Dominican Republic by Auto

Following is a brief description and some photos of our car tour around the Dominican Republic in February (2009). I've added it as a new post, still working at figuring out this blog technology. Pasted my earlier emails and managed to add and place the photos. Haven't figured out how to label the photos yet, so go ahead and guess! (The photo of me with cigar and Presidentes is captioned The Meaning of Life)

Hope things work out for our planned travel to India and eastern Indonesia in Dec., Jan., and Feb. If so, I'll try to post some commentary and photos to this blog using my Mac Air while we are on the road.


Las Galenas, Dominican Republic,
February, 2009


After three nights, Dick and Joan and I left Sosua's fast pace and flesh pots for Las Terranas, in our rental car, five hours east, dodging prize winning pot holes and enjoying spectacular coastal scenery to the the foot of the Samana peninsula. Traffic dwindles and the roads are alternately excellent and from hell. Made Las Galeras yesterday at the end of the peninsula, fairly limited tourist traffic and we are in good lodgings a few meters from the beach which is clean, with inviting warm waters. A working beach, tourism is a big part, but not the whole deal, and watching the local stuff is thus a big part of the fun. Swimming, snorkeling and burning. Recommend he El Presidente beer. Rum is also more than good and the only cheap part of the trip at $8 for a liter of the good stuff.
We will spend a few nights here and then across the island to he capital Santo Domingo ( pop 3 M) about 6 hours. Carnival peaks on the weekend. Will we be up to it? YES!
We are enjoying the seafood, Have not had the lobster yet, but we could be mistaken for lobsters .
Hope you can save save some of that bracing cold weather for our return.We really are missing it.

Cabarete, DR, February, 2009

Hi Folks,

All packed and relaxing in our fancy beach hotel in Cabarete, a beach resort town about 35 minutes from the Puerto Plata airport. We'll drop off our rental car this afternoon and be on the plane at five pm. We put 900 kms on our mid sized Mitsubishi ($700 total through Budget with full insurance plus gas) and, I think, saw pretty much what the island has to offer. There certainly is a rich and diverse geography here; we drove the north coast to Las Galenas at the end of the Samana peninsula. Its a sleepy fishing village, lightly developed with wonderful deserted beaches. We hiked to massive limestone and volcanic cliffswith caves, photographed the pounding surf and spooky blowholes, ate great seafood and met many very friendly Dominicans, who seem happy with our butchered attempts at their Spanish.
With the exception of the all inclusive resorts, there is very little English spoken. I suspect there are more European than North American tourists and almost all seem to be on some kind of all inclusive deal. We didn't run into anyone who was just traveling around like us. There is no back packing culture and thus no real cut rate options for travelers. Bring lots of money. Hotels and restaurant food costs about the same as home. We did talk to expats who say long term rental or condo purchase brings the costs right down. Beach condos can be purchased starting at about $80 k

 We drove to the capital, Santo Domingo, population 3 million, most of the way on a brand new toll freeway at 120 km/hour and no potholes. Apparently the new road has shortened the trip from 7 to 3 hours. Dry cattle country and wild mountains and sparsely populated.
We stayed four nights in the old zona colonial district, a UN heritage site with many of the buildings dating to the early\mid 16th century. Our 11 room hotel was a nunnery for its first 350 years. Mucho character! (search el beaterio hotel for photos) Santa Domingo was the highlight for me. We just walked the neighbourhoods and explored the old churches, forts, squares, bars and bistros. And with Carnival in full swing there was lots of street action. A photographers delight.

We headed back to the north coast on highway #1, a fairly insane drive on a "four lane", often, magically a six or eight lane highway (always the same width though). Spent one night a mountain resort in Jarabacoa in a plush hotel on white water river, high enough up that one needed a jacket in the evening. Lots of bird life. Hiked to the Jurassic Park waterfall. Central DR is incredibly diverse and beautiful.
Spent our last two nights in Calabrete (pop 15 k) a top destination for wind and kite surfers, and it seems, jet setters. The sky and water fills with kites and sails along the windswept 5 km beach. A competition got underway yesterday. Richard (the elder statesman of Saskatchewan whitewater paddling) has been salivating at the sight of the big surf throughout the trip. We were both salivating at the other sights on the beach.
Again the difference between the price of ordinary accommodations and a four star beach resort was small enough to make the 4 star a no brainer and the resorts like this are full service with all the perks.
A highlight here was the night in Jose O'Shea's Irish pub where we dined on the catch of the day on the beach out front. Couldn't help but notice the 20 flat screens in the bar all broadcasting Champions League soccer. Wonder if they could get the Habs-Vancouver tilt? Richard and I, being on opposite sides of this rivalry, were determined to at least listen to it on my Mac via internet back at the hotel. What Ho! A table full of Quebecois with the game tuned in and just beginning. We had a great time with them and Richard was a good sport with all the ribbing he got from the Montrealers. (3-0 Habs)

All in all, an expensive but worthwhile adventure. An expected downside is the depressing poverty of the large underclass that exists on very little. I am told that education investment and levels are low and the status quo rules.




Joan and Richard were excellent travel mates and even though I may come in bit lower on their scales, we got along fine and had much fun.
Joan just now says it feels like a dream.

All the best,

Glenn

More photos at

http://s617.photobucket.com/albums/tt253/gjmcknzie/