Dominican Day #3

Well, it's rained since I arrived, so we have kinda been up to nothing. Last night a little baby lizzard decided to come and visit Sharla and I while we were watching a movie. It was causing no trouble and we just let it do it's thing. Hopefully I don't accidentally bring it home with me at the end up the month. It better not be setting up shop in my suitcase!

Today Kara and I decided that we were sick of being stuck in the house. We waited for a break in the rain and then made our way to Cabarete. Quite the experience getting here. First, it starts raining harder as soon as we leave the house. We took the cow path because it is faster, but there is a reason it is called the cow path. I don't know what all that brown water had to contain. In any case I saw a small snake and my flip flops had formed the super suction of an octopus as we were trekking through. We finally made it to the street, after much laughing with our bags and umbrellas. Then we hop in the good'ol guagua (pronounced gwa-gwa). It's a form of public transportation and always offers a story to tell.

Since it's pouring, we hop in with a quickness. We are in the FRONT row. So I decided to count the number of people in the front seat and in our row...10. 10 in two rows! This is not unusual since these are packed to the max and the driver is usually on the outside holding onto the inside. I didn't dare turn around and count how many were behind me (atleast 8) as I realize what I look like. They are probably thinking "Stupid white gringa" and, really, at this point who could blame them? My hair is a hot mess, sticking up everywhere, I think I have swollen up to the size polar bear from the humidity and I'm obviously caucasian.

Our driver couldn't have been able to see anything. When I was pretty sure we were going to hydroplane and crash, he would wipe off the inside of the windshield with a towel. Whew, I feel so much safer now.

The guy controlling the starts, stops and placement of people did not ever make us move to the back as I am pretty sure he was falling for Kara. He kept trying to talk to her and made sure she knew he had no girlfriend, no kids, and a job. Qualities we all look for, sure, but dang, not on a guagua. He was sad to see us go, but after an hour of riding, we hopped off with the same quickness we hopped on with.

Here we sit in Lax with free internet and a rainy beach. However, you will not hear me complain. A rainy day people watching at the beach is better than what I would be doing at home...which is probably sleeping since I would have worked the night before. In a weird way I kinda miss work. The people and our constant laughing. It was a little anticlimactic to not be put to work right away. I can thank the rain and random dominican holidays for that. But it did give me time to catch up with sharla and the boys...who, by the way, have only gotten cuter. We'll stay here awhile and then make our way back home later this evening. I still have a guagua ride home to prepare for! This place is full of funny situations!

P.S. We had an uneventful guagua ride home. Also, I met a guy in Lax who is from Dayton...go figure, the guy grew up like five minutes from me. He currently splits the year between the DR and Norway. How's that for extremes?