This is why most cruisers bypass DR and head for Puerto Rico and islands East. Below are copied from Noonsite.
We had nearly identical experience to Mr. Pederson. We had already paid all of the tourist immigration fees at another port of entrance and were advised by that immigration officer we would owe NOTHING at Luperon. Our despacio to Luperon speaks for itself. This nasty little G4s 'person' refused to acknowledge the government issued documents from the other port and threatened us he would stop us coming ashore and from leaving the harbor. Refused us access to the Commandante office. He basically called his own governments' issued documents false, and called us liars. Our immigration documents each had individual red serial numbers and a red seal stamped on a government letterhead form with signature, date, and amount paid. he claimed they were false papers and we would have to purchase his hoakey little printed papers that anyone could have printed on a PC. No signature no numbers.... he was wearing a tag and shirt that had no official government capacity such as DR navy, immigration, customs, etc.
Yes it is a cute town with nice people that tolerate an illegal operation at the government dock that PHYSICALLY THREATENS people. OF COURSE the Commandante gets a cut of the action on these fake pieces of paper called 'tourist cards'. That is obvious, or the Commandante would put a stop to it. The harbor waters and high water mark are owned by the DR Nation, not some mafia styled organization. This G4s person claims he does the same thing in Samana so beware. After what just happened in Samana with a kidnapping of cruisers and this recent posture of the Commandante in Luperon....it seems best to bypass DR.
John Pedersen
John Pedersen says:
Mar 05, 2015 12:43 PM
Luperon is a great harbour, well sheltered, excellent holding and a nice town. Unfortunately the port officials are very unpleasant. A young well dressed man with a flash car and a G4S badge who works from the port authority office insisted we paid $10 US each for 'tourist permits'. We checked with CESTUR in town (armed tourist security officials) and they told us we shouldn't pay anything, and refer the port guy to them. We put off the payment for a few days, but eventually, we were no longer allowed out of the port into town. We had to accept a lift to the ATM, and pay up. Meanwhile, some people who arrived at the same time as us were not allowed to leave (because of the weather, which was poor for just a few hours) for over 2 days, and all five of them had to re-arrange flights. When we asked for a despacho to leave, we were told we'd have to pay another 1500 pesos and provide photocopies of our passports (again) - all the following day, which is the day we inteneded to leave. Since the weather window for our trip was small and we were fed up with the officials, we did a runner at dawn (despite no engines and very little wind!). Be warned too that the bank is very unreliable. The only ATM is currently broken (somebody smashed it). When it worked, it only sometimes worked, and only coughed up smaller amounts than 2000 pesos. Changing money inside the bank never took less than an hour, sometimes two.
We had nearly identical experience to Mr. Pederson. We had already paid all of the tourist immigration fees at another port of entrance and were advised by that immigration officer we would owe NOTHING at Luperon. Our despacio to Luperon speaks for itself. This nasty little G4s 'person' refused to acknowledge the government issued documents from the other port and threatened us he would stop us coming ashore and from leaving the harbor. Refused us access to the Commandante office. He basically called his own governments' issued documents false, and called us liars. Our immigration documents each had individual red serial numbers and a red seal stamped on a government letterhead form with signature, date, and amount paid. he claimed they were false papers and we would have to purchase his hoakey little printed papers that anyone could have printed on a PC. No signature no numbers.... he was wearing a tag and shirt that had no official government capacity such as DR navy, immigration, customs, etc.
Yes it is a cute town with nice people that tolerate an illegal operation at the government dock that PHYSICALLY THREATENS people. OF COURSE the Commandante gets a cut of the action on these fake pieces of paper called 'tourist cards'. That is obvious, or the Commandante would put a stop to it. The harbor waters and high water mark are owned by the DR Nation, not some mafia styled organization. This G4s person claims he does the same thing in Samana so beware. After what just happened in Samana with a kidnapping of cruisers and this recent posture of the Commandante in Luperon....it seems best to bypass DR.
John Pedersen
John Pedersen says:
Mar 05, 2015 12:43 PM
Luperon is a great harbour, well sheltered, excellent holding and a nice town. Unfortunately the port officials are very unpleasant. A young well dressed man with a flash car and a G4S badge who works from the port authority office insisted we paid $10 US each for 'tourist permits'. We checked with CESTUR in town (armed tourist security officials) and they told us we shouldn't pay anything, and refer the port guy to them. We put off the payment for a few days, but eventually, we were no longer allowed out of the port into town. We had to accept a lift to the ATM, and pay up. Meanwhile, some people who arrived at the same time as us were not allowed to leave (because of the weather, which was poor for just a few hours) for over 2 days, and all five of them had to re-arrange flights. When we asked for a despacho to leave, we were told we'd have to pay another 1500 pesos and provide photocopies of our passports (again) - all the following day, which is the day we inteneded to leave. Since the weather window for our trip was small and we were fed up with the officials, we did a runner at dawn (despite no engines and very little wind!). Be warned too that the bank is very unreliable. The only ATM is currently broken (somebody smashed it). When it worked, it only sometimes worked, and only coughed up smaller amounts than 2000 pesos. Changing money inside the bank never took less than an hour, sometimes two.
