Right now, it´s raining. As it has been for the last 2 days. Rain doesn´t bother me, but we´re well equipped for it in Ireland. Roads, drainage, waterproof roofs...we do rain excellently. Here, not so much. My road isn´t paved so mud rivers covering uneven ground make walking difficult. My zinc roof makes lots of noise in the rain, which was comforting at first, but now not so much. Especially since it started leaking. Now every heavy rain shower causes alarm - are my things getting soaked? Some soakage so far, but nothing that can´t be moved around and dried out. Clothes can´t get dry and start to stink, and nobody has a drier, so I brought them to the laundromat. It cost about €6.50 for 3 towels and a bedsheet, which would buy you 4 hot lunches. And a beer.
But let´s focus on the fun, beautiful part. On Monday, it was a public holiday so I took a trip to a nearby waterfall with my housemates. It´s a popular excursion and most people go up to the waterfall on horseback. We got a guagua there, which can be any sort of vehicle really but in this case was a flatbed truck with space for people to sit in the back and the cab. Cost €1 for the 30 minute drive, with the sun out and the wind blowing our hair back. It was lovely.
I look like a 10 year old going to Disneyworld.
There are tours going from Las Terrenas to the waterfall with transport and lunch included, but we just hopped on the local transport and figured we´d sort it out when we got there. We hadn´t even left Las Terrenas when the guagua driver was offering us deals with his "cousin´s" horses, for RD$400 (€8) each. We accepted, and got brought to a little ranch where they were also making cocoa and coffee.
Smashing up some cocoa beans.
You have to go up with a guide, though the guide isn´t paid by the ranch, so what you tip them is their salary for the day. My guide was called Dichosa, which means happy, but in another context means damn/bleedin´/bloody, as in "Will this bleedin´ rain ever stop???". She walked beside me in welly boots and led my horse up a muddy, slippy trail. It was like sitting on a ludicrously decorated, uncomfortable chair and being unnecessarily carried up a hill. I´ve never felt more touristy. As you will see in the below photo.
Guiriguiriguiriguirigringaaaa
It was fun though, and a great chance to ask poor Dichosa a gazillion questions about her life. She is from Santo Domingo but came to Las Terrenas on holidays with her girlfriends and met a boyfriend here. She´s married, and has 3 kids, 2 boys and 1 girl. She didn´t finish her secondary education and is now trying to get her high school diploma. She´d like to go to university but she thinks that by the time she´s ready to go, her eldest might be too and she won´t be able to pay for both. She doesn´t know whether she´ll send him off to university full time, because then she can´t keep an eye on him. Some kids from there make the 2 1/2 hour trip to Santo Domingo only on Saturdays. Parents worry, because all sorts of things can happen in the city, especially with girls. They put all their money into their education and they come back pregnant. She says there´s no sex education here in schools, but that it´s starting to change. She explains everything to her 7 year old daughter, and wants her to always feel like she can come to her with questions. She pointed out the shack she lives in, surrounded by lush green, right by the start of the trail. Her kids run around freely and play with horses and other animals. Everyone looks out for the kids. It´s not like that in Santo Domingo, she says, kids can get stolen.
The waterfall was beyond worth it. I don´t think I´ve ever seen anything like it, let alone swam under it. There were quite a few people there. There was a guy with a big blue parrot with a little rope tied around his neck and another with a massive iguana trying to get people to pay for photos with them. We swam in the crisp water and ate our packed sandwiches on lovely clean grass. It was heaven.
I never expected the DR to be so green, but there you are.
After a trek downhill and a taxi back (for the same price as the guagua) we went straight to the beach, zonked and totally relaxed. Swim, rest, swim, rest, swim, rest. Heaven.
Obligatory frankfurter/leg photo. Except that no frank is that white.
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