I've been lacking wifi...

Traveling here is full of surprises. I took a bus from Caberete to Santo Domingo with a 10 minute buffer to catch my next one. I missed it. I missed it by an hour and a half. It was also conveniently the last bus that left for our desired destination of Punta Cana. My group and I had to find another route. We luckily found a local bus that just happened to be going to Punta Cana just in time. After a long day of traveling we reached our destination, only 6 hours off of our target.

Punta Cana was well worth the hassle of getting there. We stayed in a very modern house that we found for a great price, and we were not too far from Playa Blanca. Playa Blanca is a very famous beach in the area. The new problem my group and I faced was the new prices. Taxis in this city cost 10 times what we were used to in Puerto Plata. My typical bargaining skills could not get anyone to nudge. After much persistence we paid for a taxi to the beach. It was worth it. Playa Blanca had the clearest yet bluest water that I have ever seen in my life. I snorkeled and saw many colorful fish and crabs. After 3 hours of simply playing in the water we took a break and enjoyed some dessert at a nearby restaurant. A restaurant that we didn’t feel fancy enough to be in with our dripping swimsuits.

Once we were a little bit more rejuvenated we went out in search of paddle boards. I rented a board for an hour and it was incredible.

After that it was time to head back to our house to get ready for the next day. We arranged to have a taxi pick us up at 5:45 the next morning so we could catch our 7 o’clock bus. I figured that that would give us enough buffer time for if something went wrong. I was wrong,…… again. Our taxi had a large delay and we didn’t make it to the station until 6:53. We thought we were in luck that we were going to make it onto our bus. …….We didn’t. The tickets were completely sold out for the 7 o’clock. We waited at the station until 9 to board the next available bus to Santo Domingo. Luckily the bus station had an empanada stand right next door so I enjoyed one as I waited.

Now having arrived in Santo Domingo I just boarded my next bus to Samana. This is the last stop of my vacation.  I am loving all of the great memories I am making but I am also very eager to get back to teaching in Puerto Plata!

I am now staying in a hostel in Samana and it is my favorite living arrangement thus far. After the bus ride from Santo Domingo a taxi took me to the hostel which is at the very tip top of a mountain. We are the only guests here at the moment so we were already upgraded to all having our own beds. Our host is an animal lover. She has 19 cats, 2 dogs, 3 horses and claims there are chickens around somewhere. All are rescues and have the sweetest personalities. After briefly settling in we were offered a ride into town by our host. We went on a walk around town and wandered around some of the local shops. By this time it was dark and the view of the stars was breathtaking. It gets better. A few minutes after walking fireflies started to buzz around. Such a beautiful night! Tomorrow we are going to explore the beach close to our temporary home. We might have the opportunity to go horseback riding with our host if everything works out. We are going whale watching Sunday morning and then we board a bus back to Puerto Plata.