Tuesday - Dune Buggies!

On Monday, Rob and I met with our Sunquest tour representative and booked a few excusions.  The first one was Tuesday afternoon, and it was a few hours in a dune buggy!  Great fun!  We got very wet, and very dirty.  It also gave us a chance to see some of the Dominican Republic up close, and see how some people lived.

For each excusion we went on, a vehicle of some sort came to pick us up at the resort.  For the Dune Buggies, it was a truck, where we sat in the back on benches.  There was a covering over our heads, but the sides were open.  We stopped at a few different resorts to pick up more adventurous folks, and then headed off the beaten path and ended up here.

When we first arrived, I was a little alarmed, the whole area looked a little sketchy, but it was all okay.   We first had to sit down to have the safety rules reviewed; our guide was a young fellow, a university student, and his English was excellent.  With the exception of pronouncing his name that is (or else he said it too fast).  The closest Rob and I could come up with was 'Calvin', so we'll call him that.  He was in university studying tourism, and serving tourists.  The universities in the Dominican do not teach any other languages, nor do the schools.  Those wishing to learn other languages attend a separate institution to do so.  Most people involved in tourism will learn English, French, and German, in addition to their native Spanish. Calvin had studied English, German, and was going to start French shortly.

Once we'd been read the rules and signed the waiver, we were assigned a dune buggy.  (Not this yellow one, but a blue one).

We were equipped with helmets, goggles could be rented, and bandana's purchased.

Off we went!  There were 6 or 7 dune buggies in total.  Calvin was in the first one, then all of us, and another couple guys from the Dune Buggy Operation as a caboose.  At least one of those guys was called the "mechanic".  That sent another alarm bell off for me...a mechanic had to come with?

Some of the terrain we covered:

On the bus ride from the airport to the resort, we had driven through Puerta Plata and had seen some homes, stores, businesses, etc.  It wasn't possible to take pictures then.  Even now, for every picture Rob or I took, there were 5 or 10 more that we didn't take.  It was just impossible to capture it all on "film", and it is hard to describe everything we saw too.

I'm not sure if this is a home or a store; however we definitely saw other homes with the fences/railings like this.

This was definitely a home, and typical of many that we saw.  The entire building was often about 15 feet square.  Some had windows, but many did not.  Just shutters, or bars across the windows.  It really struck Rob and I how blessed we are.  God has truly blessed us.  It is only because the weather is so warm year round that the homes can be like this.

(I think I had my camera on a angle, the house was not THAT crooked! :))

This was a store of some sort, we did not go in, so I have no idea what they sold.  Notice the water jugs on the right?  It seems that not even the locals drink the tap water, typical of Latin America, as we frequently saw stacks of water jugs like this available for sale.  Notice also the appartus above the doors - these are those "roller doors" that would be used to secure the building when the store was closed.  We saw a lot of businesses with this, out in the country side, and also in Puerta Plata itself.

At one point in our travels, our dune buggy stalled.  Rob and I were the last buggy in the row, and the mechanic who had been following us was no longer following us.  We did not know how to start it, as they had started it for us, so there we were, stuck.  Everyone else had gone down a hill and around a corner, so they couldn't really see us either.  However, they stopped shortly, and saw us waving, and Calvin probably hauled out his cell phone to summon the mechanics.  (Yes, we did see cellphones and blackberries frequently, especially in Puerta Plata itself).  They showed up soon, and tried to start our buggy but it wouldn't start, so they told us to take theirs instead.  So we did, and went to catch up with everyone else, who were waiting. After the next stop, we learned the battery had a problem. So we started with a blue buggy and ended with a red one.

Our first stop was near the home of some locals, where there was some beautiful scenery, and we were also given a drink.  And time to photograph how dirty we were!  The terrain was all gravel, dirt, mud.  We crossed some creeks, droven through puddles.  Sometimes faster than others. :)

The scenery, we had climbed at least partway up a mountain.  It was cloudy, and we did have a few raindrops, but what's a few raindrops when you're splashing through mud puddles in an open vehicle?

Around the edge of the property, there were pretty displays like this.  I'm not exactly sure what purpose this area served; we didn't see the house, and the "building" had small bar, bathrooms, and then an open area with a few tables.  Beyond the building was the lawn, where these decorations where.

Someone chopping wood. See the dog?  We saw a lot of dogs running around.  In the city, and in the villages.  Mangy mutts all over the place. :)

And a cat.  Cats in DR are no different than in Canada...they sleep wherever and whenever they want to...this cat was nearly stepped on several times as "wherever" at this point was the middle of a step.

After a brief rest, we were off again, for a short trek to our second stop.

This time we stopped in a small village, where there were a few homes, and the locals were selling some of their wares.  Paintings and jewelry, mostly necklaces.  Some of the paintings were large...I'm not sure how we would have kept it clean in a dune buggy!

It seems that the houses do not have bathrooms, as we usually saw a little outbuilding nearby.

Side view of this outbuilding:

At some point someone had also captured a tarantula, which they were keeping in a pail.  Rob took this picture. I didn't want to get anywhere near that pail!

We resumed our travels, getting wetter and dirtier.  Sometimes Calvin would lead us down a path with lots of opportunities to get dirty, only to turn around and go right back through all the puddles and creeks again!  The water in the puddles was generally quite warm, and also dirtier.  The creek water actually cleaned us off sometimes, but was considerably colder.

Back at the depot, this is what we looked like! -- Soaked to the skin!

However, they did have a hose so that you could attempt to clean  yourself up somewhat...you couldn't get any wetter anyways!

We were shuttled back to our resort, where the first order of business was a shower.  The ride back was close to an hour, so the wetness wasn't so much fun anymore! But it isn't cold in the DR. We rinsed our clothes, but I carefully kept them separate from everything else for the journey home...they warranted their own wash cycle!

Rob and I both had a lot of fun that afternoon!  It was also really neat to get our first look into the surrounding villages, and see how the people in the DR really live.  As this was my first trip outside of Canada, the United States, and the Netherlands, this was a real eye opener for me.  Rob saw similar things when he went to Mexico, but that was 10 1/2 years ago.  Another guide (that'll be another post) reiterated several times that the people are happy, this is life as they know it, and they are happy with it.  I do hope that is true, although true happiness, regardless of your circumstances, only comes from knowing Jesus as your Saviour.  We did flash past some protestant churches, so we hope some of these people have found true happiness. However, this just points out anew, and for more reasons, how wonderfully blessed we are, how good God has been to us, so undeserving as we are!