Roman Edirisinghe

Hola!
We are now in Las Terrenas, a small fishing town on the Peninsula of Samaná, in the northwestern part of Hispaniola. The ride here (on sunday) was a grueling, 4 1/2 hour journey thru the rain on a freezing (air conditioned) bus. I mean really, folks, I was cold in a t-shirt in the Dominican Republic. We got dropped of at a small crossroads town called Sanchez at 8:30 pm, and it was raining. Assailed from all sides by guys offering us rides, we finally negotiated a fare in a gua-gua (a simple truck) to Las Terrenas. The fare was 500 pesos, which is about 15 bucks. Our driver was a guy named Henry, who was a devout Christian. So devout in fact, that he had us pay 500 pesos for a ride that we later found out should have cost no more than 30 pesos! Nevertheless, we were desperate to get to the hotel L’aubergine (eggplant in french). We finally got there and CRASHED hard.

The following day was cloudy, with a lot of rain. But we discovered that we were practically on the ocean – not tastelessly as in Florida, where the hotels tower over the shores and mar the natural beauty, but just behind a row of coconut trees. What fun! Oh, to taste the ocean again!

It was the following day that the sun peeked through. We picked up some goggles to see inside the water. The coral reefs are amazing – they reminded us of the rocky landforms seen in Utah. Then there were the fish, tons of brightly colored fish, yellow, purple, blue and silver. We would coast over algae about 2 inches under our bellies, and then be spit out into this vast chamber surrounded by coral reefs. Oh, the treasures this world holds just beneath the surface…

We were also fortunate enough to meet a group of young local kids (ages 2 to 11), who played dominoes with us and spent some time with us. The best way to find out about a culture is through its children – their outlook is uncluttered, and largely immune to the distorted perceptions commonly held by (us) adults.

We’re planning our imminent departure from this beautiful place. We’re pondering the possibilities, and we’ll keep you posted as to our next whereabouts.

Love,

Saralé y Roman

This bus ride was

1. freezing due to overcompensated A/C and
2. nausea inducing due to psychotic driving on tiny, bumpy roads in a giant tourbus!!?! Had I consumed any dairy before the ride, I would have surely lost my guts all over the bloody place.
3. Additionally, there was a TV playing really bad American B-movies, with Spanish subtitles. The TV tint was off – everything was purple – and the VHS had been played so many times that the picture was shot and the audio garbled. It sounded like it was underwater.

Funny, here we are in a tropical country and I’m huddled for warmth in a freezing bus. The irony was splendid. I could just look out the window and see coconut trees and bananas. It was all so close but just slightly out of reach as we tore towards our destination.

Hours later, the bus dropped us off somewhere in the mountains, and it was now raining. Fortunately, it was still warmer outside than it was inside the bus. As the rain fell, we sought a ride to Las Terrenas, where we had our hotel reservation.

Saralé y Roman plot to smoke a cigar.

Hola!

Hailing from an internet cafe the zona colonial in Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana. The weather is hot. We love it. We’re almost thinking about not coming back, but you’ll all see us when we return on August 15th. We make good on our commitments, you know.

Anyway, tomorrow we leave for Las Terrenas on the peninsula de Samana, in hopes of settling down on a nice beach. So far, our stay has consisted of longs walks in the zona colonial of Santo Domingo (the colonial zone dates back directly to Cristobal Colon,aka Christopher Columbus, who set up the first Spanish colony here), dancing to the sounds of merengue at the annual merengue festival in Santo Domingo, eating red beans & rice, sleeping, shopping, checking out the local skateboard park, etc. Man, it feels so good to be on vacation…

We are frequently mistaken for French, Italian, or Spanish people, but rarely as Americans. My Spanish is improving somewhat. I’m trying to figure out how to bring back a whole truckload of musical instruments… Fed Ex/UPS rates may be very high here. I will do what I can.

I miss you all, believe it or not – I will try to connect intermittently via internet cafes if we find any. Until then, take care of yourselves and each other. We’ll be back in one piece.

Love
Roman y Sarale

5:27 am – Missed our bus. Offered Aussie girl a ride to O’Hare with my mom. She declined.

6:30 am – Mom arrives to pick us up. Aussie girl already left.

8:30 am – Arrived at O’Hare, hair standing on end. Mom drove like a maniac.

10:00 am – Having eaten tofu @ Panda, we board the flight, but only after a brief yoga session with a family bound for a scuba holiday.

10:30 am – Flight delayed due to a generator failure. A little while later, we take off. I look across the aisle and see the young Puerto Rican girl with her hands clasped, praying intently. Announcer is totally drunk. We could barely understand him.

…(diary entry picks up much later)…

What a short flight it was, and everybody cheered when the plane landed. That was a first for me.