El Portillo Beach Resort Las Terrenas

... ed to Laguna Dudu, an unfortunately named but really magical spot. It's a natural pool set at the bottom of 30-40 foot cliffs, with vines and plants hanging down the cliff walls all the way to the water. We were again impressed with the level of investment in tourism infrastructure. One side of the pool has a concrete platform with a ladder going down to the water, and there are several rope swings. When we arrived there were about a dozen locals ...

... for the guy to come the next day, and we walked over to Playa Preciosa, where the waves are usually a little better. It was still pretty bad - he caught a few waves on Thursday, but overall it was a bust.<br><br>We got back to the hotel right in time to have a drink on the terrace and watch the sun set over the ocean. Perfect! We went out for dinner and finally found food that wasn't of animal provenance. I ...

Despues, fui en el autobus a el Parque Nacional los Haitses. Fui a mirar los aves y las flores y la vida de marina. Fui a acampar en el parque. Fui a comer la comida de tradicionales en el restaurante en el parque. Fui a comer champola, cual fue leche con guanábana. Me recomiendo que saca muchos fotos porque el bosque es muy bonito.<br><br>

... lots of energy, to say the least. I would like to propose a couple of projects to get it going in a more productive direction though sometimes! 3) My Brigada Verde (environment youth group) has become more motivated since returned from the regional conference last weekend. The Yaritza, Massiel and Ileidy, the three girls who attended the conference, gave a charla (presentation) during our ...

... men with young half-naked Dominican women. Sunday was spent laying on the beach all day, which was wonderful. So all in all Samaná/Las Terrenas was a success. I can't say that it would be my favorite beach, though, mostly because of the lack of convenient amenities and the limited modes of transportation to and around the area. A beach with no consistent availability of ice cream is no beach for me.

Las Terrenas was a great place to relax and get some sun. The coastline there reminded me a lot of the Caribbean coast of Honduras around Plaplaya and the Río Plátano, though Las Terrenas actually has tourism, whereas the area around Plaplaya is far from the beaten trail with desolate beaches. Due to the damage often inflicted by hurricanes on this island there are no monstrous hotels or resorts in Las Terrenas, making the many rustic bungalows ...

... can act as our middle man. SO, I look desperately around randomly pick one of the Skim-Ice guys and put him on the phone with my cell phone hostage-taker. They talk for a minute and when he hangs up I give him the 200 pesos, but first I say "Look Skim-Ice guy, I know it would be really easy for you to just run off with my 200 pesos and never come back, but I'm a volunteer here and 200 pesos is a lot of money to me and I really need my cell phone back ...

... teams. Everyone wants a head-band or a particular color, and one little boy even recieved a blow to the temple for his refusal to relinquesh a head-band. But thankfully, by about 9:45 we had 6 teams of youngsters and bracket (however, we were still without water, ice or cups. Thank you very little "AguaBoy") so we commenced play. Watching 10 year old boys play basketball is about the equivalent of watching a swarm of seagulls on a lone piece of ...

... the food. I helped to make empanadas which are not easy to make and require some effort. Especially rolling out the dough. So I learned one of the many steps. I am sure I will pick up the rest at some point. Christmas is over and it seemed like it was Christmas and then it did not. Well, it is over and done with and I made it through the holidays, which I had been a little worried about. Christmas day was not like anything in the states, well maybe in some places. There ...