"Presidente"

We just got back from a week of fun and sun with Charla and Tyler. We managed to pack in a whole lot in just one week so this might be a long blog. I'll try to recapture the week but I'm sure it won't do justice. You can ask Charla and Tyler how it went. Let's start with Saturday, the day they arrived. Actually, we're lucky we made it past Saturday at all. We hired a driver to take us to Puerto Plata to pick them up from the airport. It's 2 1/2 hour drive and much to our dismay, our driver choose the route through the mountains. Granted, it's much more picturesque but also more death defying. So, we started Charla and Tyler off with a whirl-wind tour through narrow mountain roads, going way too fast and not really sure if there's going to be a Daihatsu truck in our lane when we take the next corner. But, they loved watching the people sitting on the edge of the road, not doing a whole lot, the tiny colourful shacks lining the side the whole way. I can't even begin to describe how scary the driving is here, so I won't, I'll move on to Sunday.











We took them to church, toured the school then hit some waterfalls. The waterfall of choice was "Monastery waterfalls" because they are situated beside a monastery. There are two, the first set is a 15 minute hike through the forest/jungle. The next set is a 40 minute hike through the river. It's fun climbing over boulders, navigating around rapids and stepping through thorny green things. But, I think the view at the end is well worth it.

That evening we were off to our favourite chicken stand, Gilberto's. Charla and Tyler couldn't stop talking about the chicken for the rest of the week. It also happens to be Carnival here which takes place every Sunday (it's kind of like a month long Mardi Gras). Apparently the festival started when the Catholic priests came to ward off the evil spirits of the island by hitting them with pig bladders. What fun! So, the town was packed with loud speakers, people and dancing. We went for icecream where Tyler thought he had ordered mint-chocolate chip but instead was lime with chocolate chips. Ask him how it was. That evening as we were sitting on our roof and listening to music from down the street, Tyler convinced Terry to take him for a motorcyle ride through the mayhem.
Monday, Charla and Tyler got their first burn while Terry and I were at work. Monday was a little stressful as we were delicately fighting for an extra day off. I realized after Terry's parents left, that 4 days just wasn't enough for visitors from Canada. So at 5:20 pm Monday we were told that we could have Saturday off.
Tuesday we headed for the beach. We had beautiful weather for 2 days to sit and tan and play in the waves. The evenings were spent playing settlers (thanks mom and dad) and killing Tyler in Boggle. Thursday was the day of "27 Waterfalls", possibly one of the coolest places on earth. The only unfortunate part is that you can't take your camera so we don't have any pictures. It's a river that starts way up somewhere and comes down through 27 sets of waterfalls that you can hike to. Some of it involves swimming between limestone cliffs in crystal clear water or climbing up a rock using a knotted rope. Coming down involved alot of jumping into pools and even 3 naturally made waterslides. The first one is a 10 foot slide down rock and then a 10 foot drop into a small pool. The best part was watching Charla being forced to use her hidden athletic skills. We stopped in Sosua for some shopping on the way back. Here Tyler and Terry decided that they needed one of the famous Dominican cigars. So, they planned their evening of sitting in the cold tub (looks like a hottub but isn't hot), drinking coffee to stay warm and smoking cigars. I'm just glad it was dark and no one could see them. Charla and I had just as much fun laughing at them.

Friday was our only day of rain. We did some shopping in the morning and then played games for most of the afternoon. Each evening we would choose our restaurant on the beach and had anything from pizza to Tai food to Dominican. We had to end our last day of bliss off with a bang. So, being the rebels we are, we split a bottle of the famous Dominican "Presidente" beer. This is where I would have posted the picture of Charla making a disgusted face after tasting it, but I can't, because the loser deleted it.


We squeezed in a few more hours of beach time and snorkelling before we had to head home on Saturday. It was actually nice to show up at church on Sunday and have the kids excited to see you back. It wasn't nice getting up to go to work again on Monday. But, we did have 5 days off and for that I am thankful.