More time in Las Terrenas

Our next to last day in Terrenas. Then we head to Santo Domingo for our last two days before heading home.

Today is the first day that it hasn’t been beautifully sunny.  It didn’t seem like it ever rained here. No one out on the beach today. I feel bad for people who are only here for a few days. Just hope that it’s sunny tomorrow, which is our last day and also my birthday.

If this keeps up we may have to have dinner inside tonight rather than directly on the beach.  I have had some kind of seafood every night – shrimp, grilled whole fish, conch,etc. With different sauces and preparations.  

Our days are all very similar : breakfast on our outside living room, a couple of hours or more on the beach, back to the house for lunch, read a bit more, back to the beach…  shower, ( usually outdoors in the garden) more reading and/or writing, then strolling down the beach to choose our restaurant of the evening. There are about a dozen just to the right of us, back to back, and a few others in the other direction.

Loring usually does two long swims a day. I play in the gentle waves for about the same amount of time, listening to music on my underwater mp3 player as I do in the Y pool at home.

Except for today. 

I have to say this may have been the best ocean water I have ever been in. And we have been to many beaches in many places over the years.  These waves are gentle and the rhythm is lulling. The bottom is sandy and descends gradually.

The beach itself is beautiful too. I used to value a beach partly by how secluded it was.  Now that doesn’t seem to matter, as long as it isn’t terribly crowded. I like to watch the people strolling by, most of whom, if they aren’t Spanish speaking and assumedlly from here, are French.  Same thing on the streets. The kids are so much fun to watch. They are all so happy, gleeful reallly, in the water. Some are with their parents, others are in little groups and I assume they are local. How nice to live someplace where you can walk to the beach. I guess that is what I am doing too, but only on a very limited basis.

Did I say that there are days when I haven’t been out in the town at all, just on the beach and in our living room/garden. So no shoes, either. One night after dinner the waiter came after me as we were leaving, saying don’t forget your shoes. I told him I didn’t have any!

There is a real mix of shops outside our door. Some are tourist shops with crafts, beach clothing etc. and others more for locals, like bodega type mini markets. There are a fair # of real estate offices, and we have been quite surprised at the prices, which are quite high. And they are mostly condos or rentals in developments or communities. I haven’t seen anything that is right on the beach like ours, except for developments that say beachfront, but that means the property is on the beach, but not the actual accomodations.

I have been good (so far) and have not purchased any crafts. There are some nice things, mostly wood,  some metail, and a few stalls with paintings. But the paintings seem like poor imitations of the more well known Haitian paintings. 

The thing that has caught my attention, though, is the gemstone larimar.  It’s native just to the DR, and to a particular area, on the opposite side of the country from where we are. Many stores are filled with jewelry made of larimar. But I prefer the uncut raw stones, and plan to purchase one or several to use in mosaics or mixed media pieces, perhaps with beach glass from Puerto Rico.

I read that someone discovered a mine with the stone in the early 20^th century, but it was seemingly forgotten and then rediscovered in the late 20^th. The name comes from daughter of the man who discovered it, combined with mar, which is ocean in Spanish.  It is a sea blue sea colored mineral, much of it veined with white striations. Its color has  somewhat of a similarity to turquoise, but wouldn’t be mistaken for it .   

I wonder if this is really the only place that it exists.  Maybe there are others that haven’t been discovered yet. In any case, should make a good souvenir.