Las Terrenas: Weekend Getaway!

Birthday Weekend on the North Coast

(7/12-7/14)

One of the many questions I was asked before going to the DR was: Are you going to go to the beach?! I am glad to finally answer that question with a definite YES! Teresa allowed us a 3-day weekend to spend on the north coast along the Samana Peninsula. We went to Las Terrenas! This was an extra special weekend because it was Liz’s birthday on Friday, July 12^th!

The trip started smoothly. We took a gua-gua (van) from Monte Plata to the main highway, which runs north and south. This was about a 25-minute ride. The gua-gua technically had about 8 seats in it...but we squeezed about 18 people in it. That is considered normal for the gua-guas. People often hang out the open side door.

The ride to the highway and then to Samana. The top two pictures are the first gua-gua, it was packed!

Once we made it to the highway, we had to wait for another gua-gua to take us north to Las Terrenas. This is where it got a little tricky. Buses do not run on a schedule like they do in the states. We could not look up times online to see when the buses were going by Monte Plata, we just had to wait and hope it went by while we were sitting there. Luckily we had Miguel, staff member from the clinic, with us to help us catch the right gua-gua.

We waited about 20 minutes for the next gua-gua. This gua-gua was much nicer. It had seats much like a normal bus in the States and had air conditioning! We all got very excited anytime we had A/C. This gua-gua ride was smooth. We went up through the mountains and past a lot of fields of rice patties. We also passed several palm tree plantations.

After about 2 hours, we had arrived in Samana. Little did we know, Las Terrenas and Samana were not technically the same place. We were supposed to meet up with our host in front of the cemetery in Las Terrenas, so we had a motorconcho take us to the “cemetery”. After several minutes of waiting, looking, and confusing cell phone conversations, we realized that Las Terrenas was a different city and about 45 minutes away. We were at the cemetery in Samana and had taken the wrong gua-gua! Luckily there were still gua-guas running from Samana to Las Terrenas, though we were originally told that there were no more gua-guas going there and we were going to have to shell out $1200 pesos ($30) to take a taxi. The gua-gua was another little van-like gua-gua and only cost us $100 pesos each ($2.50).

Our mini trip in Samana. The first picture is the motorconcho that we took to the "wrong cemetery".  There were tons of motorcyclists at the bus stop, they are the Dominican version of taxis. The last pictures are of the final gua-gua that took us to Las Terrenas

Our first day in Las Terrenas. The first pictures is the house we stayed in for the weekend. Next is a picture of my leg. I was eaten alive on one of the gua-guas! I still have not figured out what type of critter bit me! I know it wasn't mosquitos, bed bugs, or fleas. We spent the first day trying local cuisine, lounging on the beach, and watching the sunset before we went to dinner for Liz's birthday.

After about 3 hours of travel, we had finally made it to the beautiful town of Las Terrenas, and I mean BEAUTIFUL! The coast was line was pristine! The most gorgeous crystal blue water that any of us had ever seen! We spent the weekend with a friend of a friend of a friend of Terasa’s. The lady was French and had lived in Las Terrenas for 15 years. Her Spanish accent was very unique! She and Derek mostly spoke French together, but every once in a while she would switch to Spanish mid sentence. This was quite amusing to Derek and Liz! She was kind enough to show us around the town, recommend good restaurants, take us to the beach, and of course, show us the French bakery! We spent most of the weekend lounging on the beach, which resulted in beautiful tans…just kidding! We all got quite sun burnt despite our continuous lathering of sunscreen. This town was filled with people from all over the world. We met Englishmen, Cubans, French, Italians, Americans, and more! This was a beautiful beach town that was not too touristy. I would love to visit again!

THE BEACH!!! It was absolutely gorgeous!

On our last day, our host drove us around town. We saw many small shops, fruit stands, pharmacies, hospitals and restaurants. Interestingly, the hospital was closed when we drove by it! Also, we went in a French pharmacy which had a lot of "natural" remedies. Derek and I were not impressed.