I will do the best I can to recount the final week of our trip when we drove from LG to Bayahibe
altho it certainly isn't as vivid after all these months. I do want to thank the members of this forum for honest and accurate
information and opinions. It made the world of difference in preparing us for the DR.
If Las Galeras is the dog capital of the Dominican, Bayahibe has to be the chicken capital. While in LG,
there were dogs everywhere, many "adopted" by shop owners. In Bayahibe the only dogs seen were at the end of an owners leash
BUT loose chickens abound. Roosters crow at all hours in an endless cacophony, sort of explains why the neighborhood plays their music so loudly.
But first our drive, we head out really early to avoid traffic...making good time and stopping for gas after we get many miles outside of
Samana, which was still a flurry of activity..does that place never empty out?
We pass the little towns with their balloons filled with cheese? hanging from all the shops..pass the town that has Flintstone size ribs on every store
ledge...make it onto the toll road with no problems. Stop at our familiar Texaco across from the highway patrol station and onward to SD.
We make the correct turn and head east to Bayahibe but still not on the highway but a service road on the wrong side (north)...we find an underpass to turn under the highway to find an "on" ramp on the south side and there is a police car blocking our way with a traffic stop in the lane furthest to the left which seems to be the wrong side of the road. because all the cars are not facing us but going in our direction. Husband just takes the open lane to the right of the concrete barrier going the wrong way as we pass right by the cops. Guess the driving habits of the locals is rubbing off on us. We make our turn onto the highway heading east shortly after. Lots of traffic, construction...we are running later than we expected but make it to Bayahibe with only a few wrong turns. Finding the B&B we are staying at for the week was another story. We wander around passing the same places over and over again (the true measure of insanity?) trying to find Bayahibe Guest house.
Finally we deviate from our maddening pattern and find it.
The owner meets us after a quick text, we get settled in and are pretty pleased with ourselves. It is a newer building with a nice bathroom and walkin shower. Bedroom is small but has an a/c unit (more on that later) and the adjoining the rooftop terrace is huge and covered with a great palapa roof. The small kitchenette is outside on the terrace Perfect. We open up some adult beverages and unwind on our cushy lounge chairs. Oh, there is a jacuzzi on the deck too!
After an adequate pickling of our livers we take a walk around town to acquaint ourselves, try out a few bars, eat a few snacks and head back picking up some bottled water, eggs, bread etc for our kitchen. My first impressions are this is a more affluent town compared to LG, cleaner...less like the wild west, more "civilized" for lack of a better word.
The last place we stayed at in LG had good fans and no a/c, worked fine for us..it was December after all. This place had a fan which we took outside on our terrace to help with airflow and at night we found we had to shut the sliding glass door and put on the a/c...not because it was hot....it was to drown out the incessant rooster calls. All night long...all day long. We ate some great grilled chicken, rice beans chicken, eggs and still the population did not quiet down.
After a few days we seemed to be able to ignore it better. We drove to the public beach of Dominicus..paid for a lounge chair and umbrella and spent a lovely day there drinking and snacking at different seafood shacks on the beach. The waves and undertow were a challenge on the day we went. I am a strong swimmer but I actually realize the danger I placed myself in going swimming after a few too many beers as I struggled to get back to shore. It was exhilarating but I stayed on the sand for the rest of that visit. No other beaches we went to had this problem..maybe just a storm out at sea?
Just like LG there were tons of ex-pats....less French more Italian. I never thought I would go to the DR to get some of the best Italian meals I have had outside of Italy but we did. At night we would roam the town...deciding where to eat, once was an amazing little pizza shop away from the shore - they did alot of takeout but probably the best pizza we had since out last trip to Grimaldi's
Each night as we strolled, we would pass a brightly lit patio of an Italian place across the street from the water with a bored looking slender man standing outside..waiting for a customer. It was empty every time we went by. Each night, he progressed in his appearance from bored to sad to sitting on the curb, head in hands, contemplating suicide . We affectionately named him the lonely Italian.
Finally the night before we were leaving, we decided to eat there. We (me) felt so bad for the guy...how awful could a plate of pasta be?
This pity meal turned out to be one of the best dining experiences we had on this trip.
Will post more later, thunderboomers just started here in Houston, may shut down my power soon!
altho it certainly isn't as vivid after all these months. I do want to thank the members of this forum for honest and accurate
information and opinions. It made the world of difference in preparing us for the DR.
If Las Galeras is the dog capital of the Dominican, Bayahibe has to be the chicken capital. While in LG,
there were dogs everywhere, many "adopted" by shop owners. In Bayahibe the only dogs seen were at the end of an owners leash
BUT loose chickens abound. Roosters crow at all hours in an endless cacophony, sort of explains why the neighborhood plays their music so loudly.
But first our drive, we head out really early to avoid traffic...making good time and stopping for gas after we get many miles outside of
Samana, which was still a flurry of activity..does that place never empty out?
We pass the little towns with their balloons filled with cheese? hanging from all the shops..pass the town that has Flintstone size ribs on every store
ledge...make it onto the toll road with no problems. Stop at our familiar Texaco across from the highway patrol station and onward to SD.
We make the correct turn and head east to Bayahibe but still not on the highway but a service road on the wrong side (north)...we find an underpass to turn under the highway to find an "on" ramp on the south side and there is a police car blocking our way with a traffic stop in the lane furthest to the left which seems to be the wrong side of the road. because all the cars are not facing us but going in our direction. Husband just takes the open lane to the right of the concrete barrier going the wrong way as we pass right by the cops. Guess the driving habits of the locals is rubbing off on us. We make our turn onto the highway heading east shortly after. Lots of traffic, construction...we are running later than we expected but make it to Bayahibe with only a few wrong turns. Finding the B&B we are staying at for the week was another story. We wander around passing the same places over and over again (the true measure of insanity?) trying to find Bayahibe Guest house.
Finally we deviate from our maddening pattern and find it.
The owner meets us after a quick text, we get settled in and are pretty pleased with ourselves. It is a newer building with a nice bathroom and walkin shower. Bedroom is small but has an a/c unit (more on that later) and the adjoining the rooftop terrace is huge and covered with a great palapa roof. The small kitchenette is outside on the terrace Perfect. We open up some adult beverages and unwind on our cushy lounge chairs. Oh, there is a jacuzzi on the deck too!
After an adequate pickling of our livers we take a walk around town to acquaint ourselves, try out a few bars, eat a few snacks and head back picking up some bottled water, eggs, bread etc for our kitchen. My first impressions are this is a more affluent town compared to LG, cleaner...less like the wild west, more "civilized" for lack of a better word.
The last place we stayed at in LG had good fans and no a/c, worked fine for us..it was December after all. This place had a fan which we took outside on our terrace to help with airflow and at night we found we had to shut the sliding glass door and put on the a/c...not because it was hot....it was to drown out the incessant rooster calls. All night long...all day long. We ate some great grilled chicken, rice beans chicken, eggs and still the population did not quiet down.
After a few days we seemed to be able to ignore it better. We drove to the public beach of Dominicus..paid for a lounge chair and umbrella and spent a lovely day there drinking and snacking at different seafood shacks on the beach. The waves and undertow were a challenge on the day we went. I am a strong swimmer but I actually realize the danger I placed myself in going swimming after a few too many beers as I struggled to get back to shore. It was exhilarating but I stayed on the sand for the rest of that visit. No other beaches we went to had this problem..maybe just a storm out at sea?
Just like LG there were tons of ex-pats....less French more Italian. I never thought I would go to the DR to get some of the best Italian meals I have had outside of Italy but we did. At night we would roam the town...deciding where to eat, once was an amazing little pizza shop away from the shore - they did alot of takeout but probably the best pizza we had since out last trip to Grimaldi's
Each night as we strolled, we would pass a brightly lit patio of an Italian place across the street from the water with a bored looking slender man standing outside..waiting for a customer. It was empty every time we went by. Each night, he progressed in his appearance from bored to sad to sitting on the curb, head in hands, contemplating suicide . We affectionately named him the lonely Italian.
Finally the night before we were leaving, we decided to eat there. We (me) felt so bad for the guy...how awful could a plate of pasta be?
This pity meal turned out to be one of the best dining experiences we had on this trip.
Will post more later, thunderboomers just started here in Houston, may shut down my power soon!