Stepping Out of the Boat

Our adventure started on Monday April 2 as Rebbecca, Claire, and I rolled into Carrefour, a grocery store on the north side of town, at 10 in the morning. Marshall, the head honcho of Rancho Wendy, arrived shortly after to pick us up. With the girls in the front of the truck and me with the gear in the back we head a couple hours north to the ranch. Everything seemed normal enough until we arrived at Rancho Wendy. We quickly realized that the website is a bit misleading. (Blue text notates additions by Claire.) Actually, on the ride to the ranch, I was talking to Marshall about his website (the one we linked in previous posts), and when I first mentioned it, he laughed and said, "All lies! Ha ha!" I thought he was joking, but I wasn't sure, so I laughed. That's when I first wondered if we were in for something different than we expected. Also, we stopped to get gas on the way, and Marshall was displeased with the price of gas. He said to me, "I think I'm being had." I said in response, "I think we probably get had here about once a week, but there's not much we can do about it." Marshall shrugged. The situational irony of the conversation is killing me now. Back to John's narration:The room was a small little concrete room off the side of a run down house, right next to the "swimming pool" that didn't have any water in it. As you can see by the pictures, the bed and the shower/bathroom weren't exactly the Holiday Inn. The bed was lumpy and squeaked everytime you looked at it. The shower and sink didn't have hot water and there was only one good light in the entire place. There was a stream that ran next to the ranch but could easily have been jumped and was hardly something that you would want to take a refreshing dip (in since the water was a light grayish color). I would say the only redeeming quality of the ranch was the view. We were set in the mountains way off the beaten path. After getting settled in we started looking for something to do to pass the time. As you can imagine the options were limited. We mostly spent our time reading and napping. That was until Marshall asked us if we wouldn't mind helping out with some work around the place. Can you believe that? He recently had some guests that left some baseball equipment to be given out to the children in the neighborhood and he wanted us to sort it into piles so that he could give different teams each a set. Being guests at his ranch who paid to be there, we thought this was way out of the question but did it anyway probably more just for something to do. Here is a shot of Becky and I doing the work while Marshall stands over us telling us what to do. In the afternoon we decided to go on a walk down the road to check out the sights so Marshall sent a kid that works for him doing things around the ranch with us. It was a nice walk that followed a real river. While we were at the ranch we met a girl named Amie who had arrived about a week before us. She is from Colorado and was hired by a person at the ranch to help out with some computer business they had there. You see, Marshall has a side business that he runs out of his house. We aren't too sure of the details, but from what we could gather it is some sort of satellite business that is based in Portland, and he helps sell parts to computers here in the D.R. However; something happend and now he is being sued by someone and is in need of someone to help him try and cover it up. That is why Amie was hired. The funny thing is, the person who hired her quit working at the Ranch the day before she got there and was left to figure all this out on her own. She told us that she spent the first few days going over documents and speadsheets that Marshall had on file trying to get things straightened out. At the same time she was to be tutoring Marshall's 13 year old daughter Wendy 4 or 5 hours a day even though she isn't a teacher. Wendy has lived her whole life at the ranch, has never been to school, and basically gets to do whatever she wants. Amie spent the whole morning trying to get Wendy to answer "yes" or "no" to questions because she refused to talk. The whole thing was quite absurd. The air was thick with tension. Marshall was shouting at everyone - his wife, his employees, the minors he has working for him, Amie... who would want to spend time there to relax? The entire thing was a really weird deal. Amie was only going to be there for a month to help out. She has a minor in Spanish and was hoping to come and see the country and practice her Spanish. She is an outdoors person so she figured working at a place like Rancho Wendy would be a good way for her to go on some excursions. That is not what it turned out to be for her at all. Feeling sorry for her and knowing she was only going to be in the country for a month, we invited her to come back to the city with us and stay in one of our spare rooms until the month's end. So that was plan. She was going to quit on Friday, the day we got back, and come back to the city with us. More on this story later. That night we made a bonfire and tried to get to bed early because of our big day ahead.

After a not-so-great night's sleep that consisted of me having to get out of bed twice to throw stones at a barking dog, we awoke at 6 to get out of that place, I mean get a start on the day. We all rode in the back of the truck to the base of the mountain which was about two and a half hours from the ranch. When we arrived, Marshall had to talk to the guides and have them round up a few more mules because, for whatever reason, he thought that two mules for the three of us, a guide, and all our stuff was enough. We had to convince him otherwise. We ended up with five mules total: two for the gear and three for us,which meant we need another guide to come along. We had a quick lunch at the base camp, consisting of salami sandwiches on stale bread. The food was included in our price, and was supposed to be supplied, but while we were at the ranch, we had to go through and request more and a little better variety than a bag of rice and a bunch of dented cans of lasagna. Our choices weren't great but would have to make do. I never want to see Dominican salami again, let alone smell it or eat it.

Because the other mules weren't ready yet, we started off with one guide to Los Tablones, our first camp stop, about an hour away where we would wait for the other guide and mules to join us. The guides spoke no English, so I spoke a lot of Spanish during this time. It was great practice for me, and I realized how much my Spanish has improved since moving here. I did, however, end up saying many times, "We're so dirt," instead of dirty. Oops. We aren't sure why they put the first stop an hour into the hike and then have everyone hike for 10 hours the second day only to end up a couple hours shy of the summit, but its the Dominican and we stopped asking those kind of questions a long time ago. I found it especially fitting that the camping stops were in the absolute most inconvenient places. It just fits so well with the way everything else goes around here. Along the way we stopped at a river to take in the view and some pictures. It was only around noon and we had all day to get there so we figured we could take our time a little. We got to Los Tablones around 1. We were hoping to maybe swim and clean off a little, considering that this was day two without showering, but our gear was still no where to be found. It would arrive "ahorita," which means literally in Spanish "now-ish" but according to my experience it really means "I have no idea when" or "sometime within the next three and a half days". We ended up passing the time by laying on some rocks, skipping stones, and staring off into space. Finally around 4 our bags got to camp just as dark clouds and cold breezes rolled in. It was too cold to swim so we grabbed a quick something to eat and found our books to read. While we waited our guide picked some unripe mini guava and shared those with us. That is what I am trying out in this picture. When it started to get dark and a little colder our guides made a fire and prepared dinner. Using what sparse options Marshall pack for us they made a very delicious meal. It consisted of mostly rice, which the guide had to go back down the mountain to get more of because Marshall didn't pack enough, a vegetable call tayota that was growing near camp, and some spices of their choice. After dinner we sat around the fire waiting for 8 o'clock to roll around so that we could go to bed. We were waking up at 5 the next morning to get a start and figured 8 would be a good time to go to bed. Sleeping on the concrete floor wasn't very nice and having to keep an eye out for the rats that were around didn't help any of us get the kind of sleep one might need to climb a mountain the next day. I didn't sleep a wink that whole night. I was awake listening to the various and frequent bumps and scampers in the night. My imagination ran wild. When the alarm finally went off at 5 am, I couldn't have been happier. Nevertheless we were up at 5, packed our things, ate some stale cornflakes, and started up the mountain by 6. Our guides stayed back to get the mules ready and told us they would catch up to us. It was dark and cold but before long the sun was coming up, the blood was flowing, and we were shedding some of our layers.

About an hour into the hike the guides and mules caught up to us and it was then that we got our first chance to ride. We rode for another hour or so before coming to the next check point. If you click on the picture of Claire standing in front of the sign earlier in the blog you can see our trek and the stop points along the way. At the first stop, we got off just long enough to stretch our legs before it was back on the mules for a couple more hours of riding. We all had good intentions of walking part of the way but it didn't take much of walking up an eighty degree rocky slope before you were ready to let the mule do the work. As it turned out, our routine usually consisted of us starting from each check point walking about an hour until the mules caught up to us, then riding a couple hours to the next point. It was a good balance of exercise and rest. Just for the record, riding a mule is in no way "rest". I think it takes more muscle to stay on a mule going up or down that kind of slope than it does to walk. Along the way I was able to take pictures of the spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and a few shots of us riding on the mules. It was really cool to travel up the mountain and see the changing environments. We started the morning in a nice green wet environment and certainly noticed a change about half way up as things dried out and became dead looking. Another cool thing was to travel through the clouds and see the clouds rolling by. There were a couple times when we felt like Frodo from Lord of the Rings walking through the mist in a dead looking forest as things were eerily quiet. There was one time when everything was so quiet that I fully expected to see Orks charging to attack over the next hill. The mists and the trees and the trail all mixed together to create a trully fantastical environment. At each check point there was a sign that let you know where you were and how high you had made it. We made a point of taking a picture at each of these stops to commenorate the fact that we had made it. Looking at our pictures you will also notice a red flower that, unfortuanalty we can't remember the name of, Claire really liked. The flowers were blood red, and they caught my eye at every turn. They seemed to jump out of the forest at me because their color was so different from the rest of the surroundings. If we were in a novel, those flowers would have been foreshadowing for violence or bloodshed. I'm glad we weren't in a novel. They would pop up every now and then along the trail most of the way to the top.


Near the top, about 2 hours from the top, is a stop called La Comparticion where most people stay for the second night. It is similar to the place we stayed at the first night. However our guide knew of another camp closer to the top that was nicer so we decided to push on for that camp so that in the morning we wouldn't have as far to go to reach the summit. Before passing on through this camp we did stop to warm up a little with a cup of coffee. The guides there graciously made us some coffee, and it tasted so good! We were so happy to have it.

After the last hour and a half ride on a mule we reached a large flat area that surrounded the peak of mountain and after a short ride around this peak we found our camp. It was huge and far better than any place we had seen since we left that morning. Why more people don't choose to stay there we don't know but again it's the Dominican and we don't ask. This place had a very large building for sleeping, a seperate building for cooking, and it even had bathrooms. The stalls were just holes in the ground but it was better than what we had seen in a couple days. As the guides unpacked the mules and started making dinner we did some exploring around the camp and got our bags all ready for bed. By this time, our muscles were sore to the touch. OUCH!! We didn't want to wait until it was dark to get everything all set up. It was a lot colder on the top of the mountain than it was the night before. In fact, it was so cold that in the morning, there was ice on the ground. One of our guides, Eduardo, wanted to show us something:Along the side of the building we were sleeping in was a sign that had the names of the people that helped build the building. Our guide pointed out that he was one of the people listed and had helped build the place a few year ago. He seemed to be genuinely proud of his efforts and sad that not many people use the camp anymore. What a waste. As the sun went down so did the temperature so we stayed close to the cooking hut where the fire was. Our guides told us that they were sleeping in the cooking building. We should have taken that has a hint but thought that we were prepared for the night that was yet to come. After dinner, which was similar to the pervious night but with some canned pasta and corn added to it, we sat around the fire again waiting for 8 oclock to roll around. After getting all bundled up for bed (I put on almost every piece of clothing I brought excluding my swimming suit.) we all tried to lay down for a decent nights sleep; it was anything but that. Each of us woke up about every hour to try and warm ourselves up any way we could. I think each of us was wearing 3 layers of clothes and at one point in the night Claire and Becky zipped thier sleeping bags together in hopes that body heat would be the best way. Here are a couple of pictures of us at 1 in the morning. Finally at 2 in the morning when none of us could take it anymore, we gathered up our sleeping bags and headed to the kitchen hut were we woke our guides and had them get the fire going again. We asked them before we went to bed if that would be ok in case we were to get that cold and they were very willing to help us out in the middle of the night. We spent the rest of that night, all three hours of it in that hut huddled on the floor with our guides by the fire. One of our guides was sleeping under feed sacks because he didn't have a sleeping bag. Obviously, someone besides the guides is making all the money.

At 5 the alarm sounded and we were up and getting ready to head to the peak. It was a cold cold moring of gathering our stuff in the dark (all of our flashlights were out of batteries) but we were excited to get to the top. We put on our three or four layers, Becky put some socks on her hands, and Claire and I put some work gloves on that we had brought, and headed without our guides to the top. About 10 mintues from the top the sun started to peek itself from below the clouds. We had finally made it to the top of the Caribbean. It was the most spectacular sight I personally have ever seen. I am sure if you ask the girls would probably say the same. We stopped to take some picture next to the sign to make it offical and then went to explore the view. I don't know why but before we got there I was expecting some sort of flat surface where you could stand and look around. This, however, was truly a mountain peak. We climbed up some huge boulders where a bust of Duarte and a Dominican flag were. Climbing up for the first time to the very peak make my stomach turn because of how high it was. It wasn't set up so if you were to slip you would fall all the way to the base, but it sure was steep looking from up there. We took all kinds of pictures of the mountains and each other, I collected some dirt from the top, and we all just enjoyed the view. As the sun continued to rise and the clouds drifted the sights of the mountains would change ever so slightly. It was so beautiful to look around and watch. We were literally looking down on the clouds and around for miles in every direction. We spent about an hour up there look around and all agreed that we could look at that veiw every day and never get tired of it.

By now it was 8, and knowing that we had to go all the way down in before 2, we pried ourselves away from the top and started our descent. I was hoping to walk some of the way down because the thought of riding the mules the entire way not only made me nervous because of the steep slopes but also because my butt was still sore from the day before. The first leg of the trip, about 2 miles, I walked ahead of the group while the girls rode. I don't think the guides thought I would be able to keep up with the mules because they kept telling us how much faster it would be if we were to ride. But after beating them to the first check point, I made a believer out of them. I was so proud of John - the guides couldn't believe how fast he was. Becky and I couldn't have kept up with him. We stopped at La Comparticion, the first check point, for a quick snack before all getting on mules for the next 2 legs. We were in such a hurry to get down that (much to our displeasure) the guides were pushing us through the check points. I ended up walking another couple miles after riding for a few but the girls were real troopers and rode all the way down. We all rode the final three or four hours to Las Tablones. By the end of the time we were all completly miserable and had agreed to never ever get on a mule again. The trip downwas harder than the trip up in more ways than one . By the time we got off the mules for the last time at Las Tablones were were soooo sore and exhausted to the point of tears. I actually did cry. I was severely dehydrated, exhausted because of lack of sleep and pysical activity, had a terrible headache, felt feverish, hadn't eaten anything since 9 a.m., and I was more sore than I have ever been before in my life (I'm not exaggerating). Here is a picture of Becky and Claire right after climbing off their mules. This shot is from the previous day; the way you can tell the difference is that in this shot they have smiles on thier faces. None of us were smiling at the end of riding our second day. By the time we got to where we spent the first night we were ready to walk the rest of the way down. The only problem with this was that we were already behind scheudle and if we walked that last bit we were in danger of missing the guagua (a van) that was to take us to the nearby town where Marshall would be waiting for us. We didn't care about that at the time - we just knew that we weren't getting back on those mules. Finally sometime around 3 in the afternoon we made it back to base camp for some final photos with the guides. It had been three days since we had showered and for the most part even changed our clothes. We were hot, dirty, and extremly exhuasted. John's hands in the picture to the right are extremely dirty. I coined a new term for our hands: Frodo Fingers. There was dirt all over our hands - under our nails, in the little creases between finger joints, all over. We had Frodo Fingers. I hope never to have them again, although I enjoy using my newly coined term.We did miss the guagua, so other arrangments had to be made. Actually, Victor, the guy in charge of the guides and the whole system at the base of the mountain, came to meet us on the trail to tell us that the guagua had gone, but he had another way (you'll see) and we shouldn't worry. He was a delightful man who seemed honest and helpful. We topped off the crazy adventure that we had all had in the most Dominican way: three motorbikes were brought and we loaded all our things and ourselves onto the backs of them and rode 40 mintues in our own little motorcade through the small towns, around the mountains, and down the highway. The way John describes it, the ride sounds tame. It was WILD!! I was clenching my teeth and my whole body the entire time. We were zipping down MOUNTAIN roads, turing and winding down the mountianside on motorbikes with no helmets, no protection. It was CRAZY! I didn't look for the beginning of the ride because I pulled my had down over my eyes, but my had was a casualty (and Becky's too) of the ride. It blew off, and we were flying down the mountain so fast that by the time I conceptalized the fact that my hat had flown off, we were way too far away to go back. My backpack was so big that I had to wear mine as I rode on the back of the bike. It was tough because my abs were already tired from riding that mule down all day and whenever the driver accelerated my pack felt like someone trying to pull me off the back. But after 40 minutes and two lost hats, Claires and Becky's, we made it. We decided that instead of staying that night at Rancho Wendy like we were supposed to, we were going to ask Marshall if he would PLEASE take us back here to the city so we could get a hot shower and sleep in a nice bed. We didn't phrase it that way. Thankfully Marshall agreed. So back into the back of the truck we piled for another hour or so to the ranch were we gathered some things that we had left behind. When we got to the ranch we went looking for Amie to let her know that we were leaving a day earlier and to find out what her plans were. Instead we were given a note from Amie by another young guy who we hung out with on the front end of our trip explaining that she couldn't take it there anymore and had met another person from the States and they are now off traveling the country. She said in her letter that she would still love to come to the city and stay with us for a little while, so we will be seeing her again sometime soon I am sure. The last hour in the back of the truck was in the dark but we made it to Carrefour around 8 where we called a cab and headed home. We all showered, ordered in some sandwhiches, and watched a slideshow of all the pictures before heading to our nice soft beds where we each spent the next 10 or 11 hours. This morning we all woke up sore in just about every place you can imagine and got our clothes and everything else all cleaned up. Thinking back and looking at all the pictures over and over again I can't believe that we did all that. It is almost an out of body experience that you dream about. I am so thankful, even though it felt like we traveled through hell and back, to have this experience. And I am so thankful that Claire and I got to do it together. Amen! There's no other person I would want to do all that with. I think it's going to take us a few days to recover completely, but the whole experience was something I will never forget.


We ended up taking over 300 pictures of the trip that I am going to put on our Picasa link on the side bar of the blog. I tried to put captions with the pictures to let you know what is going on in each shot but some of the views just speak for themselves.