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Las Terrenas

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    • TravelerVoluntariat Dom Rep
      Day 26

      Bonfire Night

      June 20, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 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.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
      Day 28

      Still alive!!!

      June 22, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 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!      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

    • DomRep 2022
      Day 13

      16.08 - Las Terrenas

      August 16, 2022 in Dominican Republic ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C

      Nach einem sehr entspannten Vormittag in unserem Dschungelhostel in Cabarete, ging es um 13:40 mit dem einzigen Guagua, einem privaten Minibus, an diesem Tag, direkt auf die sagenumwobene Halbinsel Samana, genauergesagt nach Las Terrenas!
      Gute 4 Stunden dauerte die Fahrt. Inklusive mehrerer Tankpausen und DriveThrough-Momenten. Um kurz vor 6 waren wir endlich in Las Terrenas. Auf der Fahrt nach Las Terrenas ging es gefühlt durch das Auenland und gleichzeitig auch durch einen kleinen, aber intensiven Schauer. Angekommen im unserem Hotel war das Staunen groß. Nicht nur hatte es eine 1a Lage direkt am Strand, sondern haben wir auch ein Upgrade bekommen. Vom gebuchten, normalen Standardzimmer, ging es dann doch ins zwei-etagige Superiorzimmer mit Terrase, Küchenecke und Flatscreen. Beschweren wollten wir uns da nicht und rein sprachlich kann ich es auch garnicht :)
      Kurz frischgemacht, liefen wir die Strandpromenade herunter um etwas leckeres zu essen zu finden.
      Ein OrangeChicken später ging es uns bestens. Mit einem Bier genossen wir den anstrengenden Tag auf unserer ersten „eigenen“ Terrasse auf dieser Reise.
      Morgen geht es zum berühmten Salto Limon - dem berühmtesten Wasserfalls der Republik.
      ¡Hasta la proxima!      Read more

      See translation
    • 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 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
      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 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 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

    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Las Terrenas

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