Mon amie Anna m’a beaucoup influencée, en particulier pendant 2005 jusqu’à 2008 quand j’était à mon autre université. Je fait sa connaissance d’elle parce que ma camarade de chambre allait au lycée avec elle. Anna était, et elle est encore, la personne la plus ouverte, franche et agréable que je connais, mais au même temps, elle maintient une personalité très enthousiaste, drôle et intelligente. Quand nous parlons, c'est comme tout le monde cesse d’exister ; il y a tant de références, sentiments et information partagés que je ne pense pas qu'il soit possible pour les autres à comprendre complètement, ou au moins, à comprendre à notre niveau. D’habitude au passé, elle me fait penser de voyager, des autres cultures, d’apprendre les autres langues et, surtout, de maintenir une personnalité très agréable, ouverte et sociable. J’ai pris ces traits d’elle il y a quelques années et, encore, j’essaie souvent vivre de ceux.
Anna ne m’a jamais donné des conseils directement, ce que je admirais et j’ai appris d’elle. Je m’ai rendu compte qu’il faut qu’on soit très optimiste pour avoir la capacité d'avancer socialement. Mais, parallèlement, il est nécessaire qu’on ne prétende jamais d'être quelqu’un qu’on n’est pas. Aussi, bien qu’on puisse faire des décisions qui ne sont pas bonnes du tout, il continue d'être indispensable qu’on entretienne les mêmes objectifs dans la vie. Plus que tout mes autres amis, Anna reste en contact avec la plupart de ses amis. J’admire ça et je veux être comme elle à cet égard. En fait, je suis très désolé que je ne lui ai pas téléphoner depuis plusieurs mois... donc je le fait tout de suite!
man, i just relaaaaaxed here in boca chica. besides the offer to smuggle drugs in my butt (see previous post), everything was muy tranquiiiilo. i spent 6 hours at the beach today, at least.
so i'm scorching my skin on the beach, trying to soak up these last rays, and this dominican guy comes up to me. he's like "hey man, what up?" we start talkin about the beach. he then says "so u like marijuana, no? yah-man haha". i said "ya, it's pretty sweet". then we start joking around about how fun getting high is, laughin it up like amigos would. then he said something i didn't understand at the end of the laughing session... i was like "sí, sí, claro que sí", like it was all good. then, as if it was no big deal, he was like "ok, well i'll give u the drugs and then $10,000 after you land". my eyes burst open. i exclaimed "qu-qu-queeee???". he laughed. then i realized what he was saying, so i responded with "oh shit man, i didn't know what you were saying. i can't smuggle, i'm a teacher, i got all this shit goin on, u know? sorry". the he left.
WOW.
a totally tranquil conversation turned into a crazy intense drug smuggling operation like THAT. i have never been offered to do that. oddly enough, in some ways i feel cool/honored that he would pick me. but i also feel like he thought i was a fucking moron.
i've seen too many failed attempts/kidnappings on different tv shows that have scared me straight. holy shit.
I’ve been planning on early starts, but this Caribbean vibe has gotten to me. I got out of Las Terrenas at 11am, and instead of taking that ridiculous road back across the mountains, I drove the extra 40 minutes around the whole Samaná peninsula. Twas probably one of my best choices so far on this trip…. just fields & fields of palm trees bordering isolated beaches.
Every few miles there was a coconut stand with a couple houses, but really not much society.
Once I got outta the peninsula and entered the interior, I really wasn’t too sad that I had left the beach; the mountains I was driving through were lush, wet... dank, if you will... rolling hills. It reminded me of a hike Joe & I did on Oahu a few years ago. There were rice patties in full bloom and fruit stands all the way as I stared at these cloud-absorbed peaks in the background…. I actually stopped a few times just to take a good look, it was just so pretty.
I stopped in San Francisco de Marcorís for about 1.5hrs. It was a lot bigger than I expected, and I just strolled the streets in my grungy clothes, hoping that my skin's white glow wouldn’t give me away. But, again, just head nods, smiles, and “hola” made me feel right at home… everyone hear is just ready to make you feel great. I was afraid to take my camera out at this market because it was so incredibly dirty and the people looked like a camera like mine would pay a year of their rent. I ended up saying hi to one guy and it all took off from there; 4 or 5 Dominicanos wanted to know everything about me right away, wondering why I was by myself here, what my favorite baseball team was, if I’ve been to NY, why I speak Spanish so well (which I answered “I realize now that I speak Spanish but not so much Dominican” lol), and why I was alone.
A lot of them would catch my attention with a “Whats up?”, “Duuuuuude”, “American rules”, “Gringo I love you”, etc… Once I turned in the direction of the voice, the group would start laughing at me, but all in good fun, as in they had uncovered my (not-so-hidable) identity. There were these sweet ass hammocks on the highway that I wish I would have bought. I just justified not doing it because I am pushing the airplane carrying limits already & I am a cheap bastard. But fuck (ha)…. I wish I woulda!
Once in Jarabacoa, I walked the whole town in 2 hours. It’s pretty cool, isolated in the mountains, and the rain was off and on all day, although I didn’t mind it. Most of the time it was just misty.
I also conducted my first ‘real’ sociolinguistic interviews: 4 old locals from 60-81 years old! They were happy to talk about anything, even the dictatorship & Haitians. Twas a great experience! There is definitely an art to that type of interview with strangers. You must keep them motivated to speak and stay interested, but also not take over the conversation, which is hard with Hispanics because the style makes me feel like I need to interject and overlap. One gave me a picture of himself that was 40 years old and then let me take another of him. It's funny how some of them try and look badass tough in their pics. I'm like "uno, dos, tres, juisqui!", and they don't smile at all haha... He said he didn’t care who knows his name or sees his pic, just the same as another one of them (I won’t put their names, just their pics bc they are sweet):
Before I left Jarabacoa, I visited the Salto de Jimenoa Uno, which wasn’t the one that was in the opening scene of Jurassic Park (that is Salto de Jimenoa Dos… damnit). Still absolutely breathtaking! (40m high)
I took off from there in hopes of reaching Constanza, a town where apparently there is a considerable amount of Eastern European immigrants (random), strawberry fields, coffee plantations on the sides of hills and a different ‘breed’ of Dominican. Well, the fuckin road was under construction so I couldn’t go; instead, I just headed south and aimed for the beach. It’s too damn bad I couldn’t avoid Santo Domingo because once I entered that clusterfuck during rush hour, 2.5hrs of honking and fighting for lanes put me in a pissy mood.
"ive never seen a 2 lane road become 3 cars + a motorcycle wide, NOR seen people use the oncoming traffic lane to pass others!!! #quitefucked", tweet
Hispanics (yes, all of them) are incredibly bad about being precise with directions: “Oh ya, just head down that way and you make a little turn, you’re there already”… ummm, what the fuck? I don’t think any Hispanic would even object to how vague they can be when trying to explain driving directions (correct me if I’m wrong, hispanos!). I prefer Anglos in this situation: “Go 3 blocks, turn left on Jefferson street, then turn right at the third light, which is 5th street, then continue for 2 miles until you see a sign for the highway, then the ramp is on your left.” Well, anyways, I arrived in Boca Chica, just east of Santo Domingo, and you don’t know how excited I was to see “Hotel Mango”: parking, internet, bar. A tall white Austrian dude with a sweet beard greeted me, and now I am parked safely and chugging away at this beer & WiFi. Well, tomorrow will be dedicated to the beach and the beach only! After that, 2.5 days in Santo Domingo. Can’t wait to visit the first street, church, and school in the Americas!!
i landed in santo domingo, got the car, and got the hell outta there. i went to bayahibe in the SE corner of the island; i want to save the big city for last. bayahibe is really only a few streets that are really 'usable' for the foreigner, the rest being residential and spread out quite a bit. it's kind of isolated, not much more than a store, a few restaurants for tourists, an internet place, a pirate ship and then just a bunch of beaches... BEAUtiful beaches! the people were very welcoming, i felt their caribbean vibe right when i got there. my hotel was RD$700, about US$27... a little more than i wanted, but still, i was just happy to start my trip!
there were plenty of snorkling and scuba diving opportunities, so i signed up right away. my second day we went to isla catalina, an island without inhabitants about 40 minutes away from bayahibe by boat. on my boat there were some americans, french, russians, argentinians, dutch & haitians (which i thought were on bad terms with the dominicans, but apparently not so much here!). la isla catalina has that pristine white sand one always imagines in the caribbean, plus this emerald-turquoise-aquamarine-sea blue blend that kept me in awe the whole time i was on the beach. i saw a bunch of cool fish while snorkling; my fav was this little guy no bigger than your hand that was coal black with glowing electric blue spots... he almost looked radioactive! (wish i had an underwater camera...) they served us a great meal on the island (a rice blend, salad, grilled chicken & steak) and even gave us rum! it was funny to see another boat of tourists with life jackets on, all strapped in as we were getting our second rum & coke on the house!
i also met this american family in which the girl (17ish, as white as can be, blue eyes, blonde hair, near albino) was volunteering at an orphanage in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Her parents were visiting here and had taken the bus from there. i mentioned how sad it was to see all the poverty here in the DR, and they said it was nothing like what they saw in Haiti... like there were actual buildings in the capital!! Her dad said that he had visited Haiti years before, mentioning how it was like that place had been "hit my an earthquake". Well, he really ate his words on that one; i can only imagine how it is now.
the day after catalina i headed for las terrenas, a beautiful beachtown in the NW state of samaná... but not after i had to replace a flat tire that i woke up with in bayahibe. this guy about my age pointed it out to me as i was in the car leaving, then he started to help me take the tire off... a great example of the good vibes here. i went to la romana on the way, a much bigger city, and got a replacement tire & it changed for RD$100 (about US$2.60), the same price i paid for half a broiled chicken on the way out of town. twas crazy! and the road on the way to las terrenas was ridiculous, as in i couldn't go more than 25mph and there was a 2x4 foot whole every few meters... but i made it.
anyways, i have spent the last 2 days in las terrenas. there are more tourists here, mostly french, but it isn't really overwhelmed with them. it's a classic beach town: narrow streets, colorful buildings (lots of light colors), plenty of chill island music, etc...
my hotel is right on the beach & run by this french lady and a bunch of haitians at night. they are incredibly friendly. it's fun to practice french and then be able to switch to spanish when i don't know what the fuck i'm saying in français. i even met a haitian guy who took me to get some weed, and i waited in this little hut with 8 other haitians and a dominican girl who wanted to dance with everyone. they were just chugging rum & energy drinks, totally a great atmosphere. the beaches are just as beautiful as in the south, and i don't even feel like the water is colder up here like i had heard. i have had a few good meals of rice, beans, salad & pork for really cheap, like RD$190 with a coke (US$5). i have noticed that saying "buenas", "qué pasa?" or "cómo te va?" is well-respected and appreciated by the dominicans/haitians who think i'm just a white guy who is here to shit on their island while on vacation... maybe it just puts me at ease to hear them respond back, but still...
i have basically been tanning, swimming, eating, reading kaleidoscopic grammar and walking the town. there seem to be wayyyy more stray dogs here than in bayahibe,
and plenty of motorcycles to go around; i get asked to rent on every hour it seems like. there is a plethora of beautiful art here, i would say more than 10 art stands that are full of colorful paintings done by the locals. today (monday) was much more alive and there were plenty of kids going to/from school, so the pics from that day of the streets are much more representative of how daily life is here, although it was sad to seem some of the homes they walked to...
a few surprises
i don't feel like i'm going to be robbed anymore
i'm actually starting to adjust to the caribbean dialect of spanish in the DR
the dogs aren't grouchy
so many frenchies!
haitians aren't hated here
well, i'm off to the interior tomorrow, hope to end up in jarabacoa and then on the constanza. there i will also hope to do my interviews for my sociolinguistics class. i will either study the vocalization of their liquids (e.g. algo --> aigo) or there use of infinitives instead of the subjunctive... we'll see what kinds of things the interviewees do!! ok, hasta pronto....
