Counter

Ok, just for the record. I just installed this visitor's counter, have been willing to do so since the beginning but lazyness always won. It looks a little sad now, having a blog with so many posts and only 2 hits, but the reason is not my boringness but my lazyness!

La isla del encanto

Once again, I've changed my natural habitat and once again I'm writing from my hotel room. This time it's a Holiday Inn and it's located in San Juan-Puerto Rico. More precisely, I'm at Isla Verde, which is a neighbourhood next to the old city center with a lot of hotels, appartments, bars and restaurants and -best of all- it has a beach!

So, where am I... La isla del encanto being it's unofficial name, Puerto Rico is officially called the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, making it United States' territory but they have their own government. I still don't completely get the situation but I've been told that "the territory belongs to the States but it isn't part of the States" And we thought Belgium was complicated,huh... For example, Puerto Riqueños can't participate in the American elections but they do get to vote in the pre-elections. Puerto Ricans are US citizens but Puerto Rico is not a state but -lucky them- they can join the US Army and they have been participating in all major US wars, including the middle eastern ones right now. I haven't talked to a lot of local people to know how they feel about the relationship with the States but I hope to do so in the next month.

In the Dominican Republic, most people told me San Juan would be similar to Santo Domingo. I have only been here a few days but they've been lying to me. Most striking is the difference in the traffic. Where are the old , nearly broken down cars, the guaguas, the constant honking, the fighting for lanes, the motorcycles without lights, the holes in the asphalt? Traffic here is soooo quiet and raods are very good... Cars are new, no buses seem to exist al all, people respect the traffic lights. People are being pulled over all the time for speeding even though to me nobody seems to speed.

Next are the fast food chains. I always thought there were a lot in Santo Domingo but here it's crazy.. Every street has a Mc Donalds, Burger King, Taco Bell, Wendy's, Domino's, Pizza Hut and those are only the ones whose existence I knew about because the fastfood chain spectrum appears to be about 10 times wider as I thought it was.

Next, the beer served in the Dominican Republic is usually Presidente while over here it is...yes... Heineken. I'll try to re-educate the island but I'm afraid that I won't be able to erase years of Dutch beerbrainwashing (aka marketing).

What I've seen this weekend outside of San Juan is also different. Puerto Rico is very densily populated and there are good roads everywhere. Even in the villages the houses are nice and everything looks very clean.

Don't get me wrong, it doesn't look like the States, but you can definitely see the difference with the Republic. I'll try to upload some pictures this week.

If all goes well, I should move one of these days to one of the company's appartments where I will live with one of my colleagues. I say, if all goes well, since there has been some discussion on the fact if I should live with a male colleague... Something has been said on "mis morales" Yes, I can almost hear all your -what the fucks- all the way over here but after being a while in these projects, nothing surprises me anymore even though this is the first non-money related issue. Anyway, Puerto Rico shows to be US Commonwealth since human resources in the end proposed that both myself and my colleague would sign a paper stating that nobody forced us to live together. Will let you know what happens.

Saturday was my birthday. I was a bit sad that I couldn't celebrate it in Santo Domingo where I already had a social life but in the end I did have a great party though!! My fabulous and amazing friends threw me a party in Hasselt, and even constructed a surrogate ellen to join them! I got the pictures on the morning of my carribean birthday. I think I could be heard laughing throughout the hotel and they really cheered up my entire day! That also includes all the phone calls, emails and messages I got form everyone! It's nice to know I haven't been forgotten after 7 months of absence.

I don't have pictures of the actual party as there was no actual party but there was a beach, a restaurant, some rhum and some wine so it wasn't that bad either.

Last days in Santo Domingo....

Yep, next wednesday I'll fly from Santo Domingo To San Juan - Puerto Rico. I'm a bit sad since I've met so many nice people in such a short time. But then again, I'm curious to see what Puerto Rico is like. Most Dominicans are not so positive about it, but I guess I'd never recommend anyone Rotterdam neither so...

I'm now in my last weekend. Last friday I witnessed my first tropical storm. It took us 2 hours to get home after work, traffic was a complete mess because of the heavy rainfall. Once home I turned on the tele and the storm wass being announced on most channels. One of my friends tried to come over to my place but there were absolutely no taxis available so I stayed home alone, praying for the lights not to fall out. My friend told me he didn't have electricity since 8 o'clock and that this was normal when it rains like this... Ok, nobody warned me so I was candle-less and unprepared as usual but luckily at my place the electricity only broke down when I just got to my bed.

I'm cheating with the picture cause this is one I took a month ago, but I guess you get the point.

Saturday was still rainy but I made it to the MovieMax and back. Today, sunday, is sunny and hotter then ever. The only thing I can think about is ice cream, actually so I guess that's my plan for the day. That, and getting started on those suitcases again...

Jarabacoa and learning to drive again

In my must-enjoy-every-weekend-to-the fullest plan, I had another great weekend in the Dominican Republic... I'm a little behind on writing so all these events took place two weeks ago.

Last weekend, I wanted a change so me and my roomie Will went to Jarabacoa which is in the mountains. Don't know if you guys knew, but I didn't before coming: Pico Duarte is the highest peak in all the Carribean islands, and for that matter, the tallest mountain in all of the Americas outside of the great western cordileras ( Rockies, Andes and their associated systems). (ok, i did a little wikipedia copy-paste here....sue me!)

One of the nice things about this area is the not-so-tropical climate. Instead of the extreme wet heath that always surrounds me in the city, it is a cooler mountain climate. It even gets a little chilly at night.

We visited three different waterfalls; salto de Baiguate, salto de Jimenoa 1& salto de Jimenoa 2. In my humble opinion, Jimenoa 2 is the nicest one! Jimenoa 1 is a tourist attraction, tour buses drop people and it's a really easy walk. We got there early, before the buses arrived, and met a lovely dominican at the entrance who offered to guide us to Jimenoa 2 and thus succeeded. It was a little difficult getting there but as usual that means no Punta Cana people and in this case it ment no people at all besides the three of us. The waterfall is 60 metres high and amazingly beautiful! The sound of the water is so loud and there's a strong wind. But still, swimming really hard, you could get quite close to the waterfall. Apparently, the crew from Jurassic Parc felt the same way as I did about Jimenoa as some footage was shot here.

After, we went horse back riding. The last time I did it was a few years ago in Honduras and I didn't fall of back then so I felt quite secure I wouldn't now either. Normally, a little kid goes with you, sitting behind you, but I told them I knew very well how to drive this baby, named Caramelo around.

Back to the city then. At last, I got over my fear to drive in Santo Domingo and the company finally gave me a car. I already had to give it back, but ok. During my one week drive, I think I've become more Dominican then ever! My dominican friends are even proud of me. Honking is simply a way of communication, I'm constantly insulting the crazy taxi drivers and I even ignore the red lights every now and then. The general belief that we drive on the right and pass the others on the left hasn't gotten to this side of the world yet either. Motorcycles usually don't have lights. The most difficult however, are the big crosspoints, even if you just want to drive straight forward. Imagine a road with 3 driving lanes. 100 meters before the crosspoints, the white lines will dissapear and the road might become a bit wider, resulting in a complete chaos. Everyone is out of lane and honking at each other. At least 5 or 6 cars fit closely together now. Now the battle starts not to have a guy cleaning your front window. They are really sneaky and will just throw the spunge on your window, sometimes from behind. The best, but less appreciated solution, is to turn on your window cleaners. Most traffic lights have a counter, so 5 seconds before the light turns green again, the circus begins. After the crosspoint, logically, everyone needs to fit again into 3 traffic lanes. A clean example of Darwin's theory on survival of the fittest. The survivors, definitely are the guaguas, these are mini vans which always surprise me by the mere fact they are still driving. Next are the taxi's. Same thing just smaller then the guaguas which puts them in second place. Next are the SUV's, me in this case, followed by the carro's, the smaller cars. Ofcourse, this ranking depends of the driver and his nerves as well. Over the week I've gotten quite good at it. But it does sometimes feel like a huge video game, avoiding obstacles (and children are double points, I always say).

Laguna Oviedo

Ik denk dat ik er nog eens eentje in het Nederlands doe, want veel oefenen kan ik hier niet. Ik probeer het af en toe met mijn collega's maar ze zeggen altijd dat ik boos klink in het Nederlands. Jullie merken misschien dat mijn posts in tegenstelling tot Madrid meer foto's en minder tekst bevatten. Twee redenen: Uno: het is hier gewoonweg mooier en ik maak meer foto's. Dos: Ik heb echt amper tijd om te schrijven. Ik werk belachelijke uren door de week en in het weekend ben ik meestal weg. Alleszins, ik hoop dat het nog wat entertainend blijft voor iedereen.

Een van mijn laatste tripjes was naar de Laguna Oviedo. De laguna ligt in het westen, dicht bij de grens met Haiti en dat kan je echt wel merken. Veel buitenlandse toeristen heb je er niet en we werden dan ook weer gretig aangestaard.

Dit deel van de Dominicaanse staat ervoor bekend dat het er nog warmer is dan in de rest van het land. De vegetatie is er ook anders, droger. Veel grote cactussen, een beetje het cliche-beeld dat ik van Mexico had toen ik 10 was.

Het water van de Laguna is 3 keer zo zout als dat van de zee en de kleur is ook heel speciaal, beetje groenig. Het ligt in een nationaal park, parque Jaragua en de mensen die er wonen zijn momenteel bezig een bezoekerscentrum te bouwen. Maar goed, veel bezoeker hebben hun weg nog niet gevonden dus. Nu, beter voor ons, natuurlijk. Al hadden we weer meteen een stoet kinderen die ons kwamen aankijken.

En ja, hoor: KAJAAA! In de lagune was er weer mangrove en ditmaal konden we er zelfs tussendoor wandelen op flamingo-zoektocht.

Je kan zien op de foto dat de muskieten me weer aant opvreten waren...

Je kan op het meer een paar uur rondvaren want het is best wel groot en heeft enorm veel eilandjes waar je vogels kan spotten....

en cactussen....

en vogels op cactussen

En het beste, toen we een van de eilandjes gingen verkennen, kwamen er een paar enorme leguanen toeristje-kijken! Maffe beesten, echt wel.

Het was zo warm dat we nog even naar het strand wilden voor weer naar de hoofdstad moesten. Onze gids van op de laguna had daar ook wel zin in, en die hebben we dan maar meegenomen. Hij kende iemand in de buurt die zich over de zeeschildpaddeneieren ontfermde. Nadat mama schildpad haar eieren liefdevol in het zand heeft begraven, haalt hij ze eruit omdat ze anders worden gestolen. Tsja, ik had al gezegd dat we dicht bij de grens zaten... Alleszins, hij houdt ze bij in een soort frigoboxen en als ze uitkomen laat hij ze vrij. Immens schattig! Hij vertelde ons dat er die nacht mama schildpadden gingen komen. Die beesten zijn blijkbaar immens goed getimed want hij weet de exacte dag dat ze komen. Nu, ik had enorm veel zin om ernaar te gaan kijken, maar het dwingende oog van mijn project manager...

Het zien van de schildpadden had mijn duikzin alweer enorm aangewakkerd en dus ben ik vorige zondag eindelijk geweest.

Duik 1 was een wreck dive. St Georges, diepste punt op 33m (best wel wat, voor de non-divers, betekent dat je niet ziet waar je heen gaat bij het omlaag gaan). Vooral een heel groot wrak, niet enorm mooi ma wel indrukwekkend. Niet zo lange duik owv de diepte.

Duik 2: Coca wreck. De vissen zwommen wat scheef dus je kan wel raden wat er in die boot werd vervoerd. De orkaan George heeft de boot echter bijna volledig verwoest maar het is een mooi koraal. Enorme kreeft gezien, een soort blue-dotted stingray (een soort rog, kende het exacte woor dniet int nederlands) die ik nog niet had gezien en een enorme baracuda! Soit, niet zo indrukwekkend als in Egypte maar wel zeker de moeite. Ik ben al blij als ik visjes zie.