Hey amigos! It’s your favorite guest blogger (June, obviously) coming to you live from… Provo. But don’t be fooled, she was just in a way cooler place 😎
Almost a year and a half ago, I got back from my mission. This November, I got to go back! I took my Dad and he was the perfect adventure buddy. He handled all the logistics and I spoke all the Spanish.
The reason I went back is because I promised my friends Maria and Josue that I would be there for their temple sealing. Quick backstory: I’m three months away from the end of my mission, opening a new area in the center of Santiago while training a new Brazilian missionary. Since we’re both brand new to the area, we don’t know anyone and we have no appointments to go to. So I just take my greenie out in the street and tell her we’re gonna contact the first person we see.
That’s how we met Maria. God definitely made our paths align that day. I’ve never met anyone more prepared for the gospel than her and her husband Josue. They were actively looking for the truth and he even had a copy of the Book of Mormon that he felt compelled to read but couldn’t explain why. They are both lawyers, and it was quite a challenge to help them understand the concept of acting in faith even though they didn’t have every single answer.
But they did. Maria and Josue got baptized two weeks after I went home from my mission, and they got sealed for all eternity in the temple on November 23!
That was the reason for the trip, but Dad and I managed to cram a whole lot into our week in the Dominican Republic. Let’s see how it went.
DAY ONE: NEW YORK PT 1
Flight from SLC to JFK the night before. We only had until around 2pm to be in New York… and we accidentally spent most of it sleeping in. That was probably a good thing because I was getting over being sick.
But we did have time to get some amazing NY pizza (buffalo wings and pepperoni) and see Queens by way of the bus til we found this cool church. Then back to the airport we went to fly to the DR.
We got to the Santiago airport around 8pm and experienced some technical difficulties. We didn’t have internet. I knew my phone would be as useful as a brick once we got to the DR, but we thought Dad’s would work. It didn’t, unfortunately, which required some improvising. We got a nice airport lady to call our rental car people to come pick us up to get our Kia Picanto (our perfect road trippin car who we lovingly gave several nicknames to; throughout the trip he was known by Fro-Yo Picante and Picanto Leal). We couldn’t look up the address of our AirBNB without internet, but we managed to connect to La Sirena’s (classic grocery store) and we made it to AirBNB número uno.
DAY TWO: MOCA
First, I’ve gotta say that I can’t think of anyone I would rather have been in the Dominican Republic with than my dad. He served a mission and knew how important this country and the people I met in it are to me, and he was down to spend a good half of his vacation in a tropical paradise just walking around with me and seeing my friends (dad of the year or what). He also is just the most down-for-anything guy ever and was super willing to try all the stuff I wanted to do. Plus he’s very street smart and covered all the logistics. He even stayed up til 2am one night wrestling with the internet until he got us permanently connected. And he didn’t think he’d do great with Spanish, but his Portuguese transferred fantastically and all my amigos loved talking to him. I almost felt like a trainer at the proud moment where your greenie starts initiating conversations on their own and totally going for it even though they make some mistakes.
Anyway, all that to say my Dad is THE BEST and I’m so glad we got to do this trip together.
Moca is the name of one of the areas I served in (I was there with my comp-turned-roommate/BFF Liv). During our day there, we mostly reconnected with my friends.
Francisca (still not baptized due to some unfortunate circumstances, but she's one of the kindest and most loving people I've ever met).
Maria and Josue spent several hours with us. We got mofongo (mashed plantain with chicarrón (fried pig skin) and chicken in it, topped with cheesy sauce), then they came with us to walk around inside this HUGE and beautiful Catholic church called the Iglesia Corazón de Jesús (the heart of Jesus).
Then they took us to the 3D street… which I had walked by multiple times as a missionary but never actually stopped to look at. We took a bunch of pictures there, and one of the guys who helped paint the original thing helped us get all the good vantage points. My dad’s name was notoriously hard for people to pronounce, and he got my favorite mispronunciation from that guy: “Tree-ler… like Michael Jackson? Treeler?” Yes, just like that.
To wrap up, we got ice cream at a cute little place called Artehelado. It was so fun to hang out with Maria and Josue!! They truly are some of my greatest friends, not just some people I happened to teach on the mission.
DAY THREE: SALTOS + TRAMPO
We spent most of day three exploring waterfalls (saltos). The goal was to be in Santo Domingo by the evening, which meant we had all day to meander through Jarabacoa and Bonao on our way down.
The first waterfall we found was Salto Jimenoa Dos in Jarabacoa. We had to cross all these cool cable bridges to get to the breathtaking waterfall. Photos just don’t do it justice.
Here's Dad enjoying la bandera, the classic Dominican meal, for lunch at a Pica Pollo restaurant.
The other waterfall we found was Salto de Jima in Bonao. For this one, we got a passionate, long-winded guide named Antonio to take us through. We trekked through the wilderness and sustained many mosquito bites (gotta have the spotted legs… it’s tradition). There were a lot of cool trees, like this spiky one. And we found some mushrooms.
And of course, the waterfall.
That was the fun part of the day… the rest of the drive to Santo Domingo was rather draining because HOLY COW THE TRAFFIC (trampo). Most of the way was fine, but the last like 20 kilometers took us an entire hour because we were CRAWLING. Dad had me take this picture when we crested a hill—take a guess at how many lanes there are.
The answer is three. But somehow cars managed to cram themselves like seven across the interstate. Driving in the DR is quite crazy, but as Dad pointed out, Dominicans are actually pretty aware. So aware that they’re comfortable getting within a few inches of each other and driving the wrong way on the freeway.
This light was broken, but it kind of sums up the way they do things down there: go when you feel like it.
We were exhausted when we got back, but after we showered and rested, we decided it was time to get ice cream… as long as we didn’t have to get back into a car. God Himself must have designed the map of Santo Domingo because Bon (the best ice cream place in the world) and the temple are next-door neighbors! We walked down there and ate our ice cream on the temple grounds. It was so peaceful. It was a good reminder of what real peace is. Dominicans live a very laid-back lifestyle, but just relaxing and feeling peace are not synonyms. Add Jesus to the picture, and that is peace, and it’s an unequaled feeling.
DAY FOUR: THE SEALING
The day we were waiting for!! We started the day with Vitalisimo (my favorite cereal that I bought pretty much every week for my entire mission).
We were at the temple nice and early and I actually saw several people I knew there! I ran into a few RMs and some people I knew from the different wards I served in. This is my good friend Elizabeth from Los Reyes.
Maria and Josue arrived in a guagua (bus) with a bunch of members from the El Dorado ward. It was so good to see them all! And Maria looked beautiful.
As with everywhere else in the DR, the temple ran on Dominican time. Meaning, pretty late. I’m not sure why things were taking so long, but finally they just decided to combine Maria and Josue’s sealing with the sealing of another young couple getting married. They were all chill with that so we went ahead and had the double sealing.
It was so special to watch two people I care so much about make a covenant with God that will enable their family to be eternal. My favorite moment was when the kids walked in wearing their white outfits. Maria’s eyes filled up with tears and it was easy to see that her family means so much to her and being sealed to them for eternity was everything.
We had lunch at the temple kitchen/cafeteria (Maria and Josue shared their tacos with us), then Dad and I dipped so that we could see the only gothic cathedral in North America. Apparently they were going out of style, but Europe didn’t get the message to the Spaniards settling the Dominican Republic fast enough, and they had already built this beautiful, epic cathedral. They gave us headphones that told us cool info about all of the different rooms of the cathedral. At one point it had the bones of Juan Pablo Duarte! He’s the guy who got the DR independence from Spain and he’s a big deal. The bones of Archbishop Fernando Arturo de Meriño are still there.
At 8 the party suddenly stopped so that we could all go down the hall to where the Elders were having a baptism. The guy who was getting baptized was named Daniel, and he looked super familiar to me. I was trying to put my finger on it the whole time, but it wasn’t until Papito (a member) reminded me at church the next day that I realized I had contacted him! Hermana Fernandes and I met him and brought a couple members to lessons with him, but he wasn’t ready to progress at the time. But a year and a bit later, he got baptized on the Saturday that I just happened to be in his church building. God is good!
DAY FIVE: CHURCH
Going to church in El Dorado was so fun and nostalgic! I saw even more people I love than I had the day before, and I got to see President! It was so fun to introduce my dad to my mission dad.
We went to the Hermanas Mirabal Museum with Maria, Josue, their kids Nora and Josue, and Ycelsa (a member) and her grandson Alexander. The Hermanas Mirabal were three sisters known as the mariposas (butterflies) who were super influential in the revolution to overthrow the dictator Rafael Trujillo. They were murdered on their way to visit their husbands, who were in jail in Puerto Plata for being revolutionaries. I read a book about them called In the Time of the Butterflies last year that I LOVED. The museum is the house where they were living when they were killed and it has a lot of stuff that belonged to them. It was really cool. Here are the three sisters: Patria (the oldest), Maria Teresa (the youngest), and Minerva (the second). They actually have another sister, Dede, who was not involved in the revolution and tried really hard to talk her sisters out of it because she didn't want them to die. She passed away in 2014.
This is the monument to them. It cuts off early to symbolize the unfair and early end to their lives, but it has running water to represent how their legacy and the things they fought for live on. There are four people buried there: the three mariposas and Manolo, Minerva's husband, who asked never to be separated from her, even in death.
The drive up to Puerto Plata was a ton of fun. I finally figured out how to connect my phone to the Picanto’s sound system, so we got awesome jams. Most of the drive was on windy roads with few people around and no cops in sight, so Dad was living his best life as a racecar driver. He was cruising and definitely earned his “Full Dominican Driver” achievement for some crazy passes. It was also POURING the entire drive, but that did not slow Dad down.
We stopped for Bon in Puerto Plata. We got drenched just walking from our car to the store, but we finally got some yoguen fruz. The other Bon by the temple didn’t have yoguen unfortunately, so we got regular ice cream there, but yoguen fruz is where it’s AT. I was so happy. And look, so was our Bon guy.
DAY SIX: MONKEY JUNGLE + BEACH
When we got to the AirBNB the night before, the security guard who let us in pointed out that one of our tires was super flat. Oh. Looks like we went a little too hard on the racecar driving haha.
We headed to a tire place and they pulled it off and found the problem. It was a sidewall break and Dad started shaking his head. I don’t know much about tires, but he told me that in the states, a sidewall problem basically means a new tire. But our handy tire guys patched it right up and gave it to us good as new. I asked them how much and they said, “200 pesos.” That’s less than five dollars in American money. Dad and I were floored. And we didn’t have any more tire problems the whole time.
We went to the monkey jungle next, where our hilarious guide Jeison let us feed the monkeys. First we made friends with a ton of squirrel monkeys. They were crawling all over us trying to get the seeds Jeison kept putting on our heads. There were two mamas with babies on their backs and they were so cute.
Next we got to feed George, the overprotective romantic capuchin monkey. He freaked out if Jeison or dad got too close to me. He also loved free massages and pushed himself against the fence so we could pet him as much as possible.
We weren’t allowed to feed Coco; he’s dangerous if you get close to the cage. But we got to place catch and threw him seeds. And we got to feed his kids, Chloe, Alan, and Coquito (little Coco).
We hit the beach next. We went to Sosua and napped in the shade for a while, played in the ocean, and drank some amazing pina coladas out of the actual pineapple. That was the life.
DAY SIX: BEACH + WATERFALLS
Our AirBNB was like a three minute walk from the beach, so we woke up early and went down to the beach to meditate/watch the sunrise. Meditating isn’t my thing, so I brought my Book of Mormon and did my study for the day while Dad meditated. It was so warm and beautiful. I didn’t want to imagine going back to frigid Utah.
We packed everything up and headed to the 7 Saltos of Damajagua, stopping to see a few cool things on the way.
We weren’t exactly sure what to expect at Damajagua, so we came in hiking clothes, but the guy we bought our tickets from told us we would be sliding down the waterfalls, so we changed.
We hiked up for a while with our guides and a group we became pretty good friends with. One of the guides kept saying, “It’s just five minutes away! Five… Dominican minutes,” which I thought was hilarious.
It was pretty crowded, but AWESOME. We got to slide down several waterfalls and it was so fun. Some of them gave you the option to jump or slide, and I thought sliding was more fun, but Dad and I did opt to jump off of the tallest one. It was like a fifteen foot drop or something. Dad said his feet hit the bottom.
We have no photos because they warned us in advance that our phones wouldn’t make it. So we just enjoyed the ride sans photos and took a selfie at the end.
We drove back to Santiago and saw the monument. It's closed on Mondays, so I'd never been able to go inside on my P days. The view from the top was awesome!
We spent the last couple hours we had with Maria and Josue. Here's me with my prima Nora.
I love Maria and Josue and their kids so much! And I’m forever grateful that I have gotten to be a part of their life since that first day in El Dorado a year and a half ago when Hermana Fernandes and I met Maria.
DAY SEVEN: NEW YORK PT 2
Back in New York! We got in around 10am and had the whole day ahead of us to do anything we wanted. So we did EVERYTHING.
We hit Times Square first. Holy COW skyscrapers are so cool. I’ve never been around real skyscrapers and I loved it. Each one has awesome architecture. Then you put them all together and it’s actually breathtaking.
We got lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. My dad has two Hard Rock Cafe shirts and I hadn’t ever seen someone else rep that swag until earlier this semester. So I thought Hard Rock was some obscure thing my dad happened to life… not true at all haha. Apparently it’s this huge rock star memorabilia food chain and it’s epic. We got loaded nachos to split and had a great time walking around and checking out all the cool stuff there. The awesome guitars were my favorite.
The 9/11 memorial was very beautiful and solemn. I didn’t even know what it looked like, but I really like the shape they chose. The emptiness of it is so palpable.
Loved this cool mural. Dad and I couldn't decide what it means.
We waited in line for a long time for a boat tour to see the Statue of Liberty, but it was worth it. From the boat, we saw the empire state building. I knew it was at one point the tallest building in the world, so I wasn’t expecting it to be completely dwarfed by the building around it.
We saw the Brooklyn Bridge too. And the New York skyline was just awesome.
Then we saw her. Lady Liberty. Who we learned from our tour guide is actually called Liberty Enlightening the World. She is so majestic. I’ve seen photos of her, obviously, and I didn’t think it was gonna be that different to be there in person. But it was. It was so powerful to be right in front of her, seeing her hold her torch up to the sky.
Dad and I had been freezing our butts off the entire day (Dad even more than me because he accidentally left his thicker sweater in his bag at the airport). So when we saw some swag that could make us warmer, we went for it. I bought a jacket which I put on under my hoodie and Dad bought a cool black beanie.
We headed to Central Park next. On our way we just happened to find Carnegie Hall. How cool, that we weren’t even trying to get there and we looked out the window and were like, “Oh, there’s Carnegie Hall.” Only in New York.
We walked like half of Central Park. It was so pretty. I’m so happy for New Yorkers that they have it. The skyscrapers are awesome, but you need some nature too. I do have a serious concern though. The grass in Central Park was all roped off like they didn’t want you to go on it… but if you can’t go on the grass there, where in New York could you possibly play spikeball??
Coincidentally, we were in New York on November 26, the day before Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving they do that HUGE parade that like four million people come to and I’m actually so glad we didn’t have to battle that. But because we were there the night before it happened, we got to see some of the floats, already blown up and waiting in some of the streets.
We got the classic New York hot dog. I'm not actually a big hot dog fan, but I quite enjoyed my hot dog and I think Dad was in heaven eating his.
We hit Chinatown next, where we tried rice crepe with shrimp. Weird texture but pretty good.
We saw an ad for Man on the Inside, an awesome show with only one season out so far. We watched the whole thing in the evenings while we were in the DR, so we had to watch the rotating ad thing til it came back so we could take a photo with it.
We also became hardened criminals.
Then we finished by walking the Brooklyn Bridge. I’ve actually never walked a famous bridge like that and it was so cool. Bridges are fascinating. The architecture is awesome. And the view is amazing. It was really cool.
Then we took the subway back to the airport (we’d been riding it all day by this point, so we were pretty much experts). We had to go through security twice since we thought our bags were inside of it but apparently they weren’t. 🤦🏻♀️ So around 2am we’re finally in front of our gate. We caught a few hours of uncomfortable sleep and woke up (gracias a Dios, because Dad’s alarm didn’t ring) just in the nick of time to sprint to our plane, which had changed gates while we were asleep, and board it.
Back to Utah and normal life, but now with some pretty amazing new memories. All in all I’d say our trip was a raging success.
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