Having the honor of being Daniela's first visitor in the Dominican Republic (DR), I'm submitting this account of my unforgettable trip to this Caribbean paradise. I was impressed. Daniela lives a life without luxury in the hilly, remote, countryside of this beautiful nation. She is adored by all who meet her and she is quick to befriend all whom she meets. Without her pasty skin, she is easily mistaken for a walking, talking, dancing Dominican. While the country has much to offer with its beautifully green countryside, its unique culture with genuine and placid people, and its famous beaches and clear blue waters, it is also, clearly, a country still dealing with significant development problems (which Daniela does a great job of documenting in her blog). A vacationer can easily avoid seeing the real Dominican people and lifestyle by insulating themselves in their beachside resorts but a simple venture on a gua-gua (a cross between a bus and a taxi) can provide a perfect snapshot of life in the Republic… I am sincerely grateful for the privilege of experiencing your Dominican life and beautiful country, Daniela! Muchisima gracia!
Arriving in La Republica Dominicana: On December 23, I arrived at the outskirts of the Dominican Republic, JFK International Airport in New York City. At 11: 30pm the only people in the terminal were Dominicans – eagerly awaiting our flight – many families, with many children, joking around and having a good time. As we waited to take off, it became apparent that the omnipresent order and rules of the United States were not applicable on this international flight. There seemed to be no respect for the ‘fasten seat belts’ sign and for the entire flight, one gentleman stood up in his seat and cracked jokes (in Spanish) to an audience of his family and friends sitting on both sides of the six-person wide plane. Needless to say, it was a raucous plane ride, which culminated when the entire plane erupted in cheers and song when the plane touched down in Santo Domingo.
As a seasoned traveler with perfect directions and a couple years of Spanish classes, I made my way via taxi, bus, gua-gua, and motor-cycle taxi to Daniela's remote abode in the mountains west of Santiago. Driving up into the mountains in a gua-gua packed with 15, I noticed that nearly every inch of the rolling hills of the campo appeared to be being used for something. I saw beans, banana, guava, papaya, orange, lemon, and lime orchards, along with grazing cattle, horses, and goats all occupying large swaths of hillsides, which once held lush Dominican Rainforest. Once I made it to the nearby town about 15 minutes from Daniela's abode, I transferred to the back of a motor-bike taxi and bounced along a single hilly, muddy and at times dusty dirt road, which stretched for miles and was dotted with houses the way an exurban neighborhood would be in the States.
Arriving with Daniela nowhere to be found, I tried to explain in Spanish who I was and what I was doing in Daniela's family's home. Instead of sitting around waiting for Daniela, who was off buying gifts and food for the Christmas feast, I was sent off to pick oranges and mandarins with two young boys who knew not a word of English. I would soon learn that nearly everything that was eaten in the campo came from the plants and animals that surrounded Daniela's house…
I can, however, understand what a challenge it could be to eat three square meals a day which feature a starchy plant. On the other hand, I did explain to Daniela's host family that in the U.S., it is a luxury to eat the freshly picked fruits off of which their family subsists. From them, I learned that Dominicans eat seasonally. So, for example, I came during the avocado season, which meant that I lucked out with an unlimited supply of grapefruit sized avocados and fresh citrus fruits to the heart's content, but at other times of year they do without avocados.
The Neighborhood: A large room, which serves as a bar/dance club, and gathering place is located directly across from Daniela's driveway, and provides a safe place for her and her friends to dance Merengue and Bachata, the Dominican dances that originated decades ago right where she is living. There is a tiny cement block church just a few houses away and a few kilometers further is Daniela's office, where she conducts workshops and helps develop the people’s understanding of the environmental system in which they live.
Though not everyone is related in Daniela's campo, they all seemed to me to be one big family. As you all would expect, Daniela is everyone's favorite, she always makes sure to say hi and everyone feels as though they are an important part of Daniela's life. Her Brigada Verde Group (a group of youth that Daniela has organized to help raise environmental awareness) clearly teaches Daniela as much about life in the DR as she teaches them about life and the importance of being responsible for our environment.
La Ciudad (the city): Our visit to the big cities of Santiago and Santo Domingo were short but I was there long enough to see that they were not cities orientated towards tourists. Santiago is a city of Dominicans (and for that matter Haitians, who stream over the border in hopes of jobs, food, and a better life for their families). In Santiago, Daniela and I visited the cultural museum, which featured the incredibly elaborate masks that are worn on Independence Day (February 27) in a festive carnival setting. We also received an unprompted tour around the city from a local man who took us to an old prison cell and execution site turned art studio. It was nice to see some of the city and learn a useful phrase in Dominican –ahorita – which is a delicate way of saying, "I don't have time or interest in whatever it is you’re offering me."
The Samana Peninsula and Beaches: When I think of the Dominican Republic, the things I think of are: baseball, lush forests, sugar cane, and beaches. We did manage to catch some of Daniela's baseball team on a big screen TV at a bar in Santiago, and heading eastward to the beaches, I finally saw some sugar cane. For the beaches, Daniela brought me to the Samana peninsula, home to what are considered to be the most beautiful in the Caribbean. In the city of Samana, we spent the first night with one of Daniela's fellow PCVs (Rosa) where we all shared a delicious Italian meal and stories about living in the Peace Corps. The next day, after an embarrassing incident with a "malfunctioning" motorcycle that left both my ego and my foot a little wounded, Daniela and I headed out on our rented motorbike to the beach. After 20 miles of riding beside crystal clear blue water beaches our Vespa was climbing the rocky terrain of La Rancheta hotel and horse farm. La Rancheta is run by some soft-spoken and generously sun weathered French expatriates, who we found also built the beautiful hacienda when the man escorted us out of our room to find the light switch saying, “Light is here, I make mistake.” We quickly made use of our time snorkeling around the reefs of Las Galeras – seeing fish of all shapes, colors, and stripes, and beautiful wave swept corals. After a flipper clad Daniela famously did a walrus shimmy back onto our kayak, I paddled our tired bodies to shore where we dined on local delicacies: Chivo (goat) and Pescado (fish). The next day, we woke up at the crack of dawn to hike through the rainforest to one of the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen – la Madama. It was what I imagine a desert island beach to look like – white powdery sand, crystal clear blue water and massive coral cliffs on either side, featuring bat filled caves that Daniela bravely entered on her elbows and stomach. No people (of course), no buildings, no sounds of civilization. Just palm trees, crystal clear blue water and me in my birthday suit (sorry, no pictures).
Playa Madama
The El Limon Waterfall - well worth the trip into the forest!
The Best Part of the Trip: In a trip full of exciting things (many that seemed a bit dangerous at times), it's difficult to pick out the most exciting thing. But, traveling by horseback up and down steep, rocky, and half-meter high mud to a 30 meter high waterfall lagoon took the cake for me. Daniela and Rosa can attest to my shaky voice and genuine fear that my seriously undernourished horse was going to collapse in the mud (and potentially on top of me). But, when we made it to the waterfall and I had a chance to swim in the lagoon, the death defying trip for the horses and us, seemed more than worth it. Ultimately, the horseback riding typified the best part of the trip – seeing and doing many exciting new things, in a paradise like setting, speaking in heavily Dominican-Spanish accents, enjoying heavily Dominican culture, and being guided by a confident and proud United States Peace Corps Volunteer. For those of you who know Daniela, this might not need to be noted, but it is worth visiting her if for no other reason than to marvel at her ability to blend in with the people wherever she goes. Her friends all consider her Dominican and, literally, part of their families. The gua-gua drivers, restaurant owners, shopkeepers, police officers, random strangers mistake her for a tourist until she opens her mouth and they quickly realize she is to be treated like any other Dominican. In the two days in La Semana, by my account, Daniela made friends with nearly a dozen shop-keepers, rental equipment providers, restaurant staff, strangers, and fellow travelers. You can imagine why, despite her sometimes simple surroundings, there's never a dull moment for her there…
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