Punta Rucia!

Punta Rucia is located in the Northwestern part of the Dominican Republic, which is among the country's most undeveloped regions. The trip is complicated. It might be simpler were there a direct route from Puerta Plata, on the North Coast, to Punta Rucia. However, its remoteness is the very thing that makes Punta Rucia so special.

Friday morning I hopped on Caribe Tours, and asked the driver to drop me off at Cruz de Guayacanes, which is west of Santiago and nearly half-way toward Dajabon. The photo above was taken of my fellow travelers a few minutes before departure on a guagua to a small town named Villa Isabela.  Below is a photo of the Driver and his son:

Below are a few sights as we approached Isabela:

And below is a photo of the station at which the guagua arrived in Villa Isabela:

And from there I took a 40 minute motoconcho ride to Puntia Rucia. Below is a photo of Jesus:

The views on the way to Punta Rucia were gorgeous, full of green pastures, grazing cattle, and lagoons. I didn't take any photos though, because of being on the back of the motor cycle. It was about 4 pm when I arrived at my destination, Casa Libre.

Here I am with the proprietor of Casa Libre, Gertie, who along with her husband Marco runs this delightful three cabin hotel. Marco is shown below preparing a mask so I could go snorkeling:

I stayed 3 nights at the Casa Libre, which was a delightful tiny hotel (consisting of 3 brightly colored cabins) owned by a German-French couple, Gertie and Marco. I paid 900 pesos per night, which is about $22. And breakfast was included. I paid Gertie an additional $10 each night to make the most sumptuous dinners imaginable. I had calimari with rice one night, and scalopini with tomatoes and mozarella another evening. The photos below are taken of my cabin:

This is the view from my front window. During the mornings I was out in the ocean, swimming in a coral reef and snorkeling. All of the varieties of fish kept me occupied for many blissful hours. I spent afternoons lounging about on this hammock.

Below is a photo of my room:

And the views from the dining room table, where Gertie served the most exquisite breakfasts and dinners.

Sunsets were ecstatically beautiful:

And below is Gertie's fabulous Siamese cat:

Another scene from the gorgeous Casa Libre (this is a photo of Casa Mariposa, another cabin on the property):

Here I am again with Nan, Gertie's part time helper, and Gertie. Below are photos I took on my walk into the town of Punta Rucia, right below the Casa Libre. First, the entrance to Casa Libre:

Cattle being driven to pasture outside of Punta Rucia.

 Approaching Punta Rucia:

Restaurant where I had lunch in Punta Rucia.

At the left is an advertisement for tours to Cayo Arena, a popular tourist destination for all inclusive Puerta Plata hotels, which I decided to forgo. There was a coral reef near Casa Libre, and this location provided stellar snorkeling opportunities. My only problem was that at one point I was caught in a current on top of the coral, and I have a painful rash, as well as blisters (from where I touched the coral), on my arm and fingers that I hope will heal quickly.

View from Punta Rucia.

All good trips come to an end, and at noon on Monday Jesus came to pick me up on his motoconcho. He took me to the guagua station in Villa Isabella. Above on the left is the driver, and a few of his friends are nearby. Below is a photo of our guagua, which took me all the way to Santiago. I came home from Santiago on Caribe Tours, arriving home about 6:30 pm.  I was exhausted!

This past month I've been fortunate, in that during June a church group went up to Playa Rincon in Las Galeras (Samana). We left 6 am in the morning and arrived home about 10 pm that same night. I'd been to that beach before (one of the best in the world), when my friends from California came to visit. We'd stayed in Las Galeras and taken a boat out to Playa Rincon.

This trip we came on the road, said (in my tour guide) to be accessible only by a four wheel drive vehicle. The church guagua, however, made the trip just fine!

Lest the reader come to the conclusion that my whole life consists of trips to the beach (an admittedly worthwhile avocation), I actually do devote myself to a fair amount of activity here in Santo Domingo. Over the past weeks I have hosted numerous coloring events with all of the neighborhood children as participants.

And one evening I invited all of the grandmothers in the neighborhood over to my house for lasagna dinner. Some of their grandchildren joined in as well. The following are just a few photos of this event, which actually involved more people than are shown.

I also toured a number of the bilingual schools and universities in Santo Domingo, and even submitted applications (and took English tests administered by non-English speakers). I've since become less enthusiastic about teaching as an occupation.  Here are some of the schools I've visited in the past weeks.

The New Horizon School and the Carol Morgan School are both sought out by expatriates for their children to attend. The Dominicans as well as people of other nationalities who send their children to these schools tend to be well-heeled.

I found the environment in both of these schools to be rather cold and unappealing. But then I never really liked high school very much. Others speak highly of these schools.

The husband of a friend has suggested I practice psychotherapy in the Dominican Republic, since I am after all, a Licensed Psychologist in the state of California. An American, he thinks I could do well practicing psychotherapy in the expatriate community. He's been paying me for psychotherapy sessions and says I am helping him! We'll see what becomes of my modest psychotherapy career here in the Dominican Republic.

I also submitted an application to a bilingual university here, APEC. They report that they have an overwhelming number of teacher applicants, and a low student load in the summer. Also, the pay is miniscule. However, I am considering taking Spanish classes at APEC.

Spanish Classes start today, July 10, and I was all set to go to APEC and register for classes except that Hurricane/Tropical Storm Chantal arrived and it has been pouring rain. It's all right; I doubt anyone else attended class either.

While on the subject of language classes, those of us who have been teaching English at Mercedes Amiama had lunch in honor of our colleague Siobhan's leaving with her husband to live in Brazil next week. Siobhan has been an English teacher for an entire year and has given much to the program. Here we are, celebrating at the Restaurant Agave in Santo Domingo.

I'll end this blog post with photos from the fabulous 65th birthday party hosted on June 25 by my neighbor Batista and his wife Elpidia. Until his stroke two years ago, Batista played the trumpet with the group featured herein, Sonja Cabral and the Cientificos del Sol. This group has achieved real prominence here in the Caribbean, and went to Paris to perform at a UNICEF event several years ago (Batista played the trumpet at this event), Anyway, the whole neighborhood took part in the birthday party, held in honor of Batista. Elpidia even served everyone a soup of rice and beef at the concert's end. I felt like I was in the middle of The Buena Vista Social Club.  And I was just downstairs from my apartment! What a memorable evening.

Santo Domingo Salsa radio host, Chino Mendez, is seen above. The following weekend Chino announced the names of those who had participated (including me!) in this concert event on the air.  He also congratulated Batista one more time on his birthday. Every since then this neighborhood has been a noticeably more social environment in which to live. So far summer has been full of friendliness, and coming back to my house here in Santo Domingo (even after visiting the world's most beautiful beaches) is an experience I always look forward to.