"Y yo quiero todo el mundo"

Our time in the Dominican Republic was one big adventure. We thought we were heading off to a relaxing beach holiday and we couldn't have been more wrong! The past three weeks were full of good and not so good adventures, some moments of fear, lots and lots of laughter and having fun and meeting amazing and lovely people.

Las Galeras

My last post was about the drawbacks we experienced in Las Galeras but our time there actually gave us so much more than that. We spent 8 nights in the remote pueblo, of which the first two at an Italian-Dominican couple's house. This was the couple that helped us when Annika was sick and gave us an insight of what life in the Dominican Republic is like. The most lovely Caterina was our organisator and translator both linguistically and culturally. It was great to hear her thoughts as a European woman and we valued our talks with her very much. Her husband, Rivier, took us horseback-riding and whale-watching, adventures I was not quite physically prepared for! He sang us a serenade, and used some white magic to answer some questions we had of our lives. (The answers will remain secret and to be only known by the people present that moment.) Their son, little 4-year-old Francesco, was the light of our day and I could have spent hours playing and talking Spanish with him.

Las Galeras has some beautiful, deserted beaches but we only got to visit a few (Playa Colorado, Playita and Frontón.) Next time, then.

A Spanish lady building a house made of tires.

Horse-back riding like a pro! At Playa Colorado.

Family trip to Playa Frontón.

Some of the Las Galeras village.

White magic happening.

El Limon

Our short, 3-night stay in the El Limon village had an adventurous start, when as soon as we arrived to the village we were recommended to leave to escape the demonstration the villagers were to have the next day. Well, we didn't and stayed safe in the amazing Samana Eco-lodge, away from all the hastle in the village. During the one day demonstration the villagers set up petrol bombs to blow up electricity cables and so cutting off all power from all the villagers for 2 or 3 months. They also cutt off the roads to and from the village so for the day no traffic, except a few motoconchos, could pass. The demonstration was against the electric company's ridiculously high prices which are apparently 3 to 4 times higher than in the rest of the country. Luckily our lodge used solar power only, so the demonstration didn't affect us at all. It was a strange day, sitting around in a bikini, listening bombs go off and people shooting 500 meters away. After it had all settled, we went to the street to see what had happened and it was quite a sight: cables torn down, glass shattered everywhere, people sitting around on the streets having beers, children playing around. Just a typical Dominican day, right?

El Limon had an amazing, long, brown colored beach but we only got to see it for a few minutes. Instead, we visited the cascadas, waterfalls of El Limón, and had a sweaty hike in the jungle, crossing rivers and slidigin in the mud since it was raining a lot! And what a sight it was once we finally reached the biggest waterfall! ¡Dios mio!

Hanging out at the eco-lodge.

Our hut.

The wreck and kids playing in it.

Surprise!

Tropical hygiene at its worst.

Las Terrenas

Again, just a stop for couple of nights in the more touristy Las Terrenas with no brach time but so much everything else!
A sweaty night at a dance club in the rhythms of bachiata, tasty Italian cooking and the best day in the Dominican Republic. From El Limón, we doubled our group size, taking Annika's work mate and our new Italian friend, with us. We experienced a new kind of calmness in traveling since, our Italian friend being a man, all the hissing and 'hola'ting and attention we had gotten from the local men stopped to almost nothing. What a feeling of freedom!

And what about our best day? It was visiting the impressive Los Haitises nationalpark! Mangrove forests, cool birds, caves with the indigenous people's, Taino's, petroglyphes. A great, English speaking (woohoo!) guide and cool stuff to explore. It was the most expensive trip we took but worth all the money spent.

The 'bat man'.

The god of rain, crying. Two suns and two birds.

I know that feeling, bro!

Just chilling.

Una familia loca.

Birthday celebration.

Santo Domingo

We only spent a night in Santo Domingo before our flight to Guadeloupe, and didn't really have time or energy to explore much what there was to explore. Noisy, busy, sketchy, trashy. We were not impressed. We were warned a lot about the city by locals who told us we should only stay in the Zona Colonial, colonial zone, since there we would be safe. We had a nice hostel, Island Life Backpacker's Hostel, and being completely sick of moving around and traveling, we just walked around shortly and saw a few nice colonial buildings.

Some of the nicer houses in Santo Domingo.

Things I will remember from the Dominican Republic:

- The people we met. The Italian-Dominican couple's family helping us, guiding us, taking care of us. Explaining things to us. Francescos yells of excitedness (oh, how I miss that little boy)! The other travelers sharing us their adventures.
- The nature. The jungle, the blue sea. The birds (pelicans, fregats, humming birds). The loudest crickets I've ever heard, so loud they hurt my ears. The fireflies in El Limón.
- The noise, the trash lying around.
- The easiness of public transportation.
- The scary moments: horse-back riding (or sliding?) in the muddy and rocky steep hills. The scariest boat ride ever in the huge, huge waves. Being sick in a foreign country.
- Speaking Spanish and starting to get better at it. So rewarding!
- Comida tipica, which I got completely sick of and maybe even a bit sick from.
- The music. It was loud and part of our every day life. The same songs over and over and over...
- Being part of a white magic session and getting to hear secret stuff of my future life. One of the coolest things ever!
- The local way of trying to attract someone's attention (like we are some kind of dogs?). Being totally exhausted of it.
- All the interesting stuff we learned about the culture. That they still use white and black magic. That, if you want to make a love potion (to make someone fall in love with you), you make tea of your dirty underwear and make your loved one drink it. True story. That a big part of the people can't read or write.

Our time in the Dominican Republic was not at all we had imagined. Not a relaxing beach holiday but something very different. What the country offered us best, was the company of the people we met and the talks we had with them. "Y yo quiero todo el mundo", "And I love the whole world", was only one sentence said by one of the people we met, but it really stuck in my head, and it was a perfect thing to say, in a perfect moment, at a perfect night to remember.

¡Yo quiero todo el mundo tambien!

Off to new countries and new adventures,

Riikka

Fear and loathing in Las Galeras

The past few days have been somewhat more challenging than we ever could have imagined and haven't been not quite as was planned. Leaving from the town of Samaná, only a minutes before we hopped on the guagua, I burned my leg on a steamy hot pipe on my motoconcho. It only touched my leg for less than a second but I was immediately worried. Straight after, all our stuff was thrown on the top of the guagua, and along went all my medicine and the first aid kit I so preciously value now. There was no chance for first aid, no chance to pour cold water on the burn (since I didn't realize room temperature water would do as well), also because we were squeezed in so tightly with the other people there was no space for any sort of action. All we had was sun lotion spf 30 so that's what we put on as a first aid, having no better idea of what to do.

The burn had a pretty grose blister which popped on the first night here in Las Galeras. It turned out I had burned away the first layer, epidermis, of my skin and, utilizing the always reliable Internet sources, I diagnosed myself with a second degree burn. Not really understanding the possible severity of having a second degree burn here in the tropics, nor the chance of infection, I kept going as usual. After no signs of improvement, we consulted Annika's friend, a professional in burn care, at home. The burn was to kept clean and covered at all times, no swimming allowed (damn it!), and signs of infection carefully monitored. I drew a circle around the burn area to assess infection (if the redness starts to spread out) and we used all our best skills to make do with what equipment we have. We were out of proper size wound dressings in a few days and are now cutting pieces of plaster to cover the burn. The challenge is the size of the burn, about 3 x 5 cm, of which the skin is almost completely burned off (yes, it looks very disgusting). If only we had been able to do a proper first aid! The pharmacies here don't have any wound dressings (they don't have much of anything else either) but thanks to careful planning and economical use of the first aid kit the things we have is just about enough until Sunday when we will meet a friend bringing us all the good stuff from home. Last night we also discovered the healing power of nature, cutting some aloe vera from the garden and carefully trying it on the skin. After noticing the effect it had overnight, the first minimal signs of improvement after 6 fearsome days, I am now challenging the surgeon in Finland who said I might actually need surgery to make the burn heal. Antibiotics in my pocket, fresh aloe vera on my skin, a los díos le pido, por favor, please make me recover from this without infection or surgery. Or at least, allow me to swim for the rest of the trip!

Oh but there's more! If my burn is the loathing part, the forces of nature provided the fear part for us as well. Annika got really, really sick. We're still not sure of the origin, since we've been eating pretty much the same food and so far I'm okay but it definitely was a bacteria from hell. Not being able to keep any food or drink inside of her, she was sick for two nights and two days, with high fever, eventually making her so weak she could almost not speak. At that point I started to wonder if I should call an ambulance. But thanks to our most lovely neighbour, our first host here in Las Galeras, who called the doctor for a consultation and happened to have one portion of electrolyte drink, and who organised a ride for me to the local clinic to get the right antiobiotics (for 0,09 euros, seriously), she is now slowly getting better. And she's hungry!

Dear diary, here's some travel ABC's for the next time:

- Always, always be ridiculous of how much medicine or first aid stuff you pack. Don't trust the local pharmacies or hospitals to be able to provide you what you need. You really never know what might happen even if you try to be careful of what you do and how you travel. Pack enough hand sanitizer, antibiotics, plaster, pain killers etc. Next pharmacy I get to, I'm buying any wound care things they have, any electrolyte drinks they might have. Don't think you won't get sick if you haven't been sick before. If you're having second thoughts about taking something with you, just take it. Oh I wish I had brought the extra wound dressing, hand sanitizer and the electrolyte drink I so trustingly left home.
- Be careful of what you eat. Drink enough and have plenty of drinking water with you.
- Have a stash of salmiakki for the bad day.
- Have a travel insurance.
- If there is no Internet connection, have basic knowledge of basic first aid and how to treat illnesses. If you have Internet connection, still have basic knowledge of basic first aid and how to treat illnesses.
- Have a dictionary or a basic vocabulary to explain what is wrong and what you need in the local language.
- If you're dehydrated, make yourself an ORS-drink: 1 litre of water, 1 teaspoon of salt, 8 teaspoons of sugar (kiitos Riku). And drink it!

Photos of my burn wound only to be posted privately and not for the faint hearted!

The Las Galeras health clinic, free of charge.

Pharmacy of the clinic.

Food pyramid.

Wound care in the tropics.

See someone?

Use what you have.


Besos,
Riikka

First taste of La Republica Dominicana

"Don't worry baby!" was what the border control guy told me when I couldn't get my email to work in the barely functional airport wifi at Punta Cana. We had just landed after a pretty exhausting 10 hour flight and I hadn't remembered to print out my visitor card (aka an unofficial tourist visa for 10 USD). I had a copy of it on my phone though but since they wanted to collect all the papers the guy told me I should email my card to the border control. After some sweaty 10 or 15 minutes the wifi still wasn't strong enough but luckily the guy let me go through. (And yes, after having access to a better connection the email was sent through so I'm not in the country illegally!)

This was the first lesson to learn about the Dominican culture: people will help you. You don't even necessarily need to ask for it, they will offer it, arrange things for you and take care of you.

After spending a week on the island, the country is only now starting to show what we were expecting. So far we have mostly experienced what not to do. Our first days we spent in the very touristy Punta Cana, in the Bavaró area. Sure it was nice to hit the beach after spending months in the winter darkness but the resort filled, expensive and noisy place surely was not what we had in mind. Especially when arriving totally jetlagged, ready to go to bed and the hotel next door is playing the loudest and worst music you can imagine until 3 am. Let me tell you, it was a restless night.

After spending 5 nights in Bavaró (not much to tell you about it), we had overcome the jetlag and were happy to move on. We took two busses (and adventure in itself) to Santa Barbara de Samaná. Samaná is a peninsula in the North East of the Dominican Republic and definitely offers 'la vida más autentico dominicana', a more authentic dominican life. Santa Barbara de Samaná is the biggest town on the peninsula, with 108 000 inhabitants probably spread out on a larger area since the town itself didn't seem that big. Samaná is a harbour town offering several excursions to Los Haitises National Park, whale watching trips etc. It's main (the only?) attraction is a combination of bridges leading, well, nowhere. Apparently there is a rumour that either the bridges were built by the government to attract tourists or they were built by a drug cartel. Nevertheless, they are quite weird but adventurous at the same time. Long enough to spend 3 hours exploring the exotic concrete buildings built on the small islands in between the 3 bridges.

Again, a little bored and happy to leave the town, we took a guagua (a local mini bus or a van, depending on the style), to Las Galeras, to the Northern most village of Samaná, and finally feel like we are getting to experience what we wanted. More on that later.

Things we have experienced so far:

- Dominican kindness and helpfulness.
- Taking rides on motoconchos (motorcycle taxi), the best, fastest and coolest ride ever!
- Local busses that go right on time.
- Taking rides on guaguas, squeezing in 12 people in a space meant for 6 or 8 (I'm guessing this is still quite few people).
- Comida tipica: rice and beans, fried chicken (pica pollo). Price for one serve 125 or 150 pesos (2,25 or 2,70 euros).
- El Presidente beer, 'El orgullo dominicana', the dominican pride.
- Lots and lots of attention from the local men (we find this mostly annoying). Marriage proposals still count as 0, dance proposals 1.
- Upsetting two salesmen for not offering enough money for their products.
- Speaking Spanish as the only common language between us and the locals. Sí sí!
- Rhythms of the Caribbean: merengue, bachiata. The same songs over and over which we still find amusing.
- Tropical rain and feeling chilly at times. Winter is coming! (It's winter here now.)
- Night noise: motorcycles, cars, disco, bars...
- Burning myself on a steamy hot pipe on a motoconcho.

I think the beach missed me too. At Bavaró beach.

!Feliz año nuevo!

From our flat in Bavaró.

Happy tourist on a bridge.

Comida tipica.

Empty Pueblo Principe in Samaná. Seemingly built only for tourists.

Market place and guagua station in Samaná.

At Samaná bridges.

New adventures on a guagua.

Besos,

Riikka