Friday in Dom Rep

We woke up at 6:30am, got on the bus for our "caribe adventure" 12hr excursion. Well- 10mins into the busride, we discovered that out of about 50ppl, we were the only 'english speaking'. We had "team spain" and "team france" yelling, hooting and hollering for the next 2hr ride.

The tour guide really did a great job keeping all three languages informed of all the sites & villages that we were passing.

This was definately third world. We saw meat for sale hanging from peoples' front patios-some even had the little goat heads still on them. They hang the meat for up to a week to 'ferment & age'...outside the whole time. At the end of the week-whatever is not sold-they give to the resorts...kidding.

(check out the bumper sticker on the car...)

We passed a few bone-skinny horses, and I was really saddened by this. The dogs seemed to all be in good shape - although we did see about 6 that had been killed on the side of the road.The people were all smiles and waves when we drove by-so friendly.

As soon as we pulled into our destination, the europeans had piled up at the door of the bus to be let out for a smoke. This was when the annoyance really kicked in for me...

Bahibye was beautiful!! It was a little community that reminded me of catalina's port. We piled on the sand to wait for three speedboats to take us to our motorized catamaran. While waiting, I gave some lovin' to a few dogs that just looked like genuinely happy dogs that got to roam free most of the time.

We eventually got on the catamaran where the euros decided to turn it into a dance party while screaming the songs and smoking up wind...not impressed.The breeze was nice, but then it stopped and our engines went dead shortly after leaving port. There was black crude oil coming out of the boat, but aside from the crew-Jeff and I were the only ones that seemed concerned...not impressed and ready to shove their speedo-covered asses into the deep blue.

Eventually the speedboats came back and towed us away from the cliffs and back to port where 10 ppl decided that this was too much of any adventure-and got sent back to their resorts. Unfortunately not the loud mouths.

We continued on our way in the speedboats. One word to describe the feeling on the drive out--ouch! Our bodies were being slammed against the boats from the waves-one euro cut his elbow and everyone behind him got splatted in some of his war paint...not our side-thank goodness!!

We made it to a a few natural pools where we all got out and drank together. Also started talking to a Spanyard from Madrid-Ivan. He turned out to be a nice guy - he was visiting with 20 of his friends and family.

We stopped for lunch on an island where I befriended two more dogs, before a guy took them out of our eating area. They looked happy to see him and go with him. The meal was very good-huge lobster and more drinks.

Got on some canoes and went in between a cluster of little islands to see the birds and mangrove trees.Finally, we got on a riverboat called the Mississippi. We went up a river past Shakira's, Julio Iglesias' and some Red Sox players' houses-beautiful. We got some photos...here I am with Ivan and his group - they're showing me what "Shupa" means:

We got to shop for 20mins at a little tourist-trap though. We got 2/3 way home when some Spanyards got off to switch buses. One man was very ill and actually vomiting from the day of partying...when Jeff and I were told that we' d' be joining them-we made the best of it. We started clapping out of sync, singing Kumbaya and then shouting "TEQUILA" very very obnoxiously and out of tune...I told Jeff "payback's a bitch" and we laughed and created havoc for the rest of the time!!

We got off the bus just as Jose started to puke again.We went to the bar, grabed a couple of drinks from our favourite guy "Oh yes" then went to bed.