Liz vs. Wild...

Liz wins! (admit it, you're surprised...)

Continuing to take advantage of my month of no Mondays....this past weekend was packed with Liz vs. the Wild -type activities (and now I have Monday to recoup!)  I did two day trips with friends this weekend and they couldn't have been more different...

Saturday: Diving trip to Bayahibe with some friends/colleagues from the Embassy
This was a 2 dive excursion that friends organized, with an early (7am eek!) start from the capital.  Leaving SDQ at 7am on a Saturday might mean a tame Friday night, but it also means a peaceful and dominican driver-less trip along the coast.  We got to Bayahibe by 9am and were on the catamaran, ready to dive by 10:30. 

The first dive was a relatively shallow reef dive, relatively ho hum...except that we saw quite a few creatures - moray eels, sting rays, lobster, lion fish, stone fish, etc.  It was pleasant and easy...and a 100x better than the last dive we did in Punta Cana in December! (a horror of a dive with a current that exhausted and a guide that lost us)  The second dive of the day, though....wow!  We went to a shallow shipwreck just off the coast from the resorts. In its "glory days" (this was no Titanic), the boat had been a ferry that took tourists to Catalina Island for the day. At 35m long, it was too big for its shallow mooring and was washed against the reef during a storm and subsequently sank, about a year and a half ago.  Looking at the ship underwater, though, you would have thought it had been there for far longer.  Salt water and currents are not so kind to metal...

The wreck was not safe to go into, but we were able to do a few laps around it to satisfy curiosity.  Parts of the railings and side laid in contorted pieces along the bottom of the sea and you could watch the schools of fish dart in and out of the glass-less windows of the ship. The color of water and the ship, with the errant beams of sunlight that streamed down was breath-taking. Inside the front section, we could see the remains of a hammock, still suspended from the ceiling of the ship...making for an eery image of what had once been... 

The shipwreck made me get excited about diving all over again. Now I want to continue on to the advanced certification, so that I can do more wreck dives as well as night dives, which I hear are amazing!

Sunday:  Saltos de Aguas Blancas (waterfall) and a nice mountain hike
Getting up early for a second day in a row on the weekend was totally worth it with the day that my friend Robert and I had in the mountains of this country.  We grabbed our coffee to-go mugs and headed out of SDQ before 9am on Sunday, with the Constanza valley and the Valle Nuevo national park on our To Do list.  We stopped at Miguelina's bakery in Bonao, then started the winding ascent to Constanza.  It's only a 50km drive, but takes at least an hour to do with the switchbacks and the narrow 2 lane highway.  It's a beautiful drive, though, and we had a full view of the Bonao valley after only 15min of driving.

Constanza is considered the breadbasket of the DR and its residents remind you of that fact with all the fresh fruits, vegetables and flowers they sell on the side of the highway.  Now we're in strawberry season. yum!  We stopped a few times during the day to get strawberries during our trip.  After we got to Constanza, we took the route headed south toward San Jose de Ocoa, which passes through the Valle Nuevo park and passed the Aguas Blancas falls.  The road was touted as being so horrible you needed a tough 4WD vehicle to get by.  Well, I guess Rob's Xterra was tough enough, cause we did just fine.  (we were hoping for a little more mud to give the 4WD an actual workout...) About 45 min into our semi-off-road trip, we reached the waterfalls. 

The waterfalls had a nice little viewing platform at the bottom of the falls, and then there was a rather rough, straight-up-the-hillside hike you could do to get to the top.  Most of the Dominicans we saw stayed on the platform.  Rob and I headed straight for the top.  It was not exactly an easy climb to get up to the top of the 135m waterfall, but it was totally worth it!  The view of the Constanza valley below and the rest of the mountain range in the distance was remarkeable...and totally made us forget that we were actually in the middle of the Caribbean (definitely reminded us both of Colorado).  After resting for a bit and eating our lunch, we decided that the view from the actual top of the mountain must be even better...so we should climb up to it to see. The total lack of any path was a minor detail and we set off to blaze our own. Aside from some scrapes (I look like I lost a fight against a cat), we made it to the top unscathed and in only 20min.  The view was amazing!   I don't know how high we actually were, but the mountains in that area reach up to 2600+ meters above sea level.  Not too shabby for a Sunday afternoon. 

Just after remarking on how there was an awesome absence of insects during our adventure, we ran into a tarantula on our descent.  That's right, a tarantula...reality check, we are in the tropics. To be fair, I probably startled him more than he us...especially since I nearly stepped on him.  We were a bit more vigilant for the rest of the descent, however.  I couldn't leave the waterfall without going for a dip...so I took a plunge into one of the pools above the falls on our way out. The water was FREEZING! but oh so refreshing!  And we were the only ones there.  What a fabulous day!  By 3pm we had to get going so that we would avoid the most treacherous of the roads at night.  The return trip was pleasantly uneventful, and we were back in our homes, happy and exhausted by 7pm. 

Next week Liz vs. Wild continues as I take my friends Jesse and Oana (along with friends from SDQ) for a weekend visit to Las Galeras (Samana peninsula).  On the To Do list - cliff jumping, whale watching, yoga, beaches and maybe a lobster dinner....stay tuned
Man vs. Wild, DR

What a difference a bacteria makes...

It's been about 4 months since the first cholera cases started to appear in the Dominican Republic. So much has changed as a result...

When the outbreak of cholera began in Haiti, Dominican health authorities (and my office as well as the CDC) knew that it was just a matter of time before the bacteria found its way over to our side of the island.  The plan was "prepare, prepare, prepare" - for prevention, as well as for diagnosis and treatment to prevent a full-fledged outbreak.  I think is safe to say, mission accomplished.  Whereas in Haiti the cholera outbreak has affected hundreds of thousands and killed over 3,000, there have been only 100s of cases in the DR and no fatalities.  The Dominican government (with the help of international groups) did a great job of educating Dominicans and of expressing the importance of hygiene, prevention and seeking medical attention at the first sign of symptoms. 

Now, 4 months later, authorities have figured out the origin of the bacteria in the DR - the rivers that run along the border between the countries, which are now forbidden for swimming, fishing, washing, etc.  (The same rivers/area where I swam when I visited the border in September!).  The presence of cholera in the country, as far as I understand the situation, is now being "down graded" to an endemic issue instead of a potential outbreak...meaning that we will continue to see cases appear here and there in the hospitals, but we should be out of the danger of seeing what happened in Haiti (unless an outbreak starts).

So, it would appear that the DR got away largely unscathed, right? much ado about nothing in the end....except that the emergence of cholera in the DR has opened wide other wounds that had seemed to be on the mend.  I'm talking about the Haitians. There is a long, complicated history with respect to the Dominican-Haitian relationship...too long to really go into here. Let's just say there is no trust and no love lost between the two.  After the earthquake, though, things had started to change. The DR did an incredible job with their response to the quake, and they've pretty much had an open door policy with respect to Haitians.  Now, though, as we pass the first anniversary and with the presence of cholera, the discrimination against Haitians is back in full effect. Haitians are being  blamed for the crime in communities, and for bringing cholera to this side of the island.  Community groups in the Santiago area have recently mobilized to kick out the Haitians in their neighborhoods (some recent arrivals, others long time residents).  In the middle of the cholera scare, Haitians were purportedly banned from getting on public buses in some parts of the country!  Now the government is rounding up hundreds of illegal Haitians and deporting them back to Haiti. 

I'm not suggesting that the DR continue to have an open door immigration policy, or that all Haitians are innocent of wrong doing in this country...but it is a shame to see how quickly the country can regress out of fear.  I think we're seeing that in many places these days....

Back from Hiatus...

It never ceases to amaze me how quickly time flies here...especially when we are supposed to be on island time! It's been well over a month since the last time I wrote, and my only excuse is that I was traveling for part of that time. As for the rest, well...I guess saying I'll do it "mañana"  means that 6 weeks can fly by before anything is accomplished. (and judging by what I've seen from work in this country, that is definitely the truth)

Anyway, I am back and vowing to be better with the writing. I won't call it my new year's resolution, though, because that will pretty much ensure that I never do it again. I guess to re-start the blog, I should do a bit of a recap.  What has been going on for the past 6 weeks?...

(in no particular order)
1. successful office retreat  results in yours truly designated as the lead on donor coordination, knowledge management, as well as named as the gender expert (all exciting responsibilities! but I still cringe at the idea of being considered "expert" of anything!)

2. Two week  vacation through Argentina with 2 friends from SIPA. The first time I've been back in nearly 5 years. Highlights include: driving 3000km in a week (with me being the only one who could drive manual), horseback riding in the foothills of the Andes, wine tasting bike tours (w/o any crashes!), beach time/Christmas with the Marti family and all of my little nieces and nephews, 48hr whirlwind tour of Chaco, new years eve in Buenos Aires (dancing til 7am and narrowly escaping injury from firecrackers)

3. January - the month of no Mondays!  Work respects Dominican holidays and American holidays...that means 3 Mondays as feriado (work holiday) and 1 Friday as well.  Not too shabby

4. Embassy bowling league starts.  My team just might be the team to beat and I never would have thought just how much fun an adult bowling league could be.  yikes