This is the beach in Boca Chica. It was about an hour drive away from where the guest house is. I scoped out a cute hotel in Boca Chica and when Isaac and I come down next time I want to spend a few days just relaxing at the hotel. The weather was gorgous. A nice 85* and partly sunny. The beach was rather empty also. I could not believe the amount of people that try to sell you things on the beach. Every minute someone new would come up to us and ask us if we wanted manicures, jewerly, sunglasses, etc...
Boca Chica, along with Santo Domingo are on the south side of the Dominican Republic. The water was very calm and clear. John, Brandon, Aryelle, and I took some time and went snorkeling. It was my first time snorkeling. I am still not sure what I think about it, the fish kind of creep me out.
During our beach time, Aryelle & I had a mini-photo shoot. We took about 20 minutes and walked around the beach. Once I get back to the states I will post a longer blog with more photos of our session. She was a great model! I am so happy to add this to my portfolio: Destination portraits.
After the beach we all headed over to what the locals call the "tourist trap". Which indeed is a tourist trap. You walk into this huge building and enter a maze of small shops. At once the vendors try to get you to buy stuff and come into their shop. The weirdest thing is that bartering is expected. For example if they say your item costs $10, you say you will take it for $4. Then they come up to $6 and now you have a good deal. Thanks to Bruce for helping us figure out the bartering system. I know a bunch of never quite got the hang of it.
These are some vendors outside of the market. These vendors offered more fruits, vegetables, spices, meat, etc... We even saw a chicken market. I dont think I have to tell you what happens there. GROSS!
This is a photo of bones I found in a vendor that sold mostly fruits. There were a few skulls and what looks like a spine. On the bottom left hand side of the photo are cocoa plants. I have never seen cocoa in it's original form before. It is a yellow, gord looking, type fruit.
There were so many bags of spices, beans, rice, coffee, etc. It was fun to look at all the kinds of things offered!
This is what a typically street looks like during market hours. A huge change from our pretty little neighborhood the guest house is located in.
Right next to the chicken market I caught this group of men playing Domino's. They had just finished a game so there was a heated conversation going. They were not too pleased with me taking photos of them, so I didn't get any more like I had wanted to.
I found a photo studio/processing lab. How exciting for me!
As we were about to get back on our bus a horse came past us. It is sad to see the conditions the animals work in. It was also very different to see a horse in the street of a busy, tourist, section.
To end of the night we all went out to a nice dinner at a Dominican restaurant. There were dancers and live music. It was a lot of fun! When I was a teenager my family had a few exchange students. One of them was from the Dominican. I learned a lot of dances from her, so I had a great time at this restaurant trying to remember what Elisa taught me.
The group eating dinner. They put us in our own little room. They must have known we would be rowdy!
What an amazing trip. I will make a few posts after I return to the states. I need some time for everything to sink in before I can truely evaluate this trip. Thank you all for your prayers and blessings. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we have a long day of travel ahead of us. Also remember to pray for the church, "Nuevo Renecer", as they start a new chapter in their lives at this new church.
On Friday October 17th at 6:30pm we will be hosting a presentation time at Oswego Alliance Church. All are welcome to come chat with us and see how things turned out. I will be presenting more photos along with video I took from the week.
Hasta Manana y Dios te bendiga
2 comments:
Oh my God. That horse's ears were chopped off.
Beautiful job at capturing your trip! (This is Fred & Anne's daughter, Erika) I enjoyed looking through them and even catching a few peeks at my parents!
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