Ella’s First Post (transcribed by Brad)

Cannons looking into the harbor

I sailed all through the night from the Turks and Caicos to the Dominican Republic.  It was a bit rough; the boat was rocking back and forth.  The sails were up and it was windy.  I got sick for the first time, dad said I was seasick, and I threw up all over my feet.  It was disgusting.  I cuddled with my daddy and that made it better.  Twenty-Eight hours later I saw land and yelled, “land ho.”  We anchored.

            We rented a car and my dad drove on the sidewalk and went honk, honk, HONK, honk, honk, HOOONNNKKK!  The other drivers

Landing the dinghy at Rio San Juan

kept honking like my dad.  I went to go see a fort, but it was closed.  A nice security man let us in so we could tour the fort.  It was cool to see.  There were cannons and a treasure chest.  I have never seen such a big treasure chest before.  They must have had lots of gold, but we couldn’t see inside it.  The pirates must still have the key.

            We then anchored in Rio San Juan, which is a little fishing village.  We took our packrafts and paddled down the river and came upon a flat land.  Daddy made a fence disappear and we walked to small store.  We bought Oreos and drinks.  I practiced my Spanish.  To say hello, I said “hola.”  Then, “me llamo Ella.”  Afterwards we walked back to the boats and accidentally stepped in the cow pies (that’s a fancy name for poop.) 

Picnic on the river

We came upon a rock and had lunch there.  As we paddled down the river we met a man who was catching crabs; he had a bunch of them.  You need to be careful of crabs because they can pinch you.

            I walked around the town with my family.  There were a lot of people.  Some were playing baseball or just hanging out.  For Christmas they had plastic bottles cut up for decorations.  They had little houses with lots of clothes drying.  We met a man who was making rocking chairs and he showed us his house too.  On the back of his house he had a door that opened so he could look out to sea.  We

Buying a stalk of bananas for $1.75US

bought an ice cream from a walking salesman and then my dad bought a huge bunch of bananas.  It was the whole stalk.  We walked to the end of town and then had to walk across a river.  Then we took our dinghy back to Rivers2Seas.

            Tomorrow, we are going to look for Humpback whales.  The whales are here to have their babies.  I know how you speak Humpback whale.  To speak Humpback whale you go “howu ahhh.”