So we started researching plane tickets and travel plans. Being the somewhat now 'cheap' Peace Corps volunteers that we are (I say cheap because we are frugal when it comes to a lot of stuff now. Not to say we don't spend plenty of money still. We just turn up our noses and say 'are you crazy?' when stuff seems way overpriced.) Be that as it may, we decided in order to save $100, we would take a bus to El Salvador and then fly from there to Florida then to the Dominican Republic. Little did we know this was going to cause all kinds of headaches in the future. Not only did we end up spending at least $100 on the bus, taxis, food, and other things, Peace Corps El Salvador decided to close their borders to other volunteers two days before we are supposed to fly out of the airport there. We still owe so much gratitude to our Country Director and Security Officer in Guatemala, Martha and David, for basically giving up their weekends to make numerous phone calls and send countless emails back and forth between El Salvador and Washington, D.C. to eventually get us the needed permission to travel to El Salvador the afternoon before we were supposed to leave. At Martha's request, I'm going to tell you that it IS possible to make things that seem impossible happen with all the bureaucratic red tape that is Peace Corps. (However, I'm not sure I feel this is entirely true with the current climate of Peace Corps Guatemala. Please read my friend, Hannah's, blog here to get up to date with what we are dealing with currently: http://cartasdelejosguatemala.blogspot.com/2011/12/and-here-we-are-again.html ... I couldn't have said it better.)
On October 23rd, I started the trek (which was a five hour bus ride, one taxi, and then another hour and half bus ride) to Amber's site. We got the call from Martha that afternoon (she told us on speaker phone and we all yelled together in excitement- kind of funny looking back on it now). We packed our bags, got a good night's rest, and left the next morning. We took an hour and a half bus ride to the capital, celebrated the beginning of the trip at IHOP for breakfast, took a taxi to the other bus station, and left on the bus for El Salvador that afternoon. We had to take a PC approved taxi to the airport and then wait several hours until our flight at 1am. Hindsight 20/20: we should have just paid the extra money and flown from Guatemala. We got to Florida at 5am and we embarrassingly slept in a booth at Sabaro's for several hours because we were exhausted. Pre-Peace Corps, pretty sure I would have never done any of this. It is really fun to think about how much I have changed in the past two years and as I told someone the other day in my community, "mis ojos estan mas abiertos que antes"- my eyes are more open than before. Anyway, we flew out later that day at 1pm. Amber and I were scared we were going to hate each other after all the time we had already spent with each other before we had even gotten to our destination (we are still friends though!).
When we got to the Dominican Republic at 3pm, Alyson, Amber's friend that is in PC there, sent their taxi driver to get us because she was off on a dive with a university from the states that is making an underwater museum (PC Dominican Republic... just a little different from PC Guatemala). We were already sweating from the Caribbean heat before we even got to the taxi. Amber and I just cracked up when our driver, Wilson, showed us his car. It had to be the most run-down, beat up car in the parking lot. Got to love PCVs and their cheapness. By the time we got settled in to our hostal, we just went for a walk on the shoreline, grabbed some dinner, and went to bed early. We were exhausted... The next morning on the 26th, we awoke to Alyson knocking on the hostal door. That day we just walked around in the colonial zone of Santo Domingo, ate a Hard Rock Cafe, visited the cigar and ambar museums, saw the Duarte park, and then had empanadas that night. The empanadas were Amber's favorite of the trip.
On the 27th we did much of the same. We walked around the colonial zone, visited the museum that told much about the history of how Columbus first landed there in the Americas, walked down the first street of the Americas, and basically soaked in all of the historical culture of Santo Domingo. That evening there was a huge PC party for incoming/outgoing volunteers. We had a bunch of fun and got to meet lots of cool people. The next morning came too early though. We left with 40 PCVs on two tourist buses at 9am for Puerto Plata. It was a pretty miserable ride after the late night before (one girl even threw up down the side of the bus). We arrived at this resort that was having a special for $11 a night for all inclusive stays. Alyson's group was celebrating their one year in country, and pretty fancily I'd say. It was an awesome resort and we definitely lived it up: VIP beach with those fancy white beds/canopys, unlimited drinks, unlimited food (including delicious burgers, sushi, etc.), many different restaurants (Italian, Mexican, local buffet, and late night burgers and hot dogs). The first day we just soaked all that up and were very glutenous.
The second day at the resort, October 30th, we woke up early and caught a guagua (local bus) to 27 charcos, or 27 waterfalls. This is an ecotourism site that was started by Peace Corps volunteer Robert Kennedy (I think). Supposedly Ted Kennedy came there to visit while Robert was there. We hiked for an hour and then put on our helmets, life jackets, and water shoes to jump off rock cliffs into the water and swim our way down the 27 waterfalls. It was exhilarating. We took public transport back to the resort, laid out, and then went to a big party that night that the resort hosted (there was an open bar with premium liquors, lots of food including a roasted pig, huge fish, and so much more, locally made cigars, live music, fireworks show, and huge dance party). Needless to say, we were exhausted after this long day and night. Thus we just soaked up the sun and enjoyed our last day in bliss the next day.
This post has really ended up being pretty long....going to have to do a Part 2 later...
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