3. Bye Bye Caribbean

northern Dominican Republic from the Puerto Plata cable car

Jarabacoa Mountain Hostal 

The centre of this island of Hispaniola has mountains and we decided to take the local bus from Santo Domingo to Jabaracoa in the foothills.  It was a novel experience at the bus station where to pay with a credit card we were expected to pass the card across and then tell the cashier the pin number so she could key it in.  Naturally we paid cash instead, handing over a cool DOM$700 in used notes, very used notes worth approx. £12/$14.  Jarabacoa is a bit cooler than Santo Domingo, not much but at least it is less humid.  When we arrived, the taxi to our hotel was negotiated to 150 pesos, about twice what a local would pay but coming in at about £2.50/$3 we weren’t too taxed about it.  Our Hostal (that is the correct spelling here) had been recommended and I know most of you will probably be thinking Hostel ?  Well it also probably isn’t what you think.  What it means is an establishment with dormitories and also en-suite rooms with air-con and wi-fi just as you get in a regular hotel.  The major difference is that no food is served,

the communal sitting and dining room

not even for ready money, although tea and coffee were available whenever wanted on a do-it-yourself basis.  There’s a communal kitchen for those who want it and a large communal sitting area.  This particular one had leather sofas, a well equipped and very clean kitchen and it was in a lovely new building.  Our first floor room was very good with a balcony looking over the garden.   Jarabacoa itself didn’t match up to the delights of our accommodation though. 

Baiguate waterfall

There were only a couple of things of note here.  Somewhat bizarrely, a Japanese garden with a vermillion Torii (ceremonial arch) plus a curved bridge, also vermillion, over a pool in a small square nowhere near the centre.  Secondly, the Italian restaurant where we ate one night and whose owner delivered our dinner the following night to us.   While we were here we decided to visit a waterfall a little out of town where we expected to see and possibly swim in a limpid pool or two below the falls.  Unfortunately it had rained heavily the previous night and while the falls were spectacular, the water itself was the colour of hot chocolate and we saw quite a lot of the Dominican Republic flowing past us as we stood on the bank.  We did see the classic local planting nearby of what’s known as The Three Sisters, maize, beans and squash all together.  The maize grows tall and supports the beans which fix atmospheric nitrogen (a fertiliser) in the soil while the squash spreads, suppresses weeds and stops evaporation from the soil surface.  Just a beautiful arrangement which also produces crops with a very balanced diet.

the one that 
came off last year

So we now headed for Puerto Plata on the north coast for a few days, home of the only cablecar in the Caribbean.   We were still undecided how long we were staying in this country.   As it happened, once we were there we met up again with Ingrid from Austria for lunch and she very kindly gave us a lift in her car back to our hotel which meant we were only slightly drenched in the unexpected tropical storm.  While internet searching for our accommodation here Heather came across one place quoting “One bed apartment with kitchen steps from the beach”.  Loved to have seen it.  Let’s just not bother with that dang punctuation, not even random apostrophes.  On a number of occasions here we had the usual from guides touting for business “where you from ?” “somos Ingleses” “England, lubbly, jubbly”.  We’d met that response before but a new one on us was “Nice to see you, to see you nice”.   Both very much British references so I’m afraid some of you won’t understand that at all.

When we’re on these more adventurous trips we tend to work out a few tips for ourselves, then we forget and rediscover some of them each trip.  These are what my Dad would have called ‘dodges’ or ‘wrinkles’.  One is to take an unusual amount from an ATM, so if you’re offered a choice in thousands or ‘different amount’, choose different amount and key in 4,800 or similar.  That way you don’t just get large denomination notes that the average local can’t give change for.

the local fishmonger

The owner of the small hotel we stayed in at Puerto Plata was Swiss and told us that there were no rules for driving in the Dominican Republic and that meant that everyone looked all the time.  

the main square, Puerto Plata

It amused us that a Swiss woman thought that having no rules was good as the Swiss are usually considered absolute sticklers for rules.  No rules doesn’t prevent the country having an appalling safety record though, not aided by not having to have a licence to ride a motor bike or having to wear a helmet while doing so.  If you are interested the number of people killed annually per 100,000 vehicles is 5.1 in the UK, 12.9 in the USA and 94.9 in the Dominican Republic.

This area is right in hurricane alley; remember how Haiti was devastated and that is geographically just next door to the west.  When you look around and see the semi fixed sheets of corrugated iron on roofs and buildings that you’d normally think were derelict it really isn’t surprising that serious damage is sustained.  The picture which is included of what looks like a small shack was taken from the roof of our 
hotel.  The small shack is actually built on top 
of the third floor of a house nearby.

a Dominican Republic design malfunction

During our stay in Puerto Plata we decided that we and the Dom R were about done with each other.  There are apparently beautiful beaches further along the north coast.  We certainly were not going to the heavy big hotel area in the far east of the country.  There is the potential for malaria along the Haitian border to the west and we haven’t brought tablets for that, to keep the weight of the bags down you know.  So we’re headed back to Santo Domingo for an overnight stop before our morning flight to Peru via Fort Lauderdale in Florida.  That’s the Caribbean, North America and South America all in the same day although I think most people would agree that we haven’t seen any of the ‘real’ Caribbean.                                                                                                                                                             

from the Malecon, Puerto Plata