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Voluntariat Dom Rep
  • Lisa Glaettli

Voluntariat Dom Rep

Et 35-dagers eventyr av Lisa Les mer
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  • Reisens start
    26. mai 2022
    Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    From ZRH to SDQ

    25. mai 2022, Spania ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    First Stop: Santo Domingo

    25. mai 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ 🌧 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:)    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Arrival in Las Terrenas

    26. mai 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ☀️ 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:)    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Meeting the others

    26. mai 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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!    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    First Dive

    27. mai 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende
    1

    Playa Bonita

    27. mai 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ☁️ 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:)Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    El Loro

    29. mai 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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.Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    The Dominicans

    30. mai 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    The Routine Starts

    31. mai 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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.Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende
    2

    Playa El Anclón

    1. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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.Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Typical day

    2. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Wreck Dive

    3. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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.Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende
    1

    Plastic Recycling Project

    4. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende
    1

    Salto El Limon

    5. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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!    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Sleeping under the stars

    6. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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.Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Diving, diving, diving

    8. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 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.    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Bachata Night

    10. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    A big part of the Dominican culture is dancing, especially Bachata and Salsa. That‘s why a couple of days ago I visited a Salsa/Bachata class in order to learn the basics. It was really fun, we were about the same amount of women as of men, so we could actually try out the steps and moves with partners. They were mostly between 40 and 60 year old retired, rich, french people livong in Las Terrenas, but it was cool anyways. The teachers were young dominicans and you could tell dancing is in their blood. So on Friday we had a double dive and we were 8 People, accordingly we had to fill up 16 tanks!!! We knew this would take forever, especially because with this immense heat, the compressor would need at least 5 breaks and maybe even a piña colada to cool down, so we decided to stay at the diving all together instead of one person staying there and doing it. We ate bananas, drank Santo Libre (Rum-Sprite), Lime-Tonics and played card games. In the evening we watched the sunset and I took a Motoconcho to get home. This dude was really crazy, he drove so fast that i had to hold myself onto him instead of only to the moto. He didnt even care about the speed boosters and bumps on the road, we basically just jumped over them. I was glad to still be alive when I arrived at the ayuntamiento next to our appartment and cooked dinner. Our dancing instructors had invited us to a bar-restaurant, where there would be dancing at night. We went and were amazed by what we saw. There were many locals, includind a youg dominican dancing teacher I had met at the beach once and I had already danced with, dancing bachata and salsa in the middle of the room with guests, people walking by, waiters and with each other. I was happy I could try out the new steps I learned and didnt feel too lost after all. We stayed for a long time and enjoyed the atmosphere & the delicious sangrías;)Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Lazy Day

    12. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    After a dive in the morning and a crazy evening on Saturday with a lot of dancing and driving a car for 5 people with 11 people in it, today was officially named “lazy sunday”. This day started off with brunch on the rooftop at 12:30 pm, where everzbody brought something, which could be shared. I prepared porridge after a Jamie Oliver recipe and it turned out delicious, it will definitely become my new to-go. Other than that we had lots of fruit, Eggs, Yogurt and fresh juices. We hung around at the beach the whole afternoon, went into the water and slept. In late afternoon the waves got bigger and some surfers started showing off their skills. It was reallz fun watching them do a handstand on their board and falling in the water. Now, totally tired, after a walk around the “pueblo” with René, i’ll go to sleep.Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Mosquito Beach Bar

    13. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Paradise found, that‘s what I thought when we walked into Mosquito Beach Bar at El Porillo. Also, this is what I call a perfect afternoon. I had to fill up some tanks earlier after the diving but didn‘t get bored because Sola was entertaining me perfectly all the time. It‘s surprising, the amount of cuddles this dog needs:) And with her cute puppy eyes I just couldnt say no..:) After the last tank and the cuddle session, I walked to Punta Poppy and from there all the way along the Beach to the Mosquito beach bar, we had seen so many times while driving by but had never checked out. We stayed there the whole afternoon and tried the delicious frozen daiquiris they offered us. To get back i got on a GuaGua, another typical method of transport in the Dom Rep, whoch was full of dominicans coming home from work or the groceries. They were all laughing, talking and some of them even singing. I love this culture. In the Evening we made Avocado toast and later on I had a „date“ with Micka, a guy I met at the beach, who wanted to introduce me to the owners of the „best ice cream shop“ in Las Terrenas and buy me an ice cream. We shared our ice creams so we got to know different flavours as for example Guanábana. In the end he admitted that he already knew all of them;)Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    people, cars and dirt - Santo Domingo

    14. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    Since Nina‘s passport had been stolen a couple of weeks ago when she had been mugged in the capital, she needed a new one in order to fly out of the country. She already had to postpone her flight to a week later, but finally on tuesday they gave her an emergency appointment at the dutch embassy in Santo Domingo to get a provisional travel document.
    I knew how dangerous Santo Domingo was for a girl on her own, so I offered her to accompany her to the capital. We hat to take the bus leaving las Terrenas at 5am in the morning. When we arrived in Santo, we still had 2 and a half hours to kill, so we went to the ciudad colonial by uber and ate breakfast in a café where everything is 100% glutenfree and based on coffee. I was delighted! I had a really tasty Chai latte, an espresso and delicious oat pancakes with fruit and honey. I still dream of them now. Afterwards we headed to the embassy where in total we had to wait for 2 hours. In between we left the building once to go and take colour- pictures of Nina for her Passport, because she had only brought black and white ones. At the studio we asked the owner to take some pictures of us together and even though it was meant as a joke at first, we ended up having a fotoshoot.
    During our wait we played all possible games and we laughed a LOT. Even the security guards had fun watching us.. we caught them laughing:)
    When we finally had the new passport we checked out two malls, of which one is the famous Àgora Mall, but it had nothing special really. So we decided to get the 3pm bus back to Las Terrenas. As we got to the bus station, which is located in one of the worst parts of the city, almost a ghetto, we noticed we didnt have enough money to pay for the busride. We searched online for „cajeros“, atm‘s, close to us and found one in 5 mins walking distance. We started walking and soon understood that it had been a bad, really bad idea. The pathway along the road we were walking on got tighter and tighter, the cars to our sides were rushing past crazy fast, people were staring at us, talking to us, trying to reach out for us. I had my phone in my hand for the google maps, some guys screamed and shouted at me to put my phone away because otherwise somebody would rip it off me. There were people lying on the street, people walking past us, trash everywhere and a really bad smell. We got to a crossing where the sidewalk was very narrow, we had to cross the street but the cars didnt seem to ever stop. Suddenly a guy came up to us and asked us what we were doing here and told us that it was very dangerous. With tears in my eyes I told him we needed money and thank god he lead us to an atm. We got the money and walked back as fast as we could, got on the bus and drove home. I felt really bad afterwards. Reality had really hit me and i had a lot to think about. At night I went to salsa class to distract me and it worked. Later on I went for a dance at Babylon with Mickah. All in all, interesting day.    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Manty‘s Dominican Food

    16. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Since Nina, Mirjam and Felicie are leaving this weekend we decided to spend one last night all together and go wat dominican food. I knew a hostel where they cook delicious and typical dominican food, because we went there once and organised everything for the whole group. I called the hostelmom Manty 2 days earlier and asked her if she could cook dinner for 11 people and what the price was gonna be per person. She was really nice and told me that for 500 pesos per person, which is about 9 dollars she would prepare different dominican style veggies, fish, chicken, rice, fresh fruit and of course beverage. The day we planned to eat all together, suddenly Manty texted me and asked for a confirmation of the dinner, which I gave her right away. Then she admitted that she still had to go buy the food she wanted to cook but that she didnt have enough money, so she asked me to lend her some money to go to the supermarket. Of course I told her that I would help her out and we met on the street. She sent me a selfie of herself before, so I would know it was her for sure and she even told me what she was wearing. I gave her 2000 pesos, which is only 35 USD… i was shocked and surprised and didnt know what to think of it. She was so thankful, hugged me and apologized a million times. When we went to the Hostel in the evening everything was perfect. No one was late, to start with and we arrived in time. Manty had prepared a huge buffet with everything one could dream of. We ate a LOT and enjoyed every bite of the delicious food. My favourite was the „pescado al coco“, I almost can‘t say it, but I refilled my plate 3 times.
    Afterwards Theresa and I were so full, we were carrying around food babies. But we managed to dance them away at Etno during the following night.    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Playa Frontón, Las Galeras pt.1

    17. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C

    Our weekend trip to las Galeras started on Friday after diving. We rented a car, and drove off. René offered to drive since he’s quite experienced and the road can be in a pretty bad conditions sometimes. Everything went seemed good, too good. After a couple of kilometres we realized we had to tank the car first, so we drove to the next gas station we found where they told us they couldnt give us fuel, because our car needed gas. We were a bit shocked, however we drove to a real „gas“ station and let our car be filled. We were a bit sceptical, we could all already see our car blowing us all up because of a gas leak. Nevertheless we were quite relieved when we started the engine and nothing happened. We drove for 1.2 hours over Samaná to get to Las Galeras and to check into out pretty roundhouse airbnb with outdoor kitchen and fresh pineapples in pur garden. It was only 6pm and not dark yet so we walked to the beach Playita, which was only 200 metres further down a small road. We bought a piña Colada and walked along the beach and the Rocks up to Punta Playita. Afterwards we walked for about 30mins to get to Las Galeras and went to a Restaurant. I really wanted seafood therefore I shared a Paella Marinera with Hektor, which isnt really dominican but still better than the Pizza‘s the other „tourists“, our friends, ordered. I didnt say anything but HOW CAN SOMEBODY ORDER PIZZA, in a country where there‘s such good food and variety. HOW? Whatever, we were quite tired and went to sleep in order to get up early the following day to visit playa Frontón.
    At 6am in the morning we were woken up by birds who had made nests in our roof and insects which were so loud, it felt like a concert. Not a nice symphony played by an orchestra though, way more like hardrock sounds. None of us could go on sleeping so we stood up and wanted to cook pancakes. Unfortunately the gastank was empty, so my friends only had cookies and I had an energybar, which I had brought for emergency situations like this one, and an apple. Then we left with the car. The description plus de navigation app told us it would take about 20 mins. Well, the road was basically destroyed, there were very deep holes all over it and we had to drive extremely slowly. We peobably woul‘ve been faster by feet. We even had to get out twice, to check te depth of a hole which was filled with water. Eventually we got to the point where we couldnt go further. We parked the car and decided to walk from there. It took us a 1 and a half hour hike through caves, along the ocean and through the deep jungle to get to the playa Frontón. On the way we saw people cutring coconuts from trees and like typical dominicans they pffered each one of us a coconut, which we could first drink and then eat afterwards. It was a crazy experience to walk through the rainforest, I had never seen something alike. When we got to the beach we were stunned by its beauty. We got hungry a few hours later, luckily we saw some people cooking food in some pans on the ground on open campfires and ordered 2 dishes. They even let me help them. I only got to cut cucumbers though. The food was very tasty: we had fish, chicken, plátanos fritos, arroz con abichuela and salad with cucumber (the one I cut), tomato and Avocado. After lunch we slept for a few hours and then started heading back. Again ot took us two hours so in the evening we were really tired. Therefore we didnt go out but cooked peperonata with salad and pasta (for the others) at home instead and played some card games.    Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Playa Rincón, Las Galeras pt.2

    19. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    Our second day in Las Galeras started off with selfmade oat pancakes with fresh Mango, Bananas and typical Chinola. We took our car and drove towards El Cabito. I had heard that there must be a pretty nice viewpoint so I convinced the others to go there even though it was not in the direction we first wanted to go. On the way to El Cabito we stopped at some Rocks that spit out water. Then we moved to El Cabito and didnt get disappointed. At first I had a little „disput“ with a turkey, that attacked me. I dont know why but I guess he just didnt like me. I had to hide behind some plants in vases, thank got he was too dumb to figure out how to walk past the plants to get to me. The problem was solved when the owner of the Place finally came and scared the aggressive turkey away. The Restaurant was closed but we still got to see the breathtaking view. Our next stop was playa Rincón. A quintessential, postcard perfect, tropical white-sand beach. Glimmering aquamarine waves lap the shore. Huge palm trees line the sand and provide shade. At one end, a protected cove offers a consistently calm bay for swimming, and in the distance, lush green mountains rise up from the opposite shore of the bay. They say its the second prettiest beach of the Dom Rep and even the number 5 world wide. I dont know who did that rating but I agree that the beach was really nice. Although there were many many many people, especially local people, not even tourists. I swam along the shore and got out of the water where the cold river flows into the sea. It must‘ve been pretty about 40 years ago in the 80s but now there were thousands of people and tons of trash laying around. There were about 100 speakers, all playing different songs of different styles, which was way to noisy. So it wasnt really as heavenly as I had expected it to be. However the worst part was that I didnt feel well in my „white“ skin. The way people were looking at me was really uncomfortable. I walked back as fast as I could, I even ran back along the beach. It was an experience for sure but not one I‘d like to repeat. After Rincón we went to see Samaná, the city and walked to the Islands in the middle of the bay. Then we ate dinner by the sea, where I finally ate Octopus. When we got back to Las Terrenas I felt like st home. We went to Groovy Garden all together and shared some wine. Was nice to be reunited with everyone and to spent a nice evening all together.Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Bonfire Night

    20. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Finally after passport problems and missing her flight a couple of days earlier, now it was finally Nina‘s last night and we decided we wanted to go to the beach and make a bonfire. We ate on the rooftop and went to the beach but the spot we wanted to go to turned out to be way to windy, and the only thing we had brought was a lighter. So we moved to another part of the beach where there wasnt any wind and some more light coming from restaurants near by. The others sat down in a circle and wanted to do a fire but were not really sure about it and just sat around. I tried to convince them several times that we could still try and go find some wood but they had already kind of given it up. That‘s the moment I learned that sometimes you just have to do things by yourself. So while the others were just sitting, I started showeling a hole in the middle of the circle and grabbing some wooden sticks on the ground. On friend started helping me, the others were mostly laughing it off and telling me kt wouldnt work, telling me it wasnt possible etc, but that pushed me even more, I wanted to prove them they were wrong and that if you want something you can make it if you put enough effort into this. When we had gathered enlugh wood we build some kind of tent with it and I tried to remember how that used to work. We foind some tissue to that we used to get flames that quickly went over to the wook. 10 minutes later we had a cute little Bonfire and when I told the others that if we didnt look for more wood now it would be off soon, everybody stood up and looked for wood. Eventually Micka came and brought his guitar. So we sat around until 1 am in the morning, playing guitar, singing and listening to songs.Les mer

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  • Lisa GlaettliVoluntariat Dom RepReisende

    Still alive!!!

    22. juni 2022, Den dominikanske republikk ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    My last 10 days in Las Terrenas were so busy that I didnt even find the time to write a little update on my life. And I even forgot until Grosmami and Gotti asked me if I was still alive, and here’s the proof:) Sorry for that though!
    During my time here I kept adding points tp my bucket list of tjings I wanted to dp for the time being and one of them was to walk from Restaurant Luis all along Cosón to Punta Bonita and later on to Playa Bonita. My friends hadn‘t really been up fot walking but that day I convinced them and they joined me. In the morning we had to do some work at the diving, make new ropes for our coral reef and prepare all the stuff for our next dives. By the way, I am now officially a certified „deep diver“, which is even after the advanced (so my level of diving is higher than papas hihi). So anyways we didnt have to fill up tanks in the afternoon so we had plenty of time. The walk was really nice, we stopped at a beautiful river surrounded by mangroves and palmtrees on its shores. We stayed there a bit and went swimming because it was really hot that day. In the evening we went to groovy Garden again to eat dinner this time & I took rollos de verano con camarones, which ver delicious, however unfortunately earlier they had brought us olives and „papas“ which technically would‘ve been glutenfree but seems like the spices were not good for me, so the next day I suffered from some very bad stomach aches for the first time here in the Dom Rep.
    It got better quickly afterwards and now I‘m feeling great again!    Les mer

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