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Voluntariat Dom Rep

May - June 2022
A 35-day adventure by Lisa Read more
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  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 1

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 1

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 2

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    1
    Day 2

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 4

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 5

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 6

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    2
    Day 7

    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

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