I haven't written a blog post in a while, so I'm going all the way back to the last very interesting thing (at least in my opinion) that I did. Driving down the road, have you ever looked over to a far off mountain (or hill) and thought, "it would be cool to walk to the top of that?" That happens to me here all the time. There are rolling hills around me here wherever I go, and I want to be on the top of all of them. That was random, now background. So far, while there haven't been groups here, I have spent most of my time on the property, therefore I haven't had the chance to meet many different Dominicans (however, that will soon change, but that's a different post). Colin, however, has been working in the school and had the chance to meet a bunch of people, one of whom is Angelo. Angelo lives near our school in La Sabana, and also right in front of some very cool geography. One day Colin asked Angelo if he would take him on a hike through the hills behind his house, and of course Angelo said yes because Dominicans are awesome. Colin mentioned to us all that he was doing this with Angelo and I was all about going as well. So when the day came (Saturday, September 6th in case you're quite curious) Colin and I each rode a motorcycle into La Sabana and set out on out adventure with Angelo and his two boys. We walked down this dirt road that Angelo informed us gets very muddy during the rainy season (just like all the roads) for about 15 minutes until we ducked under a barbed wire fence (all the fences are barbed wire here) and entered an open field with lots of grazing cows, and a mountain in front of us waiting to be climbed. We walked through the field up to the base of the mountain and Angelo made sure that we definitely wanted to continue because as he informed us at that moment, there would be no path to the summit, we would have to make it ourselves. We firmly said yes because we were both very excited, so with Angelo and his machete leading the way, we set off into the dense brush that lined the side of the mountain. At the outset, the hike wasn't challenging, but soon enough the grade got very steep, and it was completely necessary to hold any small tree or bunch of vines you could get your hands on just to keep from sliding back down the mountain. Eventually as we progressed (slowly) up the side of the mountain, we came to this low wall of jagged rocks that fit perfectly into each other like you might find in the ruins of some sort of Central of South American tribe. It had clearly been there for a very long time undisturbed, but as soon as we reached it Angelo was convinced that the indigenous Dominican people had buried their gold under this rock formation, and started to tear down the wall. He didn't find any gold, but he was so convinced that he asked me to bring back gold mining materials when I come back to the DR, it was very funny. After about an hour struggling up the pathless side of the mountain, we finally made it to the summit, which was rather disheartening because we knew there was an incredible view to be had, but it was blocked by the thick layer of trees we had just struggled all the way through. Colin decided the best way to solve this problem was to simply climb a tree, but I thought otherwise and while Colin was climbing, I decided to walk around to hopefully find a clearing. After little searching, I came to a wall of a certain type of cactus that grows here, and could see that beyond it, was the opening I was hoping for. So I tucked myself into a little ball, and sort of waddled through the only opening I could find in the 20 foot tall, wall of cacti, being as careful as possible not to make a wrong move and find my arm or butt all cut up. It was certainly worth risking my butt, because when I came out the other side (unscathed I may add), the view was as I said, worth it (check the picture). Just as any picture of beautiful scenery, it doesn't do the rolling mountains justice, I also really like that there was a storm rolling in in the picture as well. That's a scene we see quite often here.
So we took our time appreciating the scene and eating some of the carrots we packed, then I figured we'd head back down the mountain and return to where we came from then head home, but as Colin and I turned to head back, we realized that Angelo was on the next mountain over, and that our adventure was in fact not finished. After realizing Angelo was so far ahead of us, Colin, Angelo's two son's and I took off in his direction in an attempt to catch up, while also stopping along the way to appreciate where we were and what we were looking at. After ducking under many more barbed wire fences and traversing many a hill, we finally came to the best part of the afternoon. We hit another opening in the mountain and the scene that was before us was amazing. From the vantage point we were at, we had a bird's eye view of 1) Luperon (a near by town we frequent) and the ocean it sits next to, 2) La Sabana (where Angelo lives) 3) the road to and part of Cambiaso, as well as 4) the summit of the first mountain we climbed. The scene was spectacular, so we all sat, talked, and finished off the bag of carrots. By this time, the storm was really closing in on us, so we started again for Angelo's house, and after about 15 minutes more of walking, we stepped onto his front porch just as it started to downpour. We hung out for a while, talked, watched some guys play marbles, and shared some coke Colin brought because Dominicans love them some Coca Cola, even if it doesn't have rum in it. Then the storm broke and we decided it would be a good time to go because we were both riding motorcycles and it would be nice not to have to ride in the downpour.
About half way home, it started raining hard again, so we decided to stop at this little "restaurant" (I put it in air quotes cause it is literally a woman's house that she happens to sell food out of). It was great because the food was delicious, of course, but even better was that her family sat with us so we were able to talk with them while we ate. We each got a fat plate of food and the whole meal for two people costed us 90 pesos (that's just over $2 US... yeah, it's awesome). By now the sun had set and it's completely dark, and still raining, so we just had to suck it up and ride home in the rain. It was the first time I road a motorcycle in both the dark and the rain, and it is terrible. The dark actually isn't so bad, but the rain feels like little needles hitting your skin. We finally made it back to the property around 8 o'clock and were happy to be off the streets and able to change our soaking wet clothes. It was a very, very cool day and an awesome experience to be able to have. I'm sure we'll have more in the future, and I am most certainly looking forward to them.
