Lauren and I headed off for our adventures on Friday night. We took off from school at exactly 3:00, went to the money exchange place to get some dollars to pay our tour guide and the border offices, got out some more pesos so we would have some money, and made it back to the bus station in time for the 4:15 bus to Monte Cristi. The bus was late, but we were still in Monte Cristi by 7:00 and caught a motoconcho to our hotel which was right on the water. From there we enjoyed the sunset, our wonderful view of El Morro (the huge flat topped mountain that is the highest costal elevation in the Dominican), and had a Presidente under the stars while listening to a crazy Dominican guy play “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion on his cell phone. We went out and got some dinner: chivo and tostones (goat and fried plantains), which was fairly delicious, and then went to bed.
Saturday morning we got up, ate breakfast, and headed out for our adventures. From our hotel, we walked into town. On the way, we passed huge salt flats where the pump in ocean water, allow the water to evaporate, and then gather the salt. Apparently Morton Salt gets a lot of its salt from in and around Monte Cristi. The town of Monte Cristi is small, dusty, and run down. In the central park is a clock tower that was designed by Eiffel (yeah, the Eiffel Tower designer) and given to Monte Cristi as a gift from France. In town we caught a motoconcho to Playa Detras del Morro, or “beach behind the Morro”.
The Playa Detras del Morro in the Parque Nacional Monte Cristi was amazingly beautiful. For the majority of the day, Lauren and I were the only people on the beach. It was super relaxing and calm. The water was really warm, the sand super soft, and the view breathtaking! Around 3:00, the tide started to come up and more people were coming. We met some nice Dominicans who we visited with for a while, and then went hiking with them up to the top of the second peak. It was an amazing view of the Bahía (the bay) and the beach. You could see the mountains in Haiti from one side and the playa from the other. It honestly felt like we were standing on the edge of the world!
On Sunday, we got up and met up with our Dominican friends and went to the Isla Cabra, a little island off shore. We went out in a little, tiny, wooden fishing boat. The island beach wasn’t nearly as pretty as the Playa Detras del Morro, but it was still nice. We explored the whole island. On the back side the beach was rocky, and had lots of fossilized coral and shell creatures in huge rock slabs. It was really neat. Then we climbed to the top of the island where there was an old falling down monument and a cool view of the ocean. Getting there was a little rough. For some reason, we had left our flip flops on the beach when we went exploring. So, we were barefoot. The sand in some parts was sooooo hot you had to sprint between grass patches where your feet could cool off enough to do it again. Anyways, there was this patch of trees with lots of fallen leaves and shade. So, I was super pumped to get to run to that one! Anyways... I kind of missed seeing the broken branch that was sticking straight out... So, I ran straight into it full speed. It cut my cheek open pretty nicely. My kids have been laughing at me all week! Anyways, after a relaxing day on the island, we headed back to the mainland for a quiet dinner at the hotel, a beautiful sunset, and star gazing with a Cuba Libre and a cigar.
Monday was quite the adventure. We hired a guide for the day. He was a French man who has lived in Monte Cristi for over 20 years and speaks French, Spanish, Creole (what they speak in Haiti), and some English. He picked us up at our hotel at about 7:40, and we drove to Dajabon. Dajabon is the northern border crossing in the Dominican. We got some breakfast there, looked at the Haitian market where people come twice a week (Monday and Friday) from Haiti to sell stuff, and where Dominicans come to get a bargain. As soon as the border offices opened, we stamped out of the Dominican, walked across the bridge that separates the two countries, over the river which is considered “no man’s land” and then got motoconchos a short distance to the Haitian immigration offices and got stamped in to Ouanaminthe, the Haitian border crossing city. From there, we took motos to a bus stop where we boarded a huge, brightly painted school bus that was packed full of Haitian people. There were between three and five people in every seat. The man behind us has a rooster in a cloth bag that he kept letting half get out before stuffing it back in the bag after which it would crow for like five minutes before he’d do it again. Driving along the north coast of Haiti some eighty kilometers was really interesting: seeing people selling things on the side of the road, people riding donkeys, women carrying baskets on their heads, people bathing in the river, women doing their laundry in the rivers, cows crossing the road, etc.
When we got to Cap Haitien, we went to the Mercado de Hierro or Iron Market which is like a huge market more or less where people go to buy and sell things like food and coal. The name comes from the building most of the market is housed in. It’s made of iron and from French colonial times. The market spills out into the surrounding streets though. After that, we walked through the main square, saw a huge church, got some lunch, and wandered around the city some more. We went to an artisan market where we bought some cool, handmade wooden bowls and enjoyed the view looking back at the city wedged between the mountains and the ocean.
After a brief stop to get water, we got a taxi at about 3:30 Dominican time (2:30 Haitian time), and started what was supposed to be about an hour drive back to Ouanaminthe/ Dajabon to cross back into the Dominican before the border closed at 5:00. Well, the taxi driver drove like 10 miles an hour the whole way, stopped for gas, stopped again to put oil in his car, and stopped a third time to fill up his tires. Anyways, we got to Ouanaminthe at about 5:05… So, our guide took his passport along with mine and Lauren’s and stopped at the Haitian immigration offices, and sent us running across the border. We honestly, ran through a bunch of parked cars, up a hill, and across the bridge that’s the border. We ran through the Haitian set of gates without saying anything, and got to the Dominican gates slightly out of breath, very stressed, with no passports. So, I had to beg the Dominican soldiers to let us through the gate, even though the international border was closed, with no passports and to keep the border and the immigration offices (so we could get stamped back into the country) open for us. It was quite the workout for my Spanish. And I’m pretty sure I bit off all my finger nails! Anyways, they ended up letting us through and held the border and the offices open for us until our guide, who was busy bribing the Haitian officials to stamp his passport and our two passports when the white American girls who the passports belonged two were clearly NOT with him. Anyways, we made it! We got into the DR, drove back to Monte Cristi, and caught a gua gua back to Santiago. Home sweet home! It was a pretty sweet weekend all in all though!
If you want to check out more pictures, go to:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010385&id=88400178&l=73a941977a
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010387&id=88400178&l=5299752531
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