ferry. (It is all the way on the other side of the island.)

The island we went to doesn't have a map or appear on maps... at least that I can find. It is just a little dot off the coast of La Parguera.... anyway. A lovely place!

The drive was interesting…. Puerto Ricans drive interestingly. For example, we were pulling out of McDonalds after a quick lunch and we are sitting waiting to pull out and make a left hand turn. The driver coming on the right hand side just stops in the middle of the street to let us in front of him and then the car on the left hand side follows suit. It was kind of weird to me—but people here are very courteous drivers… that is, until they get to the interstate. This is where they make up for the time they lost letting everyone go in front of them. J

We arrive to the port where we pay $5 (round trip fee!) for a ferry that will take us to the island Mata la Gata. This ferry was awesome! It was a pretty good size--- fit probably 80 people. (This activity was for all seminary and institute students in the whole country, though not all attended.) This was a glass bottom boat so we were able to see some of the plants/ coral/ etc on the ride over. The boat also had music going and some danced bachata. It was quite nice…. I kept thinking… is this real?!!?!?

i couldnt get a good pic.... but here is some seaweed! hehe..

view from the top:

We arrived to this beautiful island and the first thing I noticed was the “pool.” Literally—they call this a pool!

See??? A sign with the pool hours.....

It is all fenced off underneath so you don’t have to worry that much about sea creatures stinging/ biting you. For me, this is a huge relief. I am always so paranoid about stepping on a sea urchin (happened twice already) and getting stung but a jellyfish (happened once, a small one… felt like a bee sting!).

We were able to walk around the island. It was set up nicely for visitors. Very different from the other primitive island we were visiting…. This island even had bathrooms and picnic tables… and a “boardwalk” to go visit the other parts of the island that were a little mushier than the main part.

Leaving the island on the ferry, the institute director insisted we danced polka.... so now, I can finally say that I have danced polka on a boat. I am crossing things off my bucket list that I didn't know were there.

I think it is important to note that this was my first beach experience in PR that I did not come back with a burn! I finally got town the right amount of sunscreen/ reapplying… and I am building up a nice tan. I would say “Beat that, Mr. Sun” but I am truly afraid of his vengeance.

On our way back we stopped at Wendy’s a chatted/ hung out/ etc. Pretty good time—we were able to get to know some of the people that are going back more towards our general direction. We met a girl from Arecibo… where that giant telescope thingy is. We will be visiting her soon I hope! J We also found out that this FRIDAY there is a dance. I am pretty stoked because the last dance was so much fun! And now that I know a few more people, it should be even more fun and less awkward. Ok well, until next time! I think that my blogs will become a little less interesting because I WILL have class on Tuesday. And maybe I will actually get a homework assignment…. And/ or a textbook???

PS- the boredom of the hurricane mess caused me to watch like 5 movies, paint my nails at least 3 times and give myself purple highlights. Hehehe….