THANKSGIVING was great...spent it with a several of my friends here. We had a potluck dinner where I made some yummy mash potatoes and one mean salad!! It was great to spend the Holiday with people who are just as thankful for their blessings as I am :) (Sorry no other pictures, I stole this one from Jean because I left my cam at home)
CHRISTMAS break was fabulous!!! Jean (1 of my roomies) and I decided that we would take the opportunity to travel around the Dominican Republic...We planned to visit the follow amazing cities in the DR: samana, las terrenas, bahia de rincon, playa bonita, Uvero alto, bavaro, punta cana, la romana, pedernales, lago enriquillo, bahia de las aguilas, dajabon, monti cristi, constanza, jarabacoa, Puerto plata, rio san juan, cabrera<---------in that order, if you look at a DR map we wanted to literally go around the country starting NW!
As you can imagine I could write forever about this experience but I will do my best to keep it short! Despite the fact we were told otherwise, there were no buses to Samana!! We had to take a gua gua (a 15 passanger van often filled with 20+ people AND their luggage!!) Let me just making the 4 hour drive up to Samaná was not the most comfy however a fellow passanger kept us entertained...she spent nearly the entire drive complaining about how the price should be cheaper and she shouldn't have to pay for her big ass suitcase!! lol. When we finally and I mean that...FINALLY made it to Samaná. Samaná is filled with interesting history that we wanted to take in but when we asked a few people for a few of the places that we wanted to see they all acted dumbfounded so...
Businesses in Samaná...super cute!!
we left. How did we get to Las T you may ask?? Gua gua!!! While we were promised the best seat in the gua gua by the cobrador...we ended up sitting in the bed of the truck with 14 other people, a table and 2 chairs.. Oh wait, let me explain...this gua gua was a 4 door toyota truck with a standard size, small bed. Let's just say I thought for sure someone or something was falling out. Pero, gracias a Dios...everyone made it to their destination :) Las Terrenas = Surreal!!!
She got a discount on her fare :D
Some of my favorite shots in Las Terrenas :)
We spent the night in Las T and trecked over to Playa Bonita the next morning. I think the name says it all...Pretty Beach
So our plan was to head back to Samaná to catch a Caribe bus to Santo Domingo but...when we finally made it back to Samaná the last bus had already left...Shit! In retrospect we could have just spent the night there in Samaná, but we were eager to get to the Capital to sightsee there the following day. After a 2 second brainstorming session we decided to find a gua gua heading to SD. The gua gua trip started off very sllllooowwww. Our driver apparently was not answering his phone so a temp stepped in to drive the gua gua to the real driver's HOUSE where we discovered that he was sleeping!!!! lol. When he finally woke up and jumped aboard, he put the pedal to the metal and didn't stop until we arrived to SD!! Can I just say that the trip from Samaná to SD was the scariest trip of my life!! I mean mid trip I started to panic because I knew that Jean didn't have my mom's phone number in case I didn't make it, I also made sure my window could open in the case i needed to jump out and I also planned extensive escape routes just in case I had to get out quickly...lol. Long story short we didn't even get to sightsee the next day...Everything was closed except for the mall and Plaza Lama (uhm, a store like...walmart) because it was Christmas Eve!! lol. We just spent that day planning out next few days while at the mall and walking along the Malecon. We had Christmas Eve dinner at Hard Rock Cafe along with all the other expats in Santo Domingo!! lol. But don't you worry what the following day had in store was well worth the drab day in SD :) The next day we woke up bright and headed toward the East...
