Day 19: Sosua Beach

The beautiful Sosua beach

We had our fun filled day today, where we first jumped on a catamaran (cool little boat) and were whisked away to a coral reef about a mile out. We slipped on our flippers, tied our goggles down, and dived into the clear, cool water. The bottom was about 15 feet below, and we could see everything from the dozens of tiny swordfish drifting at the top of the water to the deep blue Dori-fish darting between the coral 12 feet down. Savannah brought her underwater camera, so we had a blast taking some photos, and slowly everyone started to get out of the water and migrate to the flat roof of the catamaran, where we'd dive, cannon ball, and triple twist into the water from 10 feet above.

On the way to the reef!

Snorkeling!!

And off they go!

Abby and her pina colada

Afterwards, we all went separate ways, exploring the beautiful Sosua beach. My roommates and I sat at a bar table and drank smoothies and coconut juice (from the coconut!) while soaking up our last beach day sun. Then Emma and I did a little bargaining at the many shack-stores that lined the beach, before racing into the sea to meet everyone else. For some reason, the Sosua beach was so much more clear blue and so much less crowded than Cabarete. Everyone unanimously agreed that this was the favorite beach, as we chilled eating burritos and sipping smoothies in the sand.

Then Leonard stepped on a sea urchin while racing Savannah to a far off boat, and later Abby did too - but nothing could be done until they returned to America - so they got to walk around with urchin spines in their heels for the next two days.

Tattooed.

At around 2, a man came around promising tattoos that stay on 'para un meso!' so a few of us invested in inky black pictures that were burned onto our skin - literally, the alcohol or something caused this burning sensation.. sketchy? Nahhh! So Anna ended up with a unicorn prancing on her upper thigh, Abby with a dragon snaking up her side, Emma with a roaring lion face smack bang on her lower belly, Juliana with a butterfly floating below her boobs and me with a butterfly invading my right shoulder. We all felt so bad ass... and stupid when they washed off in the shower later that night. Well... it was fun while it lasted... that whole five hours.


When we got home, we showered quickly and then went on to present our group projects which we'd been assigned earlier that week. We each had to assess a specific location in according to Dave's capital model. The girls cabins had Acention (the Haitian Refugee camp) and the Santa Domingo Slums (that's us!) while the boys dorms had *** and the whole of America. After presenting and debating in an interesting debate about politics and whether it deserves its own spot on the model, we drifted off to bed with only one more night afterwards left in the DR! :(

The Capital Model
 (thanks Jayvee!)