I'm on a boat...

Ok, so I didn't quite get to live out some music video this weekend...but things have a way of working out for the best.  The plan was, (through a friend of a friend of a friend) to go spend the day at Casa de Campo (playground of the uber rich and famous, like Jay Z), hanging out on some guy's yacht.  But a message Friday night that started with "Dude, boat dude is being sketchy..." changed the plans just a bit.  Plan B - head out in that direction anyway, call through the list of other contacts who have boats, and hitch a ride to another island for the day. 

Mission accomplished.  By the time we got to the port at La Romana, we found a guy who would take us to la Isla Catalina. He met us at the docks 15 minutes after we called, and became our water taxi for the day. (Ok, the boat was more like a dinghy with an outboard motor...but it was fun and cheap.)  Catalina island is gorgeous! Soft white sand, no houses (no fresh water, actually), beautiful cerulean waters and not that many people.  There's also great diving there (but we saved that for another time). 

Today, my scuba group had its first open water ocean dive.  It was so awesome!!  I can't wait to do it again!  We went out to about a depth of 9.5m (approx. 30ft), and swum around in the corral reef for 40minutes.  I saw tons of colorful fish, including a lion fish and a barracuda. We'll be doing the rest of our certification dives next weekend, and then we graduate.  yay! 

After our dive, we had lunch at a place called the Boat House, next to the dive center on the beach. The place has the best BBQ in the DR (so they say, and we think they may be right). It's run by this guy who is originally from Atlanta, GA. So we had authentic southern BBQ (ribs and chicken), corn on the cob, and cold presidentes - yum! Go hungry, leave happy...

So, yet another nice weekend down here. I'm racking up the DR experiences left and right, but I'm ready to start slowing down now (just a little...). One of these weekends I should consider sleep as my primary activity...it's just hard to stay inside, when there is so much going on around you - and in such beautiful weather too!