All Along
Destinations Get in gear Going Strong Outbound Real deals Sensible traveler Taking Off Where they went
A Caribbean wedding
By Diane Daniel, Globe Correspondent, 03/02/03
|
|
||
|
All Along Destinations Get in gear Going Strong Outbound Real deals Sensible traveler Taking Off Where they went
|
||
This trip, however, had a special purpose: her New Year's Day wedding to Taira Alcantara, 29, a native of Najayo who is still waiting for his US immigration papers. Meanwhile, Kate, 22, a nursing student at Holyoke Community College, lives with her father in Amherst and visits Taira when she can.
When she was 18, Kate and a girlfriend had moved to the Dominican Republic, where her father visited her once, in 1999.
"There's this feeling you get there where everyone is so welcoming and nice," Kate said. "They're very proud of their country. I like places that are rich in culture."
"The best part of the wedding," Max said, "was this wonderful coming together of our family and Taira's. These guys don't speak any English at all. My girlfriend and ex-wife speak a little Spanish." There were 13 Americans and 80 Dominicans at the ceremony.
Arriving there, "it really kind of assaults you," said Max. "The noise, the stuff along the side of the road. It's really different."
They had rented a villa with a cabana, pool, and large lawn that extended over the water. The price for 10 days was $750. But it wasn't luxurious, he said. "The shower was a pipe with cold water coming out of it."
"The neighbors were living in teeny, tiny houses and we were the gringos coming and going," Max said. "We rented a pickup with four doors, and at times we'd have 25 people in it."
Said Kate, "It's the kind of place where everything takes forever, like any island in the Caribbean. I was pretty prepared for things to go wrong."
Kate, who is called Katia there, was the one to rent the truck, and the first thing she did was "crash into this guy pulling out of the airport parking space.
"Then the sky opened up," she said. "A tsunami of rain. Our stuff is floating in the back of the truck and I'm laughing and crying."
Max and other of Kate's American relatives and friends were already there, and Kate went to town first to pick up Taira and two dozen of his relatives.
They pulled up and people kept pouring out of the truck "like a clown joke," Max said. "They turned up the music and we had a dance party. There's merengue and bachata, the country music. It's played at loud, loud, loud volumes."
The wedding was set for 5 p.m. New Year's Day. At 3, her mother had to tell the bride that "a lot of things are going wrong," Kate said. "The man who was supposed to roast our pig sold it to someone else. He threw a raw pig in the back of the truck. The justice of the peace left for Puerto Rico."
In short order, Kate tore off to buy fried chicken, dinging yet another car. She found a neighbor to cook the pig. And though there was no other justice of the peace available, "I found a man who fakes it. That's what he does for work. I threw him in the back of the truck with the pig."
The ceremony, though not legally binding (they later made it so), was performed in Spanish and translated into English. Afterward, another dance party commenced.
The Americans stayed several more days, visiting the capital, Santa Domingo, Boca Chica Beach, and hiking in the mountains with Dominican friends of Taira.
"All 13 of us showed up. They had no idea we were coming but were thrilled to see us," Max said. "It was beautiful. I like to hike, and it was one of the nicest things I've done in a long time."
Said Kate, "I wanted him to leave with the idea that it's not all closed-in cities with trash."
Her plan worked, Max said. "It really gave me a great feeling about the Dominicans and the country."
Send suggestions to ddaniel@globe.com.