Vacation from a Vacation

The Tuesday after Santo Domingo, Taylor left for Bolivia. She wasn’t able to get into the classes she wanted to take her and decided her time would be better spent in Bolivia with her friend. It was nice to have someone around while I was getting comfortable with the country and the culture. But Taylor, if you read this, man did you miss a great excursion!

I cannot explain with words the La Cueva de las Maravillas (Cave of Wonders). Unfortunately, I also cannot explain with pictures because photography in the cave is not permitted. Someone is obviously allowed to take pictures, just not everyday visitors. It might be just as well seeing how my camera reacted to the last cave experience. Click here to see pictures of the cave.

Isn’t it amazing? I really thought that it would be the highlight of the trip, but the entire trip was phenomenal. Our final destination on Friday was Bayahibe, but we made several stops along the way. The other point of interest was Altos de Chavón, a city that sits 50 meters about the Chavón River and looks like it was taken from 16^th century Italy. I had to keep reminding myself that it is barely more than thirty years old. It was stunning. The city is populated by artists and a prestigious art school. I could not imagine going to school somewhere like that. I wish Central would start designing their buildings to look five centuries old.

Even though I was expecting Bayahibe to be a little more touristy, the hotel was quaint and nice. The ocean was maybe fifty yards from the hotel and I just wanted to dive in. Down the street we had a four course dinner that did not look happy to see me.

When I hear “fried fish,” I think of fish and chips before I think of an entire fish thrown on the grill. That was a first for me, but my only real problem with it was that it was a little dry. The restaurant was only open for us, and some local troubadours stopped by to play for us. The singer was very good and sang songs that I knew. 

We all wanted to go out to dance, but as it turns out, not every city in the country is big on dancing. There were two bars close to the hotel: one on the beach that closed at midnight and one that was supposed to be a dance club, but nobody was dancing and it was very small. We went in and shook things up by dancing for about twenty minutes before we vamanos-ed out of there (my Spanglish is getting so much better). We spent the rest of the night wandering around and chilling by the ocean.

Saturday was amazing and I spent the entire day in awe of the beauty of the ocean. Even though my waitress denied me pancakes for breakfast (when Mike got pancakes ten minutes later) and the entire way to the island I was dying to swim, I was happy. The sailboat ride was nice; I met someone from Flint, of all places. Seriously though, what is it with Michigan people and the Dominican Republic? I have met more people from the US from Michigan than any other state, besides wherever the mission group we met was from. Still, there have been more unrelated people from Michigan and I do not understand it. There are only eleven public universities and I have seven covered. /EndRant

I got very sun burnt on the island along with almost everybody else. I tried to combat it with Aloe, but I peeled anyway after a week. The bus ride back to Santiago felt never-ending, even though I passed out for the first hour. The three hours I was awake were uncomfortable and long. I planned to go out that night and got all ready, then fell asleep with the light on all dressed up on my bed while waiting. It was probably for the best because spending the day in a tropical paradise really does take a lot out of you. Speaking of being tired, I wonder if I have time for a nap…