Samana

This past weekend was spent in Samana on the northeastern peninsula of this lovely little island.  After getting up at 5:30 AM to be on the road by 6:15, munching on pineapple and a pb&j on the bus, and trying to snooze, we finally arrived.

First stop was an old neighborhood, settled over 150 years ago by former US slaves.  That's right, freed slaves from the US were promised land if they'd be willing to move to the DR.  We got to speak with Doña Leticia, a descendent of these settlers.  According to her, about 30 families moved to this part of the island, most of them part of an African Protestant denomination.  She spoke almost perfect English which she said was her first language.  It was all pretty interesting and at the end we got to snack on Jonny&Kate cakes and coconut biscuits so a success all around.

Image compliments of the Los Haitises website.

Next stop was Los Haitises National Park.  We took an hour boat ride off the southern end of the peninsula and ended up amid these amazing tree covered islands.  Our guide explained that the islands had been formed hundreds of thousands of years ago by coral that eventually was compacted together, and then through earthquakes got pushed up out of the ocean.  We were divided into two groups, one to go kayaking through mangroves and the other to explore a giant cave.

  

The kayaking was so cool!  There were little crabs everywhere, (which at first kind of freaked me out because I thought they were spiders) and giants trees with tangled roots.  Our guide had us all be quiet for a minute so we could just listen to the bird calls and ocean sounds.  

The cave was pretty impressive too.  There were stalactites and stalagmites, giant mangrove roots reaching down 30+ feet to find more soil and rock paintings/carvings done by the Tainos.  The cave was named San Gabriel by fishermen after the conquest because one of the stalagmites looks like the figure of a saint.

That night we went to a hotel on the other side of the peninsula.  After a yummy buffet supper, I went to my room and discovered I could see the ocean from just outside the door.  Awesome!  The next morning we explored and the beach.  It was one of the most impressive so far.  I've been to beaches on all sides of the island, and while this one would probably be the worst for swimming, it was also the best for wave watching.  There were tons of rocks under the water that the waves break on at various times on their ride into shore.  And the sound!  The waves are so loud, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that this sound is never turned off.  Day and night, always these waves are coming in.

The return journey

This weekend we took our last overnight excursion to Samana, a peninsula on the northeastern coast.  The trip itself will get its own post, but the ride back was note worthy enough to be a story in itself. 

We left Samana about 2pm.  The peninsula its on is very mountainous and the roads are potholed at best, dirt roads with deep ruts at worst.  And STEEP!  So we’re driving up a very steep, very curvy, bumpy road in a stick shift bus.  And of course I had a cup of coffee at lunch right before we left so I really had to go to the bathroom. 

A view from the top.

Well we finally reached the summit and some of us got out to see the view.  By now I really, really had to go to the bathroom, but we were on the top of this mountain with nothing but the bushes.  Luckily one of the other women had to too, so out came the beach towel and we hiked up the road a ways.  Now I consider myself a pretty experienced bathroom-in-the-woods user, but here’s some advice: it’s better to have 2 people holding the towel (so you don’t have to choose between people coming up the road seeing you or people on your bus seeing you) and have your TP ready first (less juggling of your camera and TP role later on).  We were eventually joined by a third woman, and then headed back to the bus.

By this time I was feeling 100% better about the road trip in front of us.  And the ride down the mountain was smoother because we just needed to use the brakes, not surge-and-stop up.  Well we got about half a mile down the road when, uh-oh, we realized amid all the juggling during out restroom escapade, one woman had left her camera hanging on a fence post.  So we pulled over (this time with the view on the other side of the peninsula) and she and Jonathan, one of the ISA leaders, started running back up the road.  Have I mentioned that it was STEEP!  It was so funny watching them jog more and more slowly the further they got until they passed a bend in the road. 

It doesn't really do it justice but
this is the steep mountain road. 

A few minutes later, a motorcycle comes roaring down and off hops the woman with her camera.  Some very nice guy gave her a ride.  No such luck for Jonathan, he had to run back to applause and high-fives.  Honestly, we were so lucky we realized the camera was missing only half a mile down the road and not when we were back in the city.  It worked out nicely.

So back on the bus and smooth sailing almost the whole rest of the trip.  But then, about 10 miles outside Santiago, our tire blew out.  We’d all been feeling a funny pull from the side of the bus for a few miles, but POP, there it went.  Conveniently we were about 20 feet from a roadside colmado (they’re corner stores with snacks. Every neighborhood has one) so we all had the opportunity to buy something to munch on.  Bring on the chocolate cookies!

The tire got changed way faster than I expected and off we drove.  Probably the most amazing thing about all this is that we got back to the city earlier than expected.  We must have been in some sort of time warp because that almost never happens here.  I give lots of props to Wilson, our amazing bus driver who did an incredible job getting us home and keeping us safe!