It was only 2 1/2 hours to Santo Domingo. Seemed like we should visit the capitol of this country if we were going to see it all. Seemed like we would be in well before dark. Seemed like all was going well - and then it wasn't!
OMG - Steve gets the award for the best adaptation to driving in a place where there apparently are no road signs, lanes, speed limits or anything else! All was fine until we were about 20 minutes from the city. Suddenly the traffic was bumper to bumper for the next 90 minutes.
Calling it the Dodge 'ems doesn't begin
to do it justice, its the most aggressive driver wins! After trying
to find our Radisson Hotel in the dark we finally came upon a
wonderful young woman cab driver who led us to it. The hotel was
very poorly marked and very hard to see if you didn't know where it
was. Our navigator was less than helpful (that would be me). We were
very happy to arrive about 90 minutes later than expected, ordered
room service and made it an early night.
We left Santo Domingo this morning
after a nice stay at the Radisson – what might be our last
“civilized” place we stay while in the Dominican Republic. You
know – TV, internet, room service, etc. It's Airbnb from here on
out. Not sure what we'll find!
Without a GPS and a true map (I was
able to use screen shots from the computer) and no usable phone (not
sure why our “works everywhere phone” doesn't), it's been a
challenge. Plus neither Steve nor I speak any measurable amount of
Spanish (where are you Wendy and Tom when we need you??).
Addresses?? Forget it. Road signs?
Nonexistent for the most part. Motorbikes, a major method of travel,
were whizzing by on both sides while we searched in vain for our turn
off for our lodging for Saturday night.
No luck and no one to ask
because virtually no one spoke English and we're relying on my Spanish from 9th and 10th grade :-( . We decided to go into the town of Samana,
where we were headed tomorrow for the whale watch trip, to ask for
help, because we thought they likely would speak English.
Kim (the owner of the whale watching company) was
wonderful and we managed to finally find our way to Villa Rosita.
This place has 4 bedrooms and 2
bathrooms. Should be large enough for us :-) Right on the water. Must
be something that just draws us to the water. Home for 2 nights.
In the meantime, we share the road with
some interesting vehicles. Mostly mopeds that ride in the berm on the
sides of the road, or on the road, or cutting around in-between the
cars – especially in the populated areas.
It's amazing we haven't seen anyone get
killed yet. I can't believe the craziness of it all.
The land itself changes from mountains
to flat lands as the drive north takes us from the southern shore to
the northern shore – in about 2 hours.
Most roads on the north end have
homes/businesses - using both words loosely - lining the street. This is a very poor country for
sure. And the currency? 100 pesos is worth $2.12 US. Even when we
withdrew the maximum of $600 from the ATM it was only $13 and change
US. People must have to carry $1000 peso bills to even do anything –
like buy food or gas.
We did inadvertently manage to find a
nice place for lunch overlooking Samana Bay – where we leave from
tomorrow for the whale watching trip. It was good to scope it out for
tomorrow.
Right now, Steve is trying to open a
can of corn as a part of our dinner – but no can openers in the
place. He's using a meat clever …..
I can't wait to see what tomorrow
brings!!
No comments:
Post a Comment