Day 6

Today was our trip to Sosua beach. We still had to meet everybody at 8 so we had to get up at our usual time. We had to wear our bathing suits down to the beach, because they charge you to use the bathrooms. So Bekah let me borrow a cover-up from her to wear over my suit. Dana and I had pancakes and bananas for breakfast. Then we got our stuff together. Monchi had leant us beach towels, beach bags, and even offered to let us borrow bathing suits. So we were set!

All of the girls met at Jackie’s house because she was going with us and was going to walk us to the Metro to meet Dr. Button and Dr. Johnson. We got to the metro station and found out that the bus we were going to take was full, and so we could either wait for the next bus , or call Kanki and see if he was available. Kanki was only contracted to drive us on certain days and Saturday was not one of them because they had planned for us to take the metro. Jackie called Kanki and he was available so Dr. Button and Dr. Johnson hired him for the day. They were going to pay for our Metro tickets anyways and this was about the same in cost. Somebody made the decision to take the “short route” to Sosua which involves driving through the mountains and lots of beautiful scenery, but also involves motion sickness. I was sitting in the back of the van which makes it way worse, so I missed most of the scenery. But finally 2 hours later we were at the beach.

The beach was very beautiful. It had white sand and turquoise water. We got chairs and umbrellas and found ourselves a spot on the beach. Most of the girls did not use the umbrellas, but Dana and I ended up trying to be under ours as much as possible. Bekah is scuba certified so she went diving and Jordan and Sara went snorkeling. I read my book most of the day and just relaxed. Anybody who knows me knows I am not much for water sports…or sports of any kind so I liked being able to take it easy. Not to mention I only have one pair of contacts with me on this trip, because I am still waiting on my new ones to come in and I really did not want to lose them in the water. I did agree to do the banana boat later though. Dana and I both bought drinks that came in pineapples, and she liked it but I did not care for it too much. Then before we knew it, it was time for the banana boat. Let me just say that I know that I have no upper body strength and so I was hoping that if we were to be thrown off the boat that I would miraculously have strength just when I needed it, or there would be an alternative method to getting on the banana boat. And let me just say that it is probably not the best idea to have a boat driver who does not speak English. The first time we got thrown off was not so bad. I inhaled a lot of water which is the worst taste in the world and then panicked because I couldn’t see Dana and she was just over there bobbing along. We all helped each other back on the banana boat and the driver took off again. Then within minutes of being thrown off the first time we were in the water again. This time was worse. I took in a lot more water, Dana’s lifejacket came off (and that is suppose to save you), and it was harder to get back on the boat because we were still tired from the first time. I only got on the boat because some of the other girls helped me and then I ended up on their backwards. I turned around because I told the girls I like to see my impending doom. Dana was struggling the most with getting back on the boat and so we were all laughing about the whole ordeal which only made it harder. The driver was asking us something in Spanish but we did not understand and then he flagged down another boat and got a ladder from that boat. Dana ended up getting into the boat with the driver (lucky her) and he took us back to shore. Of course he threw us into the water one more time right before we reached the beach and this time I think it was out of spite. I was done with adventure water sports for the day. Later in the day Dana, Gyann, and I went shopping. I don’t like shopping down here because you have to bargain the price and then decide if you want to buy it. In America I know the price up front and then make my decision as to whether I really want it or not. I ended up getting a necklace, bracelet, earrings, and a sea turtle carved out of some rock for 700 pesos which is about 20 US dollars. Dana did all of my bargaining for me! On the way home Dr. Johnson made me sit up front so I would not get sick again and Sara gave me some motion sickness medicine that made me sleepy. We took the highway home instead of the mountain road and so I felt fine when we got back to Monchi’s.
We immediately took showers when we got home, and unfortunately for me I found I had sunburn on my chest. It really was not that bad though and I put lotion with aloe on it after my shower. I talked to Reid a little on the phone and then ate dinner. We had hamburgers for dinner and then went to bed really early. The beach really takes it out of you!