First Week in Las Terrenas

September 24 - 30

It has been almost a week that we (Kira and I) have been living in our small bungalow since we arrived in the Dominican Republic last Monday! After our flight we took a two hour bus ride from Santo Domingo to Las Terrenas in the north east of the country, which is where we will be living for our twelve weeks here.
We have our own private little guest house with a bedroom and a bathroom, which along with four other small guest house buildings, and a building that is our kitchen, surrounds a beautiful courtyard and garden area. To get here we have to go a few blocks off the main road, but being here is almost like an oasis and escape from all the hustle and bustle of the city. There are three dogs, three cats, and two donkeys living here, but many other animals as well such as lizards, egrets, and frogs (and of course many mosquitoes). The owners of where we are staying are a woman and her teenage son, but who are currently visiting family in the Netherlands and should be back this week. We are excited to meet them!

To get into the main part of the city it is about a 15 minute walk, and past that another 15 minutes is the beach where the dive shop is and where we go to work 5 days a week. The weather has been poor and we have had to work out some issues regarding our internship, so we haven't been diving yet, but I will share more about that in the next post. The closest beach to us is called Playa Bonita and where Kira and I went swimming one night this week!

We have made friends with other volunteers at the dive shop, and others who are volunteering at other places such as the local school and hospital. Most of them are from Germany but are around our age and also taking gap years between high school and university.
I have been speaking Spanish with all the locals here, and it definitely feels good to be practicing and using it. After walking to work for only a couple days we got a sense of the geography of most of the town, and even though we cook most of our meals, we have tried a couple restaurants and are hoping to try more soon. We do feel pretty safe here, but at night we don't walk alone and take the motorcycle taxis here if we have to. They're called motoconchos and cost only 50 pesos each, or about $1.
Overall, I do miss people from home but it definitely feels good to be here and the beach is absolutely beautiful! I am planning on posting at least once a week with updates about what we're doing. I am sending my best wishes back to the US (and to everyone protesting the insanity that is our government thank you I wish I could be there!)