2. Caribbean Crossing takes a big U-Turn

the National Memorial in the Dominican Republic capital, Santo Domingo

Many people don’t seem to realise that there’s a Dominican Republic and a Dominica, both in the Caribbean.  The D. Republic has about two thirds of the island of Hispaniola which it shares with Haiti to the west.  The island is neatly tucked between Cuba and Puerto Rico.  We arrived at the capital, Santo Domingo and whizzed in from the airport on a beautifully maintained road into the old town where the surface deteriorated somewhat.  Most of the way our taxi driver was telling us about all the places he could take us.   Immediately we arrived in the old town though, it was obvious that it had a different atmosphere to the Bahamas which we've just come from.  Definitely Latin American, definitely livelier and more exciting and we realised that Nassau was just well, bland really.

I thought a little geography might be slipped in at some point and this is as good a point as any.  The various groupings I mention here vary a bit from source to source but this is close enough for a rough guide.   The Caribbean consists of the Greater and the Lesser Antilles.  The Greater Antilles are the northern and westernmost, which contain the bigger islands, Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.  The Lesser Antilles are the rest, running in a long curve eastwards a little and then southwards towards the Venezuelan coastline.  The Lesser Antilles are themselves divided into the northern islands which are the Windward Islands and the southern ones which are Leeward Islands.  The West Indies Cricket Association (the Windies) is mostly made up from the old British Caribbean islands in the Lesser Antilles plus Jamaica and a couple of unlikely others such as Sint Maarten (Dutch) and the US Virgin Islands.

The old colonial town of Santo Domingo is interesting for architecture and there’s even a sprinkling of Art Deco but the greater newer town is not somewhere we’re going to bother to visit even though, to our surprise, we find out that it has a subway system.  Late in the afternoon here it’s still

the Art Deco tobacco factory

very warm and a little on the humid side as we have a little stroll.  We bump into Ingrid, an Austrian woman travelling on her own who we had queued with for the connecting flight from Nassau in the Turks and Caicos Islands.  We were to meet up by chance several times in the next few days and then we found out we were staying in the same hotel.  She’s here for five weeks and has bravely rented a car.  I’ve seen the driving.  According to World Health Organisation 2015 report figures, in the UK we have 5.1 deaths a year per 100,000 vehicles (2.9 per 100,00 population), in the USA it’s 12.9 (10.6 per 100,000 pop) and here in the D. Rep it’s 94.9 (29.3 per 100,000 pop).

The old town looks very familiar in that we’ve been to lots of places like this in Latin America although this one has a lot of claimed firsts e.g. first hospital in the Americas, first paved street, first cathedral.  The cathedral was destroyed and looted at one point by Sir Francis Drake when acting as a state sponsored pirate 


but of course this was before English football supporters had got passports.  So we’ve settled into the Spanish style paseo in the late afternoon warmth and a drink at a pavement café before dinner.  Every day.  The action such as it is takes place in a relatively small area radiating out from near the cathedral and only fifty yards from our hotel.  Our room in the Hotel Palacio opens onto a classic Spanish style central courtyard garden with the walls around it painted terracotta.  It’s very attractive and a great location for us.  Quite a lot of the cars we see driving around here are in considerably worse

certainly not the worst we saw

condition than those in Havana, many of the buildings are in a sorry state too even though if restored they would look very impressive.  The various hawkers and taxi drivers are not pushy.  “You wanna taxi,” “no thanks” is quite sufficient but the taxis don’t have meters so asking the price and then negotiating is normal.  Yes, a lot of it seems mighty familiar.  What was different was seeing how many women were dressed really well for the evening out in what my more fashion conscious travelling companion declared were expensive outfits.  There are definitely some expensive restaurants around and we did eat in one such excellent vegetarian one.  It was so good I had to use my second dessert stomach.  Most restaurants though are reasonable even in the heart of this capital city.

the oldest paved street in the Americas,
probably repaved since the 1500s

The Dominicans are vociferous in their claim that Columbus landed here first on his 1492 jaunt although I think that it’s generally believed to be an unknown Bahamian Island.  














Columbus is allegedly buried in the Cathedral in the capital and also in Spain and Italy according to the Spaniards

the cathedral in which Christopher Columbus
almost certainly isn't buried 

and the Italians.  Well we know he got about a bit but he seems to have also got about in bits.  As Columbus died in northern Spain, his discovery wasn’t known to be wildly important at the time and DNA testing shows that the remains in Seville are his, the Dominican’s claim looks a bit thin.  Oh, and they won’t agree to DNA testing.  On the way in from the airport is a huge Columbus monument and I really cannot do better than the Lonely Planet description “resembling a cross between a Soviet era apartment block and a Las Vegas-style ancient Mayan Ruin”.  It is a very accurate description.

Los Tres Ojos

One of the local attractions is Los Tres Ojos (the three eyes), a big limestone sinkhole with three large pools linked through caverns filled with stalagmites and tites.  One lake is reached by a large raft/boat pulled across fifty yards or so by rope, just like the imagined journey across the Styx and yes, we paid the Ferryman.  The whole thing is very impressive and not at all claustrophobic and it was cool and quiet because we were early-ish and ahead of the crowds.  There were at least a dozen or so people already inside and yet when I proferred a Dom$500 note for a Dom$400 entrance fee, there was no change available.  So I took the note back and then the woman at the desk went off and magically found some change.  So I suppose the hope is that I just say keep the change.  Our taxi was Dom$300 at first quote but 150 by the time we agreed a price (Dom$50 =  US$1) and the driver insisted on waiting for us despite us saying we didn’t want him to.  We know full well that a local would probably pay Dom$50 for the same ride but that’s expected.  “I will wait for you, an hour” he kept saying.  At one point he glimpsed us walking around and waved.  When we exited after an hour and a half, he’d gone.  I know these are small amounts to us but whatever the amount I just don’t like to think I’m being ripped off.

the ferry and ferryman

Ingrid who I mentioned above told us that once in New York she’d got a cab and realised it was taking a longer route than it shouldto her destination.  When she paid the exact amount the driver said “No tip ?”.  She said “No, I’ve been here five weeks and that wasn’t the shortest way but thanks for the sightseeing tour”.  Spot on.

Hostels are good places for information about trips and places to see so we went to the only one in the old town, run by an Englishman of about his late 30’s.  He’d travelled a lot, married a Dominican woman and decided to run a good hostel having learned by experience what a good one was.  So, he bought an absolute ruin (we saw the photos) dating from the 1600s, and spent two years restoring what is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, he says.  Anyway he was very helpful and free with information for us old folks and we now know where else we’re going to go in this country in the next week or so.

Now that U-turn I mentioned at the top.  Despite what we read before we arrived about local air travel being priced for locals it turns out to be eye wateringly expensive.  It cost us over US$800 to fly from Nassau to Santa Domingo, about 600 miles.  The only other way to get here from Nassau is to fly somewhere else first like Florida because there aren't ferries between the larger islands of the Greater Antilles.  It's a similar price to fly from here to Antigua with the only alternative a ferry to Puerto Rico and fly from there - and that's even more expensive.  We hoped that once we got south of Antigua we would be using ferries a fair bit.  So some proper research just had to be done.  We find that there isn’t a ferry from Antigua to Guadaloupe so that’s another flight, there isn’t a ferry from St Lucia south or from  …..  anyway you get the picture.  Then to cap it all, to fly from Trinidad, our last Caribbean stop to Lima would cost over $1,500 for both of us.  While we were looking at this we got an email from a site that tells us about cheap flights from the UK and while it would cost us $800, about £640 just to fly from D. Rep to Antigua, we could both fly London to Antigua RETURN for £850.  Well that’s market forces for you and just like consumers everywhere with a choice we don’t have to buy and we’re not going to.

The Caribbean has been ripped up figuratively speaking and we are going straight to Peru instead.  Straight though does mean via Fort Lauderdale in Florida which is a popular route and will only be costing $350 for both of us for the first leg.  It is a disappointment not to see more of the Caribbean this time but the way we travel with minimal, well no plan really except a return ticket, we have to be prepared to adjust in the light of the unexpected. 

right in the middle of the old town, El Conde, our favourite bar