Saturday, April 4, 2009

Mountain Life




Journal entry from around March 20th

I have spent 3 days now staying in a small mountain village just out of Bonao in the Dominican Republic. I left on this trip inland with a touch of uncertainty. Its my first time venturing off solo since arriving here, tearing myself away from the safety of my medical student friends and their comfortable apartments :) Quite a few people have given me warnings in regards to the safety of traveling alone as a single female in this country. So understandably when I boarded the bus to Banao alone, armed only with a backpack and a Spanish phrase book I felt a few butterflies in my stomach! However I was worrying for nothing, the bus ride turned out to be a blast (see last post chickens on the bus). When I arrived in Bonao there were no regular taxis so I had to hop on a motorcycle taxi (moto concho). We must have been quite a sight, zipping along the village streets with the driver holding my large hiking pack on his lap, me clinging on for dear life with my guitar strapped to my back. I chose to stay at Rancho Wendy because was the only place I had heard of with backpacker prices, offering dorm beds for $9 US a night.



The website for the Ranch looked amazing but I was sceptical as it had received some terrible reviews on the website trip advisor. I've been here a few nights now though and I must say I am completely satisfied with the accommodation. Sure it's not 5 star, but what do you expect for $9 a night? The owner is a little quirky and grumpy but I found the more I talked to him the friendlier he became. My only complaint is my room mates, large and hairy with 8 legs. I guess I can't complain about spiders in the mountains, plus you think I would be used to it coming from Australia. Also not all bugs are bad, last night I turned out the lights to be greeted by a room FULL of fireflies, glowing, winking and dancing around as I drifted off to sleep, proof that no matter how far away from home we are never alone. As I write this in my notebook I'm surrounded by the most amazing mountain views, tall green peaks flanked by misty grey clouds. Its quiet and peaceful with the soft sound of merengue playing in the distance mixed with the occasional brrrr of a passing motorcylce.


Rancho Wendy offers guided hikes but at $40 per person they are way out of my budget. So yesterday instead I ventured out solo with some very rough directions on how to reach a local waterfall. I got lost (as usual) after about 10 minutes so asked for directions at the local village primary school. My Spanish stinks but I picked up something along the lines of que? sola? es moi dangerouso sola! or something like that. I continued on to the left where I passed a house with an elderly man preparing food outside.

"Permiso Senor, donde esta a la cascada?", I enquired. He invited me into his home, fed me lunch and we chatted as best we could, with my terrible Spanish skills and his total lack of English. He then walked me all the way to the waterfall, proving to be a lovely tour guide. He even cut down fruit and cleared paths with his machete. So far I have found this to be a typical example of the generosity and friendly nature of the people living here. Today I went for a four hour walk alone through some rural villages and farming areas. I came to a large stream I need to wade through so sat down to take off my shoes. But before I could a local man had stopped his motorcylce halfway across, hopped off, and piggy backed me across the stream. I feel a lot of the people here would give you the shirt off their back if they thought you needed it.


On the same walk today I crossed paths with two men herding some cows using a motorcycle. This has not been an uncommon sight throughout my travels, I have grown accustomed to walking through herds. However as they grew nearer I realised this was no heard of cows, they were very large bulls. The bull at the front of the pack stamped his hoofs, prancing side to side along the dirt road, head bowed and horns bared. I scanned for an escape route, somewhere to stand out of the way or perhaps a tree to climb? But I was trapped and the best I could do was stand against a barbed wire fence. The bulls were veering all around the path in a disorderly and aggravated fashion. The lead bull turned to face a follower, angrily scuffing at the dirt. Then than 2 meters away from me the bulls locked horns, fighting each other. Trapped against the fence I had no where to go, I was sweating and I didn't know what to do. The men herding the mob looked very uneasy and hopped off the motorcylce to move the animals on as best they could. All I could do was stay frozen against the fence. Somehow they all moved around me, and I popped out the other side unscathed. From a nearby hut some women giggled at me, I must have been as white as a sheet! It took me about 15 mins to stop shaking.
It's a beautiful place here and I am the only guest at Rancho Wendy. They like me so much here they offered me a job doing public relations and advertising for them, even said they would throw in a horse or two to sweeten the deal. Still I think it's a bit too far from the beach for me. One of the other highlight of my stay here so for has been getting to know the Ranch workers from Haiti. There is one young guy who is my age, he speaks a little English in addition to Creole and Spanish. I have given him my Spanish dictionary so he can learn more, he carries it around with him everywhere. The kitchen lady has two little kids, one is 5 years old and is very shy. She looks incredibly bored living on the Ranch in such basic conditions, with only a few articles of clothing and no toys or kids to play with. I taught her how to trace around her hand and made her paper aeroplanes which brought her endless hours of entertainment, it was really cute. I am definitely looking forward to my next few days of solitude and venturing out to discover more of the countryside.

1 comment:

  1. Lovely to read your stuff, it is as I remember DR, glad to hear it is still the same if you know where to go! I know people who have been attacked and beaten up, but I think they brought it on themselves.Keep it up.

    Robin.

    ReplyDelete