I had the pleasure of my mom and some of her friends visiting town, so I took them on the cable car last Sunday Feb. 26th. It was a beautiful sunny day.
It was a holiday weekend, so there was a line of about 20 people in front of the ticket booth donwstairs of the cable car station. We skipped the line, my girlfriend bought us the tickets via a (wanna-be) tiguere at 200 pesos each, the normal adult tourist price. I was surprised he didnt ask for a tip and assumed he got the tickets for free from the ticket booth lady. I later realized that some of the tickets were actually children/dominicano tickets at like 60 or 100 peso price - so he made his money on the difference which he probably had to split with the girl behind the ticket counter so that he could skip the line and she turn a blind eye to tourists getting dominicano ticket prices. Gotta love the DR, everybody is on the take, everywhere.
Once we got upstairs I was horrified to see about 200 people waiting in line, mostly loud dominican kids. We went into line only to realize that once in, there was no way out. The rails separting the lines were only about 20 inches wide so everybody was packed in like sheep to the slaughter. The cable car was only taking like 20 people every 10 minutes, assuming everything went to plan.
After enduring kids jumping up and down on your toes, spilling drinks, etc etc the line was moving until we got to within 50 people, and the line just stopped moving. There was some kind of technical problem. We were not going to abandon this adventure after waiting for 1.5hrs.
It ended up taking about 2.5hrs in the line until we finally boarded the cable car. The wait was worth it though, the view is just amazing and there was not a cloud in the sky. Visibility was about 20 miles, you could see the new individual docks and casino at Ocean World to the west and all the way to Sosua/Cabarete to the east.
The air was cool and fresh, a good change from dust hole Puerto Plata. We ate at the restaurant located a couple hundred yards from the station, it was pretty good actually. Had some snapper in tin foil, not sure if it was grilled or steamed or what.
There is a botanical garden with paths leading through it, some interesting plants if you're into that kinda thing. The gift shops are kind of lame, selling useless crap.
The kids begging to be tour guides are annoying but if you just say no and ignore them they will go away.
All in all it was worth it, but in the future I will make sure not to go on a holiday. Make sure you go when its all sunny though, no point going if you can't see. 9 times out of 10 it seems the mountain is covered in clouds, especially in the afternoon.
It was a holiday weekend, so there was a line of about 20 people in front of the ticket booth donwstairs of the cable car station. We skipped the line, my girlfriend bought us the tickets via a (wanna-be) tiguere at 200 pesos each, the normal adult tourist price. I was surprised he didnt ask for a tip and assumed he got the tickets for free from the ticket booth lady. I later realized that some of the tickets were actually children/dominicano tickets at like 60 or 100 peso price - so he made his money on the difference which he probably had to split with the girl behind the ticket counter so that he could skip the line and she turn a blind eye to tourists getting dominicano ticket prices. Gotta love the DR, everybody is on the take, everywhere.
Once we got upstairs I was horrified to see about 200 people waiting in line, mostly loud dominican kids. We went into line only to realize that once in, there was no way out. The rails separting the lines were only about 20 inches wide so everybody was packed in like sheep to the slaughter. The cable car was only taking like 20 people every 10 minutes, assuming everything went to plan.
After enduring kids jumping up and down on your toes, spilling drinks, etc etc the line was moving until we got to within 50 people, and the line just stopped moving. There was some kind of technical problem. We were not going to abandon this adventure after waiting for 1.5hrs.
It ended up taking about 2.5hrs in the line until we finally boarded the cable car. The wait was worth it though, the view is just amazing and there was not a cloud in the sky. Visibility was about 20 miles, you could see the new individual docks and casino at Ocean World to the west and all the way to Sosua/Cabarete to the east.
The air was cool and fresh, a good change from dust hole Puerto Plata. We ate at the restaurant located a couple hundred yards from the station, it was pretty good actually. Had some snapper in tin foil, not sure if it was grilled or steamed or what.
There is a botanical garden with paths leading through it, some interesting plants if you're into that kinda thing. The gift shops are kind of lame, selling useless crap.
The kids begging to be tour guides are annoying but if you just say no and ignore them they will go away.
All in all it was worth it, but in the future I will make sure not to go on a holiday. Make sure you go when its all sunny though, no point going if you can't see. 9 times out of 10 it seems the mountain is covered in clouds, especially in the afternoon.
