Reset search
Lisa Glaettli
Lisa Glaettli

Lisa Glaettli

traveled in 14 countries Read more🇨🇭Meisterschwanden
FollowMessageStatistics
  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    Diving, diving, diving

    June 8, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    I always talk about the diving and our project but never really about how this actually works. Usually we meet at 9am at the diving center, even though normally everybody’s late, dominican lifestyle, that’s how they call it. Then we prepare: I have to get my tank and weightbelt from our tank room. Then I go to the back of the house into the storage room and get my long sleeve neoprene and my shorty, both market wirh blue zippers so I recognize them. After that I grab my fins with the mask already attached to them, my shoes, and my bcd. Before leaving the room i suddenly realize that as usual I have forgotten my regulator, so with both hands already full, I use my little finger to take the regulator with me, because HELL no, i’m not gonna walk twice. Then I prepare the tanks and get everything ready so that the last step, but really only the very last step, is to put on the neoprene. With 35 degrees this is absolute torture but I know that i’ll be thankful for the extra skin later on.
    Then we walk to the beach which only takes about 1 and a half minutes but we have ti cross the street and descend stairs that are even difficult walking on without a 20kg tank on your back and fins &mask in your hand. Once arrived at the beach Rio and I use to jump into the water as fast as we can. Not one second longer will I stand under the burning sun in in utter heat, sweating like a turkey at thanksgiving. After a couple of minutes the boat arrives and we drive to the spot we dive. We “prepare” in the water, which means that we jump into the water with weightbelt, fins and mask, but only put on the bcd with the tank in the water. Then we dive.
    After the one or two dives we drive back to the dive center with the boat, wash all our used stuff and let it dry. In the meantime we start filling up the empty tanks.
    We get dressed and walk home. I must admit, besides the snowy mountains, this is one of the most beautiful offices one could imagine.    Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    Sleeping under the stars

    June 6, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    After a spectacular deep dive at 9am in the morning, another urchin monitoring dive followed. Unfortunately we barely found urchins which were still alive, but also only descovered two skeletons of dead ones. We were diving in a place with huge rocks with caves and lots of fish. I was particularly interested in one cave since I was quite sure I could see light at the other end. So I looked at it more carefully and figured that I could actually dive through it. As I was swimming through the tunnel I started realizing that it was way tighter than I had expected and that I couldnt turn around, so I had to get to the other end anyways. Suddenly in the middle of the cave, I saw something moving in front of me. A lionfish. Oh Oh.. not good.. not good at all.. i thought. Lionfish are not agressive but they‘ll harm you if you get too close to them. They are poisonous and dangerous to humans if they sting you. So i put my hands to the sides of the cave and slowly tried to push me backwards out of it. I made it out safe but was quite under a shock afterwards. In the afternoon it was my turn to fill up the tanks. Unfortunately today, due to our double dives, we had used 10 tanks total so it took me about 3 hours until I was done. Then I went to playa anclon with the others where we got stung by so many sandflies, it was crazy. In the evening Theresa and I prepared food and brought it up to the rooftop where we met all the others for dinner. We tried to cool plantains like they do it here but it turned out to be an epic fail, it was almost inedible. Even though we didnt go to the club nor stayed at a bar, it was my absolute favourite evening so far. We sat at the table for hours, listened to music, sang along, discussed and laughed. At some point, when there were only René, Rio, Mirjam, Nina and me left, I said that I was so tired but that I didnt want this evening to end so I wouldnt go downstairs to my room. Then suddenly René suggested that we could just sleep up here. We all laughed (at the joke) at first but then looked at eachother and then I knew, yes, we were crazy enough to do it. Half an hour later we had brought up all oir matrasses, brushed our teeth and were laying on the rooftop under our blankets, admiring the stars. We went on talking for a long time and even downloaded an app to figure out which star- constellations we could see. Apart from the obvious big dipper, We saw the scorpion, the swan and the harp. Time flew while we were stargazing and eventually we fell asleep.Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler
    1

    Salto El Limon

    June 5, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Today was the first day I cried after leaving Switzerland. And surprisingly it wasnt because I miss my family;) (I miss you a lot guys don‘t worry). But let me start from the very beginning of this story. One of the points on our bucketlist was the Salto el Limon, a beautiful waterfall in the middle of the jungle, reachable by a 45mins hike or by horse. We decided to leave las Terrenas very early in the morning so we asked our motoconcho driver Andrés to pick us up at home at 4:45 am. Rio and Rene joined us woth their moto too but unfortunately we lost them on the way to Limon because it was dark and Andrés was driving pretty slowly too. When we got to the place we thought would be the starting point for the hike to the waterfalls, we soon figured out that our motoconcho had driven us to the wrong parada and we got lost in the dark next to some river, without any network or anything. There were dogs barking at us and trying to bite us. Theresa got hysteric and started crying, so I tried to keep a clear hed and suggested to walk back to the street where Andrés had left us.
    So we tried to calm down & walked back to the street. On the way i saw a claro - sign (claro is a network company selling SIM cards) and thought that there could be a chance that my phone was going to work. We were lucky and there was free wifi, that allowed us to call our friends who were waiting at the right parada, but it was 3 km further up the mountain and we lost the connection soon. Then we just walked on and saw a man in his garden. I walked up to him and was desperate enough to randomly ask if he had a moto and could bring us to the parada. Again we were lucky because he said yes and brought us there with his moto which was definitely just meant for 1 person and not the three of us. As we got there, he wished us luck and drove home. We walked for a bit and soon saw the boys between the trees. I was so relieved when we ran towards them, that when we got there, the whole tension left and I started crying. I was so relieved. I could still feel the adrenalin in my veins while we were walking up the beautiful path to the cascada El Limon, but it slowly faded with every new thing we discovered on our hike.
    The waterfall is still one of my highlights of the trip. It was way bigger than I had expected it to be and it was in the middle of the rain forest. We got there at 5:40 and stayed until about 9:30 when the first tourists started arriving with the horses. We took a motoconcho back but when we arrived at home and wanted to pay the driver, we realized that we had been robbed because Theresa and I were both missing pesos in our wallets. We didnt realize how it happened because at the waterfall we had been completely alone and had only left our things next to a stone out of our side for about 15 minutes when we went into the water and explored the lower warterfall. Well, we learned.. in the afternoon we slept for an hour and a half because we were really tired and not in a reallly good mood because of all thaz had happened in the morning and, of course, because of our lack of sleep. Later we went to playa bonita where I drank a very good iced coffee which brightened up my mood a lot. In the evening we met at the foodtrucks. Its a very nice place with many trucks where they sell food with tables and chair in the middle, so everyone can get what they want and then meet in the middle amd eat together. I had delicious ceviche! I was so tired that I went home early and slept:)
    All in all, still a good day!    Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler
    1

    Plastic Recycling Project

    June 4, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Even though it was saturday we had to work. We had to be at a location at 10 am in the morning that Jonathan had sent us earlier that week. I didnt stay out long the evening before so I was in good shape. Unfortunately the rest of my fellow volunteers had partied until early in the morning and most of them were pretty hungover, which wasnt the best with the extreme heat we had that day. When we got there we didnt really know what to do and were pretty confused. So we sat around a bit and saw that there were people sitting around, some standing, and some bags filled with plastic bottles. So basically our task was to help the organizers of this project to weigh the amount of plastic people were bringing, weighing it and pay them according to the number of „libras“. I was so surprised to see that people actually brought massiv bags full of plastic; bottles, broken things, cups, even chairs. Since I was the only one speaking spanish fluently, they put me at the desk, where I had to communicate the numbers to different people and calculate the money they would get. The others had to carry the bags under the burning sun. I was really hot too so that after 3 and a half hours of writing numbers I was dying. Thank god they brought us water bottles. Nina and I had switched function once, so I had to carry bags too and I saw the huge mountains of plastic we‘ve been accumulating. In the end we got to 3 and a half tons of plastic. The people there loved me, the head of the organisation even came up to me a couple of times, said my name and asked me if I was okay. Afterwards they invited us for lunch and I hat the typical „gallo pinto“, rice with beans and chicken, for the first time.
    In the afternoon we went to playa bonita and stayed to see the sunset. It was one of the most beautiful ones i‘ve ever seen in my life.    Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    Wreck Dive

    June 3, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    In order to get our advanced divind license, today we had to dive to an old shipwreck. It was at abput 30metres unter the waters‘ surface and I think it was the deepest dive of my life as far as I can remember, but also one of the most exciting ones. I had gone early enough to sleep the night before, I was feeling very well and everything worked out perfectly. Oh, and I also had my mask again, so that I could see and breath. After diving the guy from the restaurant next to the diving offered me a frozen moca with oreo cookies and whipped cream on top of it (for free), because he knows that I love iced coffee, since I had ordered one a few days before. But unfortunately i‘m not really into whipped cream nor can I eat oreos, so I gave this coffee shake to mirjam and ordered an iced coffee for me:) Today it was our turn to fill up the tanks and we had a lot sp it took us about 2 hours in total, but we played some vard games and chatted and then walked home together. In the afternoon we went to the beach all together and in the evening Theresa and I cooked vegetable pasta:) we also went out but I came home earlier than the others, after I had fallen asleep on a chair at Etno because I was so tired.Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    Typical day

    June 2, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    In the morning we did a dive to see some under water caves. Unfortunately the evening before I went to bed only at 2am after dancing throughout the whole night so I was definitely not in my best shape. The boat ride to the diving spot was already quite a challenge, let‘s not talk about the diving itself. In addition to that, René had accidentally taken my mask with him the day before so I had to borrow one from the diving which was wayyyyy to big, so water kept constantly coming in, which was not improving my situation. Afterwards we did a dive to the coral nursery where I was im charge to draw a map of the nursery. In the afternoon I finally felt better and we went to Playa Cosón with the 3 german boys. It was an awesome afternoon, exactly like a beachday should be: We had fresh pineapple, coconut, a volleyball and a lot of fun:) We joined the guys im their hostel for dinner, where Manty, the hostmom cooked a very delicious local dinner. There were veggies we‘ve never heard of before and a very juicy chicken. Apparently Robin had seen 2 chicken in the morning, tied with ropes, looking at him with their big cute eyes, but Manty insisted that these were not the ones we had eaten for dinner a couple of minutes ago. After dinner we went to Los 2 Gringos, a bar with good music and even though the dance floor was empty we all danced. The people in the bar were all cheering and clapping at our moves. We moved to amother bar which turned out to be am lgbtq 🏳️‍🌈 bar, but the dj was very good and we could bring up some song-wishes.
    After this nice evening we went home and slept like babies.    Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler
    2

    Playa El Anclón

    June 1, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Today there was no dive, however we had a meeting instead, where I met Jonathan, the biologist we‘re working for, for the first time. During the meeting we discussed everything that needs to be done and even though meeting sounds boring when you could go diving instead, I absolutely loved it. I could ask as many question as I wanted, I could come up woth ideas and I felt as if I could actually make a change. This made me so happy to realize thaz this peoject is partly also in my hands and thaz I am responsible for it such as everybody else, because we‘re working as a team. I wouldnt go as far as to say that I took over the lead (Rio, as the one who has been there the longest still is mainly in charge) but I did talk and discuss a lot, actually way more than anyboby else and Jonathan seemed to like it. I even proposed the diving plan for the next day. Right after the meeting we went working on pur 3d coral models at the diving center. But before I could go I had to prepare lunch fpr Theresa, I had promised I would do it. Apart from Pasta , maybe a sunny side up egg and a wrap, Theresa doesnt know how to cook at all. But since I could only prepare the piadinas and not actually cook them because I had to leave, I wrote her a paper with very accurate instructions on how she had to do everything. While working on the computer the cute boy was there again and entertained me, his sister even made braids all over my head. After we went to a mangrove beach and after dinner we met Jonas, Robin and Tim for drinks at the beach.Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    The Routine Starts

    May 31, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    After a little while of being here, I still discover something new every day, however I can tell that I started having a daily routine. In the morning as usual we went diving, which means at 9am at the diving center. This day we did two dives because of the advanced course that i‘m doing at the moment. Our first dive was a „Deep dive“, one of the things you need to accomplish in order to pass the course. We went down 25 meters and stayed for about an hour. I saw many corals, sponges, seagrass meadows, a huge crayfish (Languste), a moraine and a barakuda. It was great. Even though we were pretty deep down I only used half of my tank, so I was very disappointed when Daria gave us the sign to start heading back up. The second dive was a basic volunteer dive. We monitored sea urchins with transects, which means that we basically counted the dead/alive/and ill sea urchins systematically and wrote it down on special paper you can bring into the water. After the diving, I played football-tennis with a cute little local boy (who absolutely loves me). His parents are the owners of the shop right next to the diving, so he and his dog hang around there a lot. Then I went home, and we headed to Playa Cosson with Motoconchos. There we stayed the wjole afternoon and then went back home because we had spanish class. After class we went to pola supermarket to grab all we needed for dinner. I also bought a coffee pot because I couldnt go on one more day without my beloved coffee. Our bag was so heavy later on, that we had to carry it together. On the way we ordered streetfood chicken, which turned put to be veeryyyy nasty, but at least we have tried. We ate dinner with all the volunteers on the rooftop. A very nice way of ending the day.Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    The Dominicans

    May 30, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    Even though the Dominican Republic is famous for the carribean beaches, the exquisite food and the beautiful sunsets, my personal highlight are the people and their culture. My day started off at the diving center: we went on a dive to a coral nursery stations, where we cleaned the corals and the metal structure the reef is built on, with toothbrushes. It‘s basically like gardening under water in 12 meters depth. Later I went to the beach, where a nice dominican girl randomly gave me „Mamancillos“(a typical fruit I had never tried before), because I was just looking at the fruits in her hand. Later on, during a walk on the beach, I met two dominican guys with a coconut. I talkes with them in spanish for a while until they offered me to get me a coconut. So one guy just climbed up a pretty high palmtree, got me a coconat and opened it up for me. Later that afternoon we were invited on a luxuriois katamaran yacht by some very crazy rich dutch people, where we spent the whole day until sunset. They had two private captains who cut us fresh pineapples, we had drinks and we could jump off the boat at the bays we sailed by. You gotta be lucky..
    After our boat adventure we stayed at the beach, met the other guys and talked and talked until it got dark. Then when it was only Rio, Rene and me left, we saw plankton shimmering in the water. We drove home on Rios motoconcho and even though it is only thought for 2 people we managed to fit on it pretty well.
    Before going to sleep I went on a „short“ one and a half hour walk at the beach wirh Rene & then I finally went to sleep after a really crazy day.    Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    El Loro

    May 29, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Even though we went to bed late, I woke up early and went for a walk along the beach. I almost reached Playa Ballena, when a friend texted me if we wanted to have Breakfast together. So I met her at a restaurant where we started by ordering a coffee. Although we had only ordered „un cafécito con leche de almendra“, they brought us a fruitsalat with papaya, mango, ananas and melon, so we didnt even need to order a breakfast anymore. In the afternoon we went to the beach in front of a place called Loro, where it was so windy that after a couple of minutes laying there we were completely covered by sand. We gave up the idea of sunbathing the whole afternoon and drank a very refreshing campari spritz instead. In the evening I went to the rooftop alone, ate a salad made of the leftovers we still had in the fridge and really enjoyed the time I had by my own.Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler
    1

    Playa Bonita

    May 27, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    We spent our first saturday exploring the beaches surrounding beautiful las Terrenas and started off with playa Bonita. The moment we got there with the motoconchos, we soon understood that we had arrived in paradise. We waöked along the beach until we found a deserted spot, nothing but palmtrees, white sand, seashells and crystal water, it was a dream. We spent the whole afternoon there, went swimming, did a lot of sunbathing and tried some acrobatics:) Im the evening Tresa and I went grocery shopping and made Salat Wraps - our cookin skills are improving day by day. Later on we met the others on the rooftop of our building and then went to Etno beach club and danced all night to 80s old school music! And yes, we also had a few drinks:)Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    First Dive

    May 27, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After Theresa and I ate breakfast together, I walked for 25 minutes (morning workout) to get to the diving school where I was welcomed by Daria, the Diving instructor and my fellow volunteers. While the others got ready Daria helped me to pick my wetsuit and diving equipment. I had forgotten how heavy these tanks are and I almost fell when I put it on the first time. When everybody was ready we discussed the plan: we would first count a special type of sea urchins, which unfortunately at the moment are threatened by a local disease, and later on pick up trash from the bottom of the sea. I stayed with Dario throughout the whole dive, who turned out to be italian by the way (so we switched from english, to spanish to italian) so that I could readjust myself and get used to diving.
    After the dive we had a quick talk about the results and then I walked home. Unfortunately on my way it started raining very very much, I needed to hide under a roof. Luckily some other volunteers with a car let me ride with them and drove me to our appartments where I had lunch with Theresa.    Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    Meeting the others

    May 26, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    After spanish class we were starving, so we ate an apple and some crackers and started reading our contract we still needed to sign. After we finished we went out and saw a very pretty sunset, the clouds were all pink and the houses stood in a golden light. We ate dinner at a mexican restaurant, where we met some of the other volunteers.
    That‘s where I got my message that I would have to work tomorrow..
    10 am in front of the diving center - I‘m excited!    Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    Arrival in Las Terrenas

    May 26, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Turns out the three german guys I had eaten breakfast with planned on going to Las Terrenas too, so they joined me on the busride. I was really happy to have them with me, I felt way more secure and we had very good talks. I was impressed by the scenery and by the landscaped we passed, from green fields, over mountains with an awesome view to jungles, rainforests and busy cities.
    When we arrived in las Terrenas, I got picked up by Rio, a guy from my project. At the volunteer apartments I was introduced to my Coordinator Camilla and my roomie, Theresa from Germany. We got along very well right from the beginning. We went to the beach and ate a smoothiebowl. Afterwards we went grocery shopping, but forgot to bring bags for the groceries so we had to put everything into „carton boxes“. We were already late for spanish class, therefore we had to run through the whole town with these boxes in our arms in order to get there in time. We were late, but it didnt matter:)    Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    First Stop: Santo Domingo

    May 25, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ 🌧 26 °C

    My short one-night-stop in Santo Domingo was full of new experiences. When I arrived at the airport I went to the baggage claim, where I waited for my backpack for a very long time. By the time it arrived, I had already suffered from several heart attacks - I was so scared it wouldnt show up.
    At the „Sortida“ I met my driver Jose, who started speaking spanish with me right away, a very fast, dominican spanish.
    Before driving me to my hostel he showed me the „barrio colonial“ close to where I would stay. From the window I could se restaurants and bars full of lights with people dancing, children playing in the streets and parents sitting in front of their houses drinking and chatting. I could hear latino music accompanied by laughters and it made me so happy. The hostel looked okay from the outside but when the door was opened, I felt like stepping into an oasis after having spent several days in a desert. There were palmtrees, fairy lights and a pool which reminded me of a blue lagoon.
    I met many people that night and I was invited to join them for dinner. I went to see a bit more of the town we had crossed woth the var before. On our way back from the restaurant it started raining really bad so by the time we arrived at the hostel we were all wet like we had showered. I went to sleep and actually only woke up at 7. If i managed to bypass the jetlag remains to be seen. Next morning I woke up and met 3 german guys, Jonas, Robin and Tim and had coffee and breakfast with them. For breakfast I had watermelon and oat porridge:)    Read more

  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepTraveler

    From ZRH to SDQ

    May 25, 2022 in Spain ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    The travel from Zürich Airport to Santo Domingo was so stressful, I don‘t even want to think about it anymore. Let me just say: the boarding was supposed to start at 10:25. Well, at 10:35 I was still waiting at the check- in to drop off ma luggage and when it finally was my turn I realised I had forgotten to fill out some arrival-form for the Dom Rep. I panicked but then we managed finding a guy who would do it for 30 francs in 2 minutes. He actually finished it in two minutes, so we all ran to the check-in (including my grandma), dropped off my bag, hugged goodbye and then I hurried through the screening towards the gate A75. The boarding had already started but I was still in time.
    I flew to Madrid and then finally to Santo Domingo.    Read more

Get your own travel profile

Free

QR code

FindPenguins for iOSFindPenguins for Android

  • 2026© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Help Center
  • Legal notice