Paraiso

Enough heavy pontificating.  On to our next adventure in this amazing country.  I'm going to entitle this post Paraiso because it's not every day you get to visit Paradise!

The road trip to Paradise (located in the Barahona Province) was pretty long, nearly four hours.  Annika was entertained by the colorful parrots she bought with her souvenir money for a while.  Then she resorted to bugging her sister.

Personally, I found the driving to be plenty amusing.  To quote Elephant and Piggie, Más Plátanos!

Oye, basura.

I love how the little towns boast such bright and colorful signs.  Our actual destination was Playa Los Patos or Duck Beach, located just five minutes past Paradise.  Could the actual place be as pretty as the painting?

Um, yeah.  We definitely felt like we were living the dream!

The beach was beautifully developed with a boardwalk, huts, and other structures that were brand new.

Instead of sand, the water front was made up of these beautiful smooth stones.  Annika even found an urchin.

Gorgeous surf too!

Okay, I'm going to be honest: in retrospect, these pictures make me nervous.  After about fifteen minutes of splashing around a local woman came over and explained how this area isn't very safe for swimming because of a strong riptide.  While the kids were disappointed to miss the big waves, we quickly moved to safer ground.  Still, it was amazing while it lasted!

Fortunately, Playa Los Patos boasts a beautiful fresh water lagoon that feeds into the ocean.  This calm water is perfect for swimming and wading.  With the crane just hanging out in our photos, it really did feel like Paradise!

Here you can see where river meets ocean.  Apparently that's part of causes the strong undercurrent.

Eli skipping rocks and Annika catching tadpoles.

Big kids like to play too!

Alas, school has Talia back on her laptop here.  Hello, APUSH.  If you have to do homework, this is a pretty nice place to dig in.  

Awesome tree with a pretty important message.  I love the "get-with-it-already" tone.

Hey, now here's an awesome reason to take a pause for homework.  Check out these piña coladas!  Talk about delicioso!  We made the rooky mistake of not checking the cost ahead of time, so they literally cleaned us out of cash, but the indulgence was totally worth it.  At least they knocked some off the price when we pointed out that ours didn't have any rum.

My favorite gents with the photo-bombing gals.

A great place for romance.  Love you, Peanut Butter.

Before leaving we spent a little more time admiring the surf and skipping rocks into the ocean.

Some lovely (and silly) family photos.  Oh Talia, what we would do without you!

Remember when I explained how Playa Los Patos is almost in Paradise but not quite?  Well, on our way out, I watched a man spray paint the brand new restrooms to mark which side is for women and which for the men.  Ouch!  Jason pondered the reaction of the architect.

With a sigh of both appreciation (and disbelief at the paint job), we started the long road home.  We paused in Paraiso to take a picture of the larimar necklace I purchased the day before.  A brilliant turqouise gem found only in the Dominican Republic, it matches the color of the ocean perfectly.

The kids were still hoping for a little more time to swim in the ocean since it wasn't safe at Los Patos.  After asking around, someone suggested Playa el Quemaito because it also had coral to explore.  Swimming and snorkeling?  Count us in.  :)

We had to share goggles, but everyone still had a chance to see the striped angelfish darting around the reef.

Playing with the rocks.

Sea and sun--the perfect day!

Well, almost.  Talia got sick on the long drive back.  At first we thought it was the twisty roads, but she got sick again...and again...and again.  Poor child!

We got close, but I guess true Paradise won't come until the next life.