Studying spanish in Cabarete

Cabarete is a one-street-town streaching along the beach of the northcoast of the Dominican Republic. It used to be a sleepy fishingvillage, but there are no longer a sign in this village to show us that this once has been a fishingvillage. Unfortunately(by my opinion) is the amount of tourists in Cabarete growing and the number of hotels and all inclusives is increasing, but the tourism has not ruined this charming little town yet. Today Cabarete is known as a windsurfing and kiteing paradise and people from all over the world travel here to enjoy some good kiteing and windsurfing. 4km from Cabarete is Encuentro located. Encuentro is known as the best surfingbeach in Dominican Republic and the beach is perfect for beginners. A free shuttle goes between Cabarete and Encuentro twice a day and you will find schools all over Cabarete and at Encuentro longing for you to rent equipment or taking lessons. For watersportenthusiasts Cabarete is perfect. But Cabarete has more to offer than watersports. Cabarete is a growing village with a lot of life. And because of the reputation as a watersport paradise it attracts a lot of young travelers. This gives the town a great nightlife, so while staying in Cabarete partying and dancing till the early hours are a must(at least once in a while!).  

But that was only advertising for cabarete, here is my story:

A goodie for watersportenthusiasts:)

I wanted to study more spanish and after looking around I ended up with the norwegian organisation Studyaway with the destination Cabarete, Dominican Republic. I arrived Cabarete August 26th. The weather was hot and humid, the exitement of being at a new and for us unexplored place was bobeling inside of us. The first day we walked from our "hotel" and into Cabarete. Because of all the small stores at both sides of the mainstreet we didn't see the ocean right away. First when we walked throug a restaurant paradise appared on the other side. It was palms, white sand, turqouise water and calm batchata music gave the whole a heavenly feeling. We felt like in heaven. Later we discoverd that the beach was a place we rarely visited, no time for that:)

After two weeks things started to be routines, and homelife in Cabarete started to become cosy. Even though Cabarete is a small place it has what you need, you can get almost everything there and the supermarkeds provide you with both known and unknown groceries.

Me and two-three friends fell in love with surfing, and soon the daily rythm was surfing-school-homework/duties-dinner-socialising. I think that those of us who started to surf got a different impression of Cabarete than the rest. The surfer-environment is so special. It is very open, everybody is included, talking to people is so easy, people are calm, smiling and enjoying life. The environment at Encuentro is something special that needs to be experienced while staying in Cabarete. (...)