Adventures in Samana!

Hi all,

So sorry for the posting delay. I guess in the future I will just eliminate this initial apology and we can all start living the truth, which is that I post once every few weeks, apparently. My excuse this time is that I have been busy having fun with gringo visitors! The first of which was my (really awesome) boyfriend, Bill.

After 2 flight cancellations and 5 days passed, he finally made it to Cabarete! And thus began our adventure...we had been planning to travel to the Samana peninsula, about 3.5-4 hours east of Cabarete, to what is famed to be pretty much the most beautiful part of the D.R., and which is famous for the humpback whales that hang out there during the month of February. After we successfully rented a car capable of making the drive (there are potholes like you've never seen before in this country) we set off on a rainy Thursday. While stopping at beaches along the way as planned wasn't so fun in the wind and rain, the drive was still breathtakingly beautiful. Much of it is right along the coast, next to nearly unpopulated beaches and through lots of rolling farmland and fields full of palm trees. It's also really fun to make this drive because you pass through so many small typical Dominican towns on the way. And you can buy really good freshly harvested roasted almonds along the side of the road, which are addicting.

After passing through the town of Samana, chowing on some empanadas and avoiding aggressive whale-watch promoters in the process, we hit up a fruit stand along the side of the road where we purchased what was probably the best pineapple I've ever tasted, grabbed some Presidentes grandes, and arrived at our hotel Ballenas Escondidas "Hidden Whales". After reading several enticing Trip Advisor reviews, along with the words "beautiful private beach" and "infinity pool", we had chosen Ballenas...while the private beach was indeed gorgeous - probably the most gorgeous I've ever experienced - (we spent the evening there, swimming and watching whales breach from the shore) our accommodations were a bit whack. i.e. we had about 2 out of 4 legitimate walls, no separate bathroom, and were being grossly overcharged. After some unpleasant words were exchanged with the French (had to mention it) owner of the hotel - we will not repeat what we called her - we left the next morning in search of a new place to stay.

We decided to press on to Las Galeras, which is the town furthest out on the tip of the peninsula. A small fishing town, it's super quiet, laid back, and beautiful. I'm so glad we ended up coming here! We easily found a great little hotel (with an incredibly nice owner...Italian), and almost just as easily walked onto the grounds of the all inclusive resort down the beach where we proceeded to play croquet and ping-pong to our hearts' delight.

The next day we went on a horseback riding trip, which was UNREAL. Not only because I could bask in my love of horses big time, and see Bill riding one ("I think I want to become a cowboy..." came about 5 minutes into the ride), but because we went to the most incredible beach. After riding for about half an hour, we arrived at Playa Madama, only accessible from the riding/hiking path we took, or by boat. It was incredibly beautiful, and the weather had finally cleared. After a swim we got a little tutorial on coconuts (the milk is NOT inside them, you have to make that...and you pretty much need a machete to harvest one yourself), and headed up a path to see the amazing view from the cliff overlooking the beach/inlet. Then we headed toward a cave, outside of which our guide dug for Taino pottery shards, which she claims to have found there before...she showed us some she had previously found, which did seem legit, and were apparently a minimum of 500 years old. The cave was really big, and we saw a bat! And also one of the scariest looking arachnids I've ever laid eyes on, which I'm still trying to wipe from my memory.

As we headed back to Cabarete, we were both so glad that our first hotel hadn't worked out (understatement) and that we ended up exploring Las Galeras; it was soo beautiful and the town was a nice quiet change from Cabarete's noise and road pollution. There were amazing views that we could now take in with clear skies and sun on the drive home, and we made it back to Cabarete just in time to to meet my aunt and uncle for a tasty dinner (not to mention the bikini contest on the beach, which both Bill and my uncle Hugh seemed to enjoy a bit too much). I'll just end the post here so we can avoid the next day's fiasco with our budget car rental place.

More soon!!

Un abrazo grande,

Laura