la Cucaracha la cucaracha

Well, only in the Dominican Republic can you get this kind of service. We were in the countryside all day long and still did not have a place to stay, so we headed towards the nearest city we could find. We ended up in Rio San Juan, so we started looking for a place to stay. Well, we were just driving around trying to find a hotel - with NO luck. We thought that if we found the beach maybe we could find a hotel. We ended up on a dead end street and saw a small hotel. The owner was standing outside and only charged us $24 US dollars!!! And the best part of all . . . RIGHT ON THE BEACH - Woot Woot! Here is a picture of our view:

Well, he told us it would be ready in about an hour or so so we headed out to find some REAL food for Dalton. We found a cute little outdoorsie place and decided to head on to it. I think it is the only thing that Dalton enjoyed about the whole trip (well that and ice cream). So after we ate some pizza we headed back to the hotel to get our showers and call it a night. At first I counted it a blessing to get to be first - Well, the water was BROWN and not only NASTY, it was VERY VERY VERY cold!!! I HAD TO HAVE A shower so I managed to tough it out. About the time I was getting finished, a HUGE monster size cockroach (cucaracha) was staring me down. He had been in the shower with me the whole time!!!!! That thing took a shower with each and every one of us - we were all too scared to move it. It would have taken a shovel - NO JOKE!!! Well, after I got over the shock I felt honored that the Lord would allow me to shower Dominican style! Oh, I forgot to mention that the room was REALLY nasty, trash still in it from the last person along with their wet used towel. I felt sorry for Dalton and Jorge who had to sleep on a mattress on the floor with the Cockroach on steroids. We couldnt find him when we got up, we think that he has been hitching a ride with us ever since. Maybe I will bring him home as a pet for Micah and Jonah - just a thought.
Still loving the DR,
Shawn