Semana Santa

Traveling! I have been doing a LOT of traveling lately ~ Dominicans have a lot of “Semana Santa” (the week before Easter) off, and that was my Spring Break. During this time, I heard that there was a blackout at the airport, and after about an hour of detaining all the incoming visitors from other countries, Dominican airport security decided to just let everyone go through anyway. Safe! I took off for Spring Break early, and went to Punta Cana, which was beautiful and touristy. From there, I took a car to Sabaná de la Mar, where I was told to wait for a ferry to take me to Samaná – a little Dominican island famous for its beaches. Some friendly Dominican men told me I could wait with them for the ferry, and were nice enough to share their Presidente with me. Turns out, these guys were the captain of the ferry and his “first mate”, who were having a great time getting drunk before setting off on the boat ride. It was a nice little visit, but I eventually grew impatient.

“When are we going to leave?” I asked them.

“Whenever we finish this,” the first mate replied – a typical Dominican answer.

The captain grunted in agreement as his eyes rolled gently to the back of his head and he nodded along lazily to the merengue music blasting behind him. I was so happy to be entrusting these men with my life.

Finally on board, I was invited up into the captain’s area and asked several times whether or not I had a boyfriend, to which I obviously replied that I was happily married, thank you, and headed to the back of the boat where two huge fish had just been caught. Rather than kill these fish right away, however, the crew preferred to watch them flop around the deck – spraying blood on my fellow passengers (fortunately, however, not me. I headed to the front of the boat and sat with a European couple who had so thoughtfully brought their 2-week old baby on board.)

Samaná was beautiful! I will attach pictures! I was meeting friends in Las Galeras though, and had (obviously) missed the last bus there. Fortunately I made another friend – a motorcyclist who offered to drive me the “30 minutes” to Las Galeras.

Over an hour later, I made it, as did the pound of dust caked on my face and hair.

Playa Rincón in Las Galeras was worth all the crazy travelling, though – I have never been to a more beautiful or remote beach in my life.