After 6 weeks of groups Jeff and I were looking forward to a week down. Over New Year’s we had the opportunity to spend a few days on the north coast in Las Terrenas (5 hours from San Juan). We both agreed that this had become one of our favorite vacation spots. It doesn’t really have the touristy feel like the resort towns in the DR. There are quiet, private beaches and towny things to do. We also learned that from January 15th-March 15th each year the whales pass through the bay of Samana, which is about a 45 minute drive from Las Terrenas. We booked a little apartment in town for February 14-18th.
So February 13th rolls around, we head to the Capella with the group and enjoy an evening there. Valentine’s Day we wake up, eat breakfast and get on the road early so we can get to the grocery store and load up on things before heading to our vacation get away. Jeff called our contact person, we will call her Lucy, as we pulled into Las Terrenas. We were heading to where we believed the apartment was located; however, when Jeff mentioned to Lucy where we were she told us we needed to turn back and drive about 15 minutes the other way. We did this, waited in a public parking lot, because someone was going to find us and direct us in the correct direction. After another 20 minutes of waiting in the parking lot, Jeff called Lucy back and she informed us that the person she sent couldn’t find us…interesting since we were sitting in a pretty empty lot. We eventually drove until we found a girl sitting on her moto, and Jeff asked if she was looking for us, she indicated yes, so we turned around and followed her about 2 minutes down the road to a vacant looking apartment complex. It was nicely painted and decorated, but it didn’t seem that anyone was living there. I pulled up the picture of the place we were renting and showed the girl, she confirmed that is where we were. We were told that Lucy would be arriving in about 5 minutes to show us to our apartment. Another 30 minutes passed and still no Lucy. Instead the girl that we followed on the moto, motioned for us to follow her, we walked down a little pathway in the grass to an apartment. Her and the cleaning lady both told us this was the place we rented. We knew FOR SURE it was not. Upon this, we walked back to the lobby to wait for Lucy…..
Lucy finally showed up 30 minutes later to inform us -LONG STORY SHORT- that the place we had planned to stay at had been double booked, and we wouldn’t be able to stay there. It wasn’t even at the location we were currently waiting at. I had jokingly brought up this scenario to Jeff, prior to even talking to Lucy, when we were waiting “5 minutes” for her to show up. He reassured me there was no way that would happen. But there we were listening to Lucy justify the place we were at, and telling us how much better it was. We told her if we wanted to stay there we would have booked that place originally. Jeff told her to start making calls to see if she could find us a different place to stay. As I stated before, it’s whale season, and almost all reasonably priced places were booked.
Thankfully, Jeff had a couple other contacts in the area that he could try. One of the people being the agent that we had worked with when we were in Las Terrenas over New Years. Her name is Celine. She said she knew of a place in el pueblo (the neighborhood, we weren’t sure if this was good or bad?!) with 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms, a pool and near the beach. She said it would be a couple hours until she could meet us there, because she was decorating at another house. Within 5 minutes Jeff got another call from her, and she said she could meet us there at that moment. We met up with her at the gas station and followed her to where we ended up staying. The second we walked in we knew all of the mess we had experienced was for a reason.
There were several other things we had on our mind too…like getting reimbursed from the original rental we weren’t staying at, obtaining money to pay for our new location, getting something to eat, etc. It was now a little after 4:00pm and we had all had a very long day. Braegan had been a trooper, but she was exhausted and getting a little goofy. We got our things unloaded and headed to the grocery store. We had brought some things from home to make meals too, and decided that instead of going out for a Valentine’s Day dinner we were going to play it safe and eat at the apartment. Jeff started to make spaghetti while Braegan and I played. Not too much time had passed and we heard a sound like something had combusted….Jeff looked over to the gas stove to see that there was fire coming up from behind it…..UFFFFF! He turned the stove off, and checked the gas connection, then switched burners. We enjoyed a quite dinner on the patio together.
Thankfully we got a good night’s rest and Sunday morning since it was overcast we spent a few hours walking around town. When we got back to the apartment, Braegan went down for a nap and Jeff and I sat by the pool. We then ventured over to one of the beaches we visited when we were in Las Terrenas over New Years.
shops within walking distance of where we stayed
Braegan enjoying the beach
Monday, was sunny in the morning, but overcast in the afternoon so we did the pool in the morning and walked around town in the afternoon. As we started to walk, Jeff noticed that there were some fishing boats coming in across the street so we went over to take a look.
weighing dolphin fish to be sold
After observing for a while, Jeff talked to a couple of the locals and arranged to go out with one of the boats for Tuesday. It was crazy to see how big the fish were they were bringing in. That evening we walked around town some more and ate at One Love Surfshack. It’s a little burger place right on the beach. It was great, we enjoyed listening to Jason Mraz and other beachy tunes! I ordered the Aloha burger- hamburger with pineapple and sweet and sour sauce. Jeff ordered the Papichulo- hamburger with a fried egg, tomato, lettuce and cream cheese. Braegan enjoyed a little fries and some nachos with fresh salsa.
Little burger place on the beach, owned by a Canadian
She loves her agua!
Tuesday morning we woke up to rain so Jeff’s fishing trip was postponed to Wednesday. We spent Tuesday hanging around the apartment and sitting by the pool whenever the sun was out.
Today when we woke up it was sunny; however, the fishermen said the water was too dangerous to venture out in. Jeff’s fishing trip is now postponed until our next visit to Las Terrenas. We spent a little time by the pool this morning, and then packed up the truck to head back to San Juan. After the rainy days, this was the site we saw as we left town…
clear blue sky
God is in control and obviously He continues to remind us of that. Our main distraction with living out of the US is having access to the internet, and there was only a 5 inch radius by the pool where we could even pick up a signal…and a weak one at that. So not much contact with the outside world could occur from this piece of paradise, and we enjoyed a lot of quality family time together.
We are thankful to be back home in San Juan for a couple days before the next teams arrives. We have 5 weeks of groups and then we are looking forward to a trip back to the states to spend a week in Naples, FL with Jeff’s family. We continue to enjoy the adventure of life that we are on together!