Hi, just wanted to give a quick report on taking public transit from Cabarete to Las Galeras today. I called one day before the trip to Transportes Papagallo (809) 749-6415, and in Spanish we arranged to be picked up in front of Janet's supermarket at the bus stop (covered waiting area next to a school on the main road) heading east at 7:30. The minibus arrived at around 7:50, and was half-full. Instead of purple the van was light/dark blue. It was no frills, 300 pesos each, with intermittent music blaring over the central audio system, but professional. We had two quick reststops to get some snacks and/or use the bathroom. We requested to go to Samana bus station for the guaguas to las galeras. We had to reiterate that we wanted to go to Las Galeras and not Las Terrenas, as our driver had initially thought, and so did not get off at Sanchez but continued into
Samana without problem. It took about 3.5hrs to get to Samana, and after getting to the guagua station there,we passed through a thicket of motoconchos and asked around for a guagua to las galeras, which turned out to be a pick-up truck with some benches in the bed of the truck to throw some people in the back. There was a sign up front signaling the trip to Las Galeras, and after loading my sole carrying into the back and getting enough people to go, we drove onward to Las Galeras. It was slow at first, trying to pick up additional passengers through Samana, and with occasional stops along the way for the driver or passengers, but ultimately got us to the main intersection at Las Galeras after about 1 hour for 100 pesos each. All in all, it worked out well and for a good price, and would highly recommend calling to confirm the pickup time and location with the Papagallo team before making the trip.