Travis and I basically had the most perfect honeymoon imaginable. I loved it! We flew out Sunday January 20th at 12:55 a.m. headed toward Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Travis served his mission there, went back to visit last March, and decided that he wanted to take me there. I wish there were words to express how much I loved it. But, let's start at the beginning...
We left the reception, ran home, changed our clothes, finished last minute packing, watched my family unload all our gifts, and were on our way to the airport. We got checked in without any issue and then waited for our flight. We flew to Atlanta, Georgia. During our layover in Atlanta my illness came back full force. Apparently the adrenaline of the day wore off, and no matter what medicine I took I kept getting worse. I was so worried that I would die there in Atlanta. I could not breathe and I was getting all sorts of cranky. But, as we walked down the jetway to board the plane the humidity hit me and I instantly cleared up. It was seriously a miracle! Heavenly Father hears prayers! We got to Santo Domingo without any issue (I got my first stamp in my passport! Canada doesn't give stamps, otherwise I would have others) and headed to the Intercontinental Hotel. It was late in the afternoon so we pretty much went straight to bed (after Travis found the nearest Wendy's...).
Monday January 21, 2013 we got up and got ready for the day. Our first stop was the Santo Domingo Temple. We were both sad when we realized we hadn't thought to pack our temple clothes, but while we were walking around there were locals there that told us the temple was closed for cleaning. That just means we have to go back so we can do a session. It was so beautiful.
The MTC was right next door, so we walked over there as well. We couldn't get very far into the building, but it made Travis happy to be there.
My first impression of the D.R. and the people was that everyone was super dressed up. The women were all sorts of fancy. I felt super frumpy in my capris and t-shirt. The people were also very friendly. They all wanted to be our friend. Very different from the states. The traffic was CRAZY!!! I was glad that Travis had been there and was used to it. Yikes! They just made their own lane if they wanted to. People were jumping in and out of the public cars everywhere you looked. They treated stop signs and traffic lights as if they were simply decorations. Despite the chaos on the streets we saw only 1 accident the whole time we were there. Seriously though, if you go brace yourself for chaotic driving!
Ok, onto the pictures...
After visiting the temple we drove into the capital a little further to visit the Christopher Columbus sites. Christopher Columbus is believed to be buried in Santo Domingo. This is one of the cathedrals. There was a service in session while we were there, so we didn't get to go inside, but we met us with a "tour guide" who took us from sight to sight and explained things to us. He spoke to me in English and then would turn to Travis and ramble stuff in Spanish. I would ask Travis what he said and he would tell me, "He was just giving more details." This guy referred to me as "Lady." "Hey Lady," "Listen to this Lady," "Lady take a picture of this," "Over here lady." It made me giggle every time. "Hey Lady!" He was our BFF for the day.
This is a fort.
Inside a mausoleum. It was a little creepy to walk past the graves of men, but the building itself was beautiful.
Paintings on the ceiling.
Christopher Columbus' anchor from his ship! Cool right?!
This was Travis' very first house in his very first area, Inpedencia. I forced him to get out of the car so I could take a picture. It was the only time I could get him to do that. :)
One of the streets in the capitol. It's amazing how different this country is from the States. I spent so much time trying to take it all in that I would forget to take pictures. Being there made me so incredibly grateful for everything I have. They don't have electricity a lot of the time. Most homes don't have indoor plumbing. Some of the poorer areas have houses made of tin pieces. Yet, the people are so incredibly happy and friendly. It was a great lesson for me.
Tuesday January 22, 2013 we set off on a long drive. We were headed toward Bani and Barahona, both areas where Travis served. Our final destination was Lago Enriquillo.
Examples of some of the areas we drove through.
Welcome to Barahona!
The water was incredible! So blue and clear and perfect. Seriously I LOVED this island!
We stopped to look at some pictographs. Yes friends, those are smiley faces. If I had been a native back in the day I definitely would have carved smiley faces into the rocks.
After taking in the smiley faces we continued our trek toward Lago Enriquillo. Throughout the day we had driven through several military checkpoints. They didn't stop us at any of them, except one... They flagged us down at one of the checkpoints because they realized we looked like tourists. Travis rolled down the window and when they heard him speak Spanish they were suddenly his best friends. After finding out what we were doing Travis asked for directions to the lake. The man started to give directions and then stopped and told Travis that one of the other guards had just finished his shift and lived the same direction as the lake, so we could just give him a ride home and he would show us where to go. Of course, I had no idea what was going on because I didn't understand Spanish. All I knew was that there was a strange man climbing into the back seat of the car with a gun tucked into the waistband of his pants. I grabbed Travis' arm and whispered, "He has a gun!" Travis told me we would be fine because he was military (keep in mind the day before Travis had informed me that the government there was quite corrupt). I was freaking out in my head! But, we were on our way. The guy was super chatty with Travis, they talked as though they had known each other for a long time. Part way through the conversation Travis told me that the guy was on his phone speaking to his wife. He told me that he was married and had 3 kids and we were on our way to take him home. The man finished his conversation and started chatting with Travis again. Then his phone rang again. This time Travis gave me a funny look and said, "Now he's talking to his girlfriend." What?! The conversation with the mistress was shorter, but apparently this man is quite a player, a couple other women on the side. A few minutes later the man asked Travis to pull to the side of the road where a couple other people were standing. A woman walked up to the back window, handed something to our new friend (his name, by the way, was Sanchez) and chatted with him for a moment. She walked away and Travis took off again, informing me that the woman was Sanchez's mistress. Yep, that's right, we helped a man cheat on his wife while we were on our honeymoon. Super romantic. After the longer ride of my life we were finally at Sanchez's house. He told us that when we come back to the D.R. we can look him up, he's got an extra room at the back of his house and he'll let us stay there. Just tell the people in the area that we're looking for Sanchez. Yeah, because we're definitely going to look him up again... We were both glad to be done with our new friend, and even more glad to be near the lake. What an adventure!
When we got to Lago Enriquillo it was nearly dark, so we were only able to walk around for a few minutes. Travis was hoping to be able to find some natural springs to swim in, but there were a couple "park rangers" there that kept a close eye on us, so we weren't able to explore much.
But, we did get up close and personal with some very large iguanas. Those things are frightening, and they sure move fast. They were not at all afraid of us and ran right up to us. Yikes!
Travis was hoping to see some of the freshwater crocodiles, but we didn't (I was bitterly disappointed to miss out on seeing large creatures with big teeth that could swallow me in one gulp....).
We headed back to Santo Domingo, and made it back in one piece just under 2 hours. What an adventure! I loved that we rented a car so we could do all of this exploring. I loved seeing the areas where Travis lived and watching him get so excited to show me new things and tell me mission stories. I completely understood why he loved his mission so much. The island and the people are unlike anything I've experienced before. So wonderful! Stay tuned for Part Two of our island adventures...
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