:Tropical Exploration:

Last Days

amelie918 — Thu, 10 May 2007 07:54:00 GMT

Deciding to come home early, I try to squeeze in a few more sights before my flight comes to pick me up on monday! Monday, (get this) i will be HOME! I can´t believe it, but the idea is getting more and more real in my mind. My dog, my house, my love, my life...Spent 4 day in Las Terrenas. There I took a horse back ride, second ever in my life, to a 50 m waterfall. It was so magical, and i learned I love riding horses...i´ll have to learn when i return home.

I am now in Las Galeres and came to a cheap little bungalow. That actually turned out to be the nicest place i´ve stayed. With two floor, a balcony and nestled in a little forest cove. It´s perfect, minus all the damn mosquitos.

A few days here then off to the capital to do some more couch surfing at free places to stay. Yeah, it doesn´t get much better then this. I was having trouble spending so much (20 bucks seems like a lot per night for what i´m used to paying) money, but know that i´ve found free places to stay, i feel like i can try to squeeze in a few more adventures before i return to the adventure of my life in seattle.

Fond memories fade away. Leaving with me with lessons and loves that i could have gotten no where but here. So grateful and I feel so blessed to live in the beautiful area that i do, with so many advantages and opprotunities...did i mention hardly any litter. They don´t understand the concept here of not throwing their trash on the ground. It will just get washed away by the ocean any way, right? Who cares...

many strange coincidences and fateful meetings later, i end my trip and bask in the glory of my conquered island. Full of many battles.

until the next time...

mi conducir un moto...

amelie918 — Tue, 1 May 2007 04:47:00 GMT

So yesterday i learned how to surf...again. We finally went out with some of the surfing dudes at Encuentro and i found out that i haven´t been trying nearly as hard enough )i must admit i´ve been doing the least amount of paddleing as i can, which mean lots of walking the board out there...) But when we all went out together that wasn´t really an option and that is when i found out my one lesson with a kid that was more interested in my ass then teaching me how to surf...and he didn´t speak english very well and thus i learned the lesson of, don´t hire someone to give you a lesson if you can´t understand the words coming out of their mouth.

Anyhow, now i know what it takes to surf and i am moving to a free place 5 minute walk from the surfea beach. So bright in early for the next days i go when the waves are good, around 6 in am...and rock the ocean all day...hopefully avoiding getting rocked myself. The waves were pretty big yesterday and after all that paddling i could barely...actually i couldn´t at all...muster up the energy to stand up on the board...it was kind of pathatic...but beautiful and really exulerating and fun!

THEN' i got to drive my first moto!!!! it was SO fun. and i actually did ok, and the guy let me drive it on the back roads for like 10 minutes! i plan on being an expert when i come home and buy a moto as well;)

So my amiga left today, Amie is off to punta cana to meet her boyfriend and i am off to the beach with a local family to see Playa Grande...one of the really beautiful beaches about an hour away. Me and Amie ventured there the other day but never made it to the beach. WE took a boat ride through the mangroove forests and snorkled in a relatively dead reef, but i swam with the fishys and it was good.

So free place to stay and free ride to the beach. Its a complecated process, craming 7 people in to a small sedan...no seatbelts, lots of potholes and one driver that seems to have no concept of going TOO fast...or rather what side of the rode to drive on. So i look forward to an unstressful day driving in a spacious SUV...although i think the mom is trying to set me up with her 19 year old son, but the daughter is nice and i am happily sipping coca cola on my free internet sesson.

ok, lets go"!

adios.

Amy

Times they are a changing...

amelie918 — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 10:34:00 GMT

My partner in crime finally leaves day after tomorrow. The whole concept of having a traveling partner, especially one that speaks the language of the country you are in, was better in theory. Not to say I was not grateful for someone to ease into the Dominican culture with...however, that time has passed and it's hard trying to share a life with someone you didn't make a conscious effort to 'share a life with'. So very much looking forward to doing what i want and ONLY what i want from now on. I've spent way too much time trying to be comparable and agreeable and now I'm SO ready to be on my own page again...

Trying to find a cheap way to do kite boarding, it simply looks like the funnest time that one person can have on the water. Think huge parachute like kite attached to an acrobat apperatis of some sort and your feet clipped into a board. Then its just you, the open water the wind and lots of speed. I've seen some crazy tricks, not to mention people flying many ft in the air, soaring, then gracfully landing. Me encanta...I love...

Surfing as much as i can...it's been raining a lot so its' hard...then there's the wave quality that is always something to be desired here (supposedly anywhere is better to surf then the DR) but it's not so bad for me, absolute beginner...Went today for blue bird skies and turquiose water...my favorite colore combo, delightful, minus the swell and strong wind gusts...and small waves...

Doing a census with the project next week, visiting local neighborhoods and getting statistic...it sound like a cool way to see the real DR to me.

Looking into finding fellow couch surfers to hang out with maybe stay with for free for a few nights. (a community online where people put there couches/xtra rooms for people traveling to stay in for free...)

Money is definitely becoming an issue and I'm actually looking into price differences on coming home early...although if i start kite surfing and surfing and windsurfing everyday, there's no way i'm going to want to come home early. But we shall see what the money situation turns out to be with my partner in crime missing in action...might be cheaper or REALLY expensive. If i stay in Cabarete i can diffinitely work out a cheap accomadation but i still need to visit to penisula and the capital b/f i leave. I want to do a language coarse but there not cheap.

Ok, feel free to wire me money! hee hee

maybe i'll find a job while i'm here...

Bachata y Merege esta noche, should be fun. I desperately need to practice spanish more, and after Amie leaves, i'll have no choice.

much love and fond wishes for all those close in my heart

Love,

Amy

I got Rocked...

amelie918 — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 07:00:00 GMT

Rocked and rolled...thats what happened to me on the massive olas hoy a la playa (on the waves today at the beach). Ahcarumba! Yesterday, with lots of energia and spunk I hit the big waves(big to me, medium to small to all the experienced surfers) and conquered. They were the biggest i had seen since we arrived, the first few days the waves were so small that you could barely ride them, or perhaps the ride was barely worth all that paddling out there! But it was good practice for the Amy's and I was muy confident, oh course ending my cocky surfing day on my ass falling into the reef (life always has it's way of letting you know that you are never really in control)

Anyway, so today we get out there and the waves are even bigger then yesterday...so I paddle out get in position, straight chilln on my board, i get a quick glimps of Amies panick strickn face and then i turn my head just in time to be collbered by a huge, 2 meters or so, wave. Knocked, rocked, rolled, spun and pushed around to the extent that i loose one of my water shoes and paddle desperately to get to my board as well as find my missing shoe...just in time to get beaten down by another huge wave. Amie on the other hand, jumped on her board in time for the first wave and surfed safely away. Me? After finding my shoe, and the thought of sea urchins sharp prickly stingers in my foot faded away another wave crashing on, making for a wonderful opprotunity for me to taste the excusively salty atlantic water. By the time i escaped the grasp of the harsh sea I needed time to, basically, breath. Getting tossed around by huge waves is definitely a work out, trying not to hit the board or any sharp reef parts.

After that, my energy was zapped and i went out for a couple more waves then retired my broken little spirit and beat up body take siesta and eat lunch.

so my post yesterday would have said...I learned to Surf, b/c yesterday i rocked it and had so much fun. Today I got rocked and feel less the confident about my surfing skills. But good to know the fury and power of the ocean and get reminded of my place as an unexperienced surfer.

So, that's today. We now have plans to go visit climb, repall, jump, swim and slide down 27 waterfalls outside of town for saturdays adventure. Tomorrow, we are going with a friend to visit some waterfalls and beaches around the area. And weds we made plans to go on a down hill mountain biking tour to see the country side. Amie leaves next weekend then back to my old tricks of wondering the country side alone.

might hike pico duarte, the highest pike in the caribbean, next weekend with some kids from the dream project. But we shall see.

So that is my life in words. estoy muy consado. didn't sleep well last night, chills then mosquitos bitting my face. nap time quizas? love and miss you all

Amelie

You made it to the Dance...

amelie918 — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 02:39:00 GMT

nothing like it...dancing all night at one of the local dico techa. Mucho house music mixed with hip hop, techo, reggaeton...the list goes on and on.

Fresca mojitos begun the evening at our neighbors apartment. Dancing Bachata (DR country music. Basically 3 steps forward 3 steps back with a slight shake of the hips. So i think i mastered that one, and got to continue the lesson at the local fair grounds thats in our neighborhood, named Calle hon de la leon(?). The fair was packed with everyone in the neighborhood. The mood is divertir (fun) spirited and contento (happy). Bachata is addicting and as soon as you start moving your hips with the music it transforms everyone into lean mean dancing machines. I couldn't stop moving! Its such a polar opposite from what i'm used to estados unidos (United states). When i dance at home if i can find i partner (male or female) that can keep up with me its really hard to integrate different dancing styles...but here the kids are experts and I happily danced with many really fun partners! Even though the music is not rapido (fast) but the beat is stedy and the music is loud. By having a dance with actaully steps, just a little bit of structure makes dancing simpler to understand. No one here "does not know how to dance." It just doesn't exist (my opinion of coarse). Children are born into a culture that places a very strong emphasis on community, party, and drinking. So everyone is very good at having a good time. And the mood is contagious and i probably had one of the best nights in the DR last night. Minus the lack of sleep that has been hounding me for the past week or so. If its not the rooster in the morning its the dogs. If not the dogs then some massive pre-historic insect that is biting me under my sheets, desacrating my cocoon sanctury (my travel sheet that is sewed on both sides) that in my mind is bug proof, insect proof and would no way in hell have a hug mosquito living and feeding on my inspecting flash. Alas, that is EXACTLY what has been happening to me in my room while i try to sleep. BUT i saw the biggest bloodest mosquito this morning that has finally run out of lives, quizas (perhaps) now i can sleep in my bed without being awoken by huge insanely itchy welts that last for days and days.

So after many hours of rather provacative dancing had by me and my counter parts, yo y amigo Baca went next store to the local colmado, where the music is just as loud, but the lights are bright, the sitting space is many and the drinks are cheap. After purchasing dos cuebra libras (rum and coke) we sat and habla espaniol para mucho minutos. (spoke spanish for many minutes, probably like an hour!) I am so surprised that I actually have that much to say in spanish! I haven't been speaking that much spanish, but i am definitely making a conserted effort to try harder and study vocabularuy and verbs. I talked mostly in spanish all day yesterday, even though my pronoucion is malo (bad) and my sentences are short and choppy i have been having surprising luck in getting my point across. It also doesn't hurt that most of the kids that live here and work at the beach get lots of practica habla inglas y mucho otro languages (practice talking english and other languages) so when i get stuck i ask them a word and depending on the person, they might know. Its nice to find someone on the same level. Amie is just so advanced compared to me and she doesn't really seem to enjoy teaching me correct pronouncion...she simply thinks its funny that i suck so bad. But she is an asset to my life here in Carbarete...but how much i love getting away and talking to people and simply enjoying myself. Every one is So friendly here, and very laid back and caring. Not like in america where it seems like people are afraid to smile or laugh, not to mention to actually touch people. Around here random people i walk by will just shake my hand. No verbal communication at all, just eye contact and a sweet gesture. Its quite an enjoyable experience to be immersed in a culture that doesn't revolve around time and work (not to say that there is not room for improvement, this is a thrid world country...definitely in need of more structure, school and various actividads to keep everyone busy and off the streets drinking) but for a laid back little beach town, its perfecto para me. (perfect for me).

Looking in to language schools.

Chow

Amalea

I heart> Carbaret

amelie918 — Sun, 15 Apr 2007 05:06:00 GMT

A brief synopsis of Carbarete the wind surfing capital of the world...and now kite surfing (which looks so fun but is mucho caro<expensive>) as well.

One long main road runs through the town, which is the main hwy on the north coast. The streets are mostly always congested, especially with mas motocochos (which are essentially motorcycle taxis, which you get for about 50 cents to a dollar to ride and will take you a few miles here and there). So my affinity for motorcycles has grown and I usually ride at least two a day...i need to find someone to let me drive one!

anyhow, beach on the one side with a range of decently priced to very nice expansive restaurants and tourist shops. So much food here smaking you in the face, not to mentions delicious fresh fruit drinks, with banana is especially delicious...mucho thick and creamy! heehhe

Yesterday was the first time we really got off the strip, even though we do leave everyday b/c out house is in the Calle de la leon...a dominican neighborhood that got completely flooded the first day we were here. Think dirt roads with lots of garbage around, then flooded up to our knees in some points. Pretty gross, but the main walk we took through it was a night so we couldn't really see who bad it was.

Encuentro is the local surf beach and is much more tanquil and laid back. no vendors apporching you trying to see you stuff. Just a hand full of surfer kids, most speaking some english to my advantage. Although i learn the most when i am forced to search my little head for the correct words. My vocabulary is expanding slowly but surely, but its hard having Amie around all the time b/c she is on a much higher level then me and there fore does all the talking and i can't keep up or contribute much. But today we had our first surf leccion and me and my instructor spoke much espaniol and i getting the hang of it little by little. If i decide to set up camp in this city for the remainer of my trip to help more with the dream project (look it up on the internet, its so inspirational!)

They just finished building the new preschool/community center in the neighborhood in which we live. Which is always alive with many families, kids running and playing, various houses blaring music for the whole street to enjoy. Dancing, playing domininos, our simply hanging out at the local comidas. I love walking down our street. Usually met with many smiles and holas, and at night its like a huge party. Its saturday and me and Amie are going to go out for our first night on the town here. I haven't been to a dico techa since i've been here, through many invitations from various dominican chicos that want to be my nuevo (boyfriend). There are so straight forward here, and before they know your name they want to know if you have a boyfriend. muy comimco (very funny) i try to talk to the boys and ask why they would like to be my boyfriend when they don't know me and for they know i could be crazy...i'm not quite sure if anyone has throughly understood exactly what i meant, from lack of words on my part. But its usually a funny conversation either way, usually always going back to kissing and being my boyfriend....it's a hoot!

so the Dream project, is great. 15 three and four year olds from 8am to 12 mon through thursday. The inaugeration was yesterday, the new school has been in session for 2 weeks. So they are still working out the kinks but its so great to get to participate from the beginning. The community center is exactly what i have been dreaming about getting into for a while now. Its a really great opprotunity for this community that has no organized sports, most people don't go to school past 5th grade, 80 percent live in single family homes and basically they just drink, hang out and have sex...as i hear it. The little girls here are taught to be sex symbols from the very beginning and i heard a disturbing statistic that 85% of girls dabble in prostitution for money. Which makes sense once you see how these girls dress...

So we are really excited to get involved in such a life changing program and its pretty much exactly what i wanted. We heard about the program by chance through a random family that happened to be eating at our hotel in Santiago. They were really solid, professors from Uof Vermont living and teaching public health and organizing games and physically activity to educate about AIDS, which is a major epidimic here.

Not sure about any of the details, but this place is steaming hot, and then you go swimming in the warm ocean and its perfecto! I love swimming here, i need to swim more. But you have to watch out for the sea urchins here, black small sharp balls that apparently don't go so well when you step upon them.
So...that is my life here as of now. Nice little cheap apartment, that is surverly infested with ants (and various other things) but we have a kitchen and that is the golden lining..not to mention the place kindof reminds me of melrose place...huge palm trees, a jacuzzi in the middle of the courtyard (granted that doesn't work anymore) and various little nooks and crannies to get lost in.

Alright, thanks for taking interest and i hope all is well.

Still trying to live more connected and not worry about yesterday tomorrow, but be grounded in the now. Its hard b/c my mind wanders, ineed to train it better!

much love and peaceful vibes from sunny humid beautiful Domincana.

Love

Amalea

Tourism Central

amelie918 — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 11:05:00 GMT

Hello and Bienos Dias! It's night here just got done eating *and drinking( on the beach eating pineapple, banana curry pizza that i vow to make frequently when i return home. So i've been in Carbarete for 5 days and its a great little tourist town that Amie and I have grown an affinity too. Could probably get a job here serving on the beach...volunteering or teaching at the Dream Project that we are involved in at the moment. Finished our second day helping out in their brand new preschool. Yesterday was very challenaging for me, not speaking much spanish and listening and trying to communicate was MUCHO Defacil...*very hard(. but today i let go of tryig communicate in the way i'm used to and just set out to enjoy myself and be good for the kids...and i think i succedded. Got to contribute with some of my stron expertise in organization and caligraphy skills. Anyway, school was fun and then we ventured out of one street beach town *finally( and went a few miles down the road to the surf spot. With is amazingly beautiful, much having to do with the lack of people...so chill. So we start surfing saturday, with our first leccion. Watch a surf competition that day then we are renting a board for the remainder two weeks and hopefully we will go most every day.

We volunteet mon thur thursday 8 til 1 around, and just help around the class room putting in our two senses when we can. It so weird to work with kids that have never used scissors or crayons before! Todays there was this non profit program called LISTA that few in from texas to do an documentary and help raise funds. ITs a really awesome program, helping kids that don't have much of a chance here where proverty is common and most families don't have two parents, and most mothers dropped out of school early *girls are not aloud to attend school if they become pregant, just adding to the mass numbers of uneducated people here( which can be seen in many ways by the number of people chilling outside their houses with there many kids all day, and by the mass amound of garbage everywhere! It makes tropical paradise drop of few points off the way cool meter, but hey, it's still Great!

so our apartment is off the stip in surrounded by dominicans in a family neighbord. We have a 3 story roof which has great sunrises and starry nights, not to mention the stealth look out of much of the neighbor. Most people send there nights, and many days out on their poaches hanging out, playing domininos, listening to music REALLY loud and chit chatting outside local colmados *small local convient stores(...Its fun to see everyone, most people great with a huge smile and a spirited Hola or what not.

so, might move out of our humble 2 bedroom apartment. Complete with kitched for 200 for three weeks for us to split. Might manage a few place for the rest of the month at a much nicer place with airconditioning and probably no ants or mice*...mucho ants. But i am thankful warm water and a solid bed, now i am very spoiled with my own room now and balcony...its sweet.

Alright so planning some day trips. Cascading, rapelling and jumping around waterfalls and maybe a mountain bike excursion are in the works.

But we are very happy and me and Amie are bonding closer by the second. We are both learning a lot of the same lessons and are much of an asset to each other...especially her spanish for me, even though it helps we to learn very slow..b/c i don't have to try!

So i hope your are all well. I miss you and would love to hear from you via comments, my space or email! Much Dominican love from your girl down south. Will be in Carbarete for the next 2 weeks...at least!

Love, Peace and jOy

Amalea

Santiago ¨Breabasket of the DR¨

amelie918 — Fri, 6 Apr 2007 07:28:00 GMT

So i arrived in Santiago, the countries second largest city yesterday with my new friend Amie (yes i know, how coincidental). So we escapes from our ¨¨Rancho Wendy¨experience that consisted of a shack with little light (so you couldn´t up close and personal see all the dirt and various living creatures that coinhabited the room) a bathroom that doabled as a shower and as much internet as one can handle(but that unfortunately was about it for entertainment, though we did get to see an awesome waterfall one day while beng attached by mosquitos;) . Very disorganized, no one really knowing whats going on >(expect for the two people that i meant that were working there, Amie and bobby) who let me know the low down of the not surprising details of the little camp that i was hoping would be so much more...not really expecting all that much, but still ending spending like 50 bucks for two nights...

Any way the past few days have been great. Explored Santiago after a short break from our travels, and all day today. Its a beautiful city surrounded by mountains (hot and humid) that we aren´t really get a full sense of b-c this is semanta santa week, holy week. So everyone goes to the beach and it´s crazy busy and expansive, that´s why i chose to go to the mountains, even though it totally messed up my plans to do a big circle around the country. But now its´worked out VERY well and i´ve met a partner who speaks WAY more spanish then me and makes everything much more easy! So she´s going to be around until the end of april, and then it´s back on my own again.

So, another day or two in the mountains, then south to the capital to hang out with some kids that she meant that have extra space in there house. They live very close to the Zona Colonial which is the historic part of the city where the 1st church, road, school... of the new world settlement. Spend easter sunday in the 1st new world settlement, an interesting experience, i´m sure. So that should be cool, then back to the mountains to probably (hopefully, depending on the word) hike the largest peak in the carribean (10,000 ft) and then maybe some white water rafting and some horse backing trips to various waterfalls.

So that is the plan as of now. THen to puerto plata to do a volunteer thing for a few weeks and live near the beach!man is it hot, the water is a much welcomed haven.

ok, so doing well. wish i could write a little more detail, but just trying to let you guys know i´m safe and sound and now am feeling good with a travel partner!

Hope you all are well

love

amalea

Rancho Wendy and Beyond

amelie918 — Wed, 4 Apr 2007 23:36:00 GMT

Now, I am leaving... This place is a little on the shady side, this girl that has been working here has been having some problems so we are taking a taxi to santiago today to stay for a few days (this place is pretty gross, found a whole familia of las cocarachas in my cabinet b/f i went to sleep...so haven't been sleeping well(surprisingly) but we are leaving and that is good. So i'll call later

peace

Amalea

Left Paradise for the Polar Opposite

amelie918 — Tue, 3 Apr 2007 11:47:00 GMT

Think the cabin, but smaller, and a little light and cold running water. Oh, complete with dried palm tree leaves for roof decor! After spending the whole day trying to get to rancho wendy I have now arrived 7 hours behind schedule and I must say...this place smells like mold!

hehehe...oh, will the girl ever be satisfied? Hey, i'm just happy i'm alive with all my working parts and all my stuff. For a second there I thought, oh, this is why everyone was worried. I got off with a friend that I had meant on the bus to embrake on finding the other bus that I needed to transfer onto to get to Bonao, my mountain town...very close to Pico Duarte, which now that i'm here am very tempted to give it a go...i could always ride my donkey if i get tired:)

I must say the bathrooms in Dominica leave something to be desired. I now understand how disease spreads so badly in "developing" countries. No soap, half the time no toilet paper, you can't actually put the toilet papper in the toilet so theres this very attractive recepticle that just screams don't touch me if you life depended on it. You should have seen the womens bathroom...i mean toilets at the rest stop on the way to the capital...you walk in, women scattered everywhere, cutting in front of everyone, wondering around trying to find the best place to pop a sqate...and so many choices. The random ones that are just in the middle of the room with no walls or anything, then there the ones with low walls and no doors, and then if your really lucky like me you get one that leaking water two walls and one door that doesn't close. Eww. And no washed there hands and i constently think about how much gross stuff is on everything i touch (thanks shu).

shu, you would love it here. Everyone drives in the middle of the road, like a crazy maniac, really fast, beeping whenever at whatever. maybe in a past life you were Dominican? Also they love there styrofoam here and wrap everything in it from there meat, to cheese to veggies. Everything, drinks, to go boxes (of coarse) and then the put it in the nearest river/random field or like i saw in the capital today, right in the gutter...thats what that little gully's there for ain't it?

Luckily people have been really nice and accomadating to this llienda(?) grenga and when I feel lost there has always been some nice guy that knows just enough, if not a lot to help me figure out what the hell everyone is saying. My poco espaniol going goes so far. But i get to know if the people i meant are married, have kids, where they live and if they like there jobs....thats about all the questions i have down pat, ressuracted from my old high school spanish days with my ex flight attendent alcoholic teacher who had a special place in her heart for me...ah, yeah...

any way, i am safe (woosh) and i'm going to retire soon to my humble room to hopefully sleep like a log and wake up tomorrow and get amazed by the natural beauty. Right now its dark and all i can see is my musky old shack that looks like its been left out in the rain one too many times. But i've done it before and I'll do it again.

So well see how this goes. Free internet, so thats cool...if it sucks i can always move onto to my next rustic hotel, that i think will be just a little different then this one. You guys should bring you camping stuff (and the rest of mine too) and we should rent so donkeys and hike up this big beautiful mountain and see all of the carribean...then go to the beach and drink pina coladas until our heads spin:)

ok, so I'm safe sound and ready for bed. A bonfire rages, kids that are hiking the mountain play tonight. Shall i venture? I'm afraid i'm not one for speaking write now, too much effort and challenege for one day. no sleep makes for a trying day, not to mention my taxi not showing up, missing the second bus and then watching the sun go down and all i could hear..."just don't go out alone at night and you'll be safe.." thanks for putting that onein my head kids!

ok, sleep then awake to stunning naturally beauty that makes the whole trip worth it;)

And so has begun my portion of my tropical adventure, and it was...a very trying day to say the lest. But i got here, and really it could have been a lot worse.

I love you and miss you and the south sends you hugs and kisses.

Full moon tonight, don't go crazy!

love

Amalea(how my name's pronouced in Dominican, I've now adopted it full heartedly! ah, dominicana...:)

HORRAY! I thought...

amelie918 — Tue, 3 Apr 2007 00:38:00 GMT

Day 16. Been here for over two weeks and i must admit, i really don´t have that much to report. We start off the trip with much anguish and anxiousity for my mama, who was supposed to arrive two days before me. However, with invading ice stroms, she got to spend an eventful 7 hours on the tar mate the first day and on the 2nd she and ella novio (her boyfriend) spent much of the better half of standing outside on a cold winter day in Philly. Traveling to a tropical climate one thinks that they probably WON´T need there winter coat...but always expect the unexpected i suppose. I learned that one today...but I´ll get to that.

So after much pleading by mother to get to the island before ¨Her Dear Daughter Amy from Seattle...¨ ( i´m paraphasing) Only to once finally arriving we embrake on beautiful villa in the Coco Tal golf and country club community. Sounds Fancy huh? Well, i suppose it was in that cookie cutter totallly superficous kind of way...but the Kicker? No power. Like living in the cabin all over again! Except for the problem is not too cold, but too hot. The first days we were there were the hottest and not the comfort you would expect from your ¨Luxrious All Inclusive Tropical Vacation¨ The most prized possession of the first 4 days we were there, living without power or light, was my head lamp. The family was very impressed (and jealous) of my handy dandy hands free device.

Once the power FINALLY turned on we stopped having to go to the damn Supermarco EVERYDAY! WE wasted a lot of time doing that, and not to mention having to eat out for everymeal. Luckily my dear mama and steve helped me out a bunch, so I have managed to spend relatively nothing in comparison to how long I´ve been here. I can´t believe it been two weeks...I can´t believe I finally starting my part of the journey. Where I go and do whatever I want. Ah, freedom...has it ever smelled so sweet? The first week was spent in mass disarray as me and my coherts tried to get accustomed to cold spong baths in the tube...in the dark. Luckily we had candles....no matches, but we borrowed some from out slightly alcoholic neighbor Pasquale...who by the way sees it as divine intervention that I am doing volunteer work. YOu see, he was talking to god and asked him to send him a sign if he should get involved in volunteer. And guess who got to be his sign? I don´t think I´ve ever played that role before;)

So onto the rest of the week. Once the power got on people got a little more comfortable...minus the almost 9 hours we spent in the car traveling to Playa Limon...a beach that was supposed to be amazing, right next to a lagoon with mangroove forests that you can take a boat ride through!(LOL) So after traveling...and traveling on roads (sometimes lack there of, huge gaps engulfed some parts of the road as if it had been washed away...which it probably had) we finally reached a beach. NOt our destination, but it didn´t really matter b-c as we arrived it started pouring down rain. As we drove slowly, windshield wipers on low for some reason beknowst to me, but hey i wasn´t driving and by that point I wish I wasn´t driving or any where near the car at all. Steve, my mamas boyfriend, decided it was my fault that we had ended up in this predicament and I needed to be repermaned...after excepting the blame, eating drinking el Prisidents(best beer in the country, they say...) i felt altogether sick and tired. That expedition was supposed to be my day, out of my guide book and something I wanted to do, opposed to the rest of the week that i spent doing whatever the happy couple wanted...being the third wheel sure is rough sometimes! So the day turned rather disasterious, and we went on our merry way home, to power on my moms second to last day in Hispaniola.

The week with me and Steve was rather surprising. He dropped is cocky attitude and we got to know each other as people, rather then titles. Had conversations about my brother John and Religion, that turned into rather interesting exchange of morals, values and our general outlook on life.

Steve left on thursday...then came back...then left again on Friday. He missed his plane, so we spent a most enjoyable evening at the neighbors drinking rum and cokes and talking. When he finally left things got a lot better for me...even though i have been anxious about trying to make travel plans, buy a phone, getting around on local gua guas (buses)...But i´m getting better. Learning more and more to greet everything with a smile and the way it happens is exactly the way it suppose to be.

So after buying my phone saturday, calling mi familia to let them know I´m fine (as the parental units has flew into a franzy bounding over there uneasiness and fear of me being alone in a dangerous poor country). The email my mother sent had the topic of ¨Please do not take this trip...¨ with full offer to pay for my ticket home if i left right then. Wouldn´t that had been funny? ok, guys bye! See you in two in half months...u later see we a week and a half later hoping you don´t recognize me b-c I´d have to admitt of changing my travel plans b-c my mama said so! heehee,:)

So, i declined and said that my guide book says it a safe place to travel alone, even females. So i feel they would know, having traveled the whole country and written the book and all...

This brings us to the day of my departure. The man who rescued my from my negative anxiousity (about having to find a way back to town to buy a phone card b-c i had used up all my minutes talking about nothing to my parents!)simply picked me up for free, took me around to the store which was closed then managed to find a card for me down a very dominican dirt road full of dust, pot holes and mucho moto cochos y personas. We aggreed he would pick me up the next day (today) at 630 am to get to the bus station( that again, the same story as the long travels to buy the phone, went all the way around, instead of taking the back entrence that literally take 3 minutes to get to town instead of 20! So he doesn´t show (of course) and the next taxi i order arrives a few minutes late, charging my too much to go down the street...but when you don´t speak the language well, and don´t know where things are, i always end up with the pleasant surprise of finding out that i could have gotten there SO much quicker!) any how, get to the bus station, the bus is full...so that is how you LUCKY readers get to hear the FULL scoop on my trip. I have four ahoras to kill until the next bus. (i knew i should have bought a ticket before, but the man who i meant at Pasquales, who is from Bonow, my next stop, said i wouldn´t need to) Next time I´´m going to follow my instinct and plan and organize like comes naturally to me. Talking on the phone is always a challenege( as is in person, but i usually luck out and if i can´t understand someone, there is someone else who can and tells me whats going on).

So I sit in a cold internet office,(much relief from the hot sunny sweaty day that is made worse by the black asphalt not to mention my 40 lb pack that i lug arround with the surprised and usually confused stares from the community. I must look so stupid to them! Little girl with this hug pack, leaning forward under the weight trying to smile and breath and think of how lucky i am to get to gain strength from my walk with my heavy bad as well as let all my caring and wonderful friends and family EXACTLY how i´ve been doing! I hope you aren´t bored to tears by my account. But I hardly ever seem to find time to sit down and write but i have more then enough excess tiempo today:)

Ok, so off to the capital, then another bus to bonao in the mountains. I week there at an ecotourist place volunteering. Spanish classes in the morning, volunteer during the day and hopefully so adventure somewhere thrown in between. THe talled peak in the carribean is in the DR, 10,000 ft. I doubt I´ll hike all the way up, but theres alot of different hikes and horse rides to various mountain towns, waterfalls, and stuff of that nature. Can´t wait.

Then a stop in santiago(2nd largest city) to check out the best muesum in the country, do some yoga,(the only yoga instruction I have been able to find in the whole country! there must be more...)and see some music, and play or something of that nature.

Then off to do more volunteer work in Puerta Plata (suncampdr.com) at this rustic hotel. <More spanish, surfing, kite boarding...and god knows what else! about 3 and half weeks there and then back to the capital to take a formal spanish program. 1 week with a familia, 4 50 minute spanish lessons a day(perhaps i´ll actually be able to retain some of this when i get home...i plan on doing volunteer work with spanish kids to keep it fresh in at the forfront...i don´t want to look it, the goal is fluency!)

After that(probably) up to the penisula, supposedly the most beautiful, serene, quite, remote part of the island. I´ll about 2 weeks left at that point and I´m going to try to do some volunteer work at this sustainable ecotourist spot that works with locals and the ecosystem to help rebuild after much deteration from over use. (i won´t even go into the story of my first scuba dive, to a barren coral reef, another among various other disappoints from the beginning of the trip) but i am now in high spirits, even after the minor set back of leaving 7 hours after the time i was trying to. Going to bed late, after cooking a ton of the left over food for various poor workers that are in the resort, cleaning bc steve is trying to rent the place tomorrow, and packing. a late nite that my mind and body had a hard time relaxing from. Pretty much no sleep, running on fumes...but i´m ok, happy and excited to see and do something new!

alright, so thats my life in words. I hope you all are doing well. email me, leave me a comment, i´d love to hear from you all and see how you are doing!

much love and positive vibrations form south of the border!

Love

Amalie

here i am!

amelie918 — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 08:04:00 GMT

leaving the resort soon. my first post and 3 minutos to write at the internet cafe. write more when i make solid plans. planning on leaving punta cana around the 3rd.

love you all, hope all is well.

amalie