Feb 15-16 Las Terrenas and Samana

I finally convienced someone to go with me to Samana. Ever since I started coming to the Dominican Republic I have wanted to travel to Samana to see the migration of the humpback whales. The pictures they advertise are amazing. The humpback whales migrate to the bay of Samana each Jan-Mar to breed in the warm waters of the bay. Susana and Nancy were just as excited as I was for the adventure. We rented a car….which ended up being our trusty orange Kia from May of 2008!! We woke up early Monday morning to set out for our adventure. The sun wasn’t even up yet…which is rare for me to even be up. We started out in the dark of the morning on our first wrong road….straight up the mountains and around dangerous turns. Once we cleared that road we headed along the northern coast of the DR toward Samana. After evaluating the map we decided that Las Terrenas which is located on the northern coast of the Samana peninsulas was much closer and we would have a better chance of seeing whales there. The map had a large whale by Las Terrenas and a little whale by Samana Bay…seemed logical. We saw a sign that said Las Terrenas left. We turned left onto a dirt road that headed straight up and over the mountains. It was a treaturous journey. We finally arrived in Las Terrenas 5 hours after we left our beloved Santiago. We found a cute little hotel call Casa del Mar which was located just off the main strip along the beach. We checked into our room only to find that boats only leave from Samana Bay and hour away. We decided to get lunch on the beach and call around some more. Most of the agencies didn’t have trips until Wed or Saturday!! We shopped alittle and spent some time on the beach…and headed to bed early. In the morning, we rose again before the sun…and before our contenential breakfast…and headed on the gloriously straight road to Samana. We reached Samana by 8am and began negociating our next adventure. By 9am we were on a boat and ready to leave. The boat eventually left by 10am and we headed the 1hour out to see the whales. We eventually saw some whales far off in the distance that were jumping clear out of the water. It was amazing!!! I thought well I guess the photographers were able to get a little closer. The next thing we knew there was a whale right next to us with its baby. It then dove underneith our boat and pop up on the other side. It was phenominal!! We spend the next hour following 3 whales and watching them splash and swim. It was definatley worth the drive and the travel to see these amazing creatures up close and personal just like all the pictures that I saw. We then headed back to the shore to start our long journey home. When we arrived back at our car we had a flat tire, probably due to our treaturous journey the day before. We fixed the tire and then decided to take the longer routes that had the better roads. They were much better but not ideal to US standards!! We left at 2pm and drove through Puerta Plata and then south to Santiago. The entire trip south we had torrential rain and eventually arrived home safely at 8pm.
The 3 of us set out for and adventure and we definately had an adventure. The pastora said that next time she is going to go with us!! Our next adventure is to Santo Domingo this weekend.