Rob's Topography

So I was just going to add to the last post, but I figured that the past two days warranted a post for itself.

So Friday was the day that we decided we would do the topographic survey of Rob's site. Now Rob is way more out in the boondocks than John, so I figured it would be a little interesting going there. John and I decided we would meet at the intersection on the highway, near where I live, as that is the beginning of the route to get to Rob's site. We scheduled to meet at 8:30, so we could meet up with Rob by 9 at the river, but I'm still getting the whole hang of Dominican time, and John didn't get by me until 9:15. It was good though, I was just able to sit and chill and watch the cars go by for 45 minutes. A nice relaxing start to what would end up being a long day.

After John arrived we got some motos and after the 20 minute or so drive through the mountains we met up with Rob at the Boca del Rio Grande, or the mouth or Rio Grande, where Rio Grande feeds into another larger river that runs along and below Rob's site. Luckily for us, Rob found a couple of kids in his community to bring down two mules for us, to make the trip up to his site a bit easier. John and I were on one mule. John was in the back, not on the saddle, and I was in front. Rob and one of the kids from his community were on the other. Immediately at the start of the trip there was already one river that we would need to cross. The mule handled it well and we continued on our way. In all I think we crossed the river 3 or 4 times. At one point the mule started galloping, which under normal conditions would be fine, but on Dominican saddles, it does not feel good on the nether regions, and I can only imagine poor John in the back who wasn't even on the saddle. At another point I nearly fell off, and I have no idea how exactly John and I both stayed on, because I was basically on my side just hanging on, but thankfully one of the kids that was walking along with us sort of caught us.

We finally arrive at Rob's site, maybe around 10 or 10:15, I don't really know though because I don't really wear a watch anymore since time doesn't really matter. It was really funny, when John was dismounting from the mule, he completely fell off and landed right on his rear end. All the people who were watching found it pretty funny. My dismount was not much more graceful, but I didn't completely fall. This was only the second time I have ridden a mule in this country, and I have yet to get the hang of it.

Before we started work we were treated to a glorious ham sandwich (on regular square bread which is a rarity here) because the day before Rob and the colmado owner went to Santiago, and they picked it up while they were there. It was a little stale, but it was a delight nonetheless. We made them Dominican style, with butter on the outside, ketchup, mayo, ham and cheese on the inside (with a little hot sauce added, which is not Dominican) and then pressed and grilled it in what looked like a waffle maker. With the sandwiches we also had a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.

After our bellies were full we gathered all the workers and we were off. It was pretty much the same job as we had done at John's site, but Rob's was a little more complicated as we had to survey several routes, since his spring that he was planning on using is below 11 of the houses in his community, and therefore water cannot be brought by gravity to those houses. So we had to survey from a little stream further away that is higher up. During the afternoon the work was a lot more tedious since there was a lot more ground cover and it was a lot harder to site the other pole with the abney level.

Since Rob is way out in the middle of nowhere it is a little more difficult to leave his site and acquire transportation, so at 4:15, I had to decide whether I was going to leave, or help them finish up the survey and stay the night. Even though I had not come prepared (which I should really know to do by now) I decided I would stay, and we finished up the work a little after 5 or so.

After we got back, we hiked down to the river, where we swam for a little bit and also bathed. We hiked back up, and then Rob lent me some clothes to wear since what I was wearing during the day was all muddy and wet from me sweating. I swear, Dominican are the nicest people. The family who owns the store there basically gave John and I their house for the night. There are four people who live there, with 3 beds. John and I only needed two of the beds, and we told them that they could use the other bed, but they would not listen to us, and so I don't even know where all of them went and slept. There is one room in the little store they own, but I don't know how four people could have slept there. Also, they turned on their diesel generator for us so that we could enter some of the data into excel on Rob's computer.

I didn't sleep very well at night, because usually when I'm staying somewhere different for the first time I have a little trouble sleeping, but I got enough shuteye, and I woke up around 8:30. Rob's family then gave us some breakfast, and us three were off to visit another volunteer, Kira, who lives in a community only about a 10 minute or so detour on our trip down. We took a different path down this time, since Rob said it was a little quicker to arrive at Kira's site. We had to cross the river 4 times on this trip. And this time we did not have the lovely help of mules, it was all on foot. The first 3 rivers I crossed uneventfully.

We arrived at the 4th crossing, and it was definitely the widest and there was someone crossing it when we got there, and it came up to a little bit below his waist. (Normally this river is easily crossable, but with the amount of rain in the past week the rivers are a bit swollen.) So, I tightened the straps on my backpack and sandals, and grabbed a hold of my moto helmet, because it was hanging a little bit below my backpack, and I began to cross the river. There were tons of rocks of all different sizes, so I was pretty much just stumbling my way there, hoping that I wouldn't fall. I got to about mid river, and lost my balance a little and pretty much got soaked up to my neck. I'm not exactly sure how, but my backpack remained mostly dry, but the same cannot be said about my helmet.

So now here I am, soaking wet continuing the hike to Kira's house. We made it there around 11am, but alas, Kira had went to town that morning and would be returning in about an hour. We decided we'd stick it out and walk around her town a little bit, as it was John and I's first time there. Also, John wanted to get a pair of sandals as he had been walking around in rubber boots the whole day, that were now filled with water, and he needed a new pair anyways since he had lost one of his the other day. So we walked around for a little while, got John's sandals (I was very tempted to buy a pair of LA Gear flip flops for $75 RD, or about $2.50 US...I don't know why I didn't, but I think that next time I'm at Kira's site I'm returning to the store to get them...they're way to classic to pass up), and then got back to Kira's house at 12:40 and she had still not returned. While we were waiting we were treated to some delicious papaya, and Kira ended up coming around 1 pm. We talked, played dominos, at lunch, and then we were off to get back to our sites around 3 o'clockish.

John and I were super lucky, because while were were waiting to get motos, we ended up getting a bola (basically a free ride by hitchiking.) We hopped into the back of the truck, saving each of us $50 pesos, and I wouldn't have to wear my helmet which had not yet completely dried even though I put it in the sun for a couple hours during the hottest part of the day (yes it was that wet.) To top things off, about halfway through the trip we passed an ice cream truck and the driver stopped to buy some ice cream. I figured that I could use one too, to cool down from the sun beating down on me in the back of the truck, so I decided on my favorite one, the choco choco, which is chocolate ice cream covered in a chocolate shell. They're oh so good, and only $15 pesos, but, being the nice driver that he was, he also treated me to ice cream. A free ride, and free ice cream, I could not have asked for anything better. (One time I got a bola in the back of the actual ice cream truck, but I still had to pay for my ice cream that time.)

John and I hopped off at the intersection on the highway near my town. John would have to get back to his site, which takes at least a half an hour, and I just had to walk the ten minutes to my house.

So that's what happened the past two days. A little spontaneous adventure, and a lot of fun.