the eejit

Just returned to Santo Domingo after two weeks in the west of the country and along the haitian border collecting fossils. A very good trip but I am exhausted from digging and lugging samples, not to mention the crazy driving. Imagine driving rain in the night, nutters in toyotas loaded to overload with mangos at 100kph, huge potholes, no lines, no rules and add to that a small black horse gone crazy running between the traffic..

Amazing country. One of the highlights was a visit to the market in Elias Pina very close to the border with Haiti. Twice a week Haitians flood over the border legally to sell their wares (mostly knock off clothes) and buy food. Other interesting days were walking miles through beautiful yet indescribably painful cactus forest 50m below sea level in the Enriquillo basin in 42 degree heat looking for sacred sections of pliocene molluscan sediments.

The illegal charcoal burners from haiti, living in a sandy cave.

The goats… The mopeds like flies, the shear cliffs of salt, the cows with cactus spines in their eyes, the very friendly people, town square and drunks, Presidente ‘light’ after a hard day, deciding between Pica Pollo, Poll Rey or Huello a Pollo, the rice fields skirting the extinct volcanoes, the very dodgy motels hired by the hour, the armed-to-the-teeth inspections of the car at night only when driving away from Haiti.

The fossils – fantastically preserved reefs, beautiful marine snails with their colour preserved, plucked from the sediment like they were a day old.

I didnt take my trusty D700, but did have a point and shoot with me to grab a taste of Dominican life and the work we did. Two galleries can be seen here and here. Click on the ‘Slideshow’ link for the best view. 

Cant wait to get back to Vancouver tomorrow to see Marina and Mila… But its only a week and then off to a conference in Cincinnati…