I Guess We´ll Table That One For Now

When I went to carnival, my camera´s batteries died and thus, I have no pictures. Two other people did take many pictures, luckily, but I haven´t been able to get them yet. Rest assured, I´ll fill you in on that trip at some point.

In the meantime, I´ll tell you about something school related. We have a joint youth group going with some of our students and some of the students at the other public school in town. The group is made up of anyone who is interested and at least 13 years old (roughly). We meet twice a week and have done various things so far, such as an English workshop and games like tug-of-war.

Last week we tried to do something more ambitious than normal, and had a volleyball tournament on the beach. We had 12 teams of three, divided into a boys bracket and a girls bracket. There was the usual chaos one would expect, but overall it was a success. We even got one of the restaurants on the beach to donate a dinner to the six winners. Here´s a group shot from one of our meetings, as well as some pics from the volleyball tore-nament (it´s fun to say it like Daniel LaRusso isn´t it?):

Samaná

I suppose that last picture might have made a little more sense with some explanation. The last two weekends I´ve been out of town on a couple weekend trips. The first one took me to the Samaná peninsula with my friend Anthony. You can insert your own "two guys on a romantic getaway" joke here, you won´t be the first. Anyway, we had a three day weekend because of the Duarte Day holiday (Juan Pablo Duarte was the leader of the independence movement, their George Washington more or less) and decided it would be a good opportunity to head over to Samaná because it´s about 4 hours away and tougher to do on a regular weekend.

The Samaná peninsula is located on the northeastern corner of the island and has a fairly interesting history. It was targeted as a strategic port and naval base by many colonial powers throughout the years, but none of them ever suceeded in that goal. The United States actually negotiated an agreement to annex the DR, and would´ve set up a naval base there, but an isolationist congress vetoed the deal. The story is that what is now Guantanamo Bay, Cuba would´ve been located on the Samaná peninsula. It was also a popular area for pirating and there are supposedly many sunken ships in the area surrounding the peninsula.

Samaná Bay at sunrise

Today, Samaná is known as one of the finest places in the world for whale watching. The whales travel all the way from as far away as New England and Scandanavia to breed and raise calves here. As soon as we arrived in Samaná, Anthony and I headed out on a boat run by a woman named Kim Beddall, who basically started the whale watching industry in Samaná back in the 80´s. The round trip took about 4 hours and we got to see a mother and calf humpback whale pair from fairly close up. They are quite enormous creatures and it was really something to see live and in person. Beyond that we got a nice tour of the Bay of Samaná which was quite relaxing and enjoyable, save for the Italian man that thought it would be a good idea to wear his 30 year old speedo.

Momma and baby whale

Saturday night was mainly spent at the party spot for the locals. What this consisted of was a bunch of trailers selling food and drink, surrounded by tents covering plastic tables and chairs. Of course there was the everpresent bachata blaring from huge speakers as well. This was a great place to just sit and have some cheap food (fried pork), drink some rum, and soak up the atmostphere. It was probably 95% Dominicans, which was a nice change from Cabarete. We also shared some of our rum and had a chat with an old one-legged man, but I couldn't understand most of what he was saying.

On Sunday, we took a gua-gua (minibus used as public transportation) to another town on the peninsula, Las Galleras. From there we took a 15 minute boat ride to a secluded beach known as Playa Rincon. This beach has been rated as one of the 10 best in the Caribbean and I have to agree. Much of the allure has to do with the fact that it is only accessible by a bumpy dirt road, or the boats from Las Galleras. The secluded nature of the beach has kept development to a minimum and when you are there, it's pretty much you and natural beauty. The beach curves around for a couple miles, so even with a decent amount of people there, there is plenty of room for everyone to have a little stretch to themselves. As Anthony said, the only way for that place to be better was if I was an attractive woman. I felt the same way about him.

Playa Rincón

We had a few hours to kill on Monday before our bus home, so we walked out to a couple small islands in the bay. There is a bridge that extends out into the bay across these two islands that was intended to lead to a restaurant. The restaurant idea was scrapped, however, before it was built, leaving just the bridge, now known as "The Bridge to Nowhere". After that we made our way back to Cabarete on a bus, probably suited to fit 25, packed with 40 of my now closest friends.

The bridge to nowhere. Sorry I don´t have time to figure out how to rotate it.

Last weekend, I went to Carnival in La Vega. I'll tell you about that trip when I get the chance.

That's the X-Man we all know and love

There's an article in today's Seattle Times about enforcers in the NBA, and how they have become a rarity in today's game. Perhaps the best part of the feature is this classic photo:

Wes Matthews, pondering why he did not become a tennis player.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/

Happy Groundhog Day to Everyone

I hope Puxatawney Phil sees his shadow today, or whatever means there'll be six more weeks of winter since that means a balmy 85 here as opposed to a sweltering 95.

Phil? Phil Connors?

Can anyone access my blog?

I can´t for some reason, so I´m doing a little end-around here to see if I can view it after making this post. Here´s a picture for good measure.

Two dudes, goin´ to see some whales. Yeahh!