This post features student writing.

Every trip has a beginning and end. Our final days were amazing. Thinking back we have done so much for the community but the community has also done an amazing thing for us. Our experience has helped us realize that the world around us is always rushing and worried about things that can be completely pointless; how life shouldn’t revolve around material items and how we should take time to build relationships and better connect to the community around us. The village of La Guazara brought us together as a group over the course of our trip, and to wrap up our time there, we invited them to the high school to celebrate our final days with a “despedida” party. It was a celebration of thanks and saying final goodbyes, full of dancing, food, and music, absorbing the community around us one last time.

Upon leaving La Guazara Tuesday morning, we traveled to our final beach excursion in the Samana Peninsula and stayed at an ecolodge called Aventura Rincon. The activities we participated in Samana included enjoying a campfire in the evenings, relaxing in hammocks, going to several beautiful beaches, boat rides, watching movies in the ecolodge lounge, a tour through the ecolodge’s permaculture garden, and catching giant spiders. The beaches are amazing with clear water, palm trees lining the sand, and breathtaking views all around us.

Today we head back to the capital, Santo Domingo, to do some final sight-seeing, souvenir shopping and enjoy our last dinner and group meeting together to reflect on our experience as a whole. We will truly miss the small little town of La Guazara and the beautiful Dominican Republic.

Fair well and goodbye,

Morgan