Sunday morning, I wake up, pray, read my Word, eat some fruit and head out to our meeting place. It’s about 7:30 am, but I feel like its noon, the sun was already hot, the birds had been up for hours and the air was fresh. This morning we were getting ready for an excursion through some caves in Rio San Juan. Our guagua was ready for us by the time I made it down the long hill that was our campo. The driver was taping up a window and putting up a piece of cardboard reinforcement on the inside with his ten year old son helping him out. There were small shards of glass on the floor by the busted window, so I selected the seat with the least likelihood for disaster. Once we were all loaded, for our two hour ride to these mysterious caves that awaited us, sleep hit me as if I hadn’t just woken up an hour earlier. I put my headphones in and dozed off to Kirk Whalum’s In the Garden, the perfect sleeping song.
About forty five minutes on the road, I woke up with the guagua spinning in my head, everyone’s voices were jumbled in my brain and the whole world became a hazy blur. My stomach churned as the vehicle took turns about 20mph too fast. The heat was making my body sweat and the skin on my arms was slick like a slip and slide, and there was a pool of sweat collected under my chin. I thought I was going to vomit, and I panicked because I needed to alert someone, but I was afraid that if I opened my mouth, more than words would come out. Everything stopped spinning for a minute, and when I could focus on the faces of everyone around me, no one noticed that I was in silent distress. I decided that water might help; I was probably just overheating in the van that had an extremely meager source of air conditioning. Finally my stomach settled a little, and I decided that sleeping through the remainder of our journey would be the best option.
When I woke up we were pulling up to a little house with a wooden fence around a yard that had an indefinite boundary. It was actually an office where the national park rangers (or whatever they’re called here) set up tours for the caves. We were accompanied by a ranger and by our environment expert Tim Keifer, who explained to us how the little town we were in is making an effort to protect their caves and underground water sources to protect the water supply that goes out to the people. The first cave we went to did not look like a cave. The entrance was quite literally a hole in the ground, and to get inside you had to climb down this rickety ladder that was maybe only five years old, but had seen better days.
The cave was very dark, as you would expect a cave to be, and our park ranger set up a series of candles to help us see. I was very impressed by his craftiness, finding nooks in the stalagmite small enough for the safety candles to fit in, and securing them inside with their own wax. I was a part of the first group to see this cave, and I had my janky Dollar Tree $1 flashlight ready to go, but my stomach was less than pleased with me, for whatever reason, but I had yet to want to let that stop me from seeing this natural wonder. Once inside, there was a chirping, which we later found out was from a frog, which we thought was cool, but Dominicans are afraid of frogs because of some old Taino taboo that no one can really explain to us. There were also giant spiders, but they were on the other side of the cave. We didn’t realize the distance they had to travel to actually reach us until we realized that the ground ahead of us was actually about ten feet below us and under water. The water was so clear and still that the limestone beneath it appeared to be a dry, flat surface. 
Because sharing is caring, we left the cave to let the other groups have a chance.The second cave was far different from the first, and it was also just far away. We had to go back by the office house, through the backyard, through what looked like Taino ruins, but so much tourism had been done in that area that it’s hard to say what was true ruins and what was manufactured later to give it a little extra dazzle. We had walked through what seemed to be an old, wall-less mansion, and through the kitchen where there was still a functioning stone over. We hiked up a very steep staircase of tree roots and makeshift railings to what looked like an amphitheater. There was at the top a giant chair, perfect for royalty to watch the show untouched by common peasants or regular rich people. On the side of the theater was a door that led to another cave. This cave had a pool in it big enough to swim in, but that’s about all that fit inside. Due to my questionable stomach conditions, I decided it would be best to not risk contaminating a town’s water supply with my stomach acids and the remainder of last night’s bandera dinner.While waiting outside the cave for the groups to take a dip in the dark hole, we tried to look at a bat that kept retreating farther and farther away from our flashlights. Once we gave up on that, we listened to voodoo stories from Tim Keifer about people who tried to “do a work” on him for one reason or another. We also learned how Dominicans make zombies…because zombies are made.
The next stop took some real effort. The hike to the second cave was just a practice run for the hike to the third and final cave. Our walk, once again past the office house, was hot and unforgiving as there was very little shade as the day was nearing noon. The only moments of relief were standing under the one shady spot while we waited for our guide to get the key to let us inside the next cave and seeing a child’s sized Michigan block “M” t-shirt hanging on a line to dry. Yes, even in The-Middle-of-Nowhere Dominican Republic, it’s great to be a Michigan Wolverine. It was like seeing light at the end of a tunnel, and of course what made it even better is that there are six wolverines on this trip of 17 college students from seven different universities and the one school that showed up in this little town was mine. J smiles all around!
The cave itself was in the side of a hill and we had to climb up the rocky hill and then climb down a ladder into the midnight black cave. We had some candles lit for mood lighting and a guy standing with a lantern to make sure no one was drowning. I decided that I only had one life to live, and there was not another guaranteed time for me to swim in a cave, so I jumped in…but not literally. I just waded a little in the water, and it was cool as ice from never seeing the sun. Claribel was egging me on to jump in, but I used my Yoda Jedi powers to counteract her dark forces of Yolo (she always wins when she pulls that one on me). I think my body went into shock from having two extreme temperatures occurring at polar ends of my body, because as soon as I emerged from the water my stomach felt fine, great even; it was like I had stepped into a magical well of healing waters.
After the caves, they treated us to a nice bandera lunch, complete with rice, beans, and carne…big surprise. We also had some grape soda, good old Sprite, and at the end the lady served coffee, which I did not have, on account that I still do not like coffee. After drying off a bit at lunch, we got back on our bus and went to a mangrove where we took a boat ride to see a lagoon and some more caves. The beginning of our ride was so cute and romantic, like the scene Kiss the Girl from The Little Mermaid. There were cranes and other large birds nesting within the grove, and the water went on a winding path like a lazy river, that eventually took us to open water.The water in the Caribbean was extremely blue and extremely clear until you got to parts that were very deep. I couldn’t help but think of that scene in Finding Nemo where he’s in the tank and the other fish want to meet him and Bubbles asks “So, the Big Blue. What's it like?” Nemo: “Umm... big... and blue?”…It really is big and blue. No joke. The ocean expanded on for forever, and disappeared over the horizon like the edge of a table cloth. The waves rolling in beneath us caused our stomachs to drop a little, like riding a roller coaster, but it was more fun than scary. We took the boat into a cave and almost ran into another boat. It was really cool and dark, the air was crisp and the salt in the air lingered, trapped inside the cave.
After leaving our final cave, they took us to the beach. On the way there we passed an old man fishing off the cliff, and a bunch of scattered busts. There were heads of men and women, all European looking, made of some white plaster-ish material. We passed a headless women descending into the water, and once we got to the beach, we found a family reunion of busts along one side of the beach. From the shore looking out into the water there was another man climbing the rocks. We were fascinated by the way these figures seemed to float above the water, barely grasping on to the rock walls they were built upon.This beach was even more beautiful than the first. The sand was white and less humid, so it didn’t stick to your skin unless you were just in the water. We were teaching our Spanish professors how to swim, which was funny because they’re all from this island, and doing basket tosses into the water like mer-cheerleaders. After a while it started to cool off, and it was too crowded in the ocean with tigueres (and tigueras) and their primos, so we got out of the water and just sat and watched the ocean. A group of old men who were lacking severely in the dental area came over and serenaded us for a propino (a tip) and then Claribel YOLOed me into getting ice cream (but that was ok because it was chocolate ice cream and I YOLOed it off onto Lizzy).
The rest of that day was anticlimactic, and we all arrived to dinner a little tardy. My host parents told me they were about to send out a search party for me, even though when they asked the neighbors if their gringa was home yet, they said no. I also got a real shower that night because we had agua and luz. One from a showerhead, not a bucket, and I washed my hair thoroughly and didn’t have to leave in some suds for the sake of not having enough water pressure. Overall, this day was a win.
\
\
