Healthy Travels: Eating Marathon

Wednesday October 13, 2010

Day 39

Tuesday night I slept at the Dominican Fiesta with my parents. Wednesday morning we had a taxi driver, Freddy, take us around the Colonial Zone. It was fun to show off all of my historical information that I have been picking up over the last few weeks. I kept reading in my guide books that it is difficult to go anywhere in the Colonial Zone without someone trying to sell you something and boy were those guide books right! There is a whole network of people who refer visitors to other parts of their network. When you pull up to any type of landmark the vendors basically meet you at the taxi and try to sell you everything from that point onward. After a few hours my parents had enough (they are old and it was hot) so we had Freddy take us to Boca Chica.

Boca Chica is a resort town less than an hour from where I am living in Santo Domingo. The hotel we

stayed at was very nice but the area around it is not the best. It is one of those places where they want you to just stay in the hotel and not to venture out too much.

October 14- 16, 2010

Day 40-43

I can sum up these days very quickly: wake up, eat, beach, eat, beach, eat, sleep –repeat. I think that is the general idea of an all-inclusive resort and we definitely took advantage of that. Since we stayed on the 6^th floor we got special black wristbands. We were able to use the lounge on the floor and that was the best part. The lounge had computers, better food and drinks, a lovely deck and comfortable chairs to relax in.

The beach was nice and not crowded at all. We found out that this week was one of their slowest weeks and it was pretty obvious throughout the resort. The water was beautiful but very calm. I think it was more of a bay than an ocean. My mom was a little upset with the shell situation or lack thereof. She could spend hours seashell hunting so she would know.

On Saturday my other family (Teresa, Juan Carlos and Cynthia) came to Boca Chica for the day. We hung out on the beach, went on a paddle boat, played volleyball and went in the pool. Of course we ate a ton too. We went out for a nice dinner at a restaurant on the water at the end of the day and it was so nice to see both of my families together again. After dinner I said goodbye to my parents and went home with Teresa and her family.

I had such a good time with my parents and I was sad to see them leave. Why can’t they visit me every weekend? I could really get used to the whole resort thing every weekend.

October 17, 2010

Day 44

Back to life in Santo Domingo. I unpacked a little this morning and then we went to church at 11:00am. The only problem was that it didn’t start until 11:45 so we had to wait for a while. We went early because we were invited to one of Teresa’s friend’s house for the day. After church we picked up another friend and her daughter and headed out to the country. We had a barbecue and the kids got to ride the horses. I didn’t want to ride the horses and everyone just assumed I was afraid. I am not afraid of horses and I have gone horseback riding before. I didn’t want to do it because I didn’t know how the horses were being taken care of and after watching Cynthia and Juan Carlos I realized that the horses were a bit finicky. I also didn’t feel like getting all smelly and dirty. I think that was the real reason. It was more fun to take pictures of the kids on the horses from a distance. Later in the day Teresa and I got to pick some fruit from the trees. We picked guava, star fruit and limes. Teresa picked some type of melon-shaped fruit and I still do not know what it is.

Before we left we went over to the other side of the highway to another part of their property to see some cows. Teresa grew up on a farm and had been telling everyone about the benefits of drinking colostrum so we had to go experiment. We all went over in the back of the pickup truck and it was a bit dangerous especially since we had to cross the highway. FYI the pickup truck was actually very new and the fancy kind, not really the kind you would want to use for work (just so you can get the visual). After the calf drank his milk, one of the people milked the cow and the milk went straight in to a plastic pitcher. Teresa then served the colostrum in glasses to anyone who was willing to try it. I was not willing to try it. First of all, it was yellow and warm. Second of all, the person who was milking the cow could have had germs on his hands. I am not trying to sound like a brat, but I do have some rules when it comes to eating/drinking. A few people tried it but most people passed like I did. I am all about fresh food but this was a little too fresh for me. Eating a star fruit straight from the tree was my fresh adventure for the day.

Fun Facts:

1. One day in Boca Chica my dad won first place in a throwing competition and I won third place. There were probably about 20 people or more who tried so that is pretty good for one family, right? After all, he did teach me how to throw!

2. When my two families were playing volleyball Cynthia accidentally hit the ball into the top of a really tall coconut tree. Later, one of the people who worked on the beach climbed up the tree (without a shirt or shoes and only in bathing suit shorts) and retrieved the volleyball. He also threw down a coconut. It was the coolest thing to watch. He scurried up the tree so quickly and effortlessly. He must have done that before. After he came down he cut open the coconut and made rum drinks for his little fan club he had been hanging out with.

3. If you speak to people in Spanish they will assume you are fluent and it is very difficult to get them to switch back to English at this point.

4. On the beach we were constantly asked if we wanted to do go snorkeling, diving, horseback riding, etc. and it got very annoying. They probably asked about 5 times a day and that is not an exaggeration. They also always want to sell you timeshares and vacation clubs and they insist that they just want to give you a free hat and t-shirt. Yeah right.

5. I had calamari a few different times in Boca Chica and it was never breaded and fried, always grilled or sautéed. When will NJ pick up on this delicious trend?

6. My mom and I had dessert for lunch two days at the resort. We were allowed, it was vacation. How could we contain ourselves when there was free (well I guess we already paid for it) ice cream and toppings?

7. I made all of the housekeeping, restaurant, towel requests, etc. in Spanish to show off to my parents and it was fun.

8. In the Colonial Zone one of the people in the “network” referred us to his brother-in-law’s cigar store and told my dad that he could buy Cuban cigars and if he wanted to bring them back to the US on the plane they would rewrap them in Dominican cigar packaging. How sneaky and intelligent! We didn’t actually do that but what a good idea.

9. My parents loved the coffee here. I think it is stronger or more flavorful than the coffee they are used to drinking at home.

10. Derek has a passport and that is all I am going to say about that.

Peace,

Jaclyn