Day 60

We went to National Parque los Haities, on the southwest corner of the Samana Bay. We went with Adji. Took a boat tour through the mangrove swamps, saw Taino drawings in caves, stopped at the Coast Guard station, one of the most beautiful buildings we have seen here, and had a bumpy return boat ride and lunch at Cayo Levantado. On the bumpy boat ride Amy tells me she’d be disappointed if she can’t find a dance teacher here for Lane. This makes me crazy – will our lives really be empty if our children don’t get specialized instruction while living in a third world country? Crowded boat ride back to mainland. Discover mystery fruit, which makes great smoothies.

Semana Santa is starting to gain momentum. Besides our small remote town getting itself dressed up – installing new speed bumps, painting old ones, buildings and businesses that have always been closed suddenly opening, beaches being raked and roadsides being picked up – the beaches have suddenly swelled with new communities. We saw a small beach on the way to Samana which was packed with tents, wall-to-wall with no space between them and a large food tent erected. The beach / playa at Las Galeras has a half dozen new shacks – limbs or tree branches for framing with tin roof and sides. And, of course, the immature male population has yet another reason to drive like idiots. The streets are getting scary. Tonight Francesca, a young Haitian girl who is Benjamin’s age and who we see all over town with her father, Valcene (sp?), and her father stopped by to drop off a book. He said that Semana Santa is crazy here – too much drinking and unsafe driving. He said Semana Santa was much more reverent in Haiti. The Haitians we have met here seem like so much more serious people – intense, intelligent, and none of the verbal games westerners and Dominicans play – straight with their thoughts and words, with no misleading words, actions, or facial expressions.

Oh, and I officially declare an end to any animosity I hold towards the French. On our boat trip today, 4 French people were with the rest of us. I / we spoke with them – a couple and two women traveling together – and they were very friendly and told us of their adventures and asked us about our adventures, something you should always do.