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A lemon in the jungle What does travelling mean to you? For me it's like a leap into the unknown. You prepare for months before you leave: You research, study the country and plan trips, buy things that seem necessary, and stress everyone about your suitcase situation. But in the end you wear your usual clothes and don't even care how you look. You begin to experience life from a different perspective. When you travel freely and experience adventures, you no longer care about these things, you claim your natural values. After twelve hours in the air, five movies and poor sleep, we finally arrived in the Dominican Republic. A country that divides its island with Haiti, that became famous by a Bacardi commercial and that offers the most beautiful beaches to discover. We arrived at night dressed in our winter jackets and boots. It was warm outside, I felt like in a botanical garden. We took a bus, which was old and uncomfortable. We still had six hours to go. I travelled with my mother, she did not sleep at all, she sat with her eyes wide open and was curious about everything that happened. I tried to get some sleep. It worked in parts. I woke up and saw palm trees in the darkness, after a while I woke up again and saw people with motorbikes making a fire on the street and grilling meat. I remember more things, but I am not sure if I dreamed them or really saw them. The next morning I felt like a new person. I woke up and looked around and saw palm trees and the sea outside. The colours were intense. It felt unreal. That morning we missed our breakfast, but that was all right. We enjoyed the view from our terrace with sleepy eyes. Welcome to Samaná! The next days we spent on the beach and did everything that normal tourists do, nothing at all. After three days we had enough, we took a walk on the beach and went to the next village. It was like a walk from the known into the unknown. The streets were full. People were riding motorbikes and the salesmen were screaming at us, they wanted to sell us something. We found a guy who organized tours with locals. We booked three. The next morning we were picked up from our hotel for a stroll through the jungle. After a short drive with load music and a dancing driver we arrived somewhere on a side road. The local guide seemed not to be well organized, he spoke broken English and was not really interested in us. We started the hike. The path was uneven and full of stones. The trees looked different from the ones we knew. We started to ask the guide about anything we found curious. Finally he began to talk. He showed us mango, avocado and papaya trees. We saw for the first time what coffee and cocoa looked like in real life. Ingredients that we consumed daily. It was hot, we were sweating and drinking like crazy. We walked steeply uphill to reach a point from which we had a breathtaking view. We could see the jungle in its full width through the trees on a hill. Green shapes everywhere, leaves that were larger than me and sounds that had a hypnotic effect. We went on, now downhill. With each step, an unknown sound became louder. We walked up and down, crossed a small river and had no idea how to return - our energy was running out. The rushing noise became louder and we began to meet people on our way. After a difficult balancing act we discovered a waterfall in the jungle. Our guide shouted: "There is a lemon in the jungle. Our El Limón." We were so happy. It was as if we discovered something hidden. Of course, there were other tourists, and there seemed to be a lot going on. But it didn't matter to us. What mattered was the process of discovery.