Monday, August 17, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
I want to move to Cabarete !
cliff notes....expanded story to come....
4 hour drive beautiful drive from Santo Domingo to the North Coast.
Got settled at home in Sosua.
Went out to meet Papo
Hung out with pro surfers, world champion kite surfer. Made deal to trade a bjj private for a surfing private.
Drink outside liquor store then went to lots of bar on the sand and a dance party/club
Partied till about 4am.
Saturday
Woke up to beautiful Paradise
massive hang over
Going to train on the beach
Made deal about no tapping for chokes.
Train twice, swam in ocean, great food including Ceviche.
Went out too tired to party went home early.
Sunday
Woke up to breakfast and a swim, went to train.
Trained hard. Knees are sore and raw, think I pulled something inside my quadicept.
Went into ocean and pool, out for lunch.
(Mango mahi mahi)
Back to training.
Trained hard with Papo, Abraham and then Papo some more before calling it quits to due fatigue/pain inside my thigh.
Swam some more in ocean and pool, spend the night at Papo's house drinking Presidente and watching bjj dvd's and telling stories and laughing the night away until about 3am. this was some of the most fun on the trip.
Went home, showered and passed out.
Monday
Woke up early, went swimming in the pool to wake up and take it in view one last time.
Abraham and Chili came and got into the pool with me.
Had breakfast, off to bjj.
Just shared techniques this a.m had a few beers with Joe (to say goodbye) before leaving extreme to head out for ocean time, pizza and coconuts.
After eating went last minute souvenir shopping.
Before leaving Cabarete we went to say our goodbyes to Papo and his girlfriend Alesandra.
Went back to Horacio's showered, I finished packing and started our cross country journey back. The traffic was bad as it was the end of a three day weekend so we decided to stop in Santiago to watch the Watchmen (Los Vigilantes), after getting out of the movie it was 1230 and we started our trip back to Santo Domingo arriving at about 2am. I said my goodbyes to Chili then Abe and I went back to his house to sleep as I had a 8am flight and had to get to the airport by 6am.
Woke up, ate, took a cab to the airport and flew home
4 hour drive beautiful drive from Santo Domingo to the North Coast.
Got settled at home in Sosua.
Went out to meet Papo
Hung out with pro surfers, world champion kite surfer. Made deal to trade a bjj private for a surfing private.
Drink outside liquor store then went to lots of bar on the sand and a dance party/club
Partied till about 4am.
Saturday
Woke up to beautiful Paradise
massive hang over
Going to train on the beach
Made deal about no tapping for chokes.
Train twice, swam in ocean, great food including Ceviche.
Went out too tired to party went home early.
Sunday
Woke up to breakfast and a swim, went to train.
Trained hard. Knees are sore and raw, think I pulled something inside my quadicept.
Went into ocean and pool, out for lunch.
(Mango mahi mahi)
Back to training.
Trained hard with Papo, Abraham and then Papo some more before calling it quits to due fatigue/pain inside my thigh.
Swam some more in ocean and pool, spend the night at Papo's house drinking Presidente and watching bjj dvd's and telling stories and laughing the night away until about 3am. this was some of the most fun on the trip.
Went home, showered and passed out.
Monday
Woke up early, went swimming in the pool to wake up and take it in view one last time.
Abraham and Chili came and got into the pool with me.
Had breakfast, off to bjj.
Just shared techniques this a.m had a few beers with Joe (to say goodbye) before leaving extreme to head out for ocean time, pizza and coconuts.
After eating went last minute souvenir shopping.
Before leaving Cabarete we went to say our goodbyes to Papo and his girlfriend Alesandra.
Went back to Horacio's showered, I finished packing and started our cross country journey back. The traffic was bad as it was the end of a three day weekend so we decided to stop in Santiago to watch the Watchmen (Los Vigilantes), after getting out of the movie it was 1230 and we started our trip back to Santo Domingo arriving at about 2am. I said my goodbyes to Chili then Abe and I went back to his house to sleep as I had a 8am flight and had to get to the airport by 6am.
Woke up, ate, took a cab to the airport and flew home
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Tuesday - Friday in Santo Domingo
This will be expanded on and updated with photos when i get them onto my PC. These are just my cliff notes to remind me what to write about.
Tuesday
I woke up a little late for me around 9am.
Abraham's mom had left me the best omelet sitting out, filled with all kinds of cheeses and peppers, this breakfast like every other thing i have and will have eaten on my trip is simple but so much more flavorful than any food I've eaten in the states. Again, I'm really convinced that we Americans are eating poison on a daily basis and when I return I'm going to taste the poison in my food. I have always had problems with allergies, airborne or food, but for some reason no allergy meds or epipens needed on this trip.
After surfing the web I decided to wake up Abraham because I know that he has work soon. After he got ready I went off to work with him today so i wouldn't sitting around in his house and I could go out and explore the people in the country.
Abraham works out in a gym located inside of a mall called Workout. Yamasaki BJJ Blue belt Tony who also works at Workout perform all kinds of test on me than showed weakness in my hips, knees, lower back etc. None of this is new news however he showed me lots of news exercises to help stretch and strengthen these areas.
After a few hours at the gym Abraham wanted to take me to the pool since i sat around his house on Monday. He is a member of a city country club. Now everyone that know me even though i don't ever spend money on myself, knows I could easily become a impulse buyer and Im a sucker for products sold on t.v infomericals. (i don't buy them but i want them all)
On the way to the Country Club we passed lots of street vendors that stand inbetween cars at stoplights (which nobody stops for) and sell exotic fruits that I have never seen, phone cards, veggies, steering wheel covers, cell phone chargers, homemade candies, anything that you could imagine. Along the way we passed a huge park with thick palm trees, awesome skate parks and lots of people playing baseball like I had imagined. I mean 10-15 individual games, and lots of small groups of people drink beers and watch 1 guy pitch. The country club was your typical country club with golf course, racket ball, tennis, etc
So I hung out by pool, had several beers, lot of people came up to talk to me b/c I'm white and have tattoos which is rare here (unlike richmond where they are a dime per dozen) and they think I'm some kinda rock star. It made me feel pretty sweet.
(pic to come soon)
After hanging out by the pool and having a small plate of beef we traveled back to Abe's to prepare for class. This was No-Gi night so they had requested to show no-gi only relivant techniques.
I showed a nogi flow drill for warm up, showed details of each technique in the drill. This was kinda time consuming as most of the students were beginners so that was all I was planning on showing prior to sparring however, YJJ Blackbelt Abraham (the other one) asked that I show some techniques, so I a showed side control escape to back take to rnc.
Then I worked with Abraham and Tony on different Brabo setups, etc. Abraham being like 6'8 245 has some of the longest arms on earth and is very good at the Brabo, I was hesistent to show Abraham all my trick because I knew he would be punishing me with them later.
After technique we rolled.
On the way home we stopped for a kick ass burger and more Merangue soda, which I've become obsessed with...
After the burger we went back to abe's for a shower.
I wasn't tired post shower so we went out to a bar that had 1/2 roof and not, the action was centered around the video game Rockband everyone was playing and everyone was awesome. I used the time to pound beers. It was very entertain to watch the Dominican that didn't speak English sing the Rockband songs that were in English. Only after about 5-6 beers I got sleepy and went back to sleep.
Wednesday
Woke up, updated blog finally, hung out on myspace, facebook, forum for a bit.
Went out walking exploring around Abraham's house.
Had some Mexican food w/ Abraham & Chile.
The food was good gave me the worst itis ever.. Pounded some raspberry soda and the Mexican food made me crave a beer b/c I never have one w/o the other.
Took a short nap.
Went to train, showed 2 butterfly guard passes.
Trained with mostly Chile, tony, Abraham.
Went home had beef stuffed pepper, rice w/ corn/bacon.
Tried a raspberry w/ vanilla ice cream float under suggestion of abe. Talked with Holly, Ana, Mike Byrd and my dog Zelda on Skype for the remainder of the night.
Thursday
Woke up. Went to work with Abraham this a.m. (He is a personal trainer, so I can just work out in the gym the entire time)
Worked out.
Got massage.
We trained and I said my goodbyes to all the people at the Santo Domingo Academy.
Went to wolverine.
Went site seeing to colonial district and Caribbean ocean.
Friday
Woke up ate home cooked meal.
Maids did my laundry.
Went to gym.
Mishap at atm.
Today we are traveling to cabarate.
Tuesday
I woke up a little late for me around 9am.
Abraham's mom had left me the best omelet sitting out, filled with all kinds of cheeses and peppers, this breakfast like every other thing i have and will have eaten on my trip is simple but so much more flavorful than any food I've eaten in the states. Again, I'm really convinced that we Americans are eating poison on a daily basis and when I return I'm going to taste the poison in my food. I have always had problems with allergies, airborne or food, but for some reason no allergy meds or epipens needed on this trip.
After surfing the web I decided to wake up Abraham because I know that he has work soon. After he got ready I went off to work with him today so i wouldn't sitting around in his house and I could go out and explore the people in the country.
Abraham works out in a gym located inside of a mall called Workout. Yamasaki BJJ Blue belt Tony who also works at Workout perform all kinds of test on me than showed weakness in my hips, knees, lower back etc. None of this is new news however he showed me lots of news exercises to help stretch and strengthen these areas.
After a few hours at the gym Abraham wanted to take me to the pool since i sat around his house on Monday. He is a member of a city country club. Now everyone that know me even though i don't ever spend money on myself, knows I could easily become a impulse buyer and Im a sucker for products sold on t.v infomericals. (i don't buy them but i want them all)
On the way to the Country Club we passed lots of street vendors that stand inbetween cars at stoplights (which nobody stops for) and sell exotic fruits that I have never seen, phone cards, veggies, steering wheel covers, cell phone chargers, homemade candies, anything that you could imagine. Along the way we passed a huge park with thick palm trees, awesome skate parks and lots of people playing baseball like I had imagined. I mean 10-15 individual games, and lots of small groups of people drink beers and watch 1 guy pitch. The country club was your typical country club with golf course, racket ball, tennis, etc
So I hung out by pool, had several beers, lot of people came up to talk to me b/c I'm white and have tattoos which is rare here (unlike richmond where they are a dime per dozen) and they think I'm some kinda rock star. It made me feel pretty sweet.
(pic to come soon)
After hanging out by the pool and having a small plate of beef we traveled back to Abe's to prepare for class. This was No-Gi night so they had requested to show no-gi only relivant techniques.
I showed a nogi flow drill for warm up, showed details of each technique in the drill. This was kinda time consuming as most of the students were beginners so that was all I was planning on showing prior to sparring however, YJJ Blackbelt Abraham (the other one) asked that I show some techniques, so I a showed side control escape to back take to rnc.
Then I worked with Abraham and Tony on different Brabo setups, etc. Abraham being like 6'8 245 has some of the longest arms on earth and is very good at the Brabo, I was hesistent to show Abraham all my trick because I knew he would be punishing me with them later.
After technique we rolled.
On the way home we stopped for a kick ass burger and more Merangue soda, which I've become obsessed with...
After the burger we went back to abe's for a shower.
I wasn't tired post shower so we went out to a bar that had 1/2 roof and not, the action was centered around the video game Rockband everyone was playing and everyone was awesome. I used the time to pound beers. It was very entertain to watch the Dominican that didn't speak English sing the Rockband songs that were in English. Only after about 5-6 beers I got sleepy and went back to sleep.
Wednesday
Woke up, updated blog finally, hung out on myspace, facebook, forum for a bit.
Went out walking exploring around Abraham's house.
Had some Mexican food w/ Abraham & Chile.
The food was good gave me the worst itis ever.. Pounded some raspberry soda and the Mexican food made me crave a beer b/c I never have one w/o the other.
Took a short nap.
Went to train, showed 2 butterfly guard passes.
Trained with mostly Chile, tony, Abraham.
Went home had beef stuffed pepper, rice w/ corn/bacon.
Tried a raspberry w/ vanilla ice cream float under suggestion of abe. Talked with Holly, Ana, Mike Byrd and my dog Zelda on Skype for the remainder of the night.
Thursday
Woke up. Went to work with Abraham this a.m. (He is a personal trainer, so I can just work out in the gym the entire time)
Worked out.
Got massage.
We trained and I said my goodbyes to all the people at the Santo Domingo Academy.
Went to wolverine.
Went site seeing to colonial district and Caribbean ocean.
Friday
Woke up ate home cooked meal.
Maids did my laundry.
Went to gym.
Mishap at atm.
Today we are traveling to cabarate.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Monday 27th - Dominican
I woke up around 8am in an empty house as Abraham had to work at 6am. Abraham's instructions were to make myself at home so I walked around looking at all the decorations and starred out the windows at the city. Then it was time for me to
try and figure out breakfast.
I was a little fatigued from traveling so I wanted some coffee and everyone had told me how good the coffee is here. Well, that maybe but I didn't see a coffee maker in the kitchen. I did however find some Nestle's Instant Coffee so I decided that would have to do for now. Now I was time to eat. Even though I was given free range of everything in the kitchen, I didn't want to destory all the food that I saw and some of the items I did want I could never seem to find all the pieces of the puzzle that led to me eating that food. For example, I found ceral but the only milk I saw open was almond milk. I saw regular milk but it wasn't open and this isn't my house so I feel awkard about breaking the seal. I ended up settling for some rice cakes and a Nutella/peanut butter type spread plus an apple.
About 30 minutes later I was hungry again and I found some left over beans & rice from the night before so I heated that up and ate it.
Right next door to Abraham house it appears they are building some kind of condo building, some while pounding several cup of coffee, I sit on an outdoor patio and
watch the construction workers.
Let me tell you one thing.....
there is no such thing as OSHA here. I watched the workers and I notice it looked like the most dangerous work environment possible. They were climbing a wooded frame 10+ stories carrying bricks, no safety ropes, the structure didn't look remotely secure.
After getting hot outside I came back in and still had a fare amount of time to kill before Abraham got off work so I found and watched Pride 1.
I watched the dvd in an awesome, upstairs patio that Abraham would later tell me is where he is planning on putting mats down for training in his house. The indoor patio/flordia room reminded me of Daniel Moraes gym from the Arte Suave DVD.
After the dvd was over Abraham came home. We went out to get some roasted chicken, and ate more beans & rice. (Which I eat everyday at home so I love the menu here)
Abraham was tired so we chilled some more by watching 2008 Mundial finals.
After the DVD, Abraham had promised to take me to the Pharmacy to get some anti-inflammories for my knee. I have what I beleive to be a Stage 1 MCL Sprain, which is nothing major but could flare up and hinder my training as in the US I hadn't sparred in 2 weeks in order to heal for this trip. Abraham is/was really excited to have an advanced training partner on the island and I didn't wanna let him down.
At the pharmacy I got a drug for arthrisis that would require a prescription here in the states, and after taking it my knee pain was 90% gone in 1 hour. HOLY CRAP it was awesome.
After eating some more food Chile showed up with her 14 y'old brother Ugo and we went to the academy which is located in a Gold's Gym. Upon arriving to Gold's which is about 5-6 stories tall I realize it has more people in it that any health club i've every seen. It had what looked like hundreds of threadmills and versa climbers that were all in use. I don't know if you were a single male this would be a good place to workout as the place was filled with women that all wore tight pants/shorts and all seemed to have the trademark Dominican KadonkeyDonk.
The training at the Gold's takes place in a 24 ft Boxing Ring that they lay mat down in. Abraham warmed everyone up and I showed some techniques. Everyone very eager to learn from me as in the entire country there is 1 Blackbelt, 4 Brownbelts, and about 5 purples. This made me feel kinda elite hearing those stats. Even though the upper belts have so few training partners that are still really good and competition on the World Stage. After technique I rolled with everyone until I was exhausted.
Post training we went out to eat at roasted chicken joint in city, sat inside, most places don't have windows, very open air.
We ate chicken, green bananas w/ onions, yuka w/ onions, and had the best REAL sugar soda, Merangue flavor.
Finally, we went home showered and passed out.
try and figure out breakfast.
I was a little fatigued from traveling so I wanted some coffee and everyone had told me how good the coffee is here. Well, that maybe but I didn't see a coffee maker in the kitchen. I did however find some Nestle's Instant Coffee so I decided that would have to do for now. Now I was time to eat. Even though I was given free range of everything in the kitchen, I didn't want to destory all the food that I saw and some of the items I did want I could never seem to find all the pieces of the puzzle that led to me eating that food. For example, I found ceral but the only milk I saw open was almond milk. I saw regular milk but it wasn't open and this isn't my house so I feel awkard about breaking the seal. I ended up settling for some rice cakes and a Nutella/peanut butter type spread plus an apple.
About 30 minutes later I was hungry again and I found some left over beans & rice from the night before so I heated that up and ate it.
Right next door to Abraham house it appears they are building some kind of condo building, some while pounding several cup of coffee, I sit on an outdoor patio and
watch the construction workers.
Let me tell you one thing.....there is no such thing as OSHA here. I watched the workers and I notice it looked like the most dangerous work environment possible. They were climbing a wooded frame 10+ stories carrying bricks, no safety ropes, the structure didn't look remotely secure.
After getting hot outside I came back in and still had a fare amount of time to kill before Abraham got off work so I found and watched Pride 1.
I watched the dvd in an awesome, upstairs patio that Abraham would later tell me is where he is planning on putting mats down for training in his house. The indoor patio/flordia room reminded me of Daniel Moraes gym from the Arte Suave DVD.
After the dvd was over Abraham came home. We went out to get some roasted chicken, and ate more beans & rice. (Which I eat everyday at home so I love the menu here)
Abraham was tired so we chilled some more by watching 2008 Mundial finals.
After the DVD, Abraham had promised to take me to the Pharmacy to get some anti-inflammories for my knee. I have what I beleive to be a Stage 1 MCL Sprain, which is nothing major but could flare up and hinder my training as in the US I hadn't sparred in 2 weeks in order to heal for this trip. Abraham is/was really excited to have an advanced training partner on the island and I didn't wanna let him down.
At the pharmacy I got a drug for arthrisis that would require a prescription here in the states, and after taking it my knee pain was 90% gone in 1 hour. HOLY CRAP it was awesome.
After eating some more food Chile showed up with her 14 y'old brother Ugo and we went to the academy which is located in a Gold's Gym. Upon arriving to Gold's which is about 5-6 stories tall I realize it has more people in it that any health club i've every seen. It had what looked like hundreds of threadmills and versa climbers that were all in use. I don't know if you were a single male this would be a good place to workout as the place was filled with women that all wore tight pants/shorts and all seemed to have the trademark Dominican KadonkeyDonk.
The training at the Gold's takes place in a 24 ft Boxing Ring that they lay mat down in. Abraham warmed everyone up and I showed some techniques. Everyone very eager to learn from me as in the entire country there is 1 Blackbelt, 4 Brownbelts, and about 5 purples. This made me feel kinda elite hearing those stats. Even though the upper belts have so few training partners that are still really good and competition on the World Stage. After technique I rolled with everyone until I was exhausted.
Post training we went out to eat at roasted chicken joint in city, sat inside, most places don't have windows, very open air.
We ate chicken, green bananas w/ onions, yuka w/ onions, and had the best REAL sugar soda, Merangue flavor.
Finally, we went home showered and passed out.
Dominican !!!!
I begin this journey Sunday 26th, flying out of Richmond into Miami, where i supposed to meet up with my host, 2008 Purple Belt World Champion, Abraham Marte. After I land in Miami my trip encounters its first hicup. Now, since these trips are my small verison of my friend Valerie Worthington's Vision Quest, I try to embrace everything experience on every trip good and bad. This hicup was that Abraham was running late and would end up missing my flight. I get flushed with a little bit of anxiety as I would be now traveling to a foregin country alone, which isn't too bad, but when i get there I would have no place to go and nobody to see. Well, in the last 3 minutes before I was going to board the plane Abraham called me to advise his girlfriend would be picking me up from the airport and taking me around to entertain me for the 6-7 hours I would be ahead of him. Coolbeans !
Upon arriving in the Dominican Republic the first shirt I see on a native Dominican is a Bugs Bubby/Taz Gangster shirt that I haven't seen in ages.
I traveled w/o any problem thru immigration and custom to walk outside and I was greeted by Abraham's girlfriend Chile and her friend Natalie. They made a really awesome sign with my name on it as I was exiting the airport. After our introductions they start driving me to Natalie's parent weekend beach house so I can wait for Abraham to fly into the country. This "weekend house" is like a resort.
About a small 3 story Condo with each floor being a unit.
I got introduced to all of her family. They all spoke a tiny bit of english and seemed tickled to have me as their guest. Abraham had giving them instruction to give me some beer so right after I got settled they gave me my first Dominican beer, a 32oz Presidente Light, and Natalie's family treated me to some of the BEST home cooked dessert I've ever had. (Flan and a bunch of coconuty treats)
So, I drank some beers, ate of food and hung out on the most empty goregous beach, blue water, white sand, and no other people for 300 yards in each direction.
Several hours later we left to go pickup Abraham from the airport.
This began the hour trip went to his house (in downtown Santo Domingo),
On way people in the middle of the streets, drinking, dancing, waving guns, it was exciting. 9pm on a sunday night and the entire city feels alive and full of energy.
Upon arriving to Abraham's house I was greeted by his mom. She had prepared us a dinner (baked chicken, stuffed with ham and wrapped in bacon. Salad, beans&rice, queso dip to wrap in tortilla, and finished with a strawberry shortcake type dessert)
(Lucky for me Abraham's mom is/owes a catering company so the food was delicous.
It was a little late after dinner but abraham wouldn't to show me a good time since he didn't get to hang out for most of the day. He asked me what I wanted to do and I told him to take me to all the singing, dancing and drinking.
We went out for beer at a corner market, sat & drank.
After having a few beers I got tired so we went home to sleep.
Upon arriving in the Dominican Republic the first shirt I see on a native Dominican is a Bugs Bubby/Taz Gangster shirt that I haven't seen in ages.
I traveled w/o any problem thru immigration and custom to walk outside and I was greeted by Abraham's girlfriend Chile and her friend Natalie. They made a really awesome sign with my name on it as I was exiting the airport. After our introductions they start driving me to Natalie's parent weekend beach house so I can wait for Abraham to fly into the country. This "weekend house" is like a resort.
About a small 3 story Condo with each floor being a unit.
I got introduced to all of her family. They all spoke a tiny bit of english and seemed tickled to have me as their guest. Abraham had giving them instruction to give me some beer so right after I got settled they gave me my first Dominican beer, a 32oz Presidente Light, and Natalie's family treated me to some of the BEST home cooked dessert I've ever had. (Flan and a bunch of coconuty treats)
So, I drank some beers, ate of food and hung out on the most empty goregous beach, blue water, white sand, and no other people for 300 yards in each direction.
Several hours later we left to go pickup Abraham from the airport.
This began the hour trip went to his house (in downtown Santo Domingo),
On way people in the middle of the streets, drinking, dancing, waving guns, it was exciting. 9pm on a sunday night and the entire city feels alive and full of energy.
Upon arriving to Abraham's house I was greeted by his mom. She had prepared us a dinner (baked chicken, stuffed with ham and wrapped in bacon. Salad, beans&rice, queso dip to wrap in tortilla, and finished with a strawberry shortcake type dessert)
(Lucky for me Abraham's mom is/owes a catering company so the food was delicous.
It was a little late after dinner but abraham wouldn't to show me a good time since he didn't get to hang out for most of the day. He asked me what I wanted to do and I told him to take me to all the singing, dancing and drinking.
We went out for beer at a corner market, sat & drank.
After having a few beers I got tired so we went home to sleep.
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