Bola Race

So my mom and sister still haven't emailed me their posts about their visit, so these next two post shall suffice for now.

So the long awaited bola race has finally taken place, that which I have said I would blog about in the past few posts. I will do the best I can to put it into words, but really, it is something which must be experienced first hand in order to truly captivate you.

First things first, the bola (hitchhiking) race I believe was started last year, and if I am not mistaken, I believe this one was the second one that has taken place. It is a volunteer-organized race, since, as you will probably understand as you read the rest of the post, probably would not be sanctioned by the Peace Corps. The race was from the city of Santiago to Las Terrenas in the Samaná Peninsula.

We were all supposed to meet up on Friday night in order to get the official rules and for the distribution of another key item of the race. Unfortunately, my bola race partner, Erica, foolishly scheduled a charla on the Friday afternoon before the race, meaning that she would have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn (actually before) in order to make it to Santiago in time for the start of the race. For that, I decided I would just go to Santiago on Saturday morning as well. This means that neither of us got the official run down of the rules, and weren't allowed a say in the type of beverage which we would have to drink during the race.

The Rules: Get from Santiago to Las Terrenas as fast as possible. You're only allowed one paid ride out of the city, and the rest have to be bolas. You cannot tell any of your bola drivers that you're in a race, you have to come up with a story and stick by it the whole time. Erica and I's story was that we were late for a wedding and we spent our last money in Santiago and therefore had to get bolas the whole way there. Another key element, which makes the race the most fun, is that you have to drink a bottle of alcohol between you and your partner before you get to Las Terrenas. (I neglected to tell my family this when they were here, they seemed upset enough that I would be hitchhiking across the country, so I figured I wouldn't tell them that I would be doing it inebriated.) You are allowed to share the liquor among those who you are hitchhiking with, even the driver if you so please. There were some other random rules which I can't really remember right now, and I'm pretty sure no one really followed them anyways.

So I get to the starting point first, and find out that a bottle of Anise flavored liquor has been chosen for Erica and I. Everyone laughed at us and even I was upset because I had no idea what it really was and was pretty sure that it was going to be really disgusting. Once everyone arrived, everyone got everything prepared and off we went. Erica and I were the first ones out the door and on our way running to find a bola. It is exponentially difficult to find bolas in a large city such as Santiago, which is why one paid ride out of the city on public transit is allowed. Erica and I figured that whatever came first we would get. It turns out that a guagua to Licey, the next biggest town out of Santiago, came first, so we hopped on off we were to Licey. On our way out we passed by a couple other teams and sadly did not pick any of them up. On this guagua ride we also opened up our bottle of Anise, and much to our surprise it was pretty good. It was similar in taste to a bacardi cooler kind of thing, which is not really my favorite, but it actually was tolerable, even without mixing.

About 1 minute after we got off the guagua in Licey, we got a bola in a nice air-conditioned sedan with two refrigerator repairmen for Coca-Cola. Since they were one the job, the turned down the offer for liquor, but were happy to take us to the next town over, Moca. They were very sad that they had to work and told us that if they hadn't been working that they would have taken us all the way to Las Terrenas. We were sad that they were working as well, as that would have been pretty sweet. They dropped us off in Moca, wished us luck, and back we were to searching for bolas. After about 5-10 minutes, another team's bola stopped for us, so we were now joined with Alissa (Hi Mr. Karp....Alissa told me you read my blog), Beth, Bill and Alan. How the three Chicagoans participating in the race ended up together I'll never know. Everything from this point on is a little foggy since it's been about a week since it happened, but I will fill you in on the most exciting Bolas. Oh yeah...also, from this point on, us 6 never separated from each other, which made it a bit harder for getting bolas, but also a little more fun.

The more interesting bolas included: sitting in the back of a pick up truck on a pile of rubber tires, squeezing 6 people in the back of a tiny Diahatsu truck which already had stuff in it, making ourselves comfortable in the back of a big rig truck, which even had a sleeper section (I took a nap), and our last bola sitting on top of a bunch of random iron poles and stuff I don't even know what it was. That last one left us with stains on our clothes and bruises on our behinds.

Erica and I tied for 3rd place with the two other teams we were with. Jessica and Evan came in first place with about a good hour or two in front. Their whole trip consisted of only 4 bolas, all air conditioned. All in all, I think Erica and I's trip was 7 bolas, but I lost count somewhere so that is only a guess.

After that we enjoyed ourselves in the wonderful town of Las Terrenas. It's a little touristy, but overall has a nice relaxed feel, and is freaking gorgeous, with probably the nicest beaches in the country that I have seen thus far. One other point I would like to say is that on the way to Las Terrenas from the town of Sanchez, you have to cross over the mountains on the Peninsula. This was by far the most breath-taking views I have ever seen in my life. There's one point where you can see the Samaná Bay in it's entirety.

As far as pictures go, I did not take any during the actual racing part, but some of my friends did, so I'll try to get a link up as soon as I can. I did however take pictures of the beautiful beach we were near and of the views that I just described above on the trip back from Las Terrenas to Sanchez. Don't be too jealous of me.

The way back is also a story in and of itself. We ended up walking to the guagua station from the hotel we stayed at. It's a good 2 mile walk, or a 30 peso moto ride. Unfortunately, I did not bring my helmet with me, and therefore had to walk it as I refuse to ride any moto without a helmet, not just because if Peace Corps staff catches me I get kicked out and sent back home, but also because I just think you're really stupid if you don't wear one. Unfortunately again, the direct guagua to Santiago from Las Terrenas had already left, and so we had to take a guagua to Sanchez where we would hopefully be able to get a guagua direct to Santiago. Well, it turns out that one had left as well, so we had to take a guagua to Nagua, then another guagua to San Francisco de Marcoris. In San Francisco, we all decided it would just be better off to take a taxi back to Santiago as it was getting a little dark and it would overall just be safer. It was also more expensive, and I had the misfortune of having to ride in the back of the truck along with John and Stacey. We safely arrived at the hostel at around 7:30 or 8 o'clock-ish. Got stuff to eat and we back to chill and watch TV. Most of us also decided to stay an extra night in Santiago in order to watch the final college basketball game between Kansas and Memphis. I'm not usually the one to enjoy sports, but let me tell that it was a pretty freaking awesome game.

So that wraps up my bola race weekend....lots of fun, very exciting, and I can't wait for the next one!