On Leave in the DR

Today is the last day of my vacation in the Dominican Republic. Despite daily rain showers and in some cases a downpour, I have managed to squeeze out some fun every day. In fact a tropical storm called Noel hit the island, killing some people in the mountainous interior. I have passed all six days in the town of Las Terrenas on the Samanà peninsula. The town is mostly French, and then there are Italians and some Germans. If they don´t speak English or Spanish then I can´t talk with them. I have been hanging out more with the locals on the other side of town, playing dominoes or billiards and drinking mixed drinks. I say billiards because they play a different form of pool down here. And they´re good at it. I spend all of yesterday afternoon at a local pool hall open to the outside. It rained and it poured, but we kept playing pool on the four tables under the thatched roof. It was a lot of fun, and I have found out that I´m still pretty good at playing pool and speaking Spanish.

Another night I went out with some of the local surfers who I met playing volleyball in front of a hotel. We went and ate dinner, a plate of seafood pasta, and then split. I wandered a bit and ended up at a small bar with some women playing dominoes. It was too early to go to the disco, so I had a seat and we played for a few hours. It turned out that the older of the three was the mother of two daughters from different fathers. One of the daughters was clearly black and the other looked more like one of the natives that were pushed out with the conquest hundreds of years ago. You could tell there was competition between them, who was prettier and who could play dominoes better. After drinking a few beers and talking it up we all went to the bodega together and danced the night away.

The next day I woke up and went to El Limòn waterfall with a guide I had met from the town of that name. He was a nice guy at first, but it turned out he was more interested in getting my money than making friends. I should have known. That´s how the people are. If they see you are willing to part with your money they will pressure you. All in all they´re pretty laid back though. I had a good time riding a horse up the mountain from the town of El Limòn to the picturesque waterfall. When we got back, we had lunch at his mother´s house and met his family and the people hanging out at the small cafe next door. They were all very friendly in a way that isn´t seen in the US. I guess it´s because they don´t have much.

It rained all the next day which was kind of a bust. In the morning I walked along the beach and spent some time alone. It is off season here so there aren´t so many people. That´s both good and bad. I didn´t realize there would be all this rain. There will be rain when I return to Iraq as well but that place is really nasty. The mud gets caked to your boots and everyone tracks it inside with them creating a real mess. It´s either that or the heat.

Tomorrow morning I say goodbye to Las Terrenas which has been good to me. I haven´t seen another American in six days which is a bit strange. We dominate the fenced in resorts; these days the most notable is Punta Cana. I chose to go outside the fence and see some more of the local culture, which is "tranquilo" as they say.