We first stopped at the Cueva de las Maravillas (the Cave of Marvels). It’s this old, cool (as in cold, which was lovely), underground cave (clearly) that’s filled with ancient Taino petroglyphs (drawings). The Tainos were the native people of Hispaniola like a million years ago. Or a few thousand. I’m not taking any history classes while I’m here, can you tell? Anyway, we weren’t allowed to take photos, but here are some I’ve stolen from the internet-
Cave paintings
Then we headed to the Altos de Chavón, which, in my guidebook, is described as: A bizarre replica of a Tuscan hillside village, the cluster of stone houses and plazas is both an arts center and a major tourist magnet. The imitation has attracted criticism, but many love the village’s old-world air.”
Side note: Read the last sentence I wrote before quoting the book. See the use of commas? In Spanish, there’s not a lot of comma usage. Why, I don’t know, however, personally, I think commas are really great, so I think that maybe, Spanish speakers, or writers, I mean to say, should use them more, okay?
Anyway, it’s the site of a huge amphitheater and some pretty awesome views. There was also a really nice jewelry shop that I just had to go into. I’ve read a lot in my guidebooks about the amber that is sold in this country, and how important it is to buy the real stuff- not fake amber sold to you by guys also selling hemp anklets and bottles of rum.
This shop was the real deal- I saw some really nice earrings and I was ecstatic when the woman in the shop told me that it cost 125. However, after I pulled out my pesos, she was like “Err… dolares americanos…” Big difference. 125 pesos vs. 4,637.50 pesos. I do want to buy amber jewelry eventually though, but it might be difficult to find another legit place close by.
The amphitheater
After this stop we headed to our hotel, which was in the smallish village of Bayahibe. The hotel itself wasn’t really that great. I was all excited because our hotel in Santo Domingo was awesome (most notably, the showers actually had water pressure and the water was warm when you wanted it to be warm and cold when you wanted it to be cold. Which in this country is pretty rare), but this one was kinda subpar. No wifi (que triste), crappy water pressure, and loud AC. But at least there was AC. So I’m going to stop whining.
After dinner, most of our group went walking/swimming along the beach. For the most part, we were the only ones out there, which was pretty cool. I got to use my French later that night though- I was out getting a soda later (en serio) and there was a French-from-France guy creepin’. At first a bunch of us were talking to him, but then we realized that he was insane and we headed back to our hotel. He followed. However, our hotel was being watched by an armed guard. Take that, French guy.
The next morning, after a desayuno americano (I had pancakes) at the hotel, we headed out to catch the boat to la Isla Saona. I was less than excited when I heard that the boat ride was going to be an hour and 45 minutes long… but then I saw our boat. I know absolutely nothing about boats, so I can’t tell you what type of boat it was, but I can tell you that it was 1. big (ish) 2. there was a solid floor-like part where people were dancing and 3. there was a netty area where you could lie down in the sun.
Netty part of the boat
Ps there was free soda on the boat, just pointing that out.
An hour and forty-five minutes later, we arrived in heaven (to heaven? At heaven? Prepositions, what?). It was paradise. I can say that I’ve hit up some pretty nice beaches in this country, and they’ve all topped the ones that I’ve seen in the states (Santa Monica, other Cali ones, Maine, Massachusetts, Jersey Shore, somewhere in Florida…). However, this beach made all the other ones in the DR look like the Jersey Shore-during-the-time-of-the-tide-when-there-are-stinky-jellyfish-everywhere-and-it’s-freezing in comparison. Awkward phrasing but you get what I mean. It was gorgeous.
Perfection.
The water was warm, there were shells everywhere, the sand was soooo soft, etc etc. I don’t really remember why, exactly, but I thought that it would be a good idea to “exfoliate” with this perfect sand. However, forcefully rubbing handfuls of wet sand into your face and onto your arms can do more harm than good, at first. My face was burning for like 30 minutes. Today, however, it is very smooth and exfoliated (what?). I think everyone should try it. Only with sand from la Isla Saona though. I should bottle it and sell it to Neutrogena or L’Oreal or something. Anyway…
We took a speedboat back, and stopped halfway to swim in a “natural pool”. We were a couple hundred meters from the beach, but the water was only about 3 feet deep. And clear as anything. One of the guys in my group found a starfish, which was awesome. It felt like a rock though, and wasn’t all squirmy and sucky as I thought a starfish would be.
By this time we were all reallllllly tired and hopped on the bus to head back north. The ride wasn’t as bad this time, because we were able to avoid the heavy heavy heavy rush hour traffic in Santo Domingo. Sleeping on a bus is never comfortable, but I was able to contort myself and managed to get about 10 minutes of sleep. Can’t help but to remember the 2007 band trip to Atlanta via bus. To save money, we slept on the bus (as it was moving) one night. I had the ingenious idea to claim the aisle in front of the bathroom. I was able to completely lie down, yeah, but even that doesn’t make up for being stepped on by multiple band kids trying to reach the bathroom every fifteen minutes…
That was the best bus ride ever, though. I mean, you can't beat playing cards on half of an old pizza box that is duct taped to four seat arms in the center aisle. You just can't.
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