Southwest DR

Where in the world is Barahona? Well, take a look at the map and find the black arrow and that was my weekend destination. Well, at least the location of the hotel, almost, the hotel was about 10km south the the bustling (that's a joke) town of Barahona.

We did find a tiny little supermercado in town and I must have been dehydrated because I spent a lot of time wandering in the drink isle and stumbled across this...

If it's intentional that is bold, but if it's not, I can only imagine the marketing people in Spain trying to figure out an appropriate ad campaign. As much as I hate grocery shopping I sure do like exploring random products in foreign countries.

Our hotel was right next to el Quemaito beach and this was the view from our living area.

Take a guess, what do you think this is?

Bougainvillas around the hotel.

I have seen three amazing sunrises on my three recent adventures. You know what a morning person I am - not one at all, but there is something about waking up early to this scene that inspires the most grumpy morning person to peace.

The cliffs near el Quemaito

South of Barahona is a beach area called San Rafael. Here there are man made rock pools and little fish shacks set up along a pebbly beach.

Rice, beans, fried plantains and fried fish are on the menu. I picked as much fish meat off the carcass as I could and gave the scraps to this gorgeous pooch.

The next adventure was to drive to Bahia de las Aguilas, which is one of the secret treasures of the island, mostly because it is so far out of the way and there aren't any real touristy towns close enough to draw that many people. On the long drive down one of the cars in our three car caravan got a flat tire and we stopped in a little town for a quick fix. This is what I saw down the street.

Just chillin' in my undies with a bull whip.

Of course I looked for the cemetery... Not a bad burial plot... ocean view grave, anyone? 

After a few more hours of desert fauna and cow fields we came to our boat dock. You can either 4 wheel drive to the beach or take a short boat ride. I don't think the car rental people would have appreciated the road conditions, so we chipped in to rent a boat. 

I keep finding super cool lizards. One downfall and benefit of this island is the lack of vertebrates. Unless you can fly here or hitch a ride you can't get here and we don't have any deer, raccoons, squirrels, opossum, venomous snakes, monkeys, etc... It's kind of strange actually, because sometimes you'll be standing in a super cool forest and wondering where the animals are. 

Bahia de las Aguilas

The desert-ish climate doesn't allow the tall palms to grow and the lack of shade was definitely a problem. It was really hot and this is literally a beach in the middle of no where with NO services. It's hard for us North Americanos to imagine a place exists that doesn't have even a vending machine. What you bring is what you get. I would have paid $5 for an ice cold lemonade.

After a few hours at the beach we headed back to Barahona. Here's some of the views. Where does this look like?

A little roadside geology, anyone?

Monday was the independence day for the DR, so we had the day off of school. On that morning I strolled down to el Quemaito beach and took these shots.

Stay tuned for my next DR adventure. I don't get another day off until spring break, which is the first week of April. I KNOW, a full month with no breaks, how will I do it?

Heaven is a place called Playa Fronton

Looking for heaven? Look no further, it's right here on earth, which is exactly where it should be, and we should realize that and totally appreciate it.

You need directions? Well, you can probably find a heaven right where you are, but if you'd like to go to the one I just visited you'll have to get your way to the DR and drive out to the tip of the Samana peninsula and get on a boat to Playa Fronton.

Not convinced? Let me show you this...

Don't like aerial views? How about this...

or this...

You don't believe I was actually there, huh?

Well, this is the view from my tent. Yup, I was sitting inside my tent, organizing my stuff (I forgot how much I enjoy setting up a tent), when I looked up.

Did you know that on the Chaco website you can upload photos of all the places your Chacos have been? I bought these beauties in 1996 and they've stepped on a lot of heavenly places...

A little coral reef snorkeling in the gorgeous waters...

Enjoying the reef from outside the water...

I actually was there with a group of students from my environmental science class. We were learning from a group called Reef Check. The reefs are in trouble. We collected some data, had class in the sand, snorkeled, rock climbed, hiked, watched the sunrise and star gazed. It was truly a spectacular three days.

Jurassic Journey - Dominican Style

The botanic gardens in Santo Domingo is hosting "Bosque Jurasico" for the month of February and since the Jurassic Period IS my favorite geologic time period I figured I'd lower my expectations and go. My coworker has a 15 month old son so I decided to tag along with them. 

After a $9 entrance fee we entered the mouth of a dinosaur and into the "exhibit".

Through flapping black tarps and across the hay covered ground we enter the robotic dino display.

With Jurassic Park music blaring in the background, people ignoring the roped off areas and snorting dino noises we wound our way through the room.

Luckily the 10 min walk wasn't the end of our journey, the dinos are outside too!

Beyond life size models have taken over the gardens.

Wait, what's that in the botanic forest?

Thankfully I was with a toddler. His excitement made the journey worth it.

Mud trek to el pico

When someone asks me how my trip was I have a hard time just saying "fine", when it really wasn't fine. The problem is that people just want you to say fine so they can walk away. My problem is that I have a difficult time lying.

In one word the trip was disorganized. Sorry, it's not a positive word, but that would be a lie. Now, don't get me wrong, I am glad it's over. That's pretty positive, right?

Ok, so what was wrong? The main problem was that the trail is virtually destroyed. It is a national park, but being a 3rd world country, park maintenance is not a top priority and the trail has been mucked by not only people, but mules. Tons of mules. Carrying tons of weight. The mud was so thick in places that you would sink up to your ankles. It was impossible to go "around" the mud, because the trails have been stretched to their limits and the mud goes up to the edge of the cliffs.

The trail we chose is the shortest, but steepest. We knew we'd be in for a difficult three days...

But what we didn't know is that the first day, because of all the mud, would take 10 hours. Ten. Ten hours of dredging through the mud, slip sliding around, uphill. Try focusing on ONE thing for 10 straight hours. You can't zone out because you'll injure yourself, so just focus, focus on one thing, for 10 hours. You're already bored, huh?

The second annoying part was the water situation. We were told that we would be drinking from the streams and I was and still am skeptical. Who still does that? Water stop #1 was a little stream crossing the trail...

Here's where we filled up. Next stop? SIX hours away. Who plans a sweaty uphill hike with 6 hours between water stops without communicating that maybe you should carry more than one water bottle? I was almost crawling to water stop #2...

This stop wasn't so "fresh" looking, but at that point, who cares.

As we continued trekking up and up we entered the clouds...

The cloud forest is amazing and magical. Immersed in condensed H2O. It was this point that I spotted four hummingbirds zipping around from flower to flower. A moment of peace.

Many of the students had to get on the mules...

Finally at 6 pm, ten hours after we started hiking, we reached the camp.

Being so close to the equator the sun sets quick. One minute it's light and the next it's dark. There was a building where we were supposed to set up, but half of the building was taken so all of us, 27 kids, 4 parents, 4 guides and 3 teachers were supposed to cram into this space...

Needless to say the three teachers found a quieter place with harder floors. Oh, don't get me started on the sleeping situation. I moved to this country with 2 suitcases, so camping gear wasn't high on my priority list, however when this trip came up I ordered stuff from REI and asked about a thermarest, or some other pad for sleeping. I was told not to worry because we would get pads from the company. Um, no. The pad was paper thin and useless. Now we are up at over 8,000 feet and the temps are quite chilly. Try putting your sleeping bag on a concrete floor and lay there for several hours. Torture. Do I sound dramatic? Ok, do it. Tonight find a sleeping bag and put it on your tile floor in your kitchen and see how long you last. I have bruises on my hips to prove you won't last that long. I did manage to "borrow" a pad from a couple that only stayed one night - the other teaches weren't so lucky.

After a hellish night, I woke early to find this...

It's amazing what a sight like this can do to your soul. Instantly a wave of peace washed over me as I inhaled the fresh mountain air. You see the clouds below? We're on top of the world. 

And then there's breakfast. I am not a picky eater when I hike/camp/travel. I can't be. I'd starve. You get used to eating whatever someone puts in front of you when you travel all over, especially in 3rd world countries. Mystery meat just becomes part of your diet. Don't ask, don't tell. Dominicans are known for rice and beans and I was looking forward to a little of both. After living in Burma I never eat rice unless I have no other option, so it's been a while since I sat down to a big bowl of rice and beans. Well, what I didn't realize is that one of the other Dominican specialities is fried cheese for breakfast. A hunk of cheese all greasy and fried with a side of potatoes or yucca, which is potato-like. Oh and a fried up piece of sausage. This is supposed to fuel me up for the next few hours? Luckily I brought granola bars and trail mix.

Now it's time to head to the summit. This is the easiest of the three days. Straight up and back down in 6ish hours. Sounds like cake compared to the 10 hour death hike. 

But first, we have to pray...

Most of my kids are Catholic, but ask them how many go to church. It isn't like when we were kids and people actually went to church. I find it interesting to claim you are some religion, but you never attend the services. The prayer thing didn't suit me. 

Now we can start the hike to the roof of the Caribbean!

Eight year ago there was a fire. I'm not sure what the cause was, but the forest was burned to a crisp. Two years ago when another group from our school went this area was totally brown. It's amazing what a few years and some rain can do. The mud and water is a bummer, but green sure is a great color.

Here we are in the Valley of the Lilies looking towards the peak. The 10,000 foot peak doesn't look that tall now...

Made it.

See that little blue opening at the top right corner? That's the Caribbean Ocean. On a clear day you can see the Atlantic and the Caribbean, but as you can see we had some clouds to deal with.

I only knew a few of the students before we left, but now I know all of them. A few days of torture sure does bring a group together. The kids liked the saying "that which does not kill us makes us stronger". For many this was the most challenging thing they'd ever done. When you've had a full time nanny and a few maids since you were born you aren't used to doing anything for yourself, so this truly was a great experience for many of these kids. I'm glad I got to share the joy of accomplishment with them.

Now we head back down to camp. The shorter day gave us a bit of free time and, of course, I took the chance to bond.

After one more night, it was time to descend back into the mud...

This last photo I stole from a parent who was on a mule...