Caminar es muy buena para tu salud.

Sand dunes across the bay from the ugliest beach in the DR.

We went on a trip to the sand dunes in Bani and it was not the relaxing day at the beach we set out for. First, the gua gua ride was pretty long, actually it was longer than it had to be. We told the gua gua driver to drop us off at the sand dunes and they dumped us off at the ugliest beach we had ever seen. It was so wierd because there were all these buildings that looked like they should be restaurants or beach side bars, but they were completely empty and boarded up. We asked the trusty Politur where the sand dunes were and he pointed all the way across the bay and told us the only way to get their was to walk and he followed by saying it would only take us ten mintutes to do so. Never ever ever has a Dominican suggested that we walk and so we really didn't know what to think, but we were pretty sure that it would take us longer than ten minutes. We asked him he had any advice for us to find a ride to get there and he said to find a ride is really difficult, but "caminar es muy buena para tu salud" -- to walk is very good for your health!

We finally arrived at the sand dunes after getting a moto ride for the last kilometer. We were told that the beach was right over the side but all we could see was sand. We felt like we were in Aladin. The sand was also extremely hot and I was pretty sure my feet were going to melt off. Climbing up the final dune was really difficult, but we did indeed get to the playa. Not the prettiest playa I've ever seen, but a playa never the less. The wind was really intense so we were doing some pretty extreme sun bathing and dying in pain at sand being pelted at our faces. It was fun though and we were the only ones there which was awesome.

All in all, it was a really day though nothing went right.