Last part of my Christmas break story.

After a few days in Las Galeros it was time to move on. I left my traveling buddies and headed for the east coast of the island to a area call Punta Cana. I traveled by ferry, public van, and bus all day to get to this beautiful Mansion that I had been invited to stay in with a couple other Carol Morgan employees. A parent of Carol Morgan offered it to the High School principal free of charge so he invited a couple of us to join him and his wife. We had a full staff to take care of any needs we had at anytime. I can see how rich people get use to it. Something I will never forget. Of course we tipped our wait staff very well and helped when they would let us. It was nice to have a wonderful full course meal prepared at the elegant table right when we got back from the beach. It really was like staying in a 5 star resort. I stayed in this house the last 3 days and 2 nights of my first Christmas away from home. Great adventure but missing family at the same time.




I went snorkeling in front of the house and saw this Eagle Ray. It was huge. I know it is hard to see. If you click on the pic it will be easier to see. I tried getting closer but it's tail was like 10 ft. long and I thought it was a sting ray. All I could think about was this huge sting ray and Steve Irwin (Croc Hunter)







This is the beach in front of the house. There is no sign of people anywhere, which is rare on such beautiful beaches. That point is in the process of becoming the most expensive golf resort on the island. Something like 500 billion dollars resort. That point is suppose to be hole 16 or something like that.

*Here is the main house. There are two more complexes to the right of this. We estimated that the house could sleep 22 people. More impressive than that was the fact that they owned prime beach front property for as far as you could see.

*This is looking out my bedroom door.

Last Weekend!!

Tried to go Kite Boarding but ran into one small problem. No Wind. So we chilled island style.

Man vs. Wild

I was talking with my brother last night and he said he watched the Man Vs. Wild for the Dominican Republic. I am trying to find a link to it on the internet with no luck. I did find one link to it that should work for anyone living in the U.S. Thought you all may enjoy this 19 minute video. I hope it works. I have still not seen it.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/35819/any-given-latitude-dominican-republic

Food for thought!!!!!!

No pictures just a good old reflection.

I just finished playing my roomate in ping pong and I thought to myself how much better we are getting. Bro, you better watch out.
Anyways I started thinking about how many things I have dabbled in learning this past 7 months. I can not say I am proficient in many of them but I have taken extra time to learn. Perhaps the fact that Tim and I decideded to not have a TV has helped a great deal.

Here is quick list that comes to my head:

Surfing, Kiteboarding, streets, food, ping-pong, language, grocery shopping, new job, new friends, new roommate, directions, guitar, driving D.R. style, how to blog, reading more, culture, top destinations, many new people from all walks of life, and much more.

More Las Galeros

Dominican dwelling with laundry out drying.

This sweet swiss family robinson building was on the beach called Playa Frinton. The building was not finished but somebody had put a great deal of time into making it. This is the beach where the Columbia version of Survivor was filmed

These are the two who I traveled with for a couple days.

Look close and you will see a really long green snake on this tree.

Los Galeros

A local man sitting on the beach decided to climb the tree to get a fresh cocunut. We also had fresh cocunut that we found on the ground. A little easier.

I wish these pics showed how beautiful these beaches were.

What a wonderful change of pace. We finally made it to this small fishing village known for it's beautiful beaches, one of which is rated top 10 in the world. I loved the quiet nature of it all. We stayed with a Canadian guy who was a little weird but gave us a good price for his spare room. Our goal in this town was to relax and see these wonderful beaches. One day we hiked in about 6 miles to the beach that the locals said they like the best. It was great. We then caught a bought out with a local fisherman.

Samana.

On our way to Los Galerso we stayed one night in the town of Samana. This town is famous for whale watching. During the month of February 1000's of whales come to this bay to mate and give birth to baby whales. I plan on heading back up there when the whales are in season. In fact our 7th graders are doing a field trip their this Friday. One teacher said, " It is one of the most amazing things I have seen in my life."

Internet again!!!

Where did I leave off? Ummm, well my car ride to the Airport took 8 hours, so Brian(friend from Oregon) and I decided take the bus back up to Cabarete which took 5 hours. The week before Brian got here I was able to get in 5 days of Kite boarding. Yes, I have a new hobby. I am working on it and will be posting some pictures as soon as I get some huge air, not huge hair(already working on that).

While Brian was here we mostly chilled on the beach and went to restuarants at night. His main goal was to be in the sun and I don't blame him. Therefore I do not have any pictures of us doing anything. Just picture us both bronzing in the sun and enjoying the small beach town night life. A few days after Brian left I decided I had seen enough of Cabarate for now. There was no wind which ment no kite boarding. I had been in Cabarate for 2 weeks and my Christmas break was 2/3rds over. One of my goals during this long holiday was to travel the island and with my car running poorly I had not taken advantage of the extended holiday. So that night I decided to public transportation my way home spending a week making a half circle back to the Capital.

The black van is a Gua Gua. A van that transports as many people as possible to the next town. I think Carly has taken these in Africa lately but they are called something different in Africa. Luckily for me I was waiting at the stop I met two fellow Gringos. They soon became my travel buddies for the next 3 days. The Gua Gua was loaded to the brim. We counted 20 adults,two toddlers, and everybodies stuff riding in this 15 passenger van. This meant many smelly people sitting on laps and children crawling wherever they could fit. We are taking this van to a town 3 hours away called Samana. At times we would stop and add more or drop someone off. Often times the person who needed out was a the extreme back corner which meant lots of people in and out of the van multiple times. My friend in the pictures was sitting behind me and really loved to play with my curly hair.

I had to post the picture of the Basketball court sitting right next to the water. I have seen this court a couple times and just love it. The picture was taken out of a moving van so it is not exactly centro(center).

More to come.

I have skype back up if anyone would like to catch up.

Ryan