I have been slacking on the updating....

Last weekend the program went on the last real excursion of the program to Samaná, this beautiful place in the southeastish of the island. It is on a peninsula which forms a bay with the national park, los haitises. We stayed in the cutest hotel with a pool in the middle and apartments/bungalows surrounding it. We were about 25 steps from the beach, which was gorgeous. We were in the place called Las Terrenas, which in my guide book is called one of the most beautiful places on the island.

On Friday we got there (4 hour drive) and then went hiking to find la casada de Limón. Waterfaaaaall. So awesome. There was this vibrant green moss/plants growing on the rocks where the water was falling and the water was nice and refreshing. There was a hidden cave you could go in, it was great. That night we walked into town to see if anything was going down. Nothing was. haha, it is pretty small.Walked along the beach, and called it a night.

The next day we went to los haitises. I cannot do its beauty justice in words. You have to take a boat to reach it because basically it is rock islands big and small in the middle of the water with cool stuff growing on them and mangrove forests in the water and caves and humongous birds flying overhead. We saw pelicans and pelican babies, vultures, other birds that I only know the spanish name for...We went on a kayak tour of the mangrove forests and on a cave tour. Oh, at the beginning of the trip I realized my camera was almost out of batteries, so I had to rely on other people's picture taking abilities, which is annoying.

Then that night was Halloween. I forgot the facepaint and fake blood mom sent me so my friend and laura set off down the dirt road to buy candy to make it more halloween-y. No sooner had we walked ten feet when what appeared to be a motoconcho (like a taxi but motocycle) pulled up and the guy asked if we wanted to get on. We debated if we wanted to pay, so we asked how much it was and the guy was like its free, im not a motoconcho im a crazy white haired italian man who lives down the road! (not exactly in those words hahah) We learn that he speaks italian, french and spanish, but no english. So we get on and he gives us a tour of the entire little town, tells us where people go, etc. We told him of our mission to get candy, but he misunderstood dulces to mean cakes and pastries, so we arrive at a bakery. Luckily there was a colmado across the street so we were able to get candy. It was a perfect dominican halloween, riding in the summer air on a moto past the palm trees. Both nights we had dinner under the stars with the waves crashing right next to us.

Mangrove forest
literally humongous vine root thing
glimpse of the caves
los haitises
beach jump!
waterfall jump!
Our hotel