Trip report Playa D.R. July 2001(long)

R

R.R.

Guest
Trip report

Dominican Republic July 2001

Flew Air Transat into Puerto Plata Dominican Republic.
Occidental Gran Hotel on the Playa Dorada Beach resort complex.

All inclusive including horseback riding, snorkeling, sailing, kayaking.

Freddie, the Air Transat representative, gave the orientation lecture. He kept saying "yabba dabba" in front of stuff as a reference to Fred Flintstones so that we would laugh or remember his name or something. He warned us not to get too much rum and sun during the first few days or we'd get "yabba-dabba-drunk" and ruin our vacation. He explained the exchange rates and gave lots of helpful information. He warned the girls about paying too much attention to "Dominican" guys at the disco because they easily mistook signs of affection. He explained that here in the Dominican Republic, if you danced with a local guy for 15 minutes it meant that you'd have to spend the night with him. Also, dancing with the same guy for 45 minutes meant you were considered "married" for one week.

Hotel

The Occidental Gran hotel is part of a huge town-like complex of 14 resorts that share the playa Dorada beach area. It's just east of the city of Puerto Plata.

A controlled entrance at the main highway indicated you were entering a private area. Once you pass that gate the roads became nicely paved, every thing was clean and green and well maintained. This was a stark contrast to the rough, garbage strew highway that lay outside the complex. It was if you had driven from a dusty drought ridden country into a thriving, growing, tropical island. The hotel looked new and nice, I guess it had been redecorated recently. It had a large jacuzzi pool, a fun pool and a quiet pool. The guests seemed to be 90 percent German speaking. I think it has a lot to do with what time of year it is. A lot of the entertainment was translated into German, English and Spanish. The hotel is located right on the beach and everything was convenient and close by. There were timeshare sales guys who stalked the lobby and joked with us and, once I explained that I wasn?t gonna go upstairs to hear the presentation, they left us alone. The casino was small with slots, roulette and table games but no craps. Crap. There were bicycles to borrow, and we rode the shopping plaza a couple of times.

Food:

The buffet restaurant was nice and large with lots to choose from. They had a different theme dinner each evening. We ate goat meat on Dominican Republic night. On some evenings the large lobby area was filled with craft displays, or during theme nights were filled with active displays of things like cigar rolling and sugar cane processing demonstrations.

Water sports / Beach.

I went sailing a couple of times and only dumped the boat once. It was a blast seeing how fast I could go and how far I could lean the boat over. The sea kayaks were fun. Ski-doos and parasailing were available if you paid for it. The bay was perfect for sailing and stuff but snorkeling off the beach was useless, nothing to see and zero visibility. Topless sunbathers were common both on the beach and at the pool and seemed to be a favored target for the beach salesmen who carried around brief cases full of beaded necklaces and crafts.

Tours

I love the tours. When I go on holiday I want to see things, to do things, to see the world. We bought one tour from "Yabba-dabba Freddie" and paid way too much for it compared to what our beach salesman friend "Eddie" could sell us for. Eddie was a hoot and was full of fun, laughs and carefully rehearsed flattery. He would come out with rhymes and things like "Don?t be lazy, don?t be shy, spend your money, before you die" or " Don?t forget, I love you for free". He'd say that he liked Canadians best because we have the same sense of humour as he did. He flirted and bargained and sold us two great tours, the Jeep Safari and the all day horseback riding tour. He promised that we would come back to him saying the tour was the best day of our entire holiday and he was right. After meeting Eddie, we tried to find him whenever we went to the beach. He was always full of fun stories and interesting conversation. He knew the songs we sang on the Jeep safari and sang them loudly to us on the beach. He was great fun and a little too affectionate.

The island:

Republica Dominicana island is separated into countries with two separate classes of people. The Dominicans and the Haitians. The guide on our Jeep safari tour tried to explain the separation of the classes by saying the Haitians were much darker skinned, not as well educated, and significantly poorer. He said that the Haitians are expected to do the field work and provide most of the manual labour. He explained how the Dominicans were wealthier, better educated and of such varied heritage and backgrounds that they had no specific look to them. The craft markets displayed hand made folk art that featured little faceless ceramic dolls made from clay. He explained that faceless art represented the Dominican people and were faceless because it was impossible to use one "look" to represent such a varied race of people.

Funny Bikes

One of the best tours I took was the funny bike tour. I got to drive the larger 4-wheeler ATV, a 350cc Yamaha (the same as the guides drove). The tour lasted about five hours and went across country, through the mountains, past beautiful green landscapes, over rocky hills, into muddy gullies, down the middle and across a major highway, up slippery dirt paths, and past many poor Haitian villages. The people there lived in shacks and the children seemed to have no toys and very few personal possessions. They were carrying large containers of water on their heads from a central well to their houses. We drove down muddy mountain paths, over rocks and through rivers and streams. I made sure to hit every puddle and mud hole and was totally caked in dirt by the time we reached the beach. At Bergatin beach, there were venders pushing their trinkets and always, the view of the mountains in the distance. We had a nice swim and some cokes.
We drove through narrow dirt tracks through sugar cane plantations. We stopped several times, once to sample raw sugar cane. The guide chopped down a plant and carved out a chunk of sugar cane for us to chew. It was sweet and yummy and like chewing a piece of wooden shredded wheat or something. At another stop the guides climbed up a mango tree and we had the best tasting fresh mango. Seeing the local people and trying to appreciate how they lived was one of the most interesting parts of this tour but the blast of adrenaline that came from ramping through a monster mud puddle on a way-cool ATV made for an unforgettable adventure.
We were served a nice lunch of chicken and pasta salad at the end of the tour. After eating I went for a walk and found two kids playing house by the side of the road. They were squatting under an old metal frame of some kind that stood about three feet tall. It had a rusty sheet of corrugated steel tossed on it for a roof. There was a little boy and a little girl. Brother and sister I guess, they must have been about eight years old. They smiled brightly and seemed happy to have a visitor. The seemed to be playing "house" under this structure in the dirt. They had neatly placed two or three old cans from soup or something. There were two place settings for supper, made from old dirty paper plates. There was a rusty hubcap for a serving tray and one old plastic knife on a smaller plate. Every thing was carefully arranged as if they were about to start their pretend supper. I tried to talk with them but could only ask their name as I couldn?t understand anything they were saying. I had brought some simple little t-shaped flying helicopter toys and gave one to each of them. I showed them how they worked and they quickly ran to their little shack house to show their grandparents who were sitting outside and smiling as they watched. I walked back to the rest of the group and bought a couple of Pepsis to give to the kids. It made my lonely for my son.

Safari Jeep Tour.

The safari jeep tour was one of the best trips. We rode in the back of a small pick up that had a set of special benches built in. Our guide's name was Julio. He and the safari vidiographer Bernardo, made for a fun and information filled adventure. Julio would explain local culture, and was full of interesting stories songs and humour. The route took us through the out-back, across rickety bridges and into the mountains. We actually had to get out of the truck in order to cross one dangerous bridge safely. The local children have found that it's become a tradition for the tourists to throw candy. They run along side the truck yelling "MENTA! MENTA! MENTA! ". The group we went with brought huge bags of candy and sent the kids running after flying suckers and bubble gum for miles. At one of the many stops along the way, we posed for photos with a large snake around your neck, or a parrot on your shoulder. At another stop we went to a little shack where a little old Dominican woman was making coffee. Julio told us how they baked the coffee beans with sugar and dried them. He showed us how the beans were manually ground using a Flintstones looking mashing club and a wooden bowl. We all piled into this coffee shack that was overheated by the roasting fire and were taught the mashing song. "MAHONDO? MAHONDO? MAHONDO?" we loudly sang and clapped over and over and faster and faster while one volunteer pounded the coffee until her arms ached. We all got a sample of the hot coffee and it was good and strong and sweet. "Dominican Cappuccino". From there we went to another building were we could sample "Mama Juanna" a rum based herbal potion that is said to be a cure-all remedy with viagra like effects. We met some more children here and gave away more toys and candy.
The highlight of this trip came when we arrived at the seven waterfalls. We walked for almost 45 minutes through streams and rocky paths to arrive at the base of the mountain. We had to swim across a cold pool of water to get to the bottom of the first falls. Each of the seven falls was reached by swimming up a v-shaped channel in the rocks then required either climbing a ladder or being physically pulled up by two strong Dominican guides. At times the channels we swam through were very deep with the sides going straight up providing for no place to grab or rest until you reached the next level. The seventh waterfall was too high to climb to and seemed to come from a hole in the ceiling of a cave-like overhang of rock. The pool of water we stood in was freezing cold and when I put my head under the flowing water it was so cold it actually shocked me and took my breath away. Then came the most exciting part. As we descended back down the mountain, we told to tuck our arms, protect our head and each waterfall became a water slide. It was kinda scary because the sides of the walls and overhanging rocks were very close, the water hole where you were to land seemed to be narrow but very deep. Each slide plunged you deep into cold water and each slide was a higher fall than the last. The second last slide was huge and scary with a narrow pool to land in. On this waterfall I had the choice of jumping from a higher ledge or sliding down the waters path. I chickened out and chose to slide. I was moving so fast when I hit that I thought I would never stop going down. By then I was sure that this was the most exciting thing I'd ever done. One of the guys in our group asked if he could go back up and jump again so I went along. It was the most scary, most exciting adrenaline filled thing I've done on holiday. Too cool.
The jeep safari trip also included stops for photos, a nice lunch and a "frat party" drinking game on the ride home. Julio's songs and humour made the whole trip fun and interesting.

All day horseback riding tour

No one else came on this tour with us so we had "Delphie" the guide all to ourselves. We were picked up and delivered back to our hotel in a horse and carriage. We set out at nine a.m. and didn?t get back to the resort 'til three. We ran the horses through the countryside, past small Haitian villages and to the beach for a swim. The ride to the beach took us past beautiful scenery, poor Haitian villages and down paths near sugarcane fields. I t took about an hour and a half of hard riding, it nearly killed me but was fun. At the beach we met several little Dominican kids, gave them flying toys and posed for photos. After a swim and some cokes, we took off for the mountains and our lunch destination. During lunch we met a lady and her daughter who live in New York. She was born in the Dominican Republic and had moved to the states when she was a young girl. We had a nice visit and she helped translate a few questions for us. On the way back we rode through beautiful green mountain paths that followed a river. Half way home, we stopped at a quiet swimming hole in the river for a swim and a rest for my very sore culo. The river was perfectly clear, slow running and cold. The place where I swam was beautiful with a deep pool of cold water at a bend in the river. There was lots of shade, a log bench to sit on and a rope swing high above the pool in a tree. There were a few local kids swimming and playing and swinging on the rope. One of them had a bottle of rum and a lime but Delphi must have told him we weren't interested. My poor butt was so sore by then I didn?t want the horses to go any faster than a walk. When we were almost home, Delphie asked "Lookie lookie me casa? Lookie lookie me casa?" What a treat, he was taking us to visit his home and his family. He lived in a small four room shack with a steel roof and no glass windows. The shack was painted blue a long time ago, and was starting to look very worn. There was cardboard over one window and the side door was missing. He seemed to be well off actually his shack being only a temporary home while he is building a beautiful new house right beside it. He took us for a long tour through his new building, it had two bathrooms and three levels. He had a horse, some geese, a cat, ducks, dogs, turtles, doves, chickens and a huge mango tree. We met his young wife and two naked children who were both less than two years old. We gave the kids some flying toys and a football that we found. His wife seemed very young and not very happy. The boys were shy and didn?t speak but seemed happy to have a new toy. Delphi proudly showed us his collection of critters, the construction of his new house and sent us home with a bag of large mangos. We were thrilled to have experienced a part of the Dominican Republic that most tourists don?t get to see.

Things I didn?t like:

I had no problem with the beach vendors or the timeshare salesmen. I did wish that more of the tourists spoke English. I missed not hearing more about their experiences and adventures. I didn?t like that the casino had no craps tables. I was disappointed with the snorkeling even thought I knew the Atlantic side was nothing compared to the Caribbean side.

Things I liked the best

I loved the excitement when I first realized what the seven waterfalls were really all about. From the ground looking up, you had no idea you were about to be swimming through and jumping into narrow channels of cold water in the side of a mountain. I loved sailing the little sunfish sail boats, when turned the wrong way, flipped the boat and had to jump overboard backwards. It was so great to be invited back to Delphie's house for a private tour. Splashing through mountain streams on my 4-wheeler trip was awesome. I loved the horseback rides, fresh mangos right off the tree, and seeing the little kids when we gave them candy or toys.
 
R

R.R.

Guest
oneof those stories with a lesson

I think that Freddie (the air transat representative), was just trying to let the single girls know how showing attention to the local guys may lead them to get the wrong idea.

I think that he was trying to make us understand (through a funny story) that things are different in the Dominican Republic.
 
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Pib

Guest
Hehe

It's the kind of things that fathers would tell daughters to keep them from doing "things"...
 
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Phyllis

Guest
Re: oneof those stories with a lesson

Yes the Dominican guys are like that and more! Trust me from experience... Freddie (great guy & my rep also) was just putting out a friendly warning!