El Quemaito beach for Adventure Fun day

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take – Wayne Gretzky

The day that everyone was most excited about was this day–the ADVENTURE FUN DAY. I thought that today was going to be a struggle for me since I just didn’t want to be the leader of the day. However, I quickly figured out that everyone would have the chance to be the leader of the day, so I had no way to hide from it. My worst fear is to be in front of people and speak, but not today. I do not know how and why, but I literally had no fear to stand to represent the leader of the day for the group. I think I just feel so comfortable around everyone, and they give me a feeling of family.  By having them just surrounding me, helped me to fight and kill all my fears to make me come out of my comfort zone and enjoy every moment with all of them. 

To start this fun day, people had to get up at 6:30. I did a good job of getting people to go to their bed at the right time yesterday so that everyone could get up and get everything they needed for today.  It was successful, as everyone was up at 6:30 when I walked around to check. Their freshen up breakfast was pancakes, tortillas eggs, cantaloupes and tamarind juice at 7:15 before our 2 hours 30 minutes drive to the Playa El Quemaito. Nano arrived and started our drive to El Quemaito. On our way, there I asked people 2 fun questions and a lot of funny answers were spoken. Most of us after sharing the questions to our seat partner fell asleep because we were exhausted from the early wake-up and others still continued to share their lives and stories with their partner. 

Enjoying the clear blue waters

I woke up from the announcement of our PCs that we had arrived. The view of the beach was so amazing that everyone looks so amused and thrilled while looking at it. We found shade under the tree on the beach to settle down, then all of their attention was forward to the larimar on the table under the shade that we are under.   Dominican Republic is the only place that you can find larimar. It was discovered in 1916. There was a request from Miguel Domingo Fuertes Loren to explore the larimar but it was rejected, and they continue to explore it and got known on 1974. It was formed to be the famous rock in the Dominican Republic. Looking at larimar made people think of their family home, and the desire to bring some gifts home started to burst out. People surrounded their table when the seller told the story of larimar. 

Glimpsers admiring the beautiful Larimar jewelry

Everyone looked so excited to have some gifts for themselves and their family.  After that, we put on some sunscreen and ran right to the beach to enjoy the water. All of us had put smiles on our faces already. Irene, one of our PCs, taught us a game that one of us getting on another person’s shoulder and have a “chicken fight” to see who will fall down to the water first. The others floated their body on top of the water, and some picked rocks found shells to bring it home as a memory. We got out of the water to have our lunch, and while I was struggling because I didn’t bring my sandals, Ragad came like a savior and carried me on her back all the way to our shade. When we were done and more energized, our PCs brought us to the side of the ocean and the view was so stunning as it was a combination between the water and the houses of people. We tried to get on some tall, big rock to have a better view, and again our smiles were wider than ever. 

The time at the beach already over, we packed up and continue our adventure. Our next destination was the Villa Mariam, where all the prettiest and most freezing waterfalls decorated the landscape. Luckily, we had a chance to actually get in there and to start having fun. We were all the way on top so we could get into the cave that we had to walk through the waterfall to get into, and the water is so cold that everyone is afraid to get inside. The important thing is we all did. Our PCs and our GGL, and all of us were soaking for getting into the cave, and yup, we all have fun. Then, we all got down and enjoyed our last minutes inside the pool of the waterfalls. We played and had a contest to see who could stay under the water longer, while others talked with the other visitors inside the pool until the regret appeared on our faces when our PCs told us it was time to go. 

The picturesque waterfalls of Villa Miriam

We changed our swimming suits and packed everything ready to go back to Onaney. The exhaustion of playing and having fun with all the water brought people to sleep on the Guagua on our way back to our second home. We got back and got dinner and had our nightly routine as usual. 

To me, today was the actual FUN day when I saw the smiles on everyone’s faces all the time when I was looking around. We all enjoyed our moments together. It was an amusement to just look at people having fun and taking care of themselves and the others. I wish these moments wouldn’t disappear and we just could stay at that moment forever, but times flew and we had to move onto our CAP project. It’s just so sad to me that our moment will be so fast and there are only a few days left that we can be together. Thank you all of the Glimpsers for all the memories and moments we had and are going to have together.

Our fabulous Líder del Día, Thao