Campamento Day 5

We had an excursion and a full-blown quinceanera today.

The Americans went on an excursion without the girls. Sister Ascension and Rigo (driver) took us to Barahona. Barahona was listed in the New York Times “52 Places to Go in 2014”. It felt very remote but naturally beautiful, and different than Azua, even though it was only 2 hours away.

Almost there!!

First we stopped at the Larimar Museum. We got to see how it is mined and processed and then we bought souvenirs. We learn some history of larimar. It was discovered in 1916 but wasn’t allowed to be mined until 1974. It was a joint project with the Peace Corps. Larimar is named for the one of the developer’s daughters “Larissa” and “Mar” the Spanish word for ocean.

We then we went to the beach. First we had delicious lunch by the river which empties out by the beach. We had typical fish, shrimp, & chicken lunches.

The beach was named Playa de Los Patos or “Ducks’ Beach” and this is one of its residents.

We got held up by local traffic on our way home. 🙂

We were welcomed home and got cleaned up for a quinceanera. The quinceanera, or 15th birthday, for a girl is a big deal and Latin American and Caribbean cultures. They also celebrate the girls’ birthdays every 3 months. So everyone who had a birthday within the three months were specially recognized.

The 15 year old girls got to wear makeup. Yamilka, our English Station teacher and a trained makeup artist was in charge of them. She also did the stage makeup for our skits.