October 8th-15th long vacation

9 day vacation
I have to admit it was not the best time to leave. We got up and still had no water. Outside our neighbors were freaking out and upon investigation we come to find our house is leaking gallons of water into the street. It was coming from our electrical room too so if it rose anymore we would have been in serious trouble. After some chaos the water pressure finally went down. During this whole time we were packing up to head to Santo Domingo. It was a bit of a stressful morning, but we finally headed out to find the bus stop. I ended up running into the guy I had met the other day on the guagua. Small world. The busses are big air conditioned tour busses which made for a great ride. It took about four hours to get there. When we arrived there were tons of taxi drivers trying to get us to go with them and we didn't even know exactly where we were going. This is where the smart phone came in handy. Google maps is a lifesaver, that is when you look at it right.. We may have gone the wrong way for a little while. But after a long walk we made it to our little hotel. It was more like a medieval guest house.  After we all treated ourselves to a warm shower we went out to find food. Just down the road we found this super cute contemporary place. The food was good too!
Day 2 Sunday
We got to go to church with the Fullers from Moab. It was so nice to see some familiar faces! They took us about an hour out of town to a little branch they help with in Bani. While there we had the opportunity to help in the primary. It was really fun! After church we went to the Fullers apartment for dinner and ended up hanging out there for the rest of the day. Sara wasn't feeling too well so we didn't do a lot. We had John give her a blessing before we went back to our hotel.

Day 3 Monday
A few blocks from the hotel we stayed there is a street called Gomez. It is a very big and busy street, but there are lots of chain restaurants and other helpful things there. On Monday we slept in and then wandered down to Gomez for lunch. We found a Wendy's and all rejoiced to have some American food. Its a silly thing to rejoice over, I know, but after two months it was a nice little break.
Our next adventure was finding out way to the botanical Gardens. We decided to use the metro system because it was close. Dominicans are usually very friendly and helpful if you ask for help. We asked around and found the closest metro stop to the garden. We ended up having to ask again when we got there where to go. After a ride in a packed guagua and a fairly long walk we made it to the Garden. Oh I forgot to mention the sugar cane we got on the way! It was so refreshing and chewing on it gave us something to do while we walked. The gardens were beautiful!  We took a little train ride through the different areas. At times it felt as if we were driving through the deep rainforest. After the drive we explored on a own for a while. We found the butterfly sanctuary which ended up housing more fish than butterflies. Nonetheless it provided about an hour of entertainment for us. Then we started our journey back, hoping to return before dark. The rest of the night was fairly uneventful.
Day 4
Tuesday started really early for us. I woke up at about 1am to Jane calling my name and crying because her head hurt so bad. I gave her some medicine in hopes that it would alleviate some of the pain. I got back in bed but I found myself just watching her to make sure she kept breathing. I know it sounds a little dramatic, but I was honestly worried about her. When the other girls got up around 7 or 8 Jane was still in bad shape. We quickly got some food and tried to get her dressed a bit. The only thing we knew to do was get her to a hospital. We called the taxi and tried to get her down the stairs. With each move though she felt more nauseous and threw up more than once before we made it down the stairs. The taxi was waiting and drove us as fast as he could considering the Santo Domingo traffic. It took a while for them to take her back in the Emergency room, but we finally got her in. The hardest part of the hospital was the language barrier. No one spoke English so we had to make do with the little Spanish we knew. The Fuller's apartment is maybe a block from the hospital, which was a tender mercy for sure. Paula was able to meet us there to check on things and Rosie and I went back to her apartment with her to wait. After a they had some answers and were giving Jane the fluids and other things she needed. She ended up having a bladder infection and being very dehydrated. The dehydration didn't really surprise me. It's really hard to drink enough water here especially when you have to buy drinking water. Anyways, back to Jane. When they were releasing her they told us to go to the lab for some test or something so we went and talked to the lab people. Between the small amount of Spanish Olive and I knew we struggled to understand what the lab wanted. All we got out of it was "wait" so we waited. Just as we were debating what to do a whole group of missionaries walked in. We immediately called them over to help us. Another tender mercy. They helped us sort things out a little and went on their way. The lab test was a waste of time because we wouldn't be in town for the results. I took Jane back to the Fuller's to rest while Rosie and Olive went to search the town for a pharmacy. When we got the the Fuller's apartment building the elevator wasn't working so poor Jane had to climb 7 flights of stairs to get there. Olive and Rosie made it back with the medicine and we had some lunch and the just about everyone took a nap. It was so nice of the Fullers to take such great care of us and let us invade their home for the day. The remainder of the day was spent resting.

Day 5
Jane wasn't feeling up to doing much so we all slept in and then Olive, Rosie, and I went out around lunchtime. Our plan was to head to a mall on the other side of the town and spend a few hours there. Getting there was an issue though.. We took the metro to the closest stop and then started walking to where Google maps said it was. The place marked was not the mall. We found a new map and set off again, frustrated and tired as we were. After walking for a while we decided the best option would be to get a taxi. We caught one on the street just in time too. The moment we got In and told him where to go it started pouring. The traffic was terrible as usual, but we finally made it to the mall. The food court there was amazing. I found it annoying though because there were too many choices. ;) We ate lunch and then had some dulce de leche dessert waffle things that were amazing. After wandering the mall for a couple hours we headed back. Our plan for the evening was to meet the Fullers at the Temple so I could go do baptisms with them. We caught a guagua to the metro station and then had to figure out what stop to get off of to be closest to the temple. As we contemplated it two sister missionaries showed up. It seemed that every time we needed help missionaries showed up. How amazing is that? We made it to the temple faster than we expected so we wandered around the grounds and took pictures. It was a beautiful evening. I was able to go in the temple with the Fullers and do nearly 20 baptisms for their family. It was an amazing experience. They did all the ordinances in Spanish too which made it even cooler. It really felt like we were the only ones there because of how peaceful and quiet it was. I'm extremely grateful for temples and the peace and safety they provide.
Day 6 colonial zone
We left a little earlier than usual and headed out toward el Zona Colonial. The original colonial city of Santo Domingo. After walking for what seemed like forever we got a taxi that drive us to the wrong place.. We had him turn around and take us to the center to the colonial zone only to find out we weren't far from it when we were walking. The center of the zone is independence park. In it we stood at kilometer zero, the exact center of Santo Domingo. There we met this tour guide who offered to show us all around the colonial city for $20. We took him up on the offer because we knew nothing about the town. We walked all around looking at these beautiful sights and historic places. He even too us to some stores and factories. One of the stores was a souvenir shop. It was filled top to bottom with thousands of souvenirs. The store felt as though it went on for miles. I spent a little more money than I should have there, but I was able to cross of a lot from my souvenir list. At the end of the tour our guide took us to a little Dominican restaurant for a late lunch. The food was really good and very inexpensive because it's was the classic Dominican dish. I think I was most adventurous in that meal for trying the fish, but all the food seemed good to me. After we ate we decided to head back to our hotel and take a nap. It was a fiasco trying to get back. We asked a gua gua which route would take us there faster and then taxi drivers were talking to us and other random strangers were helping us. It would have been faster if we had just taken the map I had and followed it walking. We followed this guy who said he could find a gua gua for us, but instead of finding one we walked in a circle and then he lead us down the road towards home. We told him we would be fine the rest of the way and just walked all the way there. We definitely got our exercise in that day. We tested for a bit, not as long as we wanted to, and then we called a taxi to take us to Chili's for a birthday dinner with the Fullers. We gave Paula a magnet and a cute picture frame with a picture in it that we took earlier that day. It was really fun and the food was amazing even though we all weren't too hungry after our other meal. After dinner we made a quick stop by the Fullers office and then headed back to the hotel to watch movies for the rest of the evening.
Day 7
By our 7th day together we could feel ourselves getting tired of one another, but we still made the most of it. We took a taxi to Tres Ojos national park. It is a fairly small park, but it's amazing! We get there and climbed down a large, carved out, rock staircase into a cavern. At the bottom there are four natural lakes. They were beautiful! After hiking around in there for a while we found a little ferry boat that they pull across one of the lakes. We got on the boat and they pulled us into the darkness of the cave. Soon a light could be seen at the other end and as we got closer it opened up and we could see the sky and an amazing lake. It's hard to describe. Someday I will get pictures to post.. Anyways, we explored there a little longer and then decided to head to the aquarium. The security stopped us from leaving without being in a taxi because it's not safe for us to walk, which I totally understand. So we got a taxi to take us. The aquarium is small and a little run down, but for the Dominican Republic it was amazing. We made the lady at the front desk mad because she tried to make us pay extra when we live here and should pay the other price. We argued our point, in Spanish I might add, and got the tickets at discounted price. We wandered around looking at the different tanks and finally came upon the Manatees. It made me so happy! I watched them for a long time, probably too long. We stayed for another hour or so and then headed to find the lighthouse. We found our own taxi for that. Columbus's lighthouse is huge. It's not really a lighthouse in its shape and purpose, but it is really cool and on special occasions they light it up. We left there and again security found a taxi for us and sent us in our way. Back to the hotel we went. For dinner we tried this Dominican buffet place and bakery. The food was good, but I didn't feel full or satisfied after. We bought some cakes though and they were amazing!  
Day 8 Time to travel home.
We slept in and had breakfast then packed up all our stuff and headed out. We walked down to Gomez for some lunch at Wendy's again. It was really good. While we were there it started pouring though and out plan was to take the metro and then walk the rest of the way to the bus stop. Instead we ran out into the rain and got a taxi to take us. Every time we went through puddles water came up from the floor onto our feet. I thought we were going to be soaked. We made it just in time to pile on a bus and head home. When we arrived at home the water was back on and there were a surprising amount of girls back from their own vacations.