Vacaciones

This post is all about our first vacation. It was ten days long and all over the island. I apologize for the lack of posts, there was too much fun being had and not enough WiFi to share!

For our first three days of vacation, we were in the countryside in Bayahibe. If you thought getting around in a foreign country was hard, try doing it in the middle of nowhere. We stayed at a really cute bed and breakfast right next to a beach. We were able to go to a beautiful beach that was covered in rocks but had killer waves. I got knocked down and dragged through the water a good amount. I looked like an idiot. It was so fun! The bathroom was in an abandoned house on the top of a scary hill, so that was super glamorous as well. Haha in all honestly, it was a really fun day and we got to enjoy having actual waves, because there aren't really any on the northern part of the island. The next day, we went to the other half of our groups AirBnB that they were staying at, and their host Kiko told us he was going to take us on a short walk to a cave. 10 miles later, we were at the top of a mountain to play in a river. Dominicans can be very confusing sometimes. At some point, I also was crossing the river and got swept away in the rapids. It was so terrifying but I tried to just laugh instead of cry. Luckily I didn't hit any of the rocks and walked away with just another embarrassing Whitney moment in the bag! 

Finally to Santo Domingo! I loved this city (or maybe where we stayed in this city?). Our hostile was in the Colonial Zone, which is the oldest European settlement of the Americas, and the historic district of Santo Domingo. The architecture was gorgeous! The town square had an old cathedral, and there was always music playing. There was such good food everywhere, and about one million souvenir shops. There were ten artists on every street and a Chocolate Museum that gave out Dominican chocolate samples for free! (I went about six times a day). 

My travel group stayed in the Island Backpacker's Paradise hostile, which was so fun. Seriously the coolest hostile ever. They had an outdoor common area in the middle with hammocks, Christmas lights strung across the yard, a small pool, a little breakfast area with free pancakes. We also got to meet tons of really cool people from all over the world (shout out to George, our sexy friend from Holland). 

Almost every day, we just walked around Zona Colonial and looked at shops, explored, and ate lots of food. There was a Juice Shop where you could pick out any fruit that they had, and they would stick it in a blender and give you fresh fruit juice. Welcome to paradise. 

We went to the Botanical Gardens one day, and also got to go to the Santo Domingo Mall. That was a gift from heaven. As privileged as this sounds, it was so nice to have a day inside a huge mall that had clean bathrooms, American stores, and a huge food court with Subway, McDonald's, etc. We also got to visit Tres Ojos, which is a National Park in the DR. It's basically a huge cave that you walk into, that has a bunch of natural lagoons inside. You can't swim in any of them, but it was amazing!

Our last few days were spent in Boca Chica and Bayahibe. We were only in Boca Chica for one day but were able to go to the beach and have some slightly above average Italian food. Our trip to Bayahibe from there was only supposed to take one hour but ended up taking about 3. We were transferred onto three different buses in the middle of the street and ended up in a Gua Gua (a 12 person van/taxi) with 21 people and 15 suitcases. Say goodbye to riding in a car comfortably when you're in the DR! Haha you for sure get closer to your friends this way though, and meet a lot of cool locals. 

As you can tell from these pics, the last part of our vacation was spent at the beach. In reality, most of it was spent at our hotel in Bayahibe, but I didn't end up taking any pictures of me sitting in my bed eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes. Honestly, our hotel was my favorite part of this town. After dealing with a few payment miscommunications when we got there, we were finally able to enjoy! Our hotel was clean and so nice, like a hotel in America. We had A/C, good Wifi, and free breakfast. It was paradise. We walked to the market every day and got Bon ice cream (Chocolate Don Alfonso is the best flavor on the planet-chocolate, coffee, coconut, and macadamia flavor, hello!), and spent our days either by the pool, on the beach, or in our rooms hanging out and watching movies. 

We also took an excursion to Saona Island, which was incredible! That and 27 Waterfalls have been my favorite activities we've done so far this summer. Basically, we took a speedboat out to the island, and along the way stopped at a shoreline that had a bunch of starfish in the water that we were able to hold and take pictures with. When we got to the island, we were able to lay out in the prettiest sand, play in the water, have a buffet of Dominican food, and dance with all the locals. I am a terrible dancer, but it was still so fun. (Side note: I've actually had locals comment on my bad dancing. Also how much I sweat here. They are very direct people.) On the way back, we rode on a huge boat and sunbathed on the front of the ship. It was amazing!

We are back in Puerto Plata now for four weeks, and then onto our next vacation in Punta Cana. More updates to come!