Ian and Elissa Visit Wanderlust in the DR

Ben, Ruca and I were rounding out 3 months in the Luperon, Dominican Republic this spring, and were feeling a little cabin fever and itchy feet. We were ready to get Wanderlust on her way down the Thorny Path to Windward, but boat issues and weather were holding us back.

We were super excited when our friends from Missouri, Ian and Elissa, told us they booked a last minute getaway to come visit for three days aboard Wanderlust. We were in need of some visitors to get our spirits up, boost morale, get us out of the boat, and remind us what a great place the Dominican Republic is. Plus, we were just happy to see our friends after 10 months away from home!

Ian and Elissa are old friends of ours from Kansas City, and coworkers at the IT consulting company where Quinn worked. They arrived on Friday evening, and left on Tuesday morning, which means we had 3 full days to pack in as much beaching, hammock lounging, eating, drinking and relaxing as possible before they had to head back to the office.

We would have liked to take Ian and Elissa on a sailing adventure, but unfortunately Luperon doesn't offer great sailing options for a 3 day visit. The "despacho" process, which includes getting permission from the harbor's Comandante, Immigration Office, Customs Office, and all their mothers to leave the harbor, takes a whole day in itself. After you've gotten past the beaurocracy of the despacho, the nearest anchorage is about a 4 hour sail away. But getting to the anchorage isn't the hard part, it is getting back, which consists of beating into the waves and the easterly trade winds for four hours straight... Usually inducing seasickness and a bad impression of sailing. We decided Luperon might not be the best place for a sail, but that left plenty of other things on the agenda.

First things first, we hit up the local beach, Playa Chiquita for some swimming and relaxing after our visitors' long travel day. We packed some rum drinks and snacks, and lots of sunblock for our midwestern friends, and headed out in the dinghy for a beach day.

Next on the agenda was a little road tripping. We packed Ian and Elissa's rental car, and headed towards Punta Rucia, a small beach town just an hour or so from Luperon. However our plans were derailed when we arrived to a river in the dusty Dominican countryside, that required 4WD to literally drive across the riverbed, Oregon Trail style. Ian and Elissa's tiny rental car didn't stand a chance across the river. A little bummed, Ian turned the car around and headed back on our dusty road, taking a minute to let a heard of cows pass, naturally.

That's when we came across Playa Isabela, another small town west of Luperon and one of the oldest founded by Christopher Columbus, in 1493. The settlement was named after Queen Isabel of Castile by Columbus, and established to search for precious metals. Playa Isabela turned out to be one of the cutest little beach towns we'd ever encountered.

There in Isabela, we came across the Templo de las Americas, the oldest church in all of the Americas... err... after talking to a lady at a nearby food stand, we found it was actually a copy of the original church. But no matter, we still enjoyed walking through the church and snapping a few photos.

After following a few more skinny, steep and dusty dirt roads, Ben, Elissa, Ian and I ended up at the hidden gem of Playa Isabela. This undiscovered beach was obviously a local's hangout, complete with a few scraggly beach bars, kids splashing around in the shallows, and a few fisherman cleaning their catch on the shoreline.

We lounged in the shallows and tried to cool off from the 95+ degree day, but what we really needed was a Presidente, bien fria. A table with an umbrella and some colde beers were calling our names, so we plopped down at the beach bar and ordered a round and a lunch of fried fish and papas fritas.

Our food arrived, and we were all a little surprised (Ian most of all) when we saw five whole fried snappers staring up at us, teeth and all.

It took some skill to pick through the tiny bones of the snappers and we managed all right for a bunch of gringos. However we decided to leave the fish heads untouched...something I'm sure the locals would never do, but we just couldn't get over those eye balls looking up at us.

Even with the heads left untouched, Ian was still quite suspicious of this snapper lunch!

All beached out, Ian and Elissa decided they were up for an adventure! On their last day in Luperon, we planned a voyage out to the infamous 27 waterfalls of Demajagua, just 45 minutes from our anchorage. The 27 Waterfalls adventure is a gorgeous but strenuous 45 minute hike up the Dominican mountainside. Once you reach the peak, the only way down is to jump a series of waterfalls, natural rock slides, and wading ponds all the way back to the bottom!

We laced up our tennis shoes, and strapped on our helmets for this awesome jungle adventure, and had a blast!

(Psst... Youtube video of the 27 Waterfalls coming soon!)

3 days with good friends goes by too fast, and before long, it was time to say goodbye to Elissa and Ian. We know it won't be the last time these two visit, and next time we'll hopefully actually get to sail!

With the boat crew back down to three, Ben, Ruca and I started planning the next voyage, the infamously difficult Mona Passage to Puerto Rico!

Thanks for Reading,

Ben, Quinn and Ruca

#destinations #DominicanRepublic