Drifting Through
Paradise
Part 5 – The Dominican
Republic
March 27, 2000 (Probably Friday)
Luperon, Dominican Republic
We are in the Dominican Republic, town of Luperon! We cleared out of Provo on Friday and got
underway to Six Hills Cays on Saturday. Six Hills is about 43 miles east of Provo across the Caicos
Banks. We encountered more coral heads
on this passage than on any other yet to date.
It was quite exhausting to continually watch and then steer around all
the coral heads. Just before we got to
Six Hills a squall hit. It rained hard
for 5 to 10 minutes and we were unable to go any further because we couldn’t
see the heads without sunshine. As the
first squall passed we got closer to Six Hills and were just about to drop
anchor when a second squall came through.
Crossing the banks was beautiful, though. The water and sky came together to create the “turquoise sky” -
the sky over the Banks turns turquoise in color. September Song had an escort out of Provo – turns out JoJo the
Dolphin swam out with them for quite awhile.
Dylan loved it!
Sunday proved to be a perfectly lovely day and the passage to the
D.R. was very nice. The waves were 5 to
8 feet with an occasional 10 footer with a very long period. The waves subsided by midnight. As the sun rose, we were treated to a
spectacular vista of mountains and mist.
The trees were so tall and green, it’s so beautiful here! Oh, and we saw small dolphins on Sunday,
they were very cool. Cindy called us on
the VHF to tell us that she saw Humpback whales – unfortunately we missed them.
So as we approach, it’s like entering a cut with mountains on
either side. You can see the waves
breaking on the sides of the cliffs and it’s breath taking. Then, just a little ways in and there are
mangroves and trees on either side. The
water turns brown very quickly. The
view is one of the most breath taking we’ve yet to see in our travels. And the birds! We can hear them in the trees and see white egret-like birds
nesting in the mangroves.
As we get into the anchorage, we see that September Song has gone
aground. They have a few dinghies
around helping them get off the soft mud bottom (no coral in here). It’s crowded in the anchorage but since
there is no wave action, we’re sitting quite still. It’s very quiet here too.
Seems very peaceful.
We hoisted our quarantine flag when we got in this morning and not
2 hours went by when Customs came to clear us in. Freddy is the customs official and Poppo serves as the
interpreter. We were advised that Poppo
would have a D.R. flag for us to buy and at $15, “it was the best deal
around”. Sure enough, we gladly bought
the flag and checking in was quick and easy.
Hope opted not to buy the flag – they decided to buy one in town for $6.
But then again, it took Hope 3 days to get cleared in.
We went into town today.
Luperon is very colorful, lots of purple, red, and green – houses,
buildings, and boats. It’s third world
simple and not at all polished. We had
lunch at Poppo’s restaurant. I
mistakenly asked for a diet soda and the waitress went out to a local grocery
and brought back club soda. Oops. But how nice that she’d do that! Fried chicken, rice and beans for $4 for
both of us – what a deal! A more simple
meal might cost $2. Why cook on the
boat?
Blue Star, Katy, and many other boats we know are here. It’s really neat. We have a lot of exciting things we want to do here: see the waterfalls, go to Puerto Plata or
Santiago, even checkout the marina. But
for today, we’re glad just to have the hook down and time to relax.
Thursday, March 30th
Luperon, Dominican Republic
Today we went to Puerto Plata.
Yesterday we went to the marina to take showers. It felt wonderful to have unlimited hot
water slushing down my body. The cost:
15 pesos ($1 US). I also dropped of our
laundry. Anna, at the marina, charges
35 pesos to wash and 35 to dry (soap included). I figured we had 3 loads, she managed to do it in two. So that was a good deal!
The marina has a nice a nice bar where a rum punch is 20 pesos and
a litre of El Presidente beer is 25 pesos.
I haven’t tried the beer yet but everyone who has says it’s very good
beer. They also have food. Papa Fritas (French fries) are 15 pesos and
a good appetizer. There are various
ways to get around the D.R. Motorcycles, bus, taxi, or “public car”. I haven’t go them all sorted out yet but today we took a guagua
or bus (mini van) to Imbert (pronounced im-bear) and then car pooled a “public
car” to Puerto Plata. The guagua’s cost
$1 each then the public car was 13 pesos.
Anyway, Mitchell, Tom, Cindy, Dylan, and I all got into Puerto Plata for
around $8 total. Getting small change,
for some reason, is difficult. We never
have the correct change, we always seem to have 100 peso bills. So Tom and I come up with a plan to each buy
a soda at the Super Mercado (super market) and break those 100 peso bills. Wrong!
The grocer charges Tom for both sodas and won’t give me change.
The bus to Imbert was a mini van and as we went through each small
town, the driver would honk his horn.
We ended up getting 16 adults and 2 children into this mini van! The scenery was breath taking! Mountains and hills and valleys – all so
lush and green. All of the houses and
farms were painted so colorfully. The
pastures were fenced with cactus. The
cactus fence was to keep the animals in – donkeys, horses, cows, pigs, goats,
chickens – we saw them all.
I wish I could better describe the vista: all green, grasses and palm trees, fig trees
30 feet tall. It’s so odd to see 30’ tall
fig trees when where I come from you buy them at the florist probably 3’ tall
and they grow indoors to maybe 6’.
Did I mention how comfortable the air/atmosphere is here? Not cool, not hot – exactly
comfortable. It’s probably the mountain
air flowing down. It’s not humid and
it’s not dry – it’s just right.
In Puerto Plata we saw a lot of shops. It’s quite a city – very busy.
The buildings weren’t as grand as those we saw in Cuba yet they were
reminiscent of them. The people were,
to our appearance, much better off. The
stores had anything you might want. We
didn’t find a grocery but we did find a computer store, stationary/bookstore,
clothing stores and “Casa Nelson”. At
Casa Nelson they have everything just like Montgomery Wards. The reason I used Montgomery Wards as a
comparison is because I was in the house wares section looking at pillow
cases. I noticed the price was 12
pesos. 12 pesos! That’s under $1 US! So I look closer. The price tag says Montgomery Wards –it was the Wards tag that
said $12! I look closer and see Casa
Nelson’s price tag: 200 pesos! Same price – funny, huh? Dylan and Mitch both found new shoes at Casa
Nelsons.
The central park is very nice – about 1 block square in size with
a gazebo in the center. Approaching
siesta time, we started looking for a place to eat. A gentleman saw our questioning glance and recommended is brother
(or some relations) restaurant down the street. Then he took us there.
This was definitely a tourist restaurant but the prices were good and so
was the food.
Afterwards, leaving the restaurant, there were 6 shoeshine boys
outside, the all gathered round me and to Mitchell, it looked like they might
want to pickpocket me. There was also a
woman with a baby who looked very sad and would shake her head while rubbing
her baby’s tummy. I think she was
trying to tell me her baby was sick. I
told here I was very sorry and that the baby was beautiful. I also told her I didn’t have any
money. At this she spotted some
tourists across the street and sprinted over to them. Health care in the D.R. is free for residents and visitors. In hindsight, she looked a might too old to
be the baby’s mother. As the boys moved
closer and the woman with the baby moved closer, the gentleman who led us to the
restaurant appeared and pushed the boys away.
The he led us to a computer store (we asked if he knew where one
was). When we got to the door, he held
out is hand. Tom handed him 10
pesos. Then he held out his hand at
Mitchell and he gave him 10 pesos.
After that, he disappeared.
Getting transportation home was an experience. We would ask were to get a public car and
got directed to an empty street corner.
A few taxi’s came by but they wanted too much to go to Luperon or
Imbert. Finally, after much chaos and
confusion, our “guide” appeared again and helped us negotiate a care or taxi
that would take us all the way to Luperon.
Mitchell gave him another 20 pesos and he seemed happy. Mitchell is quite sure the boys at the
restaurant were thieves. He told me
that our “guide” grabbed him by the hand and said “let’s go”. I think that he got us out of a jam.
I forgot to mention TamTam – the café by the sea. We sat outside and watched the boulevard and
the sea while sipping espresso and El Presidente’s. It was very nice.
The ride home probably took a while longer than the ride
there. Our taxi/car – whatever it was –
didn’t have much for brakes. Before we
got to the top of a hill, he would let his foot off the gas and coast us up and
then down the hill. Getting out in
Luperon, which this morning seemed quite bustling and busy, now seemed sleepy
and quiet in comparison with Puerto Plata.
It was a fun day.
April 4, 2000
Luperon, Dominican Republic
A few days ago we got up one morning and turned on the SSB radio
to listen to the Cruiseheimer’s Net.
8:30 east coast time came and went – no net. Then it occurs to us that maybe daylight savings has come to the
U.S. So we flip on the computer and
sure enough – time had “sprung ahead” without us. It’s a good thing too because the D.R. doesn’t do daylight
savings time and Atlantic Time was one hour ahead of EST. Having to calculate – what time is it here,
in Florida, and in Minnesota was tedious.
So we get to drop one of those calculations.
We’ve just been to Santiago!
What a wonderful day. We
provisioned at a grocery store called the “Nationale”. A supermarket just like in the States only
they didn’t have any instant tea or ready-to-eat canned foods like ravioli or
stew. Most prices were just like the
States. And, unfortunately, since we’ve
been here we’ve been unable to find fat free milk. They only carry 1% with the word “diet” on the label.
Sea Trek, September Song, Viking Rose, and us pooled together to
rent a van and driver. What a
deal! 800 pesos for the day – among the
4 boats that only came to $12.50US each.
Our first stop put us in the wholesale market area of town. I would imagine someplace in China to look
like this. Potato’s, garlic, all manner
of fruits and vegetables lying in piles on a tarp in the street – along with
cars, buses, horses, and donkeys. All
of the chickens were either caged or had a string tied around one leg. In all the city streets we’ve been on,
Luperon included, the gutters are filled with trash and scary looking
water. You have to be careful getting
on or off the curb. We also got to
browse the Ferrateria (hardware stores) and they had dishware and weird items
in them just like in the States. Dylan
was able to find a case of Huggies diapers (at, believe it or not, a big
Huggies warehouse). Cindy promised to
buy them if Dylan promised to be potty trained before they got to Trinidad
(typists note: yep, he did keep his promise!).
Sea Trek and Hetty Brace scored on a couple of cases of El
Presidente. We also went to the
farmacia (pharmacy) where we were able to buy medicine that you would need a
prescription for in the U.S. Which
brings me to the topic of the United States.
Butter is so expensive in the U.S. as is hamburger and lamb. And why can other countries manage to sell
lean hamburger at a reasonable price when the U.S. does not? And why do you need a prescription for cold
sore medication? Or for refills on
birth control pills? I’ll bet the
answer lies in one word: Money. Somebody in the U.S. has a racket going.
It was really an experience walking the streets with all that
mayhem. The way people drive their
vehicles is different – they seem to pass on 2 lane roads more often than we do
or would think is safe. Sometimes our
driver would pass a car and we’d be traveling head on towards oncoming
traffic. Some of the turns consist of
inching the car into traffic until the oncoming cars have no choice but to stop
for you to pass. I really couldn’t
drive on these streets. They also honk
their horns often. But no one gets
angry – there’s none of the gesturing or other anger behavior you see in the
States. They just continue on. The other day I saw this food vendor run
into a stopped motorcycle. I fully
expected them to yell at each other but they just looked at each other and
laughed.
From the wholesale district we went to lunch. Many restaurants have many archways around
the building or maybe a roof with supporting pillars. It makes for a very cool, comfortable place to eat. Many stores have no doors – or rather the
doors are roll up garage type doors that they open in the morning and leave
open until they close.
After lunch we did the shopping.
La Sirena is like a Target or Wal-Mart.
And on either side are many clothing stores. Many street vendors also line the sidewalk to sell sunglasses,
barrettes for hair, purses, cassette tapes, and hats. Sometimes Santiago would look like Chicago – other times it
reminded me of Havana. It was quite a
city and the surrounding countryside is incredible. When we drove into Santiago in the morning, the air pollution was
very visible. But outside the city, the
green jungles, mountains, valleys, and small towns were such a delight to see.
April 5, 2000
Luperon, Dominican Republic
Today is our three-year wedding anniversary! What a wonderful place to spend it! We rented a motorcycle and wandered the
countryside to La Isabella. La Isabella
is where Columbus landed in 1492-93. We
went to a national park that is the original site of his house and the first
Spanish settlement in the New World.
Near as I can tell (all the museum information was in Spanish) this
settlement managed to wipe out the native Indians who lived here previously. The Tuanos, they were called.
Mitchell and I both agree that we must learn Spanish before our
next trip. We also want to dig up
history of places we visit so we can better understand what we’ve seen and
where we’ve been.
They also had a skeleton of some Spanish boy that dated back 500
years. The display consisted of a low
wall around the skeleton with chicken wire covering the top. I would imagine U.S. archeologists cringing
at the thought of this old skeleton sitting here open to the elements.
A guide walked through the park with us although we didn’t realize
it until a small bit of time had passed and he didn’t go away. His English was about as good as my
Spanish. He could speak a bit but
didn’t understand very much. I asked,
how old are these pottery fragments and he would reply “Yes!”.
At the end of the tour, he showed us some woodcarvings the locals
make. The replicate the statues the
Tuanos carved. They even use the same
special wood and the exact same carving processes. The tree they use for the wood looks like a bonsai tree. The tree our guided showed us was over 500
years old – the wood is fossilized and very heavy. It’s amazing to look at the wood and see the carvings and imagine
that anyone could create such beautiful carvings from such hard ugly wood.
After the national park we rode by Los Americas Temple – I think
it was the first church in the New World.
The restaurant we had lunch in was at the top of a mountain with a
fantastic view of the beautiful countryside and ocean. Lunch was fantastic too – 5 grilled snapper
caught fresh that morning and salad and Papa Fritas.
We didn’t encounter the traffic on this road like the busier roads
to Puerto Plata or Santiago. We did
encounter a lot of cattle being moved down the road, many boys on donkeys, a
mother pig and her piglets, and turkeys.
Your eyes continually soak up the beauty of the lush green of the
hillside and the slower paced lifestyle of the villages. Everyone is so nice and everyone says “hola”
as you pass.
April 9, 2000
Luperon, Dominican Republic
We’re still in Luperon, waiting for a weather window. A large, nasty cold front is bearing down on
us. It should be here tomorrow, then a
high pressure system will fill in and blow hard on Tuesday. Then we wait for the seas to settle before
heading out.
This is probably my favorite place. You can’t swim here (in the harbor) but the mountains are so
beautiful and there are birds and fish to watch and the town is so lively. We went into town today and had lunch at Los
Almadros. It’s located at the center of
town and has a second story patio. So
we sat on the patio and watched the hub-bub below. Everything you need is here and it’s not too expensive. There’s a pescadara on the way into
town. We sometimes pick up a snapper
for 20 pesos. We’ve seen them cutting
bigger fish too.
We’re torn as to which way to head north. Sometimes we think we’ll take the Old Bahama
Channel – it’s a straight shot to the Keys in Florida – 600+ miles. The problem is there’s no place to bail out
if the weather gets bad. Bit it has a
strong current that could give us an extra knot of speed. The down side is, we would rush our trip and
we wouldn’t get to see the clear waters of the Bahamas. So if we can get out before Saturday, we’re
heading back to the Exumas. Hopefully
the water will be warm enough to snorkel.
If we can’t get out by Saturday, we’ll have to re-think.
Right now I’m sitting in the cockpit – it’s neither too cold nor
too hot. The air is not too humid or
too dry. The crickets are all chirping and
the water is as still as glass. Every
now and then I can hear a fish splash in the water. It’s perfect and it’s so relaxing. Oh, a two knot breeze has come up. And you know what? It’s
perfect too.
There’s a boat in the harbor named “Experience Mitchell”. We’re going to try to get a picture of
it. Why do you think they chose
“Experience Mitchell” for a boat name?
April 10, 2000
Luperon, Dominican Republic
I may have mentioned, there are many things to do in the Republica
Dominica. Many daily tours. As soon as you get into port, the other
boaters have had such a good time on these trips, they are compelled to tell
you about them. All about them. In great detail. Again and again and again.
And all of them tell of the exact same phenomenal experience. We’ve heard about the “waterfall trip” and
the “horseback riding trip” so much that we felt that we’ve done them
ourselves. So now we’ve decided to tell
the other boaters about some new tours:
“The Porcupine Jungle Walk” and the “Horseback Waterfall Combo” where
instead of getting a guide who pulls you up through the waterfall, you get to
pull your horse up the waterfall.
We won’t go into great detail, though. We’ll just gush about the phenomenal experience and how “you have
to do this tour!”.
We are “IN” with Herb now.
Herb says we should probably wait until Saturday to move. So we’re playing it day by day. All the boats in the harbor are ready to
travel so hearing that the weather won’t be good for 4 plus days makes some of
them desperate. In the harbor we all
share our weather forecasts. We have
Herb, weatherfax and David on Misstine.
We do the 2 former as we don’t really know David and we’ve heard you
must “subscribe” in order for him to give you a forecast. Well today David said it was fine to leave
on Tuesday or Wednesday. Herb said no
and our weatherfax said no. We decided
to stay put. Oddly, the folks who insist
David is right are still here too. Some
folks will grasp at any information that indicates they can move. We know and have been told many times by
others that weather information is rarely “wrong”. It’s a talent to pool 4 or more sources of weather and get a good
picture of how the weather will be in your area. The error that will make your trip miserable is selecting 1 of 4
sources and deciding that 1 of 4 is correct while the other 3 are wrong.
We heard many people report into Herb saying they ignored his
advice, traveled anyway and got beat up.
We’ve yet to hear anyone who did follow his advice and get beat up. So we wait until later in the week. Meanwhile we’ll get everyone talking about
the phenomenal “Porcupine Jungle Walk” tour.
April 13, 2000
Luperon, Dominican Republic
We climbed a mountain today!
Tom, Mitchell and I just walked through town and up the nearby
mountain. First we had to walk through
some fields with cows in them. Then we
found a cow trail. The trail was
covered in areas with trees and cacti growing overhead. In the morning it was cool, like walking
into air conditioning. The breeze smelled
rich with the vegetation growing all around.
ON the trail, we ran into Ramon.
Ramon was a farmer and he was riding a donkey. He was very friendly and he had a sack of papayas – he gave us
some for breakfast. They were good –
very sweet. He said it was fine to
continue walking through his land up to the top of the mountain. The cows were encountered we’re so close
that I could have reached out and touched them (typists note: Michelle grew up in the city and saw her
first cow when she was 15. She was
pretty sure that these cows could’ve attacked if they so decided). They are pretty skittish though – we
encountered them on the trail and they would stop in their tracks. They didn’t want to walk past us (typists
note: they didn’t want to attack us,
either).
We saw cow patties all the way to the summit. That was really surprising because it was
not an easy climb in some spots. I
can’t imagine that it would be easy to climb up if I were a cow. Some areas were very steep. When we made it to the top, we called Cindy
on our handheld VHF radio and asked her to look through the binoculars to see
if she could see us. At first she
couldn’t, then Mitchell signaled with the blade of his Swiss Army Knife in the
sun -then she saw us.
On the way down, we ran into Ramon again. He showed us his chickens and all of the
eggs. He also let me ride his
burro. It wasn’t easy getting on or off
but it was really neat riding a burro with a saddle made of straw and goat
hide.
Now we’re all pretty worn out from the day’s events. I think that we may have a few stiff muscles
tomorrow. We may try to clear out
tomorrow in preparation for leaving this weekend. We’ll have to see what the weather looks like…