Vacaciones

Its been way too long since my last blog, so I'm gonna hit ya'll with the best of the last few months. First of all, I had a very undeserved 3 week vacation when my friends Wes, Michelle, and Jessica came to visit, who were followed immediately by my Dad. With the former group, we had an action packed week which consisted of the following:

Saturday:
Picked friends up at airport
Went to Andrew's house, where Andrew, Duncan, Amy, and Jennifer, all Peace Corps Volunteers, were there to greet us.
We ate at Mello's, prepartied, and went to the carwash to drink and dance. Wes's Merengue dance skills earned him some strange looks form Dominican ladies.

Sunday:
We took my surfboard on a motorcycle to the guagua (public minibus)stop. The guagua driver decided it was a great idea to secure my surfboard by violently shoving it into the front grill while ignoring my screams to have mercy on my poor fiberglass companion. Gringos: -50 points. We rode to the beach called Playa Encuentro, I immediately checked on the condition of my surfboard, the tail end had been smashed and the fin folded over. Gringos: -100 points. I immediately told everyone not to pay for the transportation and proceed to get into my first Spanish-language heated argument with the guagua driver. This went on for a good 4 minutes and ended with us walking away without paying. Gringos: +200 points. Seconds after the guagua drove away, Wes realized he left his sleeping bag on the guagua. Gringos: -1000 points. We surfed, and headed back to my house. We then had typical Dominican food for dinner at my neighbors house, and then went out dancing at the local discoteca. By showing up with Jessica and Michelle, I instantly became much more respected by the local men because of my ability to bring beautiful white women into the community. Jessica and Michelle had so many dance requests they didn't sit down the entire night.

Monday:
We went back to the beach and surfed. Later, we set up camp on the beach using a mosquito net propped up by 4 sticks. I climbed a coconut tree and knocked down coconuts, which we cut open with a machete and drank the milk. Duncan, while trying to cut open a tin to make a funnel for drink mixing, stabbed himself in the finger about an inch deep. He then proceeded to bleed on everyone and everything. The drinks still ended up being made, and the night ended in drunken coconut football and then skinny dipping. After the rest of us got out of the water and put our clothes back on, Wes decided he hadn't had enough naked time, and proceeded to spend the next 30 minutes conversing with us like normal, except without any clothes, while Michelle (his wife) relentlessly screamed at him.

Tuesday:
We had a short surf session, and later rode motorcycles up to Duncan's site (the top of a mountain). We then went off to explore a series of bat caves, which required us to first scale a cliff which had a 200ft drop (I still don't think Jessica has forgiven me for putting her through that experience). We then found a spot with a nice view, set up camp, and cooked pizza in a pot on a wood fire.

Wednesday:
We went with two of my neighbors to see the 27 charcos (27 consecutive swimming holes/waterfalls). The beauty of nature blew our minds.

Thursday:
We had a relaxing day at the local river, and my neighbors came and cooked up a huge pot of asopao, a typical dish. We came home and played baseball with the local kids. Jessica tried to sneak 3 kids into her suitcase to take home with her.

Friday:
We went whitewater rafting in Jarabacoa and then stayed the night at a hotel in Cabarete. That night, while at the beach front clubs, every single one of us got unwanted offers from the beach prostitutes, Wes and I even got offered a group special.

Saturday:
Tearful goodbye as I sent my friends off to the airport.

I decided that my life calling is to be a tour guide.

My dad's visit will come in the next blog, but for now I'd like to talk about a new sport I invented. It's called extreme mountain running. Here's how this great idea of mine came to be:
I knew that because it had been raining so much, it would be a good idea to renumber the stakes from my land survey, as many of the numbers had been fading. I thought, why not turn this into exercise, and run the whole way up to the water source, renumbering as I go. So I put on my running attire, grabbed my permanent marker and machete, and headed up into the hills. As I got closer and closer to the water source, I discovered that the vegetation had completely overgrown, and the mosquitoes had completely taken over. I found myself machetying my way through thick, spiky, itchy vegetation, while getting eaten alive by giant mosquitoes. Every time I stopped to renumber a stake, I had to do a silly dance so that the mosquitoes couldn't land on me. On one such occasion, a mosquito flew into my ear, which threw me into a head shaking frenzy. This violent head shaking caused my sweat covered glasses to fly off of my face into the dense jungle-like thicket. I then found myself desperately searching for my glasses in a state of half-blindness while being relentlessly attacked by a swarm of hungry mosquitoes. After about 10 minutes of this torture, while practically on the verge of tears, I finally found my glasses, which I had somehow flung 15 feet away from my face, onto a branch. I then proceeded to the water source where there is a refreshing natural pool. I decided to take a dip to calm my nerves. The mosquitoes were even more rampant above the pool, so I thought I would outsmart them by submerging my entire body except for my face. Unfortunately, they outsmarted me and bit me all over my face, and now my face itches. Extreme mountain running is not recommended to the weak-willed.