A day in the life…
It was our first family vacation in a long time. My brother and I, though always close whenever we meet up, have been distant due to our physical locations and time constraints. I guess it’s just part of growing up and living, but this vacation was going to be a chance for us to get back together and make some memories. Getting to the DR on this trip proved to be a bit trying. It was a combination of things, mostly it was our family’s lack of planning, or should I say my sister’s lack of planning. If you travel you know that having a passport is required, however it used to be that to go to Canada or the Caribbean you didn’t need a passport. Then a year or two ago the government changed the rules and made a passport mandatory for these locations. Then, the government run passport agency got tremendously back logged and could not keep up with the demand for new passports, DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING, DUH! Consequently, the rule reverted back to NOT needing a passport to get to the Caribbean–with one (unknown to me) caveat–one must have applied for a passport and have the print out showing this has been done in order to travel. For some reason I must have missed this detail, not a good detail to miss and even worse to learn standing in line at Newark Liberty Airport about to leave. Thus, my sister could not fly with us; why hadn’t she looked it up and gotten her passport by then knowing that we were going on vacation still remains a mystery…So, you can imagine the scene at the airport with the friendly Customer Service Reps ecstatic to tell us she would not be flying in a sadistic Nurse Ratchet fashion. I’ve worked at the airport as an airport ambassador so I can bash them all I want, I know what it’s like to deal with angry passengers and their manner was unacceptable. Nevertheless, this story is not about complaining about the airports, this is about one day in the life on our vacation in DR.
One day we had decided to rent dirt bikes and take a ride toward Samana. Just to get out there and have some fun. So we found a place in Cabarete that rented us the bikes for like $20 for four hours. We started them up and took off headed East. We rode along toward Playa Grande but made a right turn along the way which headed us up into the mountains. We rode past small houses and farms. The mountain winded up and down and cruised along the peaks and valleys. We had been riding for a while so we decided to pull off the road and take a quick break. We stopped at an overlook and took a minute to stretch. After we stretched we were taking in the views and enjoying the scenery. It was beautiful. We were overlooking a steep cliff and down at the bottom was clear blue water. Naturally, we wanted to go down and check the water out but it was way too steep to climb down. So we jump back on the bikes and headed off wondering if we could find a way to get to the water. As my brother flew by me he abruptly turned and stopped to speak to a local guy on a moto. My brother doesn’t speak Spanish so I don’t know what he said but the next thing I know we’re following him off the street onto a dirt road. My brother tells me he’s leading us to the water! After a dirt road ride of about 5 minutes we come into what looks like a rock quarry. It opens up and there is a crystal clear fresh water stream with a bunch of people swimming and carrying on. The water looks awesome and high above on the other side is ledge where you can jump from into the water. Once we spot that we both knew it was on! Richy looked over and said, “I’m going first, hold my stuff.” So I grabbed his stuff and he jumped into water. You could tell by his face the water was perfect. He swam around for a couple minutes and then made his way to the other side so he could begin climbing up to reach the ledge high above the water. He disappeared into the vegetation and min or so later he reappeared at the top with a big smile on his face. He looked around for a min and decided where to jump. Then he took two steps and leaped off the mountain. The free fall began. Though probably only a couple of seconds, it always feels longer when you’re jumping off something high. Splash! He hit the water and popped up a sec later with an even bigger smile. “Dude, that was awesome!” he yelled back to me. My turn I thought to myself. After Rich got out and dried off I handed him my stuff and off I went. Sure enough, the water was perfect. It felt great to swim around and enjoy the water. Once I had enjoyed my swim I was ready for the cliff. I followed where my brother had made his way and there I was looking down at the water from high on the mountain. I gulped and launched myself off the cliff, ‘yeee hooo’ I yelled as I blasted into the water. Man was this great. This is exactly what I had hoped for. I got out and dried off, happy to be alive. We got ready to go and as we were about to leave I said to Rich, “hey, I need the key back,” to which he replied, “I gave you everything you gave me.” As what happened began to unfold I began to realize how bad I screwed up. No. No, no, no! Where’s the key to dirt bike key I thought to myself. It was in my pocket my brain replied! I jumped off the cliff with the motorcycle key in my pocket! It was gone. Sunken at the bottom of the stream and though the water was clear it was also deep and in the deep spots it was hard to see. We both looked at each other and thought how bad this was gonna suck. If we couldn’t find the key I’d have to either leave Richy there and take his bike back to let the place know or I’d stay behind and let him go, but since he doesn’t speak Spanish this didn’t make much sense. We could also go back on one bike together but I feared we’d return and the other bike would be gone. Plus, it would soon be dark and that was the last thing I wanted to deal with. I kept thinking, what do I do, what do I do. Well, I had to try and find the key but to me this seemed ridiculous. So I waded though the water looking for the key. Meanwhile, the people there began to laugh and wonder what the heck we were doing. I felt like such a moron. How could I be so stupid!?! I got out frustrated and beginning to lose my cool a bit. As we stood there debating what to do an older man on crutches limped over to us. He had peppery black and grey hair and he held up a divers mask and made a gesture to suggest he would look in the water for us. I nodded and said, “Por Favor.” He made his way to the water, put down his crutches and started looking around. I doubted he’d find anything but I wasn’t going to deny the help. Not more than 5 minutes later, he emerged from the water clutching the tiny motorcycle key in his hand. I felt like Link on some unknown level in The Legend of Zelda! I heard the magic sound as he waved the key around! Everyone in the water began cheering and clapping, it was truly a great thing to experience. He came out of the water and I thanked him a million times and gave him all the pesos I had with me. His face lit up and he was happy to have helped us. My brother looked at me and I looked at him and we couldn’t believe it. Our day had been saved. We got back on our motorcycles, took a swig of rum from our buddy, waived goodbye to all the people and took off for home. We were headed back to Cabarete with a few tall tales to tell over dinner later that evening…