Santo Domingo to Samana, our first real adventure.

After touring the Zona Colonial with Marino, a good friend from Harvard, seeing the Fortaleza Ozama where Columbus´s son was rumored to have been kept, the Catedral Primada de America (the oldest catedral in the western hemisphere), and walking through the parque colon (although we unfortunately could not enter where Columbus was buried because I was wearing shorts), we decided to pay a visit to a friend of a friend´s friend, Shanna. Here we found an amazing young family, the wife being Shanna, an ex peace core volunteer and proud new mother, and her husband, a Dominican going to school in Santo Domingo. They treated us with an ultimate dinner which was soooo ridiculously good. Such wonderful people in a town full of strangers. We cooked dinner in the dark as there was no power (surprise surprise), but it was a great meal and good company.

Me and Marino at the Fortaleza

Unfortunately, while roaming the streets of SD, I had to unload the monster in the middle of the street next to a highway. The monster is HEAVY, and I decided that I was carrying waaay too much extra superflous stuff like pants and shampoo. My load considerably lighter, we carried on.

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After spending the night at Senor Don Nelsons (really, the name says it all), we embarked on our first real adventure, to the city of Samana. It doesn´t sound likea big deal to transfer busses and head only five hours north, but, getting anywhere here is always quite the ordeal. We made it to the first bus stop on our first try, in a relatively nice gua gua where we had just enough room to wiggle our feet if we so desired. The remarkable part is we made it on our first try, so, no complaints there.

The transfer was little harder. We got off at bus stop number 9 which ended up being the wrong stop. Joe and I walked to the next stop, and arrived at 950, just in time to catch the 10 bus. We waited with the soothing sounds of a generator and bachata in the background. We finally made it, and are currently in Samana!

Samana is the coolest little town. The buildings look like lego pieces stuck on the sides of the hill, and literally, the streets are built on top of one another connected by long stairways. The people are the friendlist that I have ever met, and when I approached a lady to ask for directions, she kissed me on both sides of the cheeks! Me, a perfect stranger!

We ended up at a casino where I promptly lost all of my money and vowed never to go back. Joe won 5 dollars and was pretty happy about that, but, I really do not want to gamble again ever.

At night, we played an intense game of volleyball, five on five with 8 big guys. Although there was a crowd of people waiting a turn to play, they put us right in the game, and Joe got a few spikes in before it got too dark to see.

Great town, great people, and the days keep getting better and better.