Let me start by talking about for the first time leaving the country it really didn't hit me that I was going until 10 minutes before I was getting in the car to go to the airport. It was a strange experience I had done all of the things to prepare: packed my bags, reorganized my supply bags, got my prophylaxis meds, called the credit card company, but it just didn't really hit me the way it probably should have until I was putting things in the car. I think it's probably because I'm still a little unsure of how things are going to work here. I'm just trying to go day by day with no expectations and go-along-to-get-along until I finally have my bearings.
As far as the actual travel to the DR goes it was pretty simple and easy. The flight was technically not delayed but in reality it left almost 1.5 hours late keeping in perfect form with my international travel experiences (check out anamericaninba.blogspot.com for more info). One crazy thing happened though which may be a bit of bad karma for our trip. The group of 6 people from our trip on our flight each had two bags which were all at the maximum weight limit(most well over 50lbs). The airport staff were very accommodating when we told them what we were doing, however as we were sitting on the runway one of the airport staff informed the whole flight that our plane was not weighted and balanced correctly and was offering $500 for someone to take a different flight to San Juan and then get redirected to santo Domingo for 8 in the morning. I almost took it....If I didn't have my groups money for the taxi I most definitely would have taken it, but I sat on my hands and waited patiently. Eventually no one took the deal and the airline actually picked a name at random to take the deal. I felt awful because the man clearly did not want to change his flight especially when I normally would have taken the deal and I am sure hat our overweight bags were the problem. Such is life I guess, but I am still worried we may have incurred some level of karma that will take a while to repay. Honestly, I'm just hoping the bitch will take payments and won't demand one lump sum.
When we got to the airport it was pretty simple to get through customs. We waited at the airport and helped everyone get phones and then after a breakfast and a batido we negotiated a cab ride to our place and headed out. My first Spanish speaking snafu came in when I thought I had told the driver that we were staying at the Bella Vista and he thought that I meant the street was Bella vista. Eventually we figured it all out and made it to the place.
After settling in we took a quick walk to the beach. As we were walking to the beach cars and trucks were beepingand shouting...mostly at the girls....one particularly friendly man from the van marked Jesus Cristo El Rey called me a Maricon...I'll let you look that one up but it was a fun welcome to the country.
We kept walking, no worse for the wear, and I got my first up close view of the ocean. The ocean here is gorgeously bright blue with huge rolling waves. The sun is warm and fantastic after being in the dreary winter or Boston for the last few months. We were accosted by a few locals but I think I'll probably do one whole post on the locals that like to bother the group of us for different things.
After walking along the water for a while we found a restaurant with an outside patio. We got the local beer, el Presidente, served in a bamboo coozie. I got picadas and papas frites a go-to from my Buenos Aires days and settled in for a typical long Dominican restaurant experience.
We walked back to the hostel and waited for the other groups to arrive who did without any issues and then went out for another dinner. Another typical Dominican dinner that turned into a welcome beer and chatting session. We even got a piece of cake with dulce de leche and a little song because the waiter liked us and said it was one of our birthdays. Well that is all I have for now. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to post this tonight but either way I've written the post and it's what I'm thinking now so even if I have to post it retroactively it will not be retroactive thoughts.
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