Ok, I've put up a gallery if the few pics I have from my recent trip to Halfway River hotsprings near Nakusp, BC. In all, 10 of us went, found a new spring that I had heard about, but sadly, it turned out to be way up the side of a mountain with nowhere for us to camp! So we trudged back down the mountain and went to the always reliable Lower Halfway River hotsprings.
Yes, I know it's been forever since I posted on here. Now that I have shut down my Facebook, I thought I should return to blogging to communicate a bit about my life and adventures.
I came across an article today while perusing TreeHugger.com, one of my favourite sites. It seems that the island nation of the Maldives has accepted that climate change is indeed happening and is planning for the future... They are saving to buy land elsewhere in the world as they realize that eventually, they will no longer have a place to call home!
Welllllll, I had so much fun on the last tourist thingy I went on that I looked at doing another one when I was wandering around on Sunday... I found that they are a lot cheaper when you go through an agent, as I paid $40 for an entire day tour, complete with endless rum and food included.
I hopped on at 6:45am (Ugh) and sat on that freaking bus as we picked up other people across the countryside for another two hours. Then it was an hour and a half longer down some sketchy dirt road to Punta Rusia where we took a boat out to what was honestly just a sandbar in the middle of nowhere with a few huts on it. That's when the Rum started flowing and we went snorkeling and playing in the waves for a few hours... Then on the way back we toured through the mangroves for probably a whole 4 minutes! The lunch was awesome tho and kept me filled for the three hour trip home.
All in all, a lot of driving for what we did but I still enjoyed it! When we got back at about 8pm I went out for a few more drinks at a Karaoke night on the beach and drank a few more Cuba Libres and Mojitos..
This morning I'm kind of feeling like hell but hey, I had fun! Just don't wave any rum under my nose and I'll be fine... I fly back tonight at 7pm and then have to crash for a while, drive home to Kelowna and start studying. Pics will be up ASAP!
Ok, so I got up this morning, hoping to catch the bus to Samana and end up chatting with someone who pulls up the weather forecast for Samana. Four days of solid rain. Delightful. Seeing as it was finally beautiful and sunny in Cabarete, I decided I was simply going to be lazy and do nothing the beach!
I'm not quite doing the backpacking I was expecting, but hey, that's why I love having no set plan. I'll take a day in the sun over 9 hours on a scary bus :| Maybe I'll rent a motorcycle and drive around tomorrow....
So I met some really cool Canadian twins here, they're from both Ottawa and Cabarete, and one of them, Paola, took me around the city sightseeing. She's back in Canada today and uploaded some pics to I stole them and re-posted them for everyone to see! Paola's DR Pics.
And now I'm headed back to the beach ;)
Well I've jumped over to Cabarete, which is known as a Kitesurfing mecca. There are more young people here and a lot fewer prostitutes and drug dealers... I got shown around a bit by a Canadian girl Paola that I met in the internet cafe and checked into the Caribe Surf Hotel. I watched a lot of kitesurfing, played in the surf, wandered and checked out a playground that some Canadian highschool kids had built...
Seeing as I hadn't had a good night of partying yet, I wandered on down to the 'strip' where all the bars are lined up on the beach and sampled a few. I drank Presidente (The local beer) and chatted with random people, met a lot of folks from Norway and even a few British Columbians..
I was surprised to see a couple of the beach bars turn into almost night clubs on the beach with crowds of people and dancing until about 2am, and then everyone who still wanted to party headed off to the only nightclub to keep going.
I was hoping to lay in the sun today but it's cloudy, so I'll nurse my hangover somewhere and plan the next adventure, probably taking a bus to Samana, a city further down the coast...
Wow! What a day! A very good salesman sold me on an all day tour yesterday and wow I´m glad I did it! Seeing as it was only $30 and involved all the rum you can drink and lunch, as well as 8 hours of touring, I thought it was a good use of a day... We drove all over the countryside, stopping in some small country towns to see stone carving, drink Cuba Libres and hand out candy to the children. Next we headed off to a farm to taste fresh coffee and cocao, try a few shots of espresso, au natural and play with a few wild creatures (a snake, some fighting cocks, various random lazy dogs...)
After a hearty Dominican Lunch and a whole lot more Rum, we headed off to some famous waterfalls, with 27 levels. We only went up 7, swimming and climbing, them sliding down (with a bit of cliff jumping mixed in). On the ride back, I went right past Sosua where I had been staying and hitched a ride to Cabarete, where some awesome ladies I met on my tour, Iris and Cheryl, helped me crash their all inclusive resort and fed me some beer an pizza! They were a blast on the tour, you can always trust Canadians for that!
I like Cabarete a LOT more, it´s great here, more North Americans, where as Sosua was Europeans and the beach is WAY better! I met some cool people and found a great place for $22 a night... I´ll stay tonight at the Colibri in Sosua and then move here tomorrow!
More to come.... Rob
Well, the flight was long but not too bad, I sat beside a rather interesting Polish fellolw named Andrew, munched some questionable airline food and made it here in one piece.
I tried sneaking onto the bus for an all inclusive resort to save cab fare but got busted, so I talked a cabbie down from $20 to $12 and headed to the Hotel Colibri. For the price I'm paying, I'm amazed how nice the hotel is! It actually looks like the pictures and the staff are great. I wandered the streets last night, drank a few locals beers and crashed by 11. Slept in a bit despite the roosters crowing everywhere and started my day with a dip in the pool. Not a lot planned for today besides the market and finding the beach!
Ok, I know I haven't posted in a while, but when I'm having adventures, this is the perfect place to tell of it...
I'm done classes for the semester and have no finals until the 14th. I found myself with a couple weeks off and decided on a random last minute adventure to the Dominican Republic after I found a $97 return flight from Vancouver! I've got a backpack and a list of Hostels.. I'm going to start in Puerto Plata and possibly bus out to Punta Cana to check it out. I'll get to work on my Spanish and experience some local culture!
Stay tuned for loads of pictures!
