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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
    Day 8

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 9

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    1
    Day 10

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    1
    Day 11

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 12

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 14

    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

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 16

    Bachata Night

    June 10, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 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;)Read more

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 18

    Lazy Day

    June 12, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ☀️ 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.Read more

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 19

    Mosquito Beach Bar

    June 13, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 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;)Read more

  • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
    Day 20

    people, cars and dirt - Santo Domingo

    June 14, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ☀️ 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.    Read more

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