and man was it amazing. i had such an awesome time, met so many great people and relaxed my ass off. ate delicious food (and some not so delicious food... damn misleading buffets!) every day, enjoyed the sunshine and the BEACH. oh man, the beach.

 

 

miles and miles of sand and sun and more sand. and pretty much deserted, as we were at the only resort within the area. there were coral reefs just offshore, and so we spent lots of time snorkelling around them. saw some interesting corals and fish, and we even met a spear fisherman trailing a long line of fish, strung through their gills. every morning after breakfast we'd walk along the beaches... through the mangroves, and wading through the shallows, swimming whenever we felt like it. there was always a game of beach volleyball going on that we could join in, then at noon it was time to learn the merengue on the beach.

 

 

after merengue lessons it was aerobics time, when we got to watch muscly men in spandex shorts run on the spot and hump thin air while we ran on the spot and humped thin air right along with them. (this was before we discovered stretching class with eryn's favourite perv-recipient)

 

 

after lunch, it was nap (siesta) time. i don't know who the brilliant person was who invented siesta time, but i owe him/her a HUGE thank you. with the siesta i was able to play volleyball and swim all afternoon, and last all night on the dance floor.

 

about five times a day, we'd hear the resort theme song, and be coerced into dancing the choreography to the song. the entertainment staff (some of the cutest girls and boys i've ever seen) was great at convincing everyone we really wanted to dance, and not only dance, but sing along with the song. by the end both eryn and i had the choreography down pat, even if we did miss a few of the thrusts due to bad timing. what can i say, uncoordination runs in the family.

 

 

speaking of the entertainment staff, they are the ones who kept us going, and who made our stay so amusing. eryn and i would walk around the pool, and as soon as one of them saw us, they'd shout "SEESTERS!" and we'd be talked into a round of bocce ball, sandal flipping, volleyball, ping pong... you name it, we did it. and at night, the whole family would be out, and we'd get called up as "seesters and mami and papi!". made it like one big family. and i am proud to say we met an italian man named fabio! what a fantastic name! we'd never met a fabio before... fabio. he was a good dancer too. and almost as crazy as eryn and i. and without further ado, may i introduce the one and only, FABIO!

 

 

for the first three days of our stay it was sunny and warm and beautiful. for the fourth day it was rainy and warm and beautiful. day number five was mixed sun and cloud and warm and beautiful. days six and seven were more of the same. are we seeing a pattern here!? warm and beautiful!!!! it was great. even on the cloudy days we could wear bikinis around, which i'm sure the old men at the resort appreciated.

 

one of our days we spent on a "jeep safari". we took an open bus through the backroads of the dominican, into the interior. we saw a lot of the dominican people, their houses, their ways of life, their children. most of the people travel by motorbike/dirtbike. quite a few by donkey/horse, and more by SUV/4WD. makes sense, since the roads are pretty crappy. we did a lot of bouncing around in the jeep, and seatbelts were useful and mandatory. we stopped at a rubber production ... house. there was rubber hanging everywhere to dry, and a press to thin it out. the children gave us flowers and wanted to be in every picture we took. i had one young boy so intrigued by my camera that he spent ten minutes watching the display screen and comparing it to what was really in front of him. and whenever i went to take a picture of something, he ran to be in the shot. after that, we travelled through the jungle some more, through streams and over hills, to a farm. there we sampled the local produce, and my god was it delicious. fresh fruits, cocoa beans, coffee, coconut... i'd never had fresh fresh coconut before, and man was it tasty. i could've eaten that and nothing else for the rest of the trip, but then i'd have been pooping constantly, because fresh coconut is probably the best laxative out there. i mean.... girls don't poop. right. anyways. we had hot chocolate made directly from cocoa beans, i dont know what they put in it, but i felt like i was in heaven. then it was bananas covered in grated cocoa and honey made from coffee flowers. damn, i'm drooling just writing about this. ok, time to move on... let's just say, dominican food rocks!

 

after another drive, we stopped at a ranch for lunch, where we witnessed a cockfight. now, the roosters just pecked at each other, and the ranchers didn't let them kill each other, but it's a national sport so to expose us tourists to the culture, it was deemed necessary. i thought it was interesting, my dad was disgusted. there ya go. our tour guide warned us not to eat too much at lunch, because we were off to the beach next for a walk and a swim. it was an awesome beach, full of volcanic rocks and even more sand. plus the surf was up high, so it made for some fun wading around as we had to wait for the wave to recede before we could get around the rocks! after the beach it was on to the waterfall, where most of us enjoyed a short walk (i heard one of the older ladies complaining - she was rather large) to the river. we all cooled off in the water under the fall, and a local boy jumped into the pool from 40 feet up a tree. finally it was time to return to the resort, after a long day. it was an eye opener to be sure, seeing more of the less well-off areas of the island. the one thing that stuck out for me was how happy everyone was. not just the children, but the adults smiled and waved as the bus went past. there didn't seem to be any resentment towards foreigners, and i thought that was pretty special.

 

on the day we walked to the closest town, las terrenas, it poured rain on us. during the downpour, a taxi stopped in front of us, offering us a lift. as we only had enough for the taxi ride home, we declined, but he insisted he was going to las terrenas anyways, and he would take us there for free. i thought that was pretty cool of him, he wanted to chat and practise his english. eryn and i met another man like that on our very first day. he was sitting on the beach above the high tide mark, and he beckoned us over. initially i thought he was a beach vendor, but he just wanted to "talk english" with us.

 

at the resort, the entire staff was also very friendly and helpful. i know the entertainment crew were paid to be so, but it wasn't just them, and everyone seemed genuine in their happiness to be with the guests. every night at dance time, the staff would walk through the seated guests, picking them at random to dance with. it encouraged everyone to get up and dance and practise their newly learned merengue moves. eryn even graciously accepted me as her steady dance partner! we had fun with it, and other guests told us how much they'd enjoyed watching the two of us dance together. whether that was just the fact that they liked seeing two girls dancing together or whether we actually pulled off dancing as a couple, i don't know. either way, it was fun, and i'd go back any day! i just wish it wasn't an 8 hour plane ride to get there.

 

 

PS to anyone thinking of going there: sunscreen and lip balm are your friends. your bestest of best friends!