Dominican Republic
La Iglesia

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    • Day 13

      Las Terrenas - Playa las Ballenas

      January 11, 2023 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

      Second day of 'Las Terrenas'. After another night with heavy rainfall today it's pure sunshine 😎🌞
      Lunch we had in a very small family run restaurant. Daddy is the cook, mommy is doing the bar and after school the daughters help to run the service. Every meal is made fresh, with fresh fish of the day. Every flowers used for decorating is picked by hand in the own garden.

      Dishes in order:
      - Empanada with Choriza and Mushrooms, Beef and Cheese, Chicken, cheese and bell pepper
      - Ceviche with fresh Mahi Mahi and Octopus (the Mahi Mahi got brought by Motorbike Minutes before we ordered)
      - Fish fingers with Soy sauce mixed with honey and coconut milk
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    • Day 12

      Las Terrenas - Playa Popy

      January 10, 2023 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

      Moving just a few kilometers to the west sometimes make a huge difference. 'El Valle' was a small secluded place with rain forest and mountains all around. Now we're in 'Las Terrenas'.

      Kilometers of white to golden beaches with palms. You can decide whether you wanna stay in areas with beach bars and music or without, where you have small reefs to snorkel (sadly most of them are dead) or you wanna be able to walk many meters in the shallow water.

      (Last picture - yellow jamaica stingray hiding in sea weed one of many fishes with bioluminescent at night and a chameleon like ability to change colors)
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    • Day 7

      Playa anclon

      March 14 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

      Playa anclon spiaggia di sabbia finissima e dorata, sofficissima.racchisa tra cocchi giganteschi e mangrovie. Meraviglioso bagno in un mare che ti ristorava dal caldo torrido. Ci siamo visti con i nostri amici milanesi e mentre Francesco si è fatto mettere apposto la schiena, si spera, da un osteopata, noi ci siamo dati ai bagordi facendo un aperitivo in un locale in spiaggia. La giornata si è conclusa con un massaggio che mi ha ridato la vita e una cena a casa .Read more

    • 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

    • Day 33

      Pasolas and Karaoke

      June 27, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

      Second last day, still a couple of things left on my bucket list. One of them was eating breakfast at the beach, so I woke up with Theresa‘s alarm, prepared breakfast and took a motoconcho to punta poppy. I loved how calm this beach was during the morning anf enjoyed the time I had all by myself. We did a double dive that morning, one of them was a deep dive I had asked Daria if we could do while I was still here. At this point I really have to sayc I am so so so thankful to have had a diving instructor like Daria. She always did everything so we could dive as often as possible. Aldeas de Paz, the organisation actually only wanted us volunteers to do a max of 3 dives a week. Well with daria we had an average of 6 dives, counting in that weekends are always free). After diving I went to tropikbowl, one pf my favourite places to eat with Theresa because we wanted to plan our trip to Cabarete. In my last post I talked about these sandflies. Well, Theresa had an allergic reaction. Her legs were full of inflamed red dots, that were biting her the whole time, so she couldnt stop scratching her skin. The hospitals here are really bad so all they do when somebody has an ailment, is giving them painkillers, which didnt help her at all. In the restaurant she could handle it anymore, she was shaking, freezing and sweating at the same time, she started crying and I told her to go home. She stayed the whole afternoon in bed but couldnt sleep. I stayed a bit with her but there was nothing I could do except for getting her ice and trying to calm her down.
      Another thing on my bucketlist was to rent pasolas, motos, and drive around and go to some beaches. It took us some time to find a good rental place because some that we saw were really sketchy and we didnt feel comfortable. We found a really trustwothy one with good pasolas at the end. A day of rental including complete insurance costed 20 dollars. They wanted to see our drivinf licenses and I showed my car license. Guess that was enough because they didnt want futher documents, they simply asked if we knew how to drive and if we had driven before. I didnt lie. I had driven one before. For about a minute. After drinking some cocktails. With somebody behind me who took care. But hey, I had driven before. I know all the people reading this are not really proud of me at this point, (sorry mami)
      While we were still at the rental place they gave us each a pasola and explained the basics. Then my big moment came. I obviously had no idea what I had to do but it had to seem like i did. I sat on the pasola, and kicked in the stand. I didnt know a pasola was this heavy and it almost fell to the side. Luckily René was standing next to me and helped me. Then I tried to accellerate but I had forgotten to turn the key to turn on the engine. The guy at the rental looked at the others and asked them if I really knew what I was doing. It was really embarassing but eventually I did it and this stupid pasola started moving. I had some severe difficulties in the beginning especially because in las Terrenas these people drive like crazy but I got used to it fast. We drive to a lookout point which was really beautiful, then headed to Coson for a swim and afterwards drank a sundowner at Mosquito bar in El Portillo. At night there was karaoke at the Garage Bar. First I went to an ice cream place woth Micka and then we met the others at The bar. It was so nice to see how we europeans, usually so strict and controlled, just let ourselves go and sang to songs, danced and enjoyed the night fully as if we were locals.
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    • 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.
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    • Day 171

      Las Terrenas

      April 25, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

      Las Terrenas ist ein Urlaubsort an der Nordküste der Dominikanischen Republik. Hier soll man auch gut Kitesurfen können. Las Terrenas ist von einem Riff umgeben, was die Einfahrt in die Lagune nicht einfach macht. Jens steuert und Regina schaut mit Marie vom Deck aus auf mögliche Gefahrenzonen. Wir fahren ganz langsam. Aberwitzige nachdem das Tiefenlot nur noch 70 cm anzeigt, setzen wir kurz auf. Den Felsen haben wir nicht sehen können, da sich die Sonne im Wasser so spiegelt. Danach wurde es dann auch wieder tiefer und wir finden einen guten Ankerplatz. Jens taucht sofort, im sich den Schaden am Boot anzuschauen. Zum Glück sind nur leichte Kratzer an einer Metallpatte am Ruder. Das beruhigt uns. Da es schon später Nachmittag ist, genießen wir den Sonnenuntergang auf dem Boot und fahren erst am darauffolgenden Tag an Land. Nachdem wir in einem nahegelegenen Waschsalon unsere Wäsche gewaschen haben, fahren wir mit den Kitesachen zum Strand. Jens baut den 12er Kite direkt auf und geht aufs Wasser. Regina uns Marie haben ein schönes Schattenplätzchen eingerichtet. Als Jens wieder kommt, geht Regina mit dem 9er Kiteschirm aufs Wasser. als der Wind weniger wird, chillen wir drei noch etwas im Schatten am schönen Sandstrand, bevor wir die Rückfahrt zur Enjoy angehen. Am nächsten Tag flanieren wir die Uferpromenade entlang. Der Ort ist wirklich nett. Die Hotels sind Max. 2 Stockwerke hoch und fügen sich dadurch gut in die Natur ein. Am Meer gibt es Bars, die zum verweilen einladen, da man einen tollen Blick über die Bucht hat. Am Nachmittag Ankern wir in die nächste Bucht um.Read more

    • 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

    • 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.
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    • 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.
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