The Great Escape

So you know from the last post that my baby sis Leanna and long time friend Mallory made a joint visit to come see me two weeks ago. And we spent the first couple days in Santiago. And you may be wondering to yourself, "well gee, looks like they had a decent time in Santiago, but what happened next? I've been waiting forever to see what the next adventure was!?" 
More likely though, you have probably forgotten all about that last blog post, because for goodness sakes, it was over 2 weeks ago! 
And I do apologize for that.
But I have a good excuse, really. 
My camera got stolen in Cabarete. 
And Mallory's I-phone (with picture taking capabilities) got hit by a wave and ruined.
And Leanna lost the camera cord that allowed her to upload her pictures.
So it was a bad trip for cameras that weekend, and as a result I haven't had any new pictures to post for you!
But anywho, Leanna finally found the camera cord and Mal was able to retrieve a few pictures off her poor malfunctioning phone, and luckily, I had already uploaded a few pics from the weekend before my camera was stolen,  and so now I present to you.....drum roll please...our weekend in Cabarete!

So the weekend started off on Friday with our car rental. Now let me explain something to you about driving here: its ridiculous.  The rule is, there are no rules. Lanes do not exist. The horn is your best friend.  Stop lights and stop signs? Merely suggestions. Everybody is continually weaving through traffic, cutting each other off, pulling out in front of other cars, and from my perspective, actively trying to get themselves killed. So when I went to rent the car, I was understandably apprehensive.  (P.S. giant thanks to Brian for helping me with the car rental, I couldn't have done it without you!)  Not only did we have to drive in the mess that is Santiago, but we also had no idea how to get to our final destination, and Dominican maps are notoriously bad.  And well, if you know me at all, driving and navegating are not my top skills. Cue Leanna and Mallory. Its so awesome to have friends that excel in the areas that you do not. 
So anyways, Leanna bravely took the driving position, and Mallory became first mate and designated navegator. I have to say, Leanna took to driving in the Dominican Republic like a natural. Maybe too natural in fact. I think I only told her to slow down a thousand times. But I did manage to keep most of the swearing under my breath. In any case, we successfully made our way out of the city and all the way to Cabarete without a hitch. This may be due in large part to the fact that I was praying to God in the back seat nearly the entire time (Yes I was praying and swearing at the same time, I know, its contradictory. Don't judge me, I was very afraid.).

Views from the road

Dog on a roof, no big deal

All that effort it took getting to Cabarete was greatly rewarded when we arrived at our place, since it was fan-TAS-tic. We rented a condo called Ocean 1 on the beach and it may have been one of the nicest places I have ever stayed: fully stocked kitchen, American washer and dryer (so hard to find here!), air conditioning (glorious!), beautiful showers with hot water, comfy beds and clean sheets. Really, you don't realize how much you miss all those things until you don't have them. 

The condo was literally a 2 minute walk from the beach, so we just lazed around and soaked up the sun for the remainder of the day on Friday.

Cabarete is known the world over as one of the best locations for kite and wind surfing. 

Later that night we got all dolled up to grab dinner and some fruity cocktails at the beach side bars

The next day we headed to the beach in the morning to catch some early rays. Leanna did a little beach side shopping and we played a game of beach volleyball 

Around noon we hopped into the car and made our way to Rio San Juan, a small town about a half hour away. Once there we rented a boat and tour guide to take us through Laguna Gri Gri, a mangrove lagoon. 

The Lagoon opens up into the sea and our boat continued on, stopping briefly by a swallow cave...

...and then lettting us jump overboard in the area pictured below to do some snorkeling (under water pictures coming soon). All was well and good until we spotted a jelly fish swimming not 3 feet away from us, which was enough to scare us back into the boat and continue our journey. 

While we were headed to our next location, Playa Caleton, we saw a snorkeler swimming by with his catch. Our guide stopped him so that we could get a closer look. The snorkeler caught all of those fish and lobsters with a harpoon! I think its safe to say he ate well that night!

Next our boat dropped us off at Playa Caleton, a local beach, to let us chill for a bit. We indulged in a couple pina coladas but burned off the calories diving for shells. 

Once we finally made it back to our place, a small nap was in order.

Later that night, we once again got all glammed up to head back to the beach side bars

Leanna ordered a pitcher of peach daquiris, but then she decided she´d rather take it to go. Who can blame her though?  There´s nothing better than drinking a peach daquiri with the ocean at your feet.

Its a rough life when the only thing you have to worry about is a rogue wave. 

The following day we headed for Sosua, another nearby beach that´s a bit more secluded. Above is a picture of public transportation. Below, the stand where we stopped to buy mangoes.

See that yellow banana boat? Leanna made us ride it. You can imagine it was a little embarrassing having to climb onto a giant yellow banana, but for some reason Leanna was very insistent that we all ride with her. 

We thought about grabbing something to eat at Sosua, the fish looked pretty appetizing, but we ended up eating elsewhere on our way home. 

Overall it was a great trip and I was so sad to see these two lovely ladies leave. Come back and visit again any time chicas!