Day Six: What’s Your Trade?

So yesterday was our first day “off.” And we decided to take full advantage of it, which meant sleeping in! Needless to say, we were off to a late start and a lazy day and after waking up around 10:30am, we got dressed and went downstairs to have brunch with PB and Jeanie. After brunch Jeanie and the four of us went to the Marina for a girls’ day. We walked around, shopped, and just cruised around the Marina. It was so pretty, the tropical colors of the buildings, the palm trees, everything. It reminded us of a quaint European town- simply adorable. Don’t worry; we took a bunch of pictures, which we will upload for you guys. We even took a picture of us on a remake of Magellan’s ship (apparently Magellan landed in the DR first). We also took plenty of pictures of us with the lighthouse (per request of Chanel).

After our photo shoot we headed back to the casa and prepped to go horseback riding!!! We were sooo excited! None of us had ridden a horse since we were wee young lassies, so we were pumped (and nervous). It was a blast! My horse was named Pantera (Panther in Spanish), Maile’s was Bulldozer (haha), Katie’s was Alena, and Leslie’s was Oliver. We were so uncoordinated, but it was so fun. Our horses trotted, they cantered (it felt like we were flying, so magical), and they even stopped to nibble on some plants. Leslie was great at leading the pack, and Mai and Katie’s horses staggered along, while I was consistently headed up the caboose (I was also simultaneously trying to flip cam- not such a good idea, but got some great footage). Anyway, it was awesome! After horseback riding, we threw on our bathing suits and headed to the beach for some sunset Bible study time, (which was so peaceful and wonderful) and dinner.

Then our friend Eric met us for dinner at Le Cirque (this beautiful restaurant near the beach), and he introduced us to his friend Luca (an Italian who is actually the head chef at Le Cirque). As head chef, he knew how to order off the menu and we had this incredible meal (he even invited us into the kitchen for a tour! So awesome!). Then Maximo (also Italian and the head manager of Le Cirque) joined us for some wine and dessert. Also included in this exquisite meal were Richard (from Manchester, England who is a professional marksman- and the royal marksman- which means yes, he taught Prince Will and Harry) and Jason (the captain for a nearby yacht, which is owned by a Venezuelan king-of-sorts). Too random, you don’t even understand how funny and random last night was. I mean, just the guest list itself makes us laugh. Chris, CJ, and Laura also made an appearance at dinner. Overall it was a great meal, lots of stories, some stand-up comedy (please- would it be a dinner without some standby comedy? Especially when there’s a professional comedian at the table). But the night wouldn’t be complete without a karaoke duet by Chanel and Katie. Don’t even ask what we were thinking. Oh, and did we mention this is a REALLY nice restaurant (which we figured out after casually strolling in with our bathing suits and cover-ups). I’m sure the restaurant appreciated our vocal talent (although I’m not sure LeBron James did, who is staying nearby) did. Like really? Where are we? Too random haha. We’ve been laughing about it all day…

Then after dinner Eric, Jason, Luca (yes the chef joined us too), and Richard took us up to Altos de Chavon to see the nightlife. We went to this bar called Onno, which was exactly what we expected (a European-esque bar, complete with fog machine and techno lights and music). If you couldn’t tell from our missing post from yesterday, it was a late night. So we decided to blog this morning instead. Overall, a great experience and such a fun night of exploring the DR. There are definitely more stories to come ☺ (Today we’re supposed to have a cooking lesson with Luca, and later this week we’re going shooting with Jason- too fun and random haha). Anyway were off! Talk to y’all soon!

Las Chicas