Our Last Weekend Away for Awhile

For our last weekend away (Thursday-Friday, December 3-4) while I'm here this time, we decided to go to the Samana Peninsula on the north side of the island. I found a beautiful beach, according to the Rough Guide, for us to visit. It is called Playa Bonita. I emailed to the small hotel. When they emailed back that they had availability, I asked if they needed credit card information to hold the reservation. The response was, "your name is enough, feel welcome." How cool is that?

Since the last overnight trip started so early in the morning, we decided to give ourselves a little more time. According to the bus line's website, they had morning buses scheduled at 7, 8:30, and 10 a.m. We chose the 8:30. We were still up way too late the night before. We arrived at the ticket counter at about 8:10 a.m. The 8:00 bus had already left. 8:00 bus?? So, we purchased our tickets for the 10:00 bus. We listened to music, visited the cafeteria and gift shop, etc.

Then we boarded our bus and were on the way to the Samana Peninsula. We were both pretty tired and I think fell asleep before we had left the outskirts of Santo Domingo. A while later I woke up because the bus was swerving around curves. Groggily, I looked at the window and saw that we were in some sort of 'mountain' canyon. The sides of the road were carved out of a reddish rock. There were also lush green plants and trees around. By the time I pulled myself together enough to take a picture, we were out of the curvy canyon. We had come upon fields of rice on both sides of the bus. So, the next several pictures are taken through a bus window.

Rice fields!

More rice fields!

Still more rice fields!

Wil takes in the landscape through the bus window.

I decided to take some more photos of what some of the dwellings look like here in the Dominican Republic. There are varying styles of course, but here are some of the most typical that I have seen.

This is a common money exchange. They are all over the city and the rural areas.

Before we went on this trip, I had looked at the map. It looked like Sanchez, Samana, and Las Terrenas (the town nearest to our destination) made a sort of triangle with Las Terrenas being the tip, as it were. When we called the bus company, they recommended riding all the way to Samana, then riding a local bus(guagua, like a 15 passenger van that holds a lot more than 15 passengers) to Las Terrenas, then take a taxi from Las Terrenas to Playa Bonita. To me, from looking at the map, it seemed like we should get off at Sanchez. After only about 2 1/4 hours on the bus, it stopped. People started saying if anyone was going to Las Terrenas they should get off here. We were in Sanchez. We exited the bus. We were quickly swarmed by a taxi driver and several motoconcho (motorcycle taxis) drivers. As Wil and I were trying to speak somewhat privately, the motoconcho drivers started teasing us and asking if we were going to walk. We chose the taxi since we had a small suitcase and a big backpack. In the end it was good we did. The trip over the small mountain pass was still nearly an hour in a taxi, and it was more comfortable than balancing a bag on the back of a motorbike would have been.

There was a lot of lush foliage as we ascended the mountain.

The taxi driver kept pointing out views of the Samana Peninsula and the beaches.

As we were riding along, I noticed some beautiful red flowers. I finally realized that they were poinsettias in the wild. I had never seen them before. I hurriedly took this picture from the window of the taxi.

A few minutes later, the taxi driver stopped so we could take some pictures. I'm sure he would have stopped along the way for a picture of the poinsettias, but I didn't realize it then.

We arrived at our hotel, Hotel Acaya, safely. It was a cute hotel made up of two or three buildings. The hotel rooms were in 2, two-story buildings that were completely white with verandas on the first and second floors. They almost looked like small plantation style houses.

The lovely shower room in our hotel room.

The hotel room!

Our room was on the second floor and had a vaulted ceiling.

The beautiful view from our balcony!

We went downstairs to check out the Wifi services, as Wil desperately needed to update some things on his computer. We also decided to have lunch.

A beautiful presentation and a tasty ceviche!

Wil chose a white fish in a sauce with rice and carefully articulated vegetables. The hotel is owned by a French man and it definitely has a French feel. The entire area has a lot of French and Spanish people that have migrated and made permanent homes there.

This is an almendra. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture before Wil began the process of getting to the center. He broke that outer green skin on a rock. The fruit looks a bit like a green plum on the outside. That is how we found it when it fell out of the tree near us.

Wil continued to break apart the stringy maroon shreds of the fruit. Apparently, one may also eat this part, but we did not.

We were after the little seed inside, the almendra. Yes, it looks like an almond. It even has the same name. And, to me, a very similar taste. But, it is a slightly different fruit, without the hull like a peach pit of the almonds we are used to in The States.

We spent quite a few minutes trying to connect to the Wifi. We were unable to get it to work. We changed for the beach and began our walk down the surf. We were one of only 2-3 rooms occupied in our entire hotel that night, and judging by the deserted beach, the other hotels had similar occupancy. It was incredible to walk this beautiful stretch of beach only seeing 5 or six other people.

While we were walking, we came upon some coral and rocks that had washed up on the beach.

I particularly liked this piece. But, I didn't try to convince Wil to bring it home for me!

It was pretty large afterall!

Wil, and no one else within eyesight, on the Playa Bonita!

We walked around this tip of the island to even more deserted space, and a sunny little cove.

Several of the coconut trees were leaning, and some had fallen over. According to one person we spoke with, this part of the island has more coconut trees per square mile than anywhere else in the world.

Wil getting ready for his Tommy Hilfiger boxers campaign!

Doing our best with the camera perched on a rock. There really was no one else around to take the picture!

We found a better rock. I thought it was funny when I was looking at this, as I uploaded it, that we positioned our legs in almost the same way...posers!!

Then we decided to climb the leaning tree! Wil has climbed coconut trees before, but he didn't want to go too high because he didn't have shoes or a machete.

I have not climbed coconut trees before, and I'm not much of a tree climber. I thought it was interesting how Wil took this picture, so I didn't change the orientation. This is how he shot the photo!

We had a couple hours of just swimming and playing in the water and the coconut trees before we headed back to the hotel. It was getting dark as we walked back along the path. There were several hotels and restaurants along the way. We investigated the menus.

We showered and got ready for dinner. The picture below is of the restaurant at our hotel. We also spoke with our hostess/concierge about our excursion for Friday, a trip to El Limon Waterfall.

We chose a place that we had seen along the way that had a nice looking menu, and a table on the beach! I should say, it had the only table on the beach!

This is a picture of a building we saw on our walk and swim that we began referring to as "the castle." Remember this building, it will play another part later in this blog.

By now, I expect that you have deduced that I really wanted to sit at the candlelight table on the beach. It is just one of those things that you see in movies or read about in books. How completely romantic to be the ONLY table on a deserted beach!

We approached the server and she informed us that it was a reservation only table and that she would get someone else to talk with us. A man came out of the kitchen and spoke with us about the table. He told us that it was a reservation only table and that it had a set 3 course menu. Wil and I were speaking about it English. We had already decided yes, but I think the manager was not sure of that so then he made a better offer! We could sit there and order whatever food we chose, even though the owner wants it to be only for reservations and to use the set menu. He added that it is a long way from the kitchen and that they were expecting a party of 20 from a wedding so that if we sat out there, we wouldn't get as good of service because he didn't want his server having to come all the way out there all the time. To me, the deal just got better and better! Of course, we took him up on his offer. By the way, there were 3 other customers in the entire restaurant at this point.

Wil checks out the menu at our table on the beach.

I tried again without the flash.

If you can't see, I was loving it!

Looking back across the path to the main part of the restaurant. They had really awesome amber colored, rectangular lanterns hanging in their outside area.

Drinks and an appetizer of garlic garbanzo beans. The drinks were good, Wil was not a fan of the garbanzo beans. He said, "but they're cold."

Wil was distracted by a little blue crab on the beach. We went to check it out.

We thought it would be funny to call someone and tease them about where we were!

We had to leave mischievous messages instead because of stupid caller ID!!

The food was again presented beautifully! Wil had shrimp that were grilled. He didn't care for the smoky flavor, so he enjoyed most of the fish that I ordered. It was a delicious white fish in a sesame sauce, pictured above under the avocado slices sprinkled with sesame seeds.

At the end of the meal, they presented the bill as a treasure in this little chest. We thought that was adorable! We really enjoyed our magical dinner on the beach. We never saw the 20 people arrive, maybe 4 or 5, and the workers gave us great service, but not too much, afterall!

We returned to our hotel for dessert. I had seen bananas flambe on the menu at lunch and wanted to try them.

I was not at all disappointed. They were delicious (sorry Dana couldn't be with us to enjoy his favorite!) Wil really liked them too. I enjoyed his dessert, a chocolate cake with a chocolate ganache oozing out of the center. Sorry, I did not take a photo.

Later we tried again to get the Wifi going with no success. So, we cannot watch DVDs on Wil's computer, but we watched a movie he had downloaded and fell asleep. I should say we fell asleep while watching the movie, I probably within the first 20 minutes. Thankfully, I woke in the middle of the night and set the alarm so we wouldn't miss our trip to El Limon Waterfall.

We woke to the alarm, Wil woke more slowly. We made it to our breakfast at about 9:40. We were to be picked up at 10 for the waterfall. The driver arrived at about 9:50...Our hostess/concierge, Mery, was awesome. She talked to him so that we could finish our breakfast.

We talked to the man and found out that we could swim at the waterfall afterall, so we went to our room and changed! Then we were on our way. The man was from Spain and had lived in The DR for 16 years. He owned the ranch with his wife. He was originally going to take us to a bus stop and go to a different town to run errands, but the streets in Las Terrenas were pretty backed up so he just drove us the 10 or so miles to El Limon.

He directed us up the street to meet our guide and the horses. Before we got there, Wil pointed out some gandules plants. Gandules are the green pigeon peas that are used in many dishes here, including moro. I was expecting them to be pea or bean style plants, but they are tall shrubs (5-7 feet) with the pods hanging from them.

As we approached the two horses and the guide, I thought we might be in a funny movie. The horses, especially the one I was to ride, Monchito, looked old, small, and a bit sad to have another person on his back. The guide, Horatio, looked young, and ready to go. Wil's horse, Alexandro, looked the most happy to be in our group. When I read about this excursion to El Limon, I didn't know how large the groups going in would be, or if we would have to have a certain number to go. But, in fact, our group was just the two of us and our guide. He walked the entire way, usually trying to coax, I use that word lightly, my horse to get moving up the path. Coaxing methods consisted of yelling at him, and using a small stick on his butt. My horse was the lead horse and both he and the other horse knew this. However, Wil's horse would have liked to have been the lead horse. Sometimes he went on a separate path and would quicken his pace to get ahead. But, Monchito would always go fast enough just before the paths converged to get back in the front. It was a funny and fun ride up the mountain.

Once I got adjusted to being on a horse again, I got my camera out to take some photos of our adventure.

Looking back at Wil on Alexandro and Horatio!

The path ahead was often rocks, and sometimes red dirt or mud. There were even some rock steps that had been cut out in spots.

Wil really enjoyed the trip. As a child in his hometown, he used to ride a horse or burro to get water.

This was a part of my view for most of the trip, the back of Monchito's head!

At the top of the little mountain, the path opened up and to our left we saw little hills covered with coconut trees and other plants. It was so green, it reminded me a bit of the green hills of Uganda. But, I've never seen anything quite as green as that.

We reached a summit of sorts and tied up the horses. This was a chance to see the waterfall from a distance before walking the rest of the way.

Our first view of El Limon Waterfall. Stunning! You can see all of the other tourists at the lower part of the photo.

Part way down the path, we stopped for some more photos.

We posed while our guide, Horatio, took photos for us! This is our more serious pose.

This is our more fun pose!

We continued down the path to the first, smaller waterfall. It was still quite lovely with the sun coming through the trees around it. Here we took off our shoes to cross the creek and walk a couple of minutes up to the top of this fall and the bottom of the larger waterfall.

My first view of El Limon Waterfall up close!

As you can see, there was a wide variety of attire. People got down to their underwear in some cases to swim in the beautiful water.

Several of the guides were gathered along one rock wall waiting for their tourists. Some of the guides went swimming.

I'm just posing for the photo at this point. I wasn't yet sure about going in the water. I was considering the option of riding back on the horse with wet clothes. From riding in shorts, I already had a bit of a rub on the inside of one knee from the saddle. Grandpa and Grandma always said you should not ride horses in shorts, and you shouldn't ride when you are all wet!

The water looked so pretty though. And everyone seemed to be enjoying it soooo much!

This is definitely one of the local guides showing off by jumping from about halfway up the 50 meter waterfall. He jumped twice that I saw, once from each side. It was really cool! I thought it was especially awesome how he just scaled the mossy wet rock to get out toward the middle of the waterfall. Sorry, there is no photo of the jump. Our guide was our photographer at this point.

I decided to go for it, and risk the consequences of a wet saddle and shorts...Wil had touched the water at this point, and he was unsure about getting in. It was cool for me, cold for him!

I had so much fun swimming under and around the waterfall. I'm glad I went in! It was wonderful! Wil did get in mostly, but was out quickly and drying off! The water did get deep immediately, so it was probably best that he didn't just jump in.

It was pretty awesome at the end, as we were packing up, we were there by ourselves! So I took a couple of photos. I knew people would be coming soon, so I hurried a little. It was a little too much apparently, since you can see Wil's arm in the next picture. It was really just supposed to be the waterfall. Oh well!

We stopped part way up on the climb out so that I could take a breather and snap some photos.

Wil captured this one! You can see my eyes were a little red from all of the swimming!

After a water break at the top of the hill, we were back on our horses. In this picture we are getting close to the ranch as we are along the paved road.

We asked Horatio to take a couple photos of us on the horses. It is a photo distance trick that in this picture, Wil's horse looks taller than mine. In person his was shorter, and way skinnier than mine.

When we arrived back at the ranch restaurant, we were given the lunch that was included in the excursion price. I think this has been one of the best deals that I have found in The D.R. We were picked up at the hotel, provided with a guide and horses for about 2 1/2 hours, given entrance passes to the waterfall (it's a national park), and served this incredible feast, all for $25 per person.

It was a fairly traditional Dominican meal with salad, fritters, white rice, beans, moro made with saffron and coconut milk, chicken guisado, passion fruit juice, and coffee. It was a lot of food for just two people, but we ate most of it. I guess they know that people are going to be pretty hungry after the ride up and down the canyon.

After lunch, we headed back to our hotel. We caught a guagua, in this case a little pickup with boards around the edge in back to make benches, back to Las Terrenas. Wil's hat blew off along the way, but the driver stopped and a man handed it to a motorcyclist who brought it up and threw it at Wil on the way by!

At Las Terrenas we thought we could walk to Playa Bonita. I'm sure we could have, if we had been on the correct road, and planned on a long walk. Instead we started walking on a road that looked like the right road. After about a half hour, so not too long really, we were both convinced we were on the wrong road when I saw "the castle" from a different side in front of us...oops! We got on a motoconcho and made it back to the hotel.

Then we headed to the beach. There were definitely more people around that day, but it was not by any means crowded. The day before a few people had borrowed surf boards from the hotel and went out in the waves. Wil was curious about that. But, he didn't want to surf with a board, he wanted to bodysurf. He had done it once earlier this summer with some friends. So, we went out and bodysurfed. I have done it a few times, and really enjoy it. I went out much farther than Wil, but we both still had a lot of fun. Then Wil decided to bury himself once again. I helped out a bit.

Then the waves came in so we headed back down the beach to our spot from the day before. The photo of the waves will be at the very end of this post since I can't get it to let me copy it in this space now...

This is a daytime view of "the castle." We were looking straight on to the turret thing on the left on our walk down the wrong beach road. A lady that we met when we were almost to it said we could walk to our hotel in a few more hours. I wonder how long it would have taken? and what the path would have looked like?

Friday night we chatted a lot with the hostess/concierge, Mery. She turned out to be a real lifesaver. She recommended that we take a smaller bus to Santo Domingo and save about $70!! Of course, we said yes! The money was saved by not taking a taxi to Samana. Amazing! Also, she let me know that if I paid with cash, instead of my debit card, I would not be charged a 16% tax on the hotel room.

Wil and I headed to the ATM in Las Terrenas. We were on a motoconcho, don't worry. Motochonchos are an adventure for sure, but, especially at night with a very dim headlight, on a very rough dirt road, with three people on one bike, without helmets. But, when in The D.R., do as the Dominicans do! Sometimes, they have 4 people on them!! and children! and groceries! But, I digress...

While we were in Las Terrenas, we ordered some chimi sandwiches to take back for dinner at the hotel. Wil has wanted me to try chimi, but we haven't had any real opportunities to do that. But, the taxi driver recommended this place, so we went for it. Chimi is cabbage, carrots, onions, tomatos, and then pre roasted meat (chicken or leg of pork, we chose pork), cooked together on a grill in a food cart on the street. The cook added soy sauce, with possible other seasonings, while he grilled it up. Then he put it on a warmed bun and served it up. Wil had mayo on his as well, of course I did not!

We went back to the hotel and ordered some drinks and French fries for me, fried eggs for Wil. The hotel had a small band playing for awhile. Mostly, Wil and I enjoyed our dinner and conversation. I really liked the chimi; Wil thought it was okay. We had fun talking about our wedding. We planned colors, place, people, music, food, etc. We have quite a plan. More to come, in a couple of years...

This is a view of some of the rock formations that we traveled through on our way to and from the Samana Peninsula. The pictures are from the bus window, so some may be a little blurry.

Once we were out of the rock canyon part, I guess I may have dozed or something. But, when I was fully cognizant I looked at the window and saw fields and fields with rows of coconut trees. It was beautiful...I pulled my camera out and then looked to see not the amazing beautiful fields of live trees, but, instead, coconut tree graveyards. It was quite a serene and odd moment. I felt a little sad for all of these trees. I wonder what happened to them?

Wil didn't see the trees until he was looking through my photos for the blog. He asked me where I saw these trees. He didn't know what had happened to them either.



I could not end the post about this amazing weekend with a coconut tree cemetery. So, here is the aforementioned picture of the waves coming up around Wil buried in the sand, looking, if I dare say it, "happy as a clam!"