We decided to spend most of our time in the Southwest this trip. I arrived at 3 PM on Spirit and breezed through Immigration and Customs. I picked up the car from Avis without any problems. The rental for the whole 9 days from Avis cost me US $323 total for a "standard " size car. My credit card company covered the insurance but I did take the additional coverage from Avis for $5.95/day. I used Toobers directions (perfect) to get to the Senorial Hotel in Gazcue where I stayed my first night for US $55 including breakfast. The hotel was good for what I paid but the walls are very thin and we got to listen to several of our nieghbors for most of the night. The restaurant is very good at this hotel and very reasonably priced with many Swiss/cheese type dishes. The owner is very attentive though requests to the front desk to help with the television went unanswered. The next day we got onto the highway to head to Barahona. Other than navigating through Bani and Azua the trip was very pleasant and uneventful. Just the other side of Azua we were stopped by the National Police at a checkpoint (2 on a motorcycle) and asked for our papers. I gave him the copies I had made of everything which included a printed page fom the US Embassy homepage with a picture of the Ambasador and the phone # for the Embassy. He looked closely at us and asked if my girlfriend was Dominican. She said yes and he asked her "are you VERY Dominican?" She said yes she was VERY Dominican and he told us we could leave. The total trip to Barahona took us 2.5-3 hours. We checked into the Hotel Pontevedra as the only people in the hotel. The price for 2 people was 2500 pesos and it included breakfast and dinner. We spent the afternoon enjoying the pool and the beautiful view. The staff was very friendly as usual. We took a short ride to the Larimar store in Borahucco(with a small note of introduction from the bartender Youcandi at the Pontevedre) and bought a nice bracelett and a ring for 1200 pesos. The price for the same in Santo Domingo would have been triple that. There is a small shop attached to the store where they make the jewelry and they allowed us to watch them for a while. Very interesting. The night at Pontevedre was very peaceful. In the morning we went to visit some of her family in Moncerrate (sp) a place that is not on the map near Palo Alto. After a few wrong turns due to conflicting directions from the locals we actualy found it and the first person we met on the street was a long lost cousin. We took pictures of the families old homestead and visited several cousins and an aunt. From there we headed off to see the Polo Magnetico. The ride there was very scenic and we stopped in the village of Polo and bought a bag of the excellent localy grown organic coffee from an old couple in a very basic house. There were no signs showing the location of the magic road but the very pleasant locals pointed it out to us. I had been to a magnetic hill in New Brunswick so it was not a new thing to me but my girlfriend thought it was great and very mysterious. She actually walked up and down it several times and said she felt like a bird as gravity worked it's magic. We drove back to Playa San Rafael for a late lunch of fried fish and a swim in the very cold fresh water pools. San Rafael is very pleasant but as other posters have pointed out there is a fair amount of trash left on the ground. With a little effort by the people working there it could be cleaner and nicer. The views are beautibul and the surf is always crashing and it was a nice place for a romatic walk on the beach. We returned to Pontevedra for another quiet evening. I will continue my story as time permits. Tommorrow: Perdenales and Bahia Aguillas.
- Thread starter BPL888
- Start date
Barahona and Perdenales
Perdenales
We enjoyed the simple breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and coffee at the Pontevedre and started out for Perdenales. One note: though Pontevedre says they accept credit cards, both times we were there there were problems with the phone line and since the transaction could not go through we had to pay cash. The road south from there is absolutely spectacular! The mountain views and the extrordinary colors of the sea there are well worth the trip alone. We stopped at several of the scenic lookout points along the road to take photos, though constantly being careful to wach out who else was at these remote points. At the scenic overlook on the hill outside of Pariaso a medium size truck passed us and then stopped and backed up. We retreated to the car for a quick getaway if needed, not knowing what the drivers intentions were. He rolled down his window and yelled a warning to us that several people have been robbed in this very spot this week and that we should be very careful. We thanked him and headed on our way. We continued south enjoying the scenery. After Enriquillo the land flattens out and then heads inland to Perdenales. The road was very good and almost deserted all the way to Perdenales. In Perdenales we went to check in at the Hotel Villa del Mar. We had called the day before and made reservations. When we got to the desk they told us that they were full due to a convention of Doctors and did not have any record of our reservation. After much discusion we were on the way out the door when somehow a room became availabe. It was 1200 pesos and a little on the small side but it was clean with plenty of hot water. The pool did not have any water in it but other than that it was a very pleasant hotel in a quiet section of town. We decided to use the remainder of the day to visit Hoyo de Pelempito. We took the first turn outside town with a sign indicating the way to Hoyo de Pelempito. It turns out that this is the "back way" and soon we found ourselves on some very small roads out in the country. With each inquiry of local people we were told to continue on straight and we would come to it. In a small village called Mercedes we were told to wait while the local agent was summoned to sell us tickets to enter. Shortly after that after following even smaller roads we came to the main park road. This road is an amazingly smooth and wide road the goes through the entire park. It is as wide and smooth as a four lane highway though it is not made from cement, instead some sort of hard pack. We followed that road for 20-30 minutes to the entrance to Hoyo de Pelempito. The had fixed the entrance road since the last time I visited and we were able to drive right up to the short walking path to the observation platform. The views were breathtaking and the near silence was something I rarely experiance in the DR. We spent an hour walking along the nearby nature trails and enjoying the views. We headed back but took the main road all the way back to the Oviedo-Perdenales road. It intersects at the same place as the turnoff to Cabo Rojo. I will continue the report as time allows. Next: Bahia de Las Aguillas and the frontier market .
We enjoyed the simple breakfast of scrambled eggs, toast and coffee at the Pontevedre and started out for Perdenales. One note: though Pontevedre says they accept credit cards, both times we were there there were problems with the phone line and since the transaction could not go through we had to pay cash. The road south from there is absolutely spectacular! The mountain views and the extrordinary colors of the sea there are well worth the trip alone. We stopped at several of the scenic lookout points along the road to take photos, though constantly being careful to wach out who else was at these remote points. At the scenic overlook on the hill outside of Pariaso a medium size truck passed us and then stopped and backed up. We retreated to the car for a quick getaway if needed, not knowing what the drivers intentions were. He rolled down his window and yelled a warning to us that several people have been robbed in this very spot this week and that we should be very careful. We thanked him and headed on our way. We continued south enjoying the scenery. After Enriquillo the land flattens out and then heads inland to Perdenales. The road was very good and almost deserted all the way to Perdenales. In Perdenales we went to check in at the Hotel Villa del Mar. We had called the day before and made reservations. When we got to the desk they told us that they were full due to a convention of Doctors and did not have any record of our reservation. After much discusion we were on the way out the door when somehow a room became availabe. It was 1200 pesos and a little on the small side but it was clean with plenty of hot water. The pool did not have any water in it but other than that it was a very pleasant hotel in a quiet section of town. We decided to use the remainder of the day to visit Hoyo de Pelempito. We took the first turn outside town with a sign indicating the way to Hoyo de Pelempito. It turns out that this is the "back way" and soon we found ourselves on some very small roads out in the country. With each inquiry of local people we were told to continue on straight and we would come to it. In a small village called Mercedes we were told to wait while the local agent was summoned to sell us tickets to enter. Shortly after that after following even smaller roads we came to the main park road. This road is an amazingly smooth and wide road the goes through the entire park. It is as wide and smooth as a four lane highway though it is not made from cement, instead some sort of hard pack. We followed that road for 20-30 minutes to the entrance to Hoyo de Pelempito. The had fixed the entrance road since the last time I visited and we were able to drive right up to the short walking path to the observation platform. The views were breathtaking and the near silence was something I rarely experiance in the DR. We spent an hour walking along the nearby nature trails and enjoying the views. We headed back but took the main road all the way back to the Oviedo-Perdenales road. It intersects at the same place as the turnoff to Cabo Rojo. I will continue the report as time allows. Next: Bahia de Las Aguillas and the frontier market .
Market and Bahia de las Aguillas
We had some daylight remaining so we decided to drive out to Las Cuevas to have a beer and something light to eat at the restaurant there. We followed the signs torward Bahia de las Aguillas and found ourselves on a very "washboard" type road. There were not any major problems with the road but the constant vibration from the "washboarding" was enough to shake parts of the car loose( rearview mirror). For a while I thought we must be on the wrong road due to the lack of electric lines or any sign of life, but after 10-15 minutes of rattling we arrived at Las Cuevas. We had some shrimp in a cream sause (about 300 pesos) and a couple of daquiries. The shrimp dish was one of the best I've had in the DR and the daquiries were just right. While we were enjoying the view the little insects (no-seums?) had a feast on our feet/legs. Bring bug spray! We only stayed long enough to get information about the boat trip to Bahia de las Aguillas (1800 pesos for the boat, it seats about 10). We the headed back to Perdenales to beat the aproaching darkness. We had a few beers and a small meal at the restaurant in the Hotel Villa del Mar. It was quiet there until the bus of doctors returned from their excusion. The pavillion with the bar/restaurant was a good place to relax, but some of the no-seums found us there as well, but now we had bug spray. The next day( Friday) we drove to the other side of town to the frontier market. We parked the car and after some salesmanship we employed a young Hatian boy to "guard" the car. He did not seem capable of much but every time I checked on him in the 1-1/2 hours we were there he was right next to the car watching it! We wandered around the market just enjoying the sights and sounds of a busy multilingual market. After a few minutes we notice that we were being "shadowed" by a 9-10 year old Hatian boy. We ignored him at first and he did not ask for anything or bother us. When we entered a booth in which the woman only spoke creole he stepped forward and in good spanish offered to help translate. After the conversation was over he went back to "shadowing" us, several times joined by smaller friends, who quickly lost interest. When we had collected enough stuff to warrent a trip to the car he immediatly offered and carried the bags to my well watched car. He then went back to 10 steps behind us. We used him several more times to translate and help carry things. He also helped us locate several booths selling things we were interested in. We then started addressing him as "Senor Guia" which got a smile from him. When we passed the people preparing food we asked him if he was hungry and he suprised us by saying no. When we had seen enough of the market we walked back to the car and then paid the car guard 20 pesos and gave Senor Guia 50 pesos, which made them very happy and thier circle of friends envious. We returned to the hotel to collect our bags and check out. Before we left town my girlfriend asked if we could stop at the market one more time for something she now had decided she wanted. We parked outside the market and I waited in the car while she ran inside. While she was inside I saw Senor Guia and I called him over. They had been selling blocks of ice off the back of a moving truck and I asked him if he could get me one. He said yes and that they cost 10 pesos. I gave him a 25 peso coin and he ran off. He returned 5 minutes later with the ice. I took the ice from him and put it in the cooler and while my back was turned a Dominican border guard came up to him, started screeming and grabbed him by the ear. The whole time he was trying to explain and had his hand out trying to give me the 15 pesos change. The soldier then started smashing him in the head with his hard military helmet. I tried to explain but the guard ignored me completely and dragged Senor Guia into the nearby border guard building. I felt terrible, as if I had caused the problem, but did not think I should enter the building. After 5 minutes Senor Guia emerged and came over to me with tears streaming down his face, tried to hand me my 15 pesos change. There was no sign of the guard. I told him he could keep the 15 pesos and then I asked him what the problem was. He very quickly explained that he is not allowed outside of the market, onto Dominican territory. He very quickly went back into the market and sat down and cried. I will not soon forget the vision of him with his Orlando Magic jacket on with the hood pulled up and the tears streaming down his face. My girlfriend then appeared and I asked her to go and see him and see if he was OK. She spoke to him for about ten minutes and she returned to say that he was just upset because he had gotten into trouble. It was only after we had left and were headed down the road that it occured to me that the border guard may have "relieved" Senor Guia of the 50 pesos I paid him. Every time I think of him I count my blessings. I will continue the report as time allows. Next: Bahia de Las Aguillas
We had some daylight remaining so we decided to drive out to Las Cuevas to have a beer and something light to eat at the restaurant there. We followed the signs torward Bahia de las Aguillas and found ourselves on a very "washboard" type road. There were not any major problems with the road but the constant vibration from the "washboarding" was enough to shake parts of the car loose( rearview mirror). For a while I thought we must be on the wrong road due to the lack of electric lines or any sign of life, but after 10-15 minutes of rattling we arrived at Las Cuevas. We had some shrimp in a cream sause (about 300 pesos) and a couple of daquiries. The shrimp dish was one of the best I've had in the DR and the daquiries were just right. While we were enjoying the view the little insects (no-seums?) had a feast on our feet/legs. Bring bug spray! We only stayed long enough to get information about the boat trip to Bahia de las Aguillas (1800 pesos for the boat, it seats about 10). We the headed back to Perdenales to beat the aproaching darkness. We had a few beers and a small meal at the restaurant in the Hotel Villa del Mar. It was quiet there until the bus of doctors returned from their excusion. The pavillion with the bar/restaurant was a good place to relax, but some of the no-seums found us there as well, but now we had bug spray. The next day( Friday) we drove to the other side of town to the frontier market. We parked the car and after some salesmanship we employed a young Hatian boy to "guard" the car. He did not seem capable of much but every time I checked on him in the 1-1/2 hours we were there he was right next to the car watching it! We wandered around the market just enjoying the sights and sounds of a busy multilingual market. After a few minutes we notice that we were being "shadowed" by a 9-10 year old Hatian boy. We ignored him at first and he did not ask for anything or bother us. When we entered a booth in which the woman only spoke creole he stepped forward and in good spanish offered to help translate. After the conversation was over he went back to "shadowing" us, several times joined by smaller friends, who quickly lost interest. When we had collected enough stuff to warrent a trip to the car he immediatly offered and carried the bags to my well watched car. He then went back to 10 steps behind us. We used him several more times to translate and help carry things. He also helped us locate several booths selling things we were interested in. We then started addressing him as "Senor Guia" which got a smile from him. When we passed the people preparing food we asked him if he was hungry and he suprised us by saying no. When we had seen enough of the market we walked back to the car and then paid the car guard 20 pesos and gave Senor Guia 50 pesos, which made them very happy and thier circle of friends envious. We returned to the hotel to collect our bags and check out. Before we left town my girlfriend asked if we could stop at the market one more time for something she now had decided she wanted. We parked outside the market and I waited in the car while she ran inside. While she was inside I saw Senor Guia and I called him over. They had been selling blocks of ice off the back of a moving truck and I asked him if he could get me one. He said yes and that they cost 10 pesos. I gave him a 25 peso coin and he ran off. He returned 5 minutes later with the ice. I took the ice from him and put it in the cooler and while my back was turned a Dominican border guard came up to him, started screeming and grabbed him by the ear. The whole time he was trying to explain and had his hand out trying to give me the 15 pesos change. The soldier then started smashing him in the head with his hard military helmet. I tried to explain but the guard ignored me completely and dragged Senor Guia into the nearby border guard building. I felt terrible, as if I had caused the problem, but did not think I should enter the building. After 5 minutes Senor Guia emerged and came over to me with tears streaming down his face, tried to hand me my 15 pesos change. There was no sign of the guard. I told him he could keep the 15 pesos and then I asked him what the problem was. He very quickly explained that he is not allowed outside of the market, onto Dominican territory. He very quickly went back into the market and sat down and cried. I will not soon forget the vision of him with his Orlando Magic jacket on with the hood pulled up and the tears streaming down his face. My girlfriend then appeared and I asked her to go and see him and see if he was OK. She spoke to him for about ten minutes and she returned to say that he was just upset because he had gotten into trouble. It was only after we had left and were headed down the road that it occured to me that the border guard may have "relieved" Senor Guia of the 50 pesos I paid him. Every time I think of him I count my blessings. I will continue the report as time allows. Next: Bahia de Las Aguillas
You know what? I'm going to Perdenales next week. If by chance I get to the market I'll look out for him. Can you give me a description? Age, hieght? Will he remember the name? Senor Guia
Description
I'm terrible at accurate descriptions:Around 10 years old, 4'8" to 5' tall, real dark skin,medium build, imperfect teeth and an Orlando Magic dark jacket with hood. That might describe a whole lot of kids at the border, except for the jacket that could be passed around. I'm sure he would remember being called Senor Guia. I think he might remember the day he was helping an American and got smacked around by the guard.
I'm terrible at accurate descriptions:Around 10 years old, 4'8" to 5' tall, real dark skin,medium build, imperfect teeth and an Orlando Magic dark jacket with hood. That might describe a whole lot of kids at the border, except for the jacket that could be passed around. I'm sure he would remember being called Senor Guia. I think he might remember the day he was helping an American and got smacked around by the guard.
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Bahia de Las Aguillas
We headed out of town toward Bahia de las Aguilas. Just as you are about to leave the town there is a military checkpoint outside a military base. We had passed it 3 or 4 times already with no issues but this time we were stopped on the road by an armed soldier. He asked us what was in the car and after my girlfriend explained he told us that we needed to drive into the base. We stopped halway and asked again and he told us again to enter the base. The next soldier at the gate seemed a little suprised and told us to pull over and wait. Shortly a serious looking officer came out and asked us a few questions. He then asked me to open the trunk. He gave a quick inspection of the trunk and then explained that he was looking for "weapons etc" and that we were free to go. Very professional and very polite. We headed off for Bahia de las Aguillas. It's about a 20-30 minute trip and we already knew where it was. Shortly after we arrived and were negociating the boat trip a very large bus came down the road and the woman told us that we should leave in the boat right away or we would end up waiting a while. In retrospect I think it may have just been a way to get us to pay the full 1800 pesos for the boat. We paid it and the two of us headed off for the 10-15 minute boat trip to the beach. At this point I am going to insert my post from the South West Coast Forum describing our experiance that day-------- Warning About Bahia de Las Aguillas
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I took the boat trip out to Bahia de Las Aguillas last Friday from Las Cuevas and thought I should share a few warnings. The little insects (no-seums/sand fleas?) at the restaurant at Las Cuevas were brutal. We sat at the table for a while and I got chewed up pretty good. Make sure to bring bug spray. I did not notice any while at the beach at Bahia de Las Aguillas--- BUT-- We went out to the beach alone, just two of us. Once we landed at the beach we noticed one other couple about 1/2 to 3/4 miles away. It was an American couple we had met the day before. The beach is absolutely beautiful but very hot at midday. The only other person we saw was a spear fisherman in the other direction about 1/2 mile away. Other than that the whole beach seemed to be completely deserted. It was gorgeous!! There was a pavilion there with a roof and 6 picnic tables so we put our bags there and went for a swim. We were enjoying ourselves complely, but watching our possesions, realizing that we were still in the DR. After about an hour my girlfriend started walking down the beach looking for shells or whatever. I got up and started walking after her. She notice me and reminded me that we should be watching our bags so I offered to return to the shade. I had turned my back on our bags for perhaps 4 minutes and was no more than 30 yards from them. When I got back to the bags nothing looked amiss so I just sat enjoying the scenery. In a little while I decided to check my watch as we had the boat scheduled to pick us up at 2:30. I could not locate my watch but everything else, camera, wallet, bags etc seemed to be there so I just thought I had misplaced my watch. After more seaching I opened my wallet and discovered that all my money was gone (US$150-$200) but all my credit cards etc were still there. Apparantly someone had been watching us from the nearby bushes and waited till we walked away to go through my bag and take my cash and watch. In a way I chalk this up to my stupidity for not being more vigilant, but I truly felt like we were alone. Indeed this could have been a lot worse if they had taken the whole bags with the rental car keys, credit cards and camera, so in a way I felt fortunate. I guess I am poorer but smarter. We reported the theft to the boat operators and and they seemed genuinely upset about it and summoned the park ranger. It seemed that since we did not see who had done it it would be hard to catch the thief. They felt that it was probably one of the four spear fishermen that work within the park. They seemed worried that if they did not find a way to stop this it would endanger all thier business and thier livelyhoods. They also said that it the same thing had happened twice before. I did not allow this to ruin my trip as it was one bad experience in an otherwise great vacation. I hope this warning helps others avoid my missteps. ------------
I would make the trip to Bahia de las Aguillas again but I would not pay as much for the boat ride and would not bring anything worth stealing, and I would be more vigilant. The boat operator said they were considering paying a guard to patrol the beach. I really enjoyed the solitude of the place and the idea of an armed guard standing behind us would detract from the appeal of the place. We headed off down the washboard road to head back to the Pontevedre. About 1/2 an hour into the trip we came apon a military checkpoint with several soldiers standing in the road as opposed to sitting at the roadside. As we got closer I noticed that one of the soldiers had his face covered with cloth and dark glasses on. This scared the bejesus out of me and I thought for sure we were in trouble. I was tempted to turn around in a hurry and get out of there in a hurry but there was a fair amount of traffic and other than the covered face it seemed like a legitimate checkpoint. My girlfriend said she thought it was ok so relying on Dominican intuition I proceded to the checkpoint. The masked man handed his rifle to another soldier and approached us with his sidearm holster opened. He asked several questions in rapid fire spanish that I did not understand and my girlfriend answered him. He took a long look into the back seat of the car and then told us to pass and something to the effect of "have a nice day". My girlfriend explained that they were serious men looking for serious bad men and we did not fit the bill. He covers his face to remain anonomys to the bad men for his own protection. I think. I was just glad to be past that and headed towards the relative safety of the bar at the Pontevedre. I will continue the report as time allows. Next: a bus full of nurses and the road home.
We headed out of town toward Bahia de las Aguilas. Just as you are about to leave the town there is a military checkpoint outside a military base. We had passed it 3 or 4 times already with no issues but this time we were stopped on the road by an armed soldier. He asked us what was in the car and after my girlfriend explained he told us that we needed to drive into the base. We stopped halway and asked again and he told us again to enter the base. The next soldier at the gate seemed a little suprised and told us to pull over and wait. Shortly a serious looking officer came out and asked us a few questions. He then asked me to open the trunk. He gave a quick inspection of the trunk and then explained that he was looking for "weapons etc" and that we were free to go. Very professional and very polite. We headed off for Bahia de las Aguillas. It's about a 20-30 minute trip and we already knew where it was. Shortly after we arrived and were negociating the boat trip a very large bus came down the road and the woman told us that we should leave in the boat right away or we would end up waiting a while. In retrospect I think it may have just been a way to get us to pay the full 1800 pesos for the boat. We paid it and the two of us headed off for the 10-15 minute boat trip to the beach. At this point I am going to insert my post from the South West Coast Forum describing our experiance that day-------- Warning About Bahia de Las Aguillas
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I took the boat trip out to Bahia de Las Aguillas last Friday from Las Cuevas and thought I should share a few warnings. The little insects (no-seums/sand fleas?) at the restaurant at Las Cuevas were brutal. We sat at the table for a while and I got chewed up pretty good. Make sure to bring bug spray. I did not notice any while at the beach at Bahia de Las Aguillas--- BUT-- We went out to the beach alone, just two of us. Once we landed at the beach we noticed one other couple about 1/2 to 3/4 miles away. It was an American couple we had met the day before. The beach is absolutely beautiful but very hot at midday. The only other person we saw was a spear fisherman in the other direction about 1/2 mile away. Other than that the whole beach seemed to be completely deserted. It was gorgeous!! There was a pavilion there with a roof and 6 picnic tables so we put our bags there and went for a swim. We were enjoying ourselves complely, but watching our possesions, realizing that we were still in the DR. After about an hour my girlfriend started walking down the beach looking for shells or whatever. I got up and started walking after her. She notice me and reminded me that we should be watching our bags so I offered to return to the shade. I had turned my back on our bags for perhaps 4 minutes and was no more than 30 yards from them. When I got back to the bags nothing looked amiss so I just sat enjoying the scenery. In a little while I decided to check my watch as we had the boat scheduled to pick us up at 2:30. I could not locate my watch but everything else, camera, wallet, bags etc seemed to be there so I just thought I had misplaced my watch. After more seaching I opened my wallet and discovered that all my money was gone (US$150-$200) but all my credit cards etc were still there. Apparantly someone had been watching us from the nearby bushes and waited till we walked away to go through my bag and take my cash and watch. In a way I chalk this up to my stupidity for not being more vigilant, but I truly felt like we were alone. Indeed this could have been a lot worse if they had taken the whole bags with the rental car keys, credit cards and camera, so in a way I felt fortunate. I guess I am poorer but smarter. We reported the theft to the boat operators and and they seemed genuinely upset about it and summoned the park ranger. It seemed that since we did not see who had done it it would be hard to catch the thief. They felt that it was probably one of the four spear fishermen that work within the park. They seemed worried that if they did not find a way to stop this it would endanger all thier business and thier livelyhoods. They also said that it the same thing had happened twice before. I did not allow this to ruin my trip as it was one bad experience in an otherwise great vacation. I hope this warning helps others avoid my missteps. ------------
I would make the trip to Bahia de las Aguillas again but I would not pay as much for the boat ride and would not bring anything worth stealing, and I would be more vigilant. The boat operator said they were considering paying a guard to patrol the beach. I really enjoyed the solitude of the place and the idea of an armed guard standing behind us would detract from the appeal of the place. We headed off down the washboard road to head back to the Pontevedre. About 1/2 an hour into the trip we came apon a military checkpoint with several soldiers standing in the road as opposed to sitting at the roadside. As we got closer I noticed that one of the soldiers had his face covered with cloth and dark glasses on. This scared the bejesus out of me and I thought for sure we were in trouble. I was tempted to turn around in a hurry and get out of there in a hurry but there was a fair amount of traffic and other than the covered face it seemed like a legitimate checkpoint. My girlfriend said she thought it was ok so relying on Dominican intuition I proceded to the checkpoint. The masked man handed his rifle to another soldier and approached us with his sidearm holster opened. He asked several questions in rapid fire spanish that I did not understand and my girlfriend answered him. He took a long look into the back seat of the car and then told us to pass and something to the effect of "have a nice day". My girlfriend explained that they were serious men looking for serious bad men and we did not fit the bill. He covers his face to remain anonomys to the bad men for his own protection. I think. I was just glad to be past that and headed towards the relative safety of the bar at the Pontevedre. I will continue the report as time allows. Next: a bus full of nurses and the road home.
Recommendation to anyone EVER considering evading a checkpoint in ANY country. This would be very serious move and may put yourself in a very bad situation, for it may seem that you are evading the law for criminal reasons. Make note of all the checkpoints you pass on the way to your destination and realize that these you will pass on the way back. When asked to open the trunk, I always tell them that I have to manually open the trunk, if it's ok if I step out to open it. That way I can view what they do. Other than that, a "Como Esta, buenos dias?" "En que le puedo servirle" is all that is required.
Return
We continued on to the coast taking our time. After we passed Oviedo We stopped at several of the roadside stands and bought some honey and several varieties of locally grown vegatables. The views on the way back were just as spectacular as our first trip through this strip of road. When we arrived at he Pontevedre and had checked in we saw a good size bus pull in. It was full of a group of nursing students and teachers (women and men) from Northeastern University outside Boston. After they got settled they all started drifting down to the pool and beach, obviously ready for some R & R. They had been working for two weeks in a clinic in Las Matas which is just outside San Juan, about 11 miles from the Hatian border. This was thier first time off since they had entered the country and they were ready to relax. Some of the teachers had been here before but it was a new experiance for the rest of them. I was suprised at how little they new about the Dominican Republic but they had been busy and way out in the country. We spent the rest of the day sitting around the pool sipping drinks and discussing things Dominican. After dinner they convinced the bartender Youcandi (SP) to help them learn some Dominican dance steps and I think the whole bus full of them had a good time. After I told them that the city of San Juan was known as Ciudad de los Brujos (City of the Witches) one of the teachers explained that she was from Salem Massachusetts, and that that is also known as the City of Witches. My girlfriend looked very serious for a while and then asked if the woman was a witch. This got a good laugh out of the Americans but my girlfriend was still puzzled until I explained about the history of Salem MA. We went through all of thier ice and most of thier beer and ran up quite a bill. I'm sure the Pontevedre was glad for the business as most times this hotel is half empty. In the morning we said our goodbyes and I wished them luck and thanked them for trying to do some good in the DR. On our trip back east we ran into a festival (Patronelli?) in downtown Barahona but could not stay. We were headed for Palenque and Cocolandia and were getting tired of all the driving. We stopped to take a break at a half a dozen fruit and vegatable stands along the road and stocked up for her family back in San Cristobal. Her father says that the platanos from Barahona are the best in the country and he was thrilled when we returned with a good size rack of them. There were a lot of mangos for sale everywhere but her family has two trees in the yard so we skipped those. We spent the next few days staying at the Hotel Playa Palenque. Don Pedro was glad to see us as by now I am a frequent guest there several times a year. It was quiet and relaxing. The rooms are only 1200 pesos a night though his excellent restaurant/bar is a little expensive. Who would have thought you would find chataubrian, wienesnitzl and beef stogonoff out here, but he has it every night. He also has a pretty good selection of imported liquor and wine. I was told that he has put the place up for sale and if I hit the lottery I surely will buy it. That will be my next story.
We continued on to the coast taking our time. After we passed Oviedo We stopped at several of the roadside stands and bought some honey and several varieties of locally grown vegatables. The views on the way back were just as spectacular as our first trip through this strip of road. When we arrived at he Pontevedre and had checked in we saw a good size bus pull in. It was full of a group of nursing students and teachers (women and men) from Northeastern University outside Boston. After they got settled they all started drifting down to the pool and beach, obviously ready for some R & R. They had been working for two weeks in a clinic in Las Matas which is just outside San Juan, about 11 miles from the Hatian border. This was thier first time off since they had entered the country and they were ready to relax. Some of the teachers had been here before but it was a new experiance for the rest of them. I was suprised at how little they new about the Dominican Republic but they had been busy and way out in the country. We spent the rest of the day sitting around the pool sipping drinks and discussing things Dominican. After dinner they convinced the bartender Youcandi (SP) to help them learn some Dominican dance steps and I think the whole bus full of them had a good time. After I told them that the city of San Juan was known as Ciudad de los Brujos (City of the Witches) one of the teachers explained that she was from Salem Massachusetts, and that that is also known as the City of Witches. My girlfriend looked very serious for a while and then asked if the woman was a witch. This got a good laugh out of the Americans but my girlfriend was still puzzled until I explained about the history of Salem MA. We went through all of thier ice and most of thier beer and ran up quite a bill. I'm sure the Pontevedre was glad for the business as most times this hotel is half empty. In the morning we said our goodbyes and I wished them luck and thanked them for trying to do some good in the DR. On our trip back east we ran into a festival (Patronelli?) in downtown Barahona but could not stay. We were headed for Palenque and Cocolandia and were getting tired of all the driving. We stopped to take a break at a half a dozen fruit and vegatable stands along the road and stocked up for her family back in San Cristobal. Her father says that the platanos from Barahona are the best in the country and he was thrilled when we returned with a good size rack of them. There were a lot of mangos for sale everywhere but her family has two trees in the yard so we skipped those. We spent the next few days staying at the Hotel Playa Palenque. Don Pedro was glad to see us as by now I am a frequent guest there several times a year. It was quiet and relaxing. The rooms are only 1200 pesos a night though his excellent restaurant/bar is a little expensive. Who would have thought you would find chataubrian, wienesnitzl and beef stogonoff out here, but he has it every night. He also has a pretty good selection of imported liquor and wine. I was told that he has put the place up for sale and if I hit the lottery I surely will buy it. That will be my next story.