Kat and Maria at our little hostel in Santo Domingo, first night we arrived
Thursday morning, outside the hostel getting ready to leave for Paraiso
Courtyard of the Peace Corps office in Santo Domingo
Little comedor on the road to Paraiso
Kelly (another Peace Corps volunteer), Kat, Maria, and me
Palm trees, banana trees, mountain cliffs and blue skys. Does it get much better?
More palm and banana trees
Little community near the side of the road
Sugar cane with the mountains in the background
One of the streets in Barahona, DR - a fairly large city
On the road from Barahona to Paraiso
Kat and Naranjito in casa de Kat
In Paraiso at Kat's house
Maria hanging out in the living room, just arrived
Chopping veggies for a pasta sauce in Kat's kitchen. It's actually really dark, because the only light is from the candle, but I used my flash for this picture
Tasting fresh pasta sauce w/ beer in hand. Presidente cerveza es mui bueno!
Playing cards with Kat's Princesa on the lap
Kat & Naranjito going after the brownies
Maria in Paraiso
Moto-ing to the beach at Paraiso
Beach just outside of town
Paraiso beach - pretty rocky
First time in the Caribbean Sea!
Caribbean Sea in Paraiso
just a cool view of the beach
Heuris (one of Kat's Domincan friends), Kat, me and Maria
Sea side in Paraiso
Moto-ing up to an overlook
View of the Caribbean Sea near Paraiso
Tusa driving the girls around
Baseball field in Paraiso
Another amazing view of the seashore
Pretty windy on these cliffs
Maria, Kat and Heuris
Kat and Tusa in Los Blancos
House with outdoor kitchen in Los Blancos where Kat's office is
Maria and I hanging out after riding to Los Blancos
Kat's office - she shares the building with a barber shop
Drying laundry in Los Blancos
leaving Los Blancos
going to a fruit stand to get stuff for dinner
yuca and oranges
Kat has to wear a helmet because of Peace Corps rules. The peace corps volunteers are probably the only ones who wear helmets in the entire country.
Road back to Paraiso
Hola!
Los Patos - beach and river area a short distance out of town
bringing back plantanes
Welcome to Paradise
Apartments in Paraiso right across from the beach
Maria and Kat sitting under the avacodo tree outside Kat's house
Heuris in his local police uniform and moto
Playing Dominoes at the Seaview restaurant
Swimming after a great lunch at the Seaview
Quick little hike outside Paraiso
Plot of land for sale right outside town, we didn't ask how much it was
Tusa, Kat and me
Tusa, Kat and Maria
Mashing fried plantanes (you fry them twice and mash them inbetween)
See the lantern in back on the fridge? Another dinner by candle light.
French toast for breakfast on Saturday
A trip to the market (it's just basically everybody set up on the street in Paraiso)
courtyard of a couple houses in Paraiso
Buying veggies for lunch and dinner
San Raphael - a beach about 15 minutes outside of Paraiso
View of San Raphael
Tusa, Broc and Bartolo in the waves
I haven't been to too many beaches, but these were definitely the largest wave's I've seen
Broc about to collapse after an especially large wave, Bartolo's already on the ground
Another view of the beach
Standing in the water - amazing how warm it was!
Hola from San Raphael!
Kat and Maria getting surprised by the waves
more waves
Beatiful landscape looking from the shore
Fresh water pool made from the river coming down to the sea
The water was super cold and there were little fish that would nibble your legs, so I didn't spend too much time in there
Fresh lobster caught at the beach
Drying cocoa beans and coffee beans, just on the side of the road. Not the most quality way to do it.
Lot of people outside town owned a couple horses
Another look at the beautiful landscape
Ton's of palm trees
Saturday afternoon hike
That's a cocoa pod with all the cocoa beans inside, and a truck full of avocados in the back ground
Farmer on his mule
Getting deeper into the woods
Another farmer coming down from the hills with bags loaded with fruit
Start of a campsite that the guys we were with were building
The river is blue because of all of the limestone in the ground
The start of the waterfall trail - after the steps going down we had to wade across the river
The path was recently hacked back with machete
but it was still pretty overgrown
Broc crossing a stream through the huge leaves
Miguel was one of our guides and did the entire hike barefoot!
We got a little wet because the trail was the stream.
A look back to where we were hiking through
Maria walking up the "trail"
Maria and I by the waterfall
Eating oranges on the bank of the river
lots of oranges
Tusa and Kat and another pile of oranges
Swimming in the river
Maria, Tusa, and Kat
The water was a little cold, but felt really good after a hike through the jungle on a hot day
The walk back - everybody is carrying oranges and avocados
A poinsettia tree
Tusa peeling coconuts with a machete
Cheers!
Drinking coconut water
Now it's Maria's turn
Tusa and Kat drinking coconut water
Tusa after hacking all the coconuts
Eating the meat from the coconuts
Table full of oranges and avocados
me and Kat, back at her place
Maria with Naranjito
This is the truck that 11 of us took on a two and a half hour ride to the beach. It runs on propane - that's the tank in back.
Morning in Paraiso
Maria and Heuris at the start of the day
Moco!
Driving down the highway in the back of the truck
Sunrise on the Caribbean Sea
Another great view of the road along the beach
Cemetary about 5 minutes outside of Paraiso
Maria.
Not especially comfortable, but we made it work
Maria and Tusa
Looking back at the road
Another road shot
Collecting firewood to build a cooking fire on the beach
Little town just outside of Bahía de Las Águilas
little hut on the beach
Had to have a 4 wheel drive truck for this road, otherwise you have to spend a ton of money renting a boat
About to drive down the cliff
First view of Bahía de Las Águilas
Kat, Moco at me above the bay
That's the cliff we came down
Me & Maria
Bahía de Las Águilas panorama 1
Bahía de Las Águilas panorama 2
Bahía de Las Águilas panorama 3
Bahía de Las Águilas panorama 4
Bahía de Las Águilas panorama 5
Maria walking to the sea
Me in the Bahía de Las Águilas
Heuris getting ready to go fishing - wetsuit, knife, harpoon, rope and sprite bottle
First time snorkeling!
Kat :)
Our little campsite with the fire starting to cook up lunch
Trying to catch a little blowfish
Caught him! (they're pretty slow)
The starfish were huge!
That's the little one
See??
Maria and I sitting on the beach
Maria and the blowfish
Pancho and blowfish
Maria and Kat
Look back at the campsite. Beautiful day!
Kat's out of it for awhile
Napping in the shade
And three hours later, Heuris comes back with fish for dinner
I know one was a parrot fish, I think there were some grouper in there too
Maya brought a hammock - great idea
Fresh Fish!
Pancho peeling the skin off the fish
Maria chillin in the hammock
Bahía de Las Águilas means Bay of the Eagles.
Pancho and Tusa preparing the fish
Heuris salting the fish. Lots and lots of salt.
Cooking fresh fish over a fire on a beach. It's a good life.
Fresh Lobsters!
Lounging under the tree
The beach got a little rocky in this area, lots of crabs and conch shells here.
The girls under the tree
Pancho harpooned a little sting ray
Kat and me on the beach soon to be sunset
Me, Kat and Maria towards the end of the day
Full moon rising
Maria and Kat walking down the beach
Sunset over the Caribbean Sea
Another picture of the sunset
Melissa (another peace corps volunteer), Maria, and Kat, walking the beach at sunset
Can you tell I liked the sunset?
And another
Me standing in the sea at sunset
Maria at sunset
Almost done
Melissa at sunset - she'll be working at the same cooperative as Kat, this was only her second week at her site
And it's done
The full moon over our tree
Piling back in the truck for the ride home
Next day walking down to the beach in Paraiso
Thatch huts and palm trees at the Seaview
Paraiso river/beach panorama 1
Paraiso river/beach panorama 2
Paraiso river/beach panorama 3
Paraiso river/beach panorama 4
Paraiso river/beach panorama 5
Under an almond tree, eating almonds
Kat cracking almonds
Maria and I, last day in Paraiso
Me and Kat
Cooking up some moro (Kat style) for lunch
Naranjito and Princessa playing
Playing Casino (a cool Domincian card game) under the avacado tree
Maya and Kat with Kat's pink house in the back
Kat and Naranjito
Some of Kat's neighbor's houses
Leaving casa de Kat after an amazing time in Paraiso
Main street in Barahona
Doing the tourist thing in Santo Domingo in the tomb of Juan Pablo Duarte, Francisco del Rosario Sanchez and Matias Ramon Mella
They were the three leaders of a group of patriots who regained the Dominican Republics independance from Haiti
Kat and Maria outside the tomb
Haitian/Dominican art being sold on a pedestrian mall in the capital
Tusa and Kat walking towards the first cathedral in the New World
Statue of Christopher Columbus. He first landed in Hispanola (island of Haiti and DR) and his brother Bartholomew Columbus founded Santo Domingo. It is the oldest European City in the New World
Inside the Catedral Primada de America - the first cathedral in the New World
Inside the Catedral Primada de America
Stainglass the Catedral Primada de America
Maria, Kat and me inside the cathedral
Is Columbus pointing at the Hard Rock?
Kat, Tusa and me outside the Hard Rock Cafe in Santo Domingo. We would have gone in, but it was closed. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts were there 4 days after we were.
The first treasury/customs house to the left and Christopher Columbus' house in the distance
Christopher Columbus' house to the right. Notice the Pepsi cart and the Coke Christmas tree in the background.
Columbus' house. Through the gate on the right and across the street is the river that used to be the main port in the DR
Maria in front of Columbus' house. It's now a Christopher Columbus museum.
Remains of the first hospital in the New World
We asked this fruit cart lady where the best place for a good Dominican style lunch was and she took us here. It was awesome. Tons of food.
ACE is the place - even in Santo Domingo. I bought a set of dominoes here that was 100 pesos cheaper than the guy selling outside on the street with his little tourist trap cart.
And we're headed back to the States. The end to an incredible trip - you can be sure that I'll be back.
