Day 1- Taxis, Cannons and Banyan Trees

(I will add photos later, but for now…..here is an accounting of my latest adventure!!!)
The DR, Day 1- Taxis, Cannons and Banyan Trees
There is a moment in every international flight in which I feel like I have truly left home and arrived in another country. I could happen anywhere in the airspace between ‘here’ and ‘there’. It is the moment in which they stop giving airline instructions in English first. You know how it is…..instead of ‘please return your seat backs and tray tables to their upright positions’…pause…’the-same-thing-in-Spanish/French/or-wherever-it-is-you-are-going’, it gets turned around the other way. I am sure that the airlines have a particular time that they do this in a flight, but to me, it is my own little universal sign….’your adventure begins NOW, Anna’. It is official….I am in the Dominican Republic. 
Once the airplane landed, I went into serious ‘follow the other passengers’ mode. I have no idea what to do and I find that this is a great time to become a lemming.  Through the line to pay for a tourist visa, which they immediately take away from me in the next line. …..On to immigration and customs…why is it that they are never as happy to see me as I am to see them? 
Finally out into the sun to get a taxi. $40 USD later and I am screaming my way towards the center of old town and my hotel. I am looking around like crazy, trying to see some sort of semblance between here and Haiti. After all, not only are we on the same island, we are actually not that far from Port au Prince! It kind of feels like Haiti, but it is obviously wealthier. There are palm trees and tons of colors everywhere….on the buildings, in the graffiti, and on all of the signs. As I study all of the buildings around me, I realize that my driver is going really, really fast. Like….WAY faster than I-285 around Atlanta! As I try to catch a glimpse at his speedometer I notice that it says he isn’t driving at all….and that he has no gas…and no RPMs. Hmmm…..I am thinking it is broken.  As he whisks between two buses, I nonchalantly click my seatbelt on and say a quick prayer. It is best at times like these to realize that you just have to relax…..it are not like you can do anything about it!! 
After finally arriving at my hotel, I check into a dark, stifling little room. I am thinking that it would be about a 1 star hotel in Europe, but it is sparkling clean and seems to be in a safe neighborhood, so I am happy. The bell boy motions to a couple of threadbare towels, clicks on a wall air conditioning unit, and turns the TV onto a German channel. (Does he think I am German? )
I dump my stuff quickly and go ask how to get to the cathedral. I have one afternoon here and am not going to waste it!!! After five minutes of fruitless conversation with the woman at the front desk….her, no English….me, less than no Spanish….a cute, cute young man from Spain took pity on me and stepped in. With his hand drawn map, walking directions, and a business card from the hotel (for the cab ride back in case I get lost  ), off I go. It is very hot and humid but since I am already all sweaty from checking into the hotel, I don’t mind. It actually feels like Atlanta in July!
The roads are narrow and there are colorful, pastel buildings everywhere. Some are other hotels, all hidden behind wrought iron gates and climbing vines and some are businesses. There is a lot of trash on the streets, and I spend the next 15 minutes dodging piles of garbage while looking around at signs so that I can find my way back home. The women that pass me all smile and we exchange friendly “Hola”’s. The men all want to sell me something….belts, necklaces, tours of the old town, and as my “No gracisas” come out with increasing frequency, I know that I am close to the touristy center of town.  I finally find myself walking up a long pedestrian street with salsa music coming out of various windows. Being Sunday, a lot of the shops are closed up behind gates, but there are a lot of street vendors out selling paintings and cheap souvenirs. I know that I should probably buy stuff for friends and family, but this stuff looks bad!! Cheap and tacky, I think I will hold out til later.
As the crowds grow, I suddenly find myself looking at a giant, stone building of sorts. One of the men approached me and asked if I wanted a tour. When I asked what it was, he told me it was the big military fort. It seems I have missed the cathedral somehow. Oh well, when in Rome, right? So I paid him $8 USD to take me around and tell me about it. It is really cool!! Giant thick walls, cannons, and gun ports, all right on the river that runs through Santo Domingo. And beautiful green grass in the middle. It turns out that Christopher Columbus’s son and his wife lived here for a while and there were various battles, torturing, etc that took place here. It feels so nice for a place in which no-so-good things happened. 
After our tour, Juan, my official tour guide, (he had a business card that said it, so it must be so!!)  offered to do a walking tour of the old town. Unfortunately, I had to turn him down. It is 700 degrees out here and my pesos are in short supply. I promise him that if I change my mind, I won’t do a tour with anyone but him and I take off to find something cold to drink.
As I wind my way through the streets, passing old stone buildings, I come around a corner and find myself looking at a giant, pock-marked stone building,….tall, grand and beautiful. My stomach filled with butterflies and goose bumps covered my body. I have found the cathedral. I don’t know why it affected me so much, but tears filled my eyes and I was just so happy! It is very plain compared to the cathedrals in Europe, but there is no denying its purpose. It is the first cathedral ever built in the Americas and it is beautiful. There was a small, metal gate open with a guard inside. He motioned me in and I walked around the grounds. The cathedral itself is closed, and as I walk around the entire thing, I realize that every gate is locked up tight. I am not sure that I am even supposed to be in here! I am the only person walking around and I know that the guard said that it was ok, so I continue on. There are gargoyles stacked up along one side of the building, and I assume that they are doing construction on the building, even though there are no other signs of work being done. As people reach in through the wrought iron gates to take pictures, with me standing on the inside, I finally decide that maybe I am not supposed to be in here and work my way back around to the open gate. The guard smiles and nods, and I stop to talk to him for a moment. He has just enough English to tell me that I am more beautiful than the cathedral. Laughing and shaking my head, I take off, still in hopes of a cold drink.
Coming around the corner, I find the main plaza of the cathedral and know that I have found my home for the next few hours. There are people everywhere, most locals as far as can tell. In the middle of the square, there are iron benches with old men sitting on them feeding the thousands of pigeons that are congregated around. Hot, hot sunshine intersperses with dark shade under huge trees and it is here that the locals are gathered. The children run out into the sun to chase the pigeons, which fly up in droves, only to settle ten feet away. It seems that it is too hot for them to fly far.  No one is moving very quickly and everyone seems settled in to enjoy a nice Sunday afternoon.
I find an outdoor café and settle in for some serious people watching, putting on my sunglasses so that it doesn’t seem like I am rudely staring. I order a cold Bohemia and a bottle of water, while trying to decide if I want to eat. I didn’t have lunch, but it is so hot that I have no appetite. It turns out that the restaurant is out of almost everything on the menu. After the waiter tells me that I can have the fried squid or the fried-egg-something-or-another, I decide to stick with my beer.  The smell of cigars wafts through the air and giant leaves from what looks like a banyan tree keep floating down on my table. Two men at the table behind me are having an animated conversation in German and the table of locals next to me is gossiping about everyone that walks by. I know this because anytime someone particularly interesting walks by, the woman sitting with them meets my eye and raises her eyebrows as their conversation escalates. Some things are easy to understand in every language. 
After a couple of hours of great people watching, writing in my journal and just plain relaxing, I decide to head down the road to another place for some dinner. It is 7 pm, and I know it is way too early for the locals to be eating, but I am exhausted and the idea of waiting another two hours before eating and heading back to my tiny, clean hotel room is more than I can take. I find a nice hotel restaurant a few blocks down and settle down beside two huge, elderly local women that seem to have moved in for the evening. They, also, are talking about everyone that walks by. There seems to be a preponderance of older white men with attractive, younger local women, and as my suspicions grow, one of the couples walk by. The two women next to me catch my eye, raise their eyebrows and say, “Mmmmm….” Yep, some things really do transcend the language barrier. 
Grinning, I finish my dinner and start thinking about sleep. I am only about 12 blocks from the hotel, but it is full of dark now and I have no idea how safe the area is. I ask a taxi driver how much to take me to the hotel. After he says 200 pesos, (about $6 US) I climb in. I am fully aware that I am being overcharged, but I am thinking that the people that love me would consider $6 a small price for me to be delivered safely to the hotel. 
Tomorrow I am headed for Cuba, but for now, I am lying here watching a subtitled version of “The Holiday” on TV and fighting my drooping eyelids. Time for bed…..
Anna

Crowders Mountain w/the North Carolina Dames

This past Saturday, 5 of us headed up to our local mountain for a nice hike 3 mile hike. This was a first hike for some of the Dames and the second hike that I was leading. I purposely chose the 3.5 mile trail in hopes that everyone would be able to finish.   We met up at the visitors center at 9am and started out in the chilly windy morning. The first mile was a nice gradual climb. I hung back with Chris and Sharon as Linda and Dianna blazed up the trail. We finally caught up to them at a trail intersection. They were sitting on a bench and as we got to the bench, both Chris and Sharon plopped down. I didn’t realize how hard the trail was til the newbie Sharon mentioned she wasn’t sure she could make it to the top. I was just about to give her the “You can do it!” speech, when to my surprise, before I could utter a word, the other ladies showered Sharon with encouragement, compliments, and affirmations that YES!, she could do this! They were going to make sure ALL the Dames made it up! I just stood back, amazed at the camaraderie of this group. The others even went so far as to hlep find a stick for Sharon to use to help her for the rest of the hike. My heart swelled and I had to choke down a tear and thought, “This is what Trail Dames is all about.” Women encouraging one another to accomplish what they didn’t even know they could do!
With renewed determination, Sharon got up with her stick and started up the trail. We all hiked the last .7 miles, (which happened to be the steepest and toughest .7 miles of the hike), together. When we neared the top, I ran up to the sign indicting we reached the summit. When I yelled back to let them know they were yards away, I swear I heard chorus’ of “thank goodness, YAY!, and FINALLY.” Haha! As each Dame reached the sign, I snapped a photo and high fived the hiker while each person cheered for the next. Linda made it point to say, it was a lot tougher than she expected. Someone mentioned that walking 3 miles and hiking 3 miles were two different experiences. I  understood, after all, I was once in their shoes.
With no view in sight, I point up to our very last, strenous piece of the trail. We have to boulder climb (literally climb) up to the summit. They all look at me like I’m crazy. At this point Sharon says that there is no way she can do it. (Crickets…)No one says a word. This time I pipe up and say, “YES you can! You didn’t hike 1.7 miles, all up, for nothing. You all worked so hard for that view, you EARNED that view! Now lets go get that view!” One by one, they caustiously placed their hands and feet in foot holds and climbed thier way up the last .15 mile to that view. I went up last to make sure everyone made it up safely. One by one, I could hear the gasps as they each reached the top. Chris, usually chatty, was silent. She was taking in the view. Linda was the first to say it was all worth the climb, (everyone nodded in agreement). Sharon, told us that she would of never have seen this view or made it up to the top if it wasn’t for all for us being there for her. We stayed up there for a good 20 minutes, just taking in our accomplishment, before we decided to hike back down to the cars. It was a great day, and as many times as I’ve seen that view, today’s view was especially special because it was a “first time” view for many of these new Dames. I’m glad I was able to show and share it with these ladies. Til next time… GET OUTDOORS!!!

Reedy Creek- Guest Post from the North Carolina Dames

Reedy Creek Hike

9 Dames made it out on a beautiful mothers day morning for the 3 mile Reedy Creek hike.  (Nina, Lori, Kimber, Chelsea, Diane, Diana, Dolores, Kathy, and me.)  We all met up at the nature center where we chatted a bit before trail maps were passed around.  After taking the “before” picture, we headed down past the Nature Center and started our hike on the yellow Umbrella Tree trail.  We hiked in around .33 miles before Diana decided to take the short cut trail to meet us at the Robinson Rock house.  We all continued the next mile on the blue Big Oak trail.  Everyone seemed to be chatting away and hiking around the same pace, which was great, because I was able to talk to each Dame 🙂

We finally reach the intersection of yellow Umbrella Tree trail.  We stop and I ask Nina which way we should go.  She checks out her map decides we need to turn right.  Perfect!  She and Dolores keep the lead and pace going for the hike for another .33 miles before we come to the next intersection.  Again the ladies consult the map and keep us going in the right direction.  We take a right, then stop to admire a big tree that Dolores points out  before we continue another .33 miles on the red South Fork trail.  We finally run into the orange Robinson Rockhouse trail, hang a right and continue another .33 miles down to the rock ruins.  Dolores was the first to notice the sweet aroma that a honeysuckle makes and I made sure everyone else caught a whiff of that sweet scent lingering in the air.  A few feet later, we passed by the honeysuckle plant and I was so tempted to pluck a flower and taste the nectar.  But alas… we were in a county park where we are not allowed to pluck, pull, cut, or pick up any flower, fauna, tree, or shrub.  So.. I took a deep breathe and settled for the sweet aroma in the air 🙂

I love this section of the trail, not only
because it’s beautiful, but because when you near the end, you round a bend in the trail and then all of the sudden, you stumble upon the rock ruins.  We stopped here for 15 minutes, enjoying and exploring the ruins.  Kathy shared her yummy trail mix with me and I told her I would be hiking with her from now on! haha!  We take our Trail Dames group photo and hop back on the trail.  This time, Kimber and Chelsea lead the way with Chelsea using her map skills to get us back to our car. At the trail intersection we run into Diana, seems as if her short cut, ended up being a long cut!  After adding up her mileage, she had hiked around the same miles as we did. haha!  Oh well, at least we all hiked back out together.  When we get to the nature center, everyone walks over to the pond and picnic table, while Lori and I head back down the trail to check on Diana.  She was right on our heels.  When we get to the picnic table, we all say our goodbyes and head back to our cars.

We needed this hike…..

MAryland5
Today the Maryland Trail Dames did a short day hike in Gambrill State Park.  It was previously scheduled for last week but a big rain storm canceled that so I rescheduled it for today.  Not so many could come but nonetheless we had such a wonderful day.  Gambrill State Park is very close to our house. We are very fortunate.  I’m sorry for the blurry spot on the pics. Apparently I need to clean the lens.

The hike was meant to be 7.9 miles but a wrong turn (well…we were chatting and laughing and hiking….and I (yes, I take full responsibility) missed a turn, so we did a 6 mile hike. Truth be told, no one was terribly disappointed.  Before we had set off, while gathered in the parking lot, it seems that we’d all had some very stressful days and sleepless nights for a variety of reasons. We all agreed that we didn’t just want to do this hike, we needed to do this hike.  We were all stretched taut, twisted hard and tight, and like a string on a violin, we needed this hike to loosen the tension before we snapped.  It worked.  It always does.

The weather simply could not have been better. After yesterday’s windy cold spell, today was glorious. It was still, warm, clear.  We’ve lived in 10 states and 2 other countries and in none of those places is the air as clean and clear and sweet as it is here.  In spite of the heavy rains we’ve had, the ground and trail bed were well drained. The air was sweet scented with pine needles, new leaves, watered soil.  We had decided at the start that we were in no hurry….a pace of 1 1/2  – 2 miles per hour was enough.  We passed wild mountain azaleas in full bloom, dogwood still adorned in floating white blossoms, newly sprouted ferns so green they are almost painful to look upon, and mountain laurels exploding with new growth and the promise of showers of pink and white blossoms in another month.  There were tiny exquisite bright purple wild violets.  Our Spring may come a little later than in milder climates, but it lasts longer and is an heavenly joy to behold.  When it turns green here it stays green well into Fall.

We found a spread of flat rocks and sat down for lunch.  It was at least 70 degrees, sunny, still, so beautiful.  We moved on and in 3 1/2 hours we completed the 6 miles.  We had taken short breaks to just catch our breath, drink water, chat.  When we returned to the Middletown Valley Overlook, where we had set out from, we took some time to just soak in the views and take more photos.  Then we all turned to one another and in almost the same breath said “We live in such a beautiful place.”  Yes, we do. We are well and truly blessed to be here.  And ladies, you are the best.

Linda, aka Mrs. Baggins

Kings Moutain Military Park Hike

 

This post is from our North Carolina Trail Dames Blog, thanks to our illustrious Head Dame there, Fabs!!
Today, 8 of us (Katherine, Stephanie, Linda, Marsha, Karen, Kimber, Tammy, and me) headed down to Kings Mt. Military National Park for a 5 mile hike on the Brown Mountain trail. It was a beautiful day and the weather was perfect! We all carpooled to the park, which was only 40 minutes away. Once there, we grabbed maps, agreed on a meeting point, and hit the trail! It started out nice and flat but then gently started to climb for a 1/2 mile. Some of the ladies blazed on, and some of us ambled along. I’m really big on “hike your own hike.” Meaning, you do you, or hike at your own pace and not worry what everyone else is doing. We will all arrive at the same place soon. Enjoy yourself, see the flowers, breathe in the fresh air, or push yourself. It’s up to you, it’s your hike. 

Soon we come to a road crossing, then descend down a rocky, rooty trail, to a nice flat walk with gentle rolling hills for the next 2 miles. I hiked with Marsha for a while and learned that she’s a pretty bad ass Dame! She has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and used to ride bikes for 40-60 mile stretches. I was really impressed. I decided to run up ahead to catch the group and let them know to go ahead and make that final 1 mile round trip push up to Browns Mountain. When I got to the trail intersection, Catherine told me they only arrived 5 minutes ago. I told them I would hang out here and wait for the others and that the group could go up to the top of Brown Mountain. Six Dames (and Dixie the Boxer) climbed up Browns Mountain. Tammy, Marsha, and I sat on a comfy log and traded snacks and stories 🙂

Soon, Marsh and Tammy decided to get an early start on the return trip and off they went! I waited a few minutes for the others to return and soon we were bolting down the trail. We all made it back to the visitors center and said our good byes as we hopped back into our cars and headed home. All in all it was a great hike, on a beautiful day, with a great group of Dames. I liked the fact that I got a chance to hike and talk with everyone on this hike and I loved how all the ladies seemed to find a hiking partner they could hike and talk with. That’s what it’s all about, enjoy the outdoors with friends.

Posted by Trail Dames of NC