One of the highlights of our job is the opportunity to work with students from all over the world. After three months of learning about their cultures, their languages, and their personalities, these students become part of our family, our international summer family, as we call them. When the summer has ended and they tearfully leave Creede to return home, we part with promises that Marc and I will come visit them in their home countries someday. In February 2016, we got our first chance to make good on one of these promises.
While planning our trip to Puerto Rico, one of our servers, Antonio was adamant, "No, you must come to Dominican Republic instead! Our beaches are much more beautiful!" he gushed. Well, who are we to say no to a pitch like that? So we hopped a quick one-hour flight to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. We're not that good at saying goodbye to vacation, anyway, so we figured we'd extend it!
While these two islands are less than 250 miles apart, roughly the distance from St. Louis to Kansas City, they are uniquely distinctive in many ways. Upon arriving at the airport in Santo Domingo, I realized that this was the place that I would get the chance to practice my Spanish! The woman at the car rental company looked upon us with the eyes of a concerned mother. "Es tu primera vez aqui?" Yes, it was our first time there. It seemed she felt she should shoulder a bit of the responsibility for renting us a car and sending us out onto the dark streets of the Dominican Republic to find a "friend's house" where we were allegedly staying.
Luckily for us, Antonio and his mother and father, the accommodating hosts that they are, were meeting us outside the airport.
Our first stop? A late-night dinner, of course! Apparently we had arrived in another country that feels very passionately about its food, and for good reason!
According to Antonio and his family, the D.R. is the TRUE birthplace of mofongo.
Now we knew from experience that Antonio was pure hospitality, but it was clear to us after a day with his family that he came by it naturally. He put us up at his home in San Pedro de Macoris, and his mother cooked extravagant meals for us!
On the second day there, we were joined by Antonio's partner in crime, Sharina. Sharina worked for me as a cook at Cascada, and we were beyond thrilled to reconnect with her!
We loved the D.R., as the locals call it. At the risk of sounding redundant, this is an extremely colorful country full of life, in love with food and dancing, and exceptionally welcoming. Sharina, Antonio, and family took us to tour the capital, Santo Domingo and the Cueva de las Maravillas (the cave of wonders), which was remarkably reminiscent of the caves of the Midwestern US.
We joined in the festivities of Antonio's sister's birthday party, complete with all the traditional food of the D.R.
And we ate more than our fair share of street food- empanadas, tostones. Yum! We were in food heaven.
As we traveled through the streets of the D.R. with our resident tour guides, we counted ourselves lucky to be able to experience this place off the beaten tourist path. We realized that the majority of tourists who visit this beauty island were more or less contained to the resorts. Beautiful, sprawling complexes in locations such as Punta Cana and Puerto Plata house everything you need for a tropical beach vacation, all without ever having to travel outside the walls of the resort.
Visiting the D.R. and staying with friends enabled us to navigate the hectic local roads by car, weaving between mopeds loaded down with a family of four, two bags of groceries, and a full propane tank. And let me tell you, Marc drove like a true Dominican. He forever has my respect for his ability to mange those roads with a cool head.
We got to experience el Malecon, the ocean boardwalk, on a Friday night, so packed with cars and people playing music, dancing in the street, yelling to one another, that you could barely make your way through. This way of visiting another country, through the eyes of its local residents, gave us a new appreciation for travel.
We had the joy of meeting Sharina's mother and father at their home in the country where they cooked us a hearty stew, fed us sugar cane, and treated us as if we were their own. It is clear to me now why when I asked Sharina in Creede what she missed most about home she said without hesitation, "mi familia." Her family. Yes, her family is one to be missed.
We wrapped up our last night in the D.R. in a manner that would make any Dominican proud, dancing the bachata. And no party is complete without a friendly game of limbo, which I dominated, of course!
Our trip to the D.R. was one that will stay with us forever. The warmth and hospitality that we felt not only from our friends but their families and friends, as well, was way beyond anything we could have expected. It reaffirmed something that I already knew in my heart to be true, these people are our family.
No comments:
Post a Comment