After lurking in the forum for months before our trip, I figured I owed this report to everyone here whose comments/postings and wisdom helped us prepare for our first trip to the DR. Sorry this is so long. And probably boring.
Arrival at Las Americas:
Nice little group of musicians playing something upbeat and jump into duty free to grab some tequila at 20 USD for Cuervo gold..about US prices. Happy Days.
Immigration & Customs, no problem, altho they did take our photo (no fingerprints) the camera took about 15 seconds to work so we awkwardly stood there waiting for it to flash after she pressed the button. Declarations area was 2 girls at the end of the corridor, doing their nails who took the paperwork without even looking and waved us on. We had carryon so no luggage pickup. My partner wants to stop for a beer before exiting the airport. I won't bore you with flight details but it had been a long day. I needed to get a sim card so I went to Claro booth at arrivals. I get what I need and my partner finished his beer and came back with a story. He speaks no spanish. He asked "cuanta por una cerveza por favor". She replies 450. He asks 4.50US or RD. She replies 450RD. My partner knows the exchange rate...he questions here again...she angrily replies YES. Well, he is thirsty so he said ok. Partner looks over at the only other guy standing at the bar who rolls his eyes and shakes his head. After she brings the beer (a pequeno btw) she slams it on the table as she repeats; No, No,NO! one slam for each repetition. At this point my partner said in english, I wasn't planning on slamming my beer on the table but thanks very much for showing me. She retired to her perch above him with arms folded and glaring at him the entire time he took to finish the beer. No clue what that was about.
Avis rental car counter;
We had already paid for the car and just needed to arrange the insurance..knowing we were told to get full coverage despite having credit card coverage in the US, we asked the price. $60.00USD a day. Really. How about if we limit liability to 100k? Down to $34USD per day. Taxable. It include windshield and tire coverage which was old separately. Fine, we are tired after a long day of travel and agree to that. $750.00 hold on our credit card and off we go to the shuttle bus. Inside the actual Avis rental car office, very pleasant reception..friendly and helpful. We did have to check in again and do the car once over but we are even given a nice map and off we go.
Driving to Las Galeras:
I should mention here that I have less than high school spanish and my partner has none. We've always seemed to get by with dozens of driving trips through Mexico and no major incidents. I understand more than I can speak. The car has full tank and we find the highway pretty easily with help from this forum and a youtube video.
We stopped about halfway down the toll road for a pitstop and refreshment at a Texaco...all good. The road is very good, not much traffic to speak of..we go the speed limit and are passed by everyone except the many motorcycles driving on the shoulder. We see lots of highway helper patrols and one or two AMET. The mountanous part of the road through Los Haitese (sp?) was beautiful..it rained alittle and clouds helped keep us cool driving at the heat of the day.
We get to Samana cutoff, it is well marked, we make the right turn and head off. There are alot of little villages all along this road to Samana. It is 5ish pm on a Saturday. We wonder...does everyone in this part of the country live on the street? I mean physically ON the street. Trucks,cars and bikes...ok we expect that..we didnt expect all the people. Lots of double parked vehicles, ton of people walking in the center of the street and if they are not walking they have chairs out and have their feet resting on the pavement. Trying to pass the stalled, slowed or double parked vehicles is difficult. We go slow and avoid any incidents, using the horn and having it used on us. We found out later that Sat night when the sun begins to set is party time, not an ideal time to be driving.
We finally hit Samana and round the bend for Las Galeras. Samana is not impressive but maybe without the hordes of humanity it has more appeal. We had planned to stop for provisions here but the darkening skies and total chaos moved us forward to our destination.
The road which was already smaller and more poorly maintained after the Samana turnoff got worse after passing the AI's in Samana and we were glad we still had dusklight to see the washed out roads and obstacles includes topes that seemed to have no purpose. We saw the open manholes with palm leaves sticking out- thanks for the warnings there fellow posters!
Before we find La Isleta Apartments, we stop in town for a few cold grandes...we earned them, after a somewhat harrowing drive.
I'm going to stop here and post more in another section...this was way too long, my apologies but maybe it will help someone or at least give some folks some cannon fodder. I'm ready.
Arrival at Las Americas:
Nice little group of musicians playing something upbeat and jump into duty free to grab some tequila at 20 USD for Cuervo gold..about US prices. Happy Days.
Immigration & Customs, no problem, altho they did take our photo (no fingerprints) the camera took about 15 seconds to work so we awkwardly stood there waiting for it to flash after she pressed the button. Declarations area was 2 girls at the end of the corridor, doing their nails who took the paperwork without even looking and waved us on. We had carryon so no luggage pickup. My partner wants to stop for a beer before exiting the airport. I won't bore you with flight details but it had been a long day. I needed to get a sim card so I went to Claro booth at arrivals. I get what I need and my partner finished his beer and came back with a story. He speaks no spanish. He asked "cuanta por una cerveza por favor". She replies 450. He asks 4.50US or RD. She replies 450RD. My partner knows the exchange rate...he questions here again...she angrily replies YES. Well, he is thirsty so he said ok. Partner looks over at the only other guy standing at the bar who rolls his eyes and shakes his head. After she brings the beer (a pequeno btw) she slams it on the table as she repeats; No, No,NO! one slam for each repetition. At this point my partner said in english, I wasn't planning on slamming my beer on the table but thanks very much for showing me. She retired to her perch above him with arms folded and glaring at him the entire time he took to finish the beer. No clue what that was about.
Avis rental car counter;
We had already paid for the car and just needed to arrange the insurance..knowing we were told to get full coverage despite having credit card coverage in the US, we asked the price. $60.00USD a day. Really. How about if we limit liability to 100k? Down to $34USD per day. Taxable. It include windshield and tire coverage which was old separately. Fine, we are tired after a long day of travel and agree to that. $750.00 hold on our credit card and off we go to the shuttle bus. Inside the actual Avis rental car office, very pleasant reception..friendly and helpful. We did have to check in again and do the car once over but we are even given a nice map and off we go.
Driving to Las Galeras:
I should mention here that I have less than high school spanish and my partner has none. We've always seemed to get by with dozens of driving trips through Mexico and no major incidents. I understand more than I can speak. The car has full tank and we find the highway pretty easily with help from this forum and a youtube video.
We stopped about halfway down the toll road for a pitstop and refreshment at a Texaco...all good. The road is very good, not much traffic to speak of..we go the speed limit and are passed by everyone except the many motorcycles driving on the shoulder. We see lots of highway helper patrols and one or two AMET. The mountanous part of the road through Los Haitese (sp?) was beautiful..it rained alittle and clouds helped keep us cool driving at the heat of the day.
We get to Samana cutoff, it is well marked, we make the right turn and head off. There are alot of little villages all along this road to Samana. It is 5ish pm on a Saturday. We wonder...does everyone in this part of the country live on the street? I mean physically ON the street. Trucks,cars and bikes...ok we expect that..we didnt expect all the people. Lots of double parked vehicles, ton of people walking in the center of the street and if they are not walking they have chairs out and have their feet resting on the pavement. Trying to pass the stalled, slowed or double parked vehicles is difficult. We go slow and avoid any incidents, using the horn and having it used on us. We found out later that Sat night when the sun begins to set is party time, not an ideal time to be driving.
We finally hit Samana and round the bend for Las Galeras. Samana is not impressive but maybe without the hordes of humanity it has more appeal. We had planned to stop for provisions here but the darkening skies and total chaos moved us forward to our destination.
The road which was already smaller and more poorly maintained after the Samana turnoff got worse after passing the AI's in Samana and we were glad we still had dusklight to see the washed out roads and obstacles includes topes that seemed to have no purpose. We saw the open manholes with palm leaves sticking out- thanks for the warnings there fellow posters!
Before we find La Isleta Apartments, we stop in town for a few cold grandes...we earned them, after a somewhat harrowing drive.
I'm going to stop here and post more in another section...this was way too long, my apologies but maybe it will help someone or at least give some folks some cannon fodder. I'm ready.