Day 3: 1/6/15 Trip from Santo Domingo to Las Matas de Farfan

We left Casa San Pablo in Santo Domingo in the morning and headed to Las Matas de Farfan.  We were all very eager to arrive in Las Matas making the bus ride seem much longer than 4 hours.  The bus took us on the highway where we passed through beautiful mountains, fields and small Dominican towns,  When we finally arrived in Las Matas de Farfan we were greeted by Soler, a former nurse at the local hospital and a very good friend of Alicia's.  We all enjoyed a Dominican lunch at Soler's house and headed downtown to explore.  Las Matas is very different than the traditional American Towns we are used to.  It was very busy and the streets crowded with people selling fruits, vegetables, clothes and other items to purchase.  The mode of transportation seemed to be mainly by motorcycles.  Some of the students bought fresh coconuts for a refreshing drink of coconut water.  After exploring the local town we returned to Soler's to relax and eat dinner.  It was getting late and we were all tired from a long day of traveling so we were brought to our homes where we would spend the next 6 nights and were introduced to our host families.  Written by: Abbey Neureuter, SN  Photos by: Julia Bowen, SN