We arrived in Santo Domingo on the 7th and immediately went to the Verizon store to connect the cell phone. There the store clerk arranged for a cab to take us to the Caribe Tours bus terminal. The going rate for the ride was $20 US. We got the ride for 600 pesos. Roughly about $12 US. We also changed some money at the Banreservas, it was 47-1. So we got our bus tickets for 200 pesos each.
The Bus Ride from Hell:
We get seats in the front and situate ourselves for a long ride. I get the outside aisle and Monique the window. Across from me are two mothers with their children in their laps. I already have the feeling that this isn't going to be good. Anyway we get going and the children are sleeping, I am amazed that they are quiet. About an hour into the ride they start to wake. The little boy starts jiggling all over , dropping toys, making loud noises, I figure ok he's little it's expected. We continue on, I get the urge to use the rest room, had been drinking water most of the way. So I barrel down the aisle and head to the restroom. Of course no toilet paper or water. On the way back to the seat I was practically zoomed out the front window of the bus. Are there speeding laws ever enforced in this country? Long story short (kinda) sit back down, by this time the little girl is awake. Silent like a mouse. It should have been an indication, children tend to make noise. Her mom who is wearing a combination of green and yellow pants kind of like a bad painting accident starts plying this poor child with juice and cookies. The child just swallows whatever is given in solemn silence. About five seconds after the last bit of cookies and juice have been given, the child decides that it's not settling well in her stomache and the zooming around curves isn't really helping the matter. You all know where I'm going with this, right? Yup, she pukes all over the place. Right next to me. Her mom just looks at me and says " she's been a little sick". Anyway now this bus smells sickly sweet (no time for digestion) and since it's mostly liquid it starts running all over the floor. Of course the mom makes no attempt to clean anything. Just lets the kid hang over the seat and keep puking. Well the bus driver finally realizes that we are slowly dying and decides to change buses in Santiago. So here we go, watch for the bags, get a different bus with a different driver. Get back on the road, stop in every little town to drop people off, hold on for dear life,( this driver thinks he's in the indy 500.) We finally make it to Sosua around 6pm, did I mention that we had arrived in SD at 11am? Take a cab to Casa Linda and wait for management to bring the keys.
We finally settle in and decide to go have some Breakfast/Lunch and dinner. We hadn't really had anything to eat all day long. Just some celery and water I had packed. We ended up at Rocky's, met Ted nice guy, next day saw him in La Roca wearing a DR1 t-shirt. I digress we had some ribs (pretty good) and Monique had a drink. No one from DR1 around. We were pretty tired and decided to buy some groceries and head back to Casa Linda.
Casa Linda was very pretty and very clean as well as the pool. It has great security. When we first considered going we had our doubts but the guards turned out to be extremely helpful and courtious. We tended to hang out with them on the nights that we didn't go out.
We ate in different locals La Gaviota which is mostly Domincan food. La Roca which has a lot of seafood dishes. This was my favorite. And of course Rocky's. We also cooked at the villa to save some cash.
Spent a lot on cabs and was surprised at how much prices had gone up since our last trip in October. We didn't hit the clubs in Sosua and ended up most nights in the ones in POP. We went to Orion, La Barrica, and Ojilvis Car Wash. We wanted to hang with the local so that's were we went.
Went to the beach a couple of times. It was very pretty, I like that it's full of shops and little places to eat. What is annoying is all those women that felt the need to braid my hair. Usualy a no thank you was enough. I did have one Haitain women practically chase me down in her efforts to get me to braid my hair. I admit I was rude and yelled at her in spanish "NO ME GUSTAN" It finally got her to stop chasing us. Otherwise it was all very pleasant.
Came down with a cold.
Decided at 930pm that I must have a blanket just in case of a fever. So here we go, call a cab ask around. Apparently there is nothing open at night on a Tuesday. One of the cab drivers wanted to lend me a blanket his wife had, but we had to wait for the woman to get out of school so she could open the armoire it was locked in. Thanked him profusely but I couldn't accept, I mean it was their blanket. What if they got cold? Another cab driver tells our driver that in La Union there was a colmado that should be open and if it's not to yell for Marina that she would open it for us. Off we go. We found Marina at home, she had no blankets. Another woman who was watching said that she would help and started leading us to different colmados. We must have gone on foot with this woman to five different places. Finally we found a lady at home who had a bedspread for sale. Something is better than nothing so I bought the bedspread which came with all sorts of pillows. It now adorns my aunts bed here in Miami. Never did get the fever.
Our days in Sosua were very nice. I must say that the level of prostition was a bit alarming and pretty disgusting. Other than that every thing went rather well.
Our trip dosen't end yet. On the 15 we once again get on our bus. No sick kids this time and make it to SD in good time. When we get to the airport and start looking for our airline AeroContinente it's nowhere to be found. We start asking around and sure enough they had not flown in over a month. Their offices were closed and we couldn't get a hold of anyone. WHAT DO WE DO NOW? We call home and say we are stranded until Monday that the offices open. I have some friends that live in SD and figured "ok I'll call them". They weren't home. A cab driver said "hey don't worry I'll take you to a nice place in Boca Chica which isn't far from here". Off we go. In the back of my head I was saying "this is not good, I haven't heard anything good about Boca Chica", but oh well let's give it a try. No, he did not take us to the Coral Hamaca. If I would have known that it was down the street from where he dropped us I would have paid whatever to stay there. He took us to some place called Hamilton Beach Resort. We got a room that was practically on the roof. Had to go eight flights of stairs with our bags. They had no elevator. Had a small bar that was packed with prostitutes. Ended up walking down the road to find a place to eat. Found a pizza place with about six waitress who would rather grab at the men walking the street than ask what we wanted. While in this lovely place we were approached by a small shoe shine boy who wanted money. We asked him to sit with us and partake of our meal. He did and before we knew it there six other boys sitting with us. We must have bought and endless amount of cokes. We finally said enough, paid the tab and took a cab back. No way were we walking at night in this place.
Our spirits were down we didn't know when we were going home, and believe me we were ready to come back. I called my friends and were able to reach them, they immediately came to pick us up and took us to their home. We were so relieved. Boca Chica as not the place for us. I'm glad that we didn't spend the night there.
We ended up staying with these people for another two days. The airline agreed to refund our money, but in Miami cause they had no funds in SD. We had to buy tickets with AA. We stayed in SD those days and it turned out pretty well cause we were with friends. They showed us around, the malecon, zona colonial, the country side. Got some pictures of cows and lettuce patches. It was fun.
On the day that we are finally leaving, we of course get to the airport late. The flight had been closed and they put is on a flight to Fort Laudedale. The flight got to FL early and the person picking us up was late. I have never in my life wanted to be home so badly. Finally got home around 930pm. It was an ordeal.
All in all it was a wonderful trip. I love the way domincans are always willing to help wether they know you or not. We will be returning as soon as we can.
Sorry for the long post.
Minni
The Bus Ride from Hell:
We get seats in the front and situate ourselves for a long ride. I get the outside aisle and Monique the window. Across from me are two mothers with their children in their laps. I already have the feeling that this isn't going to be good. Anyway we get going and the children are sleeping, I am amazed that they are quiet. About an hour into the ride they start to wake. The little boy starts jiggling all over , dropping toys, making loud noises, I figure ok he's little it's expected. We continue on, I get the urge to use the rest room, had been drinking water most of the way. So I barrel down the aisle and head to the restroom. Of course no toilet paper or water. On the way back to the seat I was practically zoomed out the front window of the bus. Are there speeding laws ever enforced in this country? Long story short (kinda) sit back down, by this time the little girl is awake. Silent like a mouse. It should have been an indication, children tend to make noise. Her mom who is wearing a combination of green and yellow pants kind of like a bad painting accident starts plying this poor child with juice and cookies. The child just swallows whatever is given in solemn silence. About five seconds after the last bit of cookies and juice have been given, the child decides that it's not settling well in her stomache and the zooming around curves isn't really helping the matter. You all know where I'm going with this, right? Yup, she pukes all over the place. Right next to me. Her mom just looks at me and says " she's been a little sick". Anyway now this bus smells sickly sweet (no time for digestion) and since it's mostly liquid it starts running all over the floor. Of course the mom makes no attempt to clean anything. Just lets the kid hang over the seat and keep puking. Well the bus driver finally realizes that we are slowly dying and decides to change buses in Santiago. So here we go, watch for the bags, get a different bus with a different driver. Get back on the road, stop in every little town to drop people off, hold on for dear life,( this driver thinks he's in the indy 500.) We finally make it to Sosua around 6pm, did I mention that we had arrived in SD at 11am? Take a cab to Casa Linda and wait for management to bring the keys.
We finally settle in and decide to go have some Breakfast/Lunch and dinner. We hadn't really had anything to eat all day long. Just some celery and water I had packed. We ended up at Rocky's, met Ted nice guy, next day saw him in La Roca wearing a DR1 t-shirt. I digress we had some ribs (pretty good) and Monique had a drink. No one from DR1 around. We were pretty tired and decided to buy some groceries and head back to Casa Linda.
Casa Linda was very pretty and very clean as well as the pool. It has great security. When we first considered going we had our doubts but the guards turned out to be extremely helpful and courtious. We tended to hang out with them on the nights that we didn't go out.
We ate in different locals La Gaviota which is mostly Domincan food. La Roca which has a lot of seafood dishes. This was my favorite. And of course Rocky's. We also cooked at the villa to save some cash.
Spent a lot on cabs and was surprised at how much prices had gone up since our last trip in October. We didn't hit the clubs in Sosua and ended up most nights in the ones in POP. We went to Orion, La Barrica, and Ojilvis Car Wash. We wanted to hang with the local so that's were we went.
Went to the beach a couple of times. It was very pretty, I like that it's full of shops and little places to eat. What is annoying is all those women that felt the need to braid my hair. Usualy a no thank you was enough. I did have one Haitain women practically chase me down in her efforts to get me to braid my hair. I admit I was rude and yelled at her in spanish "NO ME GUSTAN" It finally got her to stop chasing us. Otherwise it was all very pleasant.
Came down with a cold.
Decided at 930pm that I must have a blanket just in case of a fever. So here we go, call a cab ask around. Apparently there is nothing open at night on a Tuesday. One of the cab drivers wanted to lend me a blanket his wife had, but we had to wait for the woman to get out of school so she could open the armoire it was locked in. Thanked him profusely but I couldn't accept, I mean it was their blanket. What if they got cold? Another cab driver tells our driver that in La Union there was a colmado that should be open and if it's not to yell for Marina that she would open it for us. Off we go. We found Marina at home, she had no blankets. Another woman who was watching said that she would help and started leading us to different colmados. We must have gone on foot with this woman to five different places. Finally we found a lady at home who had a bedspread for sale. Something is better than nothing so I bought the bedspread which came with all sorts of pillows. It now adorns my aunts bed here in Miami. Never did get the fever.Our days in Sosua were very nice. I must say that the level of prostition was a bit alarming and pretty disgusting. Other than that every thing went rather well.
Our trip dosen't end yet. On the 15 we once again get on our bus. No sick kids this time and make it to SD in good time. When we get to the airport and start looking for our airline AeroContinente it's nowhere to be found. We start asking around and sure enough they had not flown in over a month. Their offices were closed and we couldn't get a hold of anyone. WHAT DO WE DO NOW? We call home and say we are stranded until Monday that the offices open. I have some friends that live in SD and figured "ok I'll call them". They weren't home. A cab driver said "hey don't worry I'll take you to a nice place in Boca Chica which isn't far from here". Off we go. In the back of my head I was saying "this is not good, I haven't heard anything good about Boca Chica", but oh well let's give it a try. No, he did not take us to the Coral Hamaca. If I would have known that it was down the street from where he dropped us I would have paid whatever to stay there. He took us to some place called Hamilton Beach Resort. We got a room that was practically on the roof. Had to go eight flights of stairs with our bags. They had no elevator. Had a small bar that was packed with prostitutes. Ended up walking down the road to find a place to eat. Found a pizza place with about six waitress who would rather grab at the men walking the street than ask what we wanted. While in this lovely place we were approached by a small shoe shine boy who wanted money. We asked him to sit with us and partake of our meal. He did and before we knew it there six other boys sitting with us. We must have bought and endless amount of cokes. We finally said enough, paid the tab and took a cab back. No way were we walking at night in this place.
Our spirits were down we didn't know when we were going home, and believe me we were ready to come back. I called my friends and were able to reach them, they immediately came to pick us up and took us to their home. We were so relieved. Boca Chica as not the place for us. I'm glad that we didn't spend the night there.
We ended up staying with these people for another two days. The airline agreed to refund our money, but in Miami cause they had no funds in SD. We had to buy tickets with AA. We stayed in SD those days and it turned out pretty well cause we were with friends. They showed us around, the malecon, zona colonial, the country side. Got some pictures of cows and lettuce patches. It was fun.
On the day that we are finally leaving, we of course get to the airport late. The flight had been closed and they put is on a flight to Fort Laudedale. The flight got to FL early and the person picking us up was late. I have never in my life wanted to be home so badly. Finally got home around 930pm. It was an ordeal.
All in all it was a wonderful trip. I love the way domincans are always willing to help wether they know you or not. We will be returning as soon as we can.
Sorry for the long post.
Minni
