GRACIAS DOMINICAN REPUBLIC....DAY 2

Part I 
I'm A Survivor 

When I wake up everything is fresh and new and glistening in the way that only happens after a heavy rain. Our free breakfast consists of lusciously sweet tropical fruits and scrambled eggs with more of that delicious hot pepper infused olive oil. The coffee, made from local beans, is rich and strong without a hint of bitterness. After breakfast we roam the beautiful streets of the colonial district.

As much as Kimberly and I love Santo Domingo we want to head to a place with more of a beach town vibe. We had read about a hidden little spot called Las Terrenas on the north side of the island that sounds incredible.
The bus station (like most of them) is located in a run down section of the city. We were told there are north bound buses leaving every hour, but when we get there we find there is a 4 hour wait for our bus. The station is stiflingly hot, crowded, and dirty so we decide to walk around outside.
In this part of town, instead of washing everything clean, the rain has simply pooled in smelly muck filled pot holes. There are no sidewalks and by the time we have walked to the nearest cafe both myself and my suitcase are covered in an unappealing mixture of dirty asphalt water, mud, dust, sweat, and bus station grime.
I perk up at the smell of the food in the cafe though. It is served cafeteria style and consists mainly of beans, rice, chicken, and some type of meat. Everything is intensely flavored, and when I see the option of an entire peeled avocado I am sold. The cashier puts an enormous scoop of raw chopped onions on top of my plate, and although my first instinct is to protest so as not to have my mouth taste like onion for my four hour bus ride, I decide to just go with it. The entire thing, including the whole avocado and a beer comes to less than five dollars. Kimberly and I both smother our plates with that incredible hot sauce and are in heaven. Most of what you eat on the island is grown locally, especially at these cheap local joints, and it is the way food is meant to be. The chickens run wild through the streets, and the meat is the most flavorful I have every tried. The white onions are honestly one of the greatest things I have ever tasted. Sweet, fresh, crunchy, full of flavor, and absolutely no onion after taste.
After stuffing ourselves I panic about my stomach getting upset on a bus that may or may not have a bathroom and quickly shove a handful of pepto bismol pills in my mouth. Someone told me once that pepto can coat your stomach and help prevent food poisoning so I pop them like candy every time I eat.
Kimberly thinks I am insane and shakes her head at me every time she sees me do this. Kimberly also brushes her teeth with the water from the faucet, which not even the locals will do here.
Once we get back to the station and are on our surprisingly comfortable bus I make Kimberly promise not to fall asleep. The bus driver only speaks Spanish and I want to make sure we don't miss our stop.
She swears on her life, but I understandably can't trust her so I start telling very entertaining stories about my childhood in a loud voice.
Halfway into an engrossing story about my fifth birthday party, she claims the only thing that will keep her awake is listening to talk radio on her ipod, puts her headphones on, and promptly falls fast asleep.
God damn it!
I had made the mistake of starting a very long, very heavy, hard back book right before the trip, and since I always have to finish what I start I was forced to take it with me. I take out my huge book and start reading it, stopping and listening carefully to every announcement the bus driver makes and making sure to scan every sign we pass for the words Las Terrenas, while Kimberly peacefully snoozes away.
I finally hear the driver say 'Las Terrenas' along with a lot of other Spanish words I can't understand, and he screeches to a halt in the absolute middle of nowhere and a couple people start to get off.
I violently shake Kimberly awake.
"I think we are here!" I say.
She squints out the window at the dusty road. "I don't think so," she murmurs while drifting back to sleep. "It is supposed to be the beach."
"I swear he said Las Terrenas! KIMBERLY!" I shout. "Ask him."
She grumpily gets up and the bus driver tells her indeed this is the stop for Las Terrenas. I see her arguing with him but she finally motions for me to follow her off the bus.
Before I even have both feet on the ground he roars away. I steady myself and take a look around.
We are truly in the middle of nowhere. There is an abandoned shell of a building behind us, and nothing but hot, dry, dusty road in all directions.
"Uh, Kimberly?" I ask. "What did the bus driver say to do from here?"
"He didn't." She says. "He basically just yelled at us to get off the bus."
"What??" I squawk. "Well, ask them!" I point at the other people who got off the bus with us.
As she is about to ask them a loud rumbling fills the air.
"What is that??" I clutch Kimberly's arm tightly.
In every direction I look a scooter is coming directly at us. Very quickly we are surrounded by an entire gang of men on scooters.
Holy shit. This is actually happening. I am about to be kidnapped. And to add insult to injury it is by a fucking scooter gang.
"No Gracias!!!" I yell hysterically as I brandish my enormous book like a weapon and swing it at a guy who makes a grab for my suitcase and then at another guy who is motioning me towards his scooter. No way am I going down without a fight.
"Kimberly!" I scream as the guys back off me a little. "Get behind me! I think they are afraid of my book!"
I take another menacing swing at the circle of men.
I see some of the other people from the bus get on the back of a couple of the scooters and zoom away.
"Oh my God! They are in on it!" I shout to Kimberly.
"I think these guys are just trying to give us a ride to the real bus stop." Kimberly, who has been listening in on the Spanish says. "They want us to pay them and they will take us. Sounds like they have some arrangement with the bus driver."
"What?? Wait? So....we aren't getting kidnapped?"
She laughs at me. "I don't think so, Dayna."
I still refuse to get on the back of a scooter, especially because they want to put my suitcase on a separate scooter. Plus, I still kind of think we might be in the middle of a kidnapping. If it wasn't for my bravery and my giant book we could have been easily snatched up.
I make Kimberly walk up the hill with me in the direction the station is supposed to be in. The scooters follow us the whole way shouting and honking at us. Every time one gets too close I wave my book at them and Kimberly laughs at me.
"You're welcome for saving your life!" I mutter under my breath.
We finally come to some thing resembling a town and negotiate a mini van with no doors and a driver who can't be a day under 90 and appears to have two glass eyes, to take us into Las Terrenas. Apparently it is another 15 miles or so down the mountain.
I am hot, tired, and now hungry again. I am a little shook up from the shock of nearly being kidnapped. We are standing in a dusty little dump of a town, with no hint of the ocean being anywhere near us. The scooter gang is still yelling and grabbing at us to get on their scooters.
I don't like the thought of getting in the decrepit mini van and heading down a mountain with an ancient dude who has no eyes at the wheel, but at this point it seems the best option.
I look at Kimberly as we sit down on the ripped up seats, trying to avoid the rusty springs sticking out of them.
"I swear to fucking god, if you fall asleep this time I will kill you myself." I vow as the van lurches to a bumpy start.