Profe in the DR 41

Profe in the DR 41

July 22, 2012

            Saturday the 7^th, both teams from here traveled to Batey 5 to play soccer.  The wind was quite strong and kept kicking up the sand from off the field.  The girls tied 0-0, and the boys won 2-1.  The kids cheered and sang the entire way back in the bus.  (The Sugar Consorcio has been providing the transportation for the league this time.  They have several old school busses from the US that they use to transport workers to various fields to cut cane.) 

My time here is almost done.  I am planning on returning to the US on August 19^th.  I had a bunch of vacation days still unused (always hard to find time to get away) so I used some of them to get in one last bike trip.  Paul, Justin and I took a bus up to the far northwest corner of the country and spent the night in Monte Cristi at a fellow volunteer’s house.  (Monte Cristi is the first place in the DR that Columbus came across.  There is a flat-topped mountain that stands alone by the sea that Columbus named Monte Cristi.)  The next morning we went to see the mountain that the city is named after, and also to swim a little in the sea.   We didn’t get started on our bikes until noon.  We traveled along the coast on dirt roads, passing tons of rectangular ponds where they were evaporating sea water to get salt.  For the first few hours it was fairly flat, but extremely hot and dry.  We were surrounded by thorn bush and cactus, and lots of dust. The majority of houses we came across were recently abandoned and we were told it was due to lack of water and no schools nearby.  As the day progressed the road became mountainous, nothing of any great height, but often quite sharply inclined.   We could see a huge storm in front of us and we eventually rode into it.  The rain was moderate, but there was a lot of thunder and lightning.  Just as I reached the top of a hill, lightning struck very close by, (I just saw blue light) followed almost instantly by a tremendous crack of thunder that scared the life out of me it was so loud.  As we descended the back side of the mountains we started encountering problems with mud.  All three of us almost bit it going down one slope that was so muddy that I ended up going down part of it sideways, tires skidding the whole way.  Just shortly before it got dark, we rode into our destination, Punta Rucia, soaking wet and bikes covered in mud.  We stayed at a bed and breakfast owned by a German who was quite good cook.  The next morning after cleaning up the bikes, we set out for Puerta Plata.  We stopped by the beach in Punta Rucia, which sits in a large bay, with large boulders to the right side, and a beautiful sandy bottom.  It was Saturday and there was a fair amount of Dominicans enjoying the beach.  There were a good dozen or two stalls off to the right side selling drinks, and food, but the beach still hasn’t been developed for foreign tourists.  As we headed out, our road turned to pavement, which after the mud the day before, Justin and Paul were both glad to see (I prefer dirt!), but as the day heated up, and reflected off the asphalt, they quickly changed their tune.   After about seven hours we rode into Puerta Plata and spent the night with another fellow volunteer.  Sunday morning Paul woke up, walked out the living room, felt a little dizzy, and promptly feinted, falling flat on his face, cutting his chin.  The cut was big enough to need 3 stitches which Paul had done at a local clinic.  Since it was Sunday, the clinic was not able to get payment from Peace Corps so they held onto Paul’s ID until the next day.  So instead of heading out on the bikes, we went to the beach.  It was a local beach, nothing special, lots of seaweed floating in the waves.  We mostly sat and talked while seated at a table in the shade, enjoying the view and ocean breeze.  We set out on bikes on Monday after Paul got his ID back.  We continued up the coast a few hours to Sosua, a town originally founded by Jewish settlers.  The bay was very beautiful with sandy beaches and rock cliffs on both sides.  This was one of the earlier beaches developed for foreigners, with condominiums and hotels hanging over the rock cliffs, and dozens upon dozens of stalls lining the beach.  The town has a multitude of restaurants and bars, and a Jewish museum.  The majority of the people we saw at the beach however were Dominican families.  Justin had to get back to the capital to teach a class the next morning so we hung out at the beach until the last bus at 6pm.  Paul and I spent the night and headed up the coast the next morning.  My bike was giving me problems that we couldn’t fix, so we decided to stop and spend the night in Cabarete.  This is a very popular beach for kite boarding, sail boarding and surfing nearby.  It’s a wide sandy bay with hotels, resorts and restaurants coming right down to the beach.  Unfortunately with all the kite boards and sail boards zinging all about (I counted 76 kite boards at one moment) it is not such a great place to swim.  There were a lot of tourists; we met several people from the States, Europe, and Russia, and everything was quite expensive.  The next day, after Paul got back from surfing, we headed back to Sosua to catch a Carribean Tours bus back to the capital.  (They are Pullman style busses and can put the bikes in the compartments underneath the bus, much safer.)  It was a great trip, and I got to see a bunch of places I had never seen before.  This was not just my last bike trip in the DR, but also my last bike ride here.  Once back in the capital, I sold my bike to another volunteer so I would not have to deal with trying to get it back to my site, then in less than a month, back to the capital.   So once again, I am in that awful state of bikelessness. 

Saturday the 21^st  the soccer teams played Batey Cuchilla.  Because Cuchilla didn’t have enough players, we combined the boys and girls teams and played mixed.  Isabela beat Cuchilla 2-0.  Both the boys’ and the girls’ teams are tied for first place in the league.