Dominican Republic M-Trek
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Dear Blog,

I am so sorry for neglecting you over the summer. It seems that somehow I managed to have an even busier schedule than when I was in school! Okay, so that’s not entirely true. But maybe it’s just that the working world is a tad bit, well… tedious? Okay, that’s not entirely true either. Whatever the case – it won’t happen again. I promise.

So, my 12 week internship at Walmart.com wrapped up on August 5th and that evening I hopped on a plane for Seattle to spend the weekend with Alison. All in all it was a good summer. I found my work both fascinating and challenging.

The weekend in Seattle with Alison was good. We had dinner in the city and visited some local hangouts and shops on Saturday. On Sunday we drove 2 hours north to catch a 2 hour ferry to Victoria, Canada. Victoria was a beautiful little town. It reminded me a lot of a small European villa. The next day we rushed to get Alison’s bags packed and then flew to San Francisco where Alison departed on a red-eye flight to Ann Arbor, and I went back to my ‘summer home’ in the city to do some packing before my departure to Ann Arbor 2 days later.

Ann Arbor For a Day:
Unpack, do some laundry, eat, do some more laundry, pack again, try to do some catch up work, procrastinate, sleep for a few hours and take off the next morning at 5AM for the Dominican Republic.

Dominican Republic m-trek – Keep It On The DR:
I got in to Santo Domingo on Friday, and met up with Laura and Sarah – two of my co-leaders and former 2004 Belize trekkers. The next day we went back to the airport to welcome our contingent of trekkers with blue and maize leis. That evening we enjoyed a bottle of Rugal Rum with several cokes on top of the roof of a local restaurant. We enjoyed the rum, watched the sun set, and lightning on the far off horizon. It was a great venue to get to know each other before our week long adventure.

Dominican Mariachis

My trekkers were already trying to get me to sing at dinner on the first night of our trip.

DAY 1

The next day we headed north to Cabarete, away from the Caribbean sea towards the Atlantic coast. On the way to Cabarete, we stopped in the Septentrional Mountains for a whitewater rafting excursion. The rapids weren’t overly intense, but we did make our way through (and down) a 5 foot waterfall. No one was hurt, although one trekker managed to get herself ejected from the raft.

The Windsurf

The entire m-trek squad in front of the WindSurf hotel.

That evening, we arrived at the Windsurf Inn in Cabarete where we quickly unloaded our bags, and readied ourselves for a trip down the river, to Islabon – an interesting tiki bar on an isolated beach. There we enjoyed some deliciously prepared parrot fish and rum punch by the light of our nearby beach bonfire.

Parrot Fish Surprise

I don't know how the locals cooked these things, but they were delicious. This was probably the best meal we had during our trip.

DAY 2

The next day we woke up early and shipped off to the Yasica River where we saddled up our horses (one of our horses was saddled up exclusively for the purpose of toting the 60 Presidente beers one of our trekkers purchased in case we became parched on the journey). The horse ride through the hills and jungles of central Dominican Republic was beautiful. Halfway through the trip, however, the skies grew dark and the rain began to pour, soaking us, our horses, and the trail. Eventually, we were descending down a steep, muddy trail and our less than nimble horses began to slip and slide their way down to the bottom. Again, only minor scrapes and bruises, but a harrowing experience nonetheless. When we reached the river, we slipped off our jeans, put on our swimwear, and jumped on our tubes for a mile long journey down the river. 2 bears each, and half an hour later, we reached our destination – a shady lagoon with a rope swing and plenty of places to get ourselves wet. After we had worn ourselves out trying to complete a back flip off of the rope swing, we loaded up our saddle bags and headed back to the ranch. On the way, we encountered more slipping, more scrapes and bruises, but we were also given the liberty to run our horses. This was especially entertaining to those of us who had never even been on a horse before.

A Horse Called 'Florida'

This is my horse, Florida. The stable owner called her "a nice girl who loves to run." Did she ever.

DAY 3

Canyoning? None of us really knew what exactly ‘canyoning’ entailed when we started out that morning. We knew it required a wetsuit, a helmet, and a climbing harness – but that was about it. Once we had all been suited up in the proper attire, we hopped in a van and headed to the mouth of a river in the middle of the jungle, with large slippery boulders, waterfalls, and large pools of water. We began ‘walking’ down the river which sounds easy enough but turned out to be a rather precarious proposition. The rocks were slippery with moss and one false step meant a bruise at best, and certain death at worse. No, no one perished, but there were times we felt like we should’ve. One such time was the first rappel down the face of ‘mushroom falls’. The rope that we rappelled on was not long enough to reach the cool pool of water below. Instead, our guide released our harness when we reached the halfway point, and we did a free fall into the water below. This happened twice during this excursion.

Wetsuits and Helmets

The crew getting suited up for our waterfall-rapelling and cliff-jumping adventure.

DAY 4

Another early morning to catch our transport, and we were soon off to Gri Gri Lagoon where we boarded our Scuba/Snorkeling boat. Only three of us went scuba diving, and the reefs were much better than expected. We saw hundreds of black sea urchins, a lobster, a crab, and even a moray eel. The snorkelers had mixed reports about their experience. After diving, we made our way to Playa Grande beach where we enjoyed a late lunch and good company.

Snorkeling

The snorkeling crew in formation.

Scuba

Jason, Ian, and myself decided to go 'under'.

DAY 5

Surfing! Finally, a day to sleep in! Nope. The surfers got to sleep in, but not me. Instead of surfing, I opted for the deep sea fishing excursion with 2 other trekkers and Jason (Roommate, Belize M-Trek, No Fall Zone, IMAP, Wyoming Trek – that Jason). We didn’t catch any fish, but we managed to get our iPod hooked up to the boats stereo and we had a great time enjoying the sun, the beer, and the country music piping through the speakers. It turned out to be one of our most memorable events.

Deep Sea Fishing

Even though we came back without a bite, the trip was a blast. We danced and enjoyed the sun.

Dinner

The fearless trek leaders attempting to cook dinner for our trekkers.

DAY 6
The Catamaran trip capped off our Dominican Republic experience. We enjoyed a full day of swimming, sailing, snorkeling, sunning, and fair amount of rum punch. It was a much needed day of relaxing and recuperating after our busy week. That night we took in some of the local dance clubs, and made fools of ourselves on the dance floor until we were all too tired to move.

Catamaran Fun

One part rum punch and several parts sun.

DAY 7
The journey home is always a sad one, but this one was mixed with sadness for the trip’s end, contentment with all we had experienced, and expectation about the year ahead. Who knows what the next journey has in store… hopefully another great year of business school and another great year to be alive.

The Last Night

The tans are a testament to the trip's success.

From the Dominican Republic, I flew to Miami for a one week vacation with my family in Vero Beach. More on that in a short while.

posted by Jake B. @ 3:42:00 PM