My trip started out pretty bad, I missed my 8am flight from jfk and wound up having to wait until 4:30pm at the airport for the next and only other flight leaving that day. To make matters worse the 4:30pm flight wasnt even to Santo Domingo, it was to Santiago and they charged me an extra $100.
I arrived in Santiago at about 7:30ish and pay $10 for a tourist card and get my passport stamped. As soon as I walk out of immigration I see some lady motioning me and everybody else coming off the flight over to what looks like a hotdog stand except it has a Brugal marquee over it. She gives me a free drink and says welcome to the dominican republic. Wow, that alone made me think that this long weekend vacation was going to be kickass.
I met up with some other people who missed the flight outside, initially I was going to rent a car and drive to boca chica but then we all decided to get a taxi. I'm not sure if we overpaid the taxi driver or not but we wound up paying about $30 each for the close to 3hr 200km ride from the airport to boca chica.
The taxi ride started out pretty normal when leaving the airport. For some reason though, when I opened the window it seemed like there was a smell of burning wood. Maybe there was a forest fire or something nearby? or maybe it was emissions from the other cars on the road and I thought it was wood *shrugs*. The other thing I noticed is that there are giant brugal signs every other mile all throughout the highway, at first I thought Brugal must own the highway or something.
After the first hour of being in that taxi I was sure glad that I didnt rent a car the first day. Nothing could have prepared me for the general chaos that is driving in DR on the first night. People crossing in the middle of the highway, motorcycles driving against traffic on your side of the highway, trucks trying to run you off the road, but the worst part was the rain and the darkness.
I finally get to boca chica around midnight, initially the driver gets lost but I packed a map of boca chica and tell him where to go, get dropped off at the Hamaca, get a general feel for where I'm at and wind up walking to el candil instead. El candil surprised me, even though I got there at around 12:30am with no reservation the owner giseppe showed up, welcomed me and got me checked into an apartment with no hassles.
The next morning I woke up at about 7am with hypothermia practically. I didnt think it would be possible for an air conditioner to be THAT strong and set it to the coldest.... but trust me.... it was. I didnt mind waking up shivering though because I didnt sleep the night before I left for DR and would have probably overslept anyways. As I'm walking out of the hotel I see giseppe and ask him for advice about where to go on the beach. He tells me to go to the beach by the park by the church.
As I'm walking to the beach some little kid asks me for money because he's hungry, I give him RD$100. Then like 5 kids come out of nowhere and ask me for money. I was like 'uhhh... go ask that other kid I just gave him like $100 pesos or something. Next thing I know I see them chase after him.
When I get there I rent a chair for about RD$90 and get a 22oz presidente for $100. I'm by myself and the guy who rents me the chair is watching my stuff which consists of a bag with my shorts, a towel, and about RD$1500 while i'm in the water.
When I get back out of the water it begins. For the next four hours the vendors are constantly trying to sell me junk at ridicoulous prices in english. "Hey, I have gucci sunglasses for RD$1000". "Hey I have cohiba cigars for RD$2000". I speak spanish (i'm cuban) and tell them I'm not interested. Then I decide to play it smart and buy some crap (for like 1/10th of whatever they ask) so that when the next vendor comes along I'll have already have one of whatever it is they're selling and I'll wave it around and they'll buzz off instead of trying to offer me better deals. Although that backfired on me when I realized that although everybody seems to walk around with the same suitcase, they all contain different crap. The beach was really beautiful but the way the vendors were coming up to me made me wish I'd have stayed at the hamaca and used thier private beach.
Between the vendors and the beggers I'm starting to get bummed. I got rid of one kid who followed me for a whole block and a half by telling him in spanish that if he didnt leave me alone i'd call the politura and as soon as he heard that he vanished. I wondered if this approach would work on other people but wound up spending most of my vacation in Santo Domingo (1/2 of saturday and most of sunday) instead where I didnt run into such problems....
Although, all in all I had an excellent time. The beggars and vendors were ANNOYING but only a minor nuisance. Only thing that sucked majorly was waking up one morning with a buncha bumps on my feet and calves caused by whatever the hell type of insect bit my feet while I was on the beach.
I arrived in Santiago at about 7:30ish and pay $10 for a tourist card and get my passport stamped. As soon as I walk out of immigration I see some lady motioning me and everybody else coming off the flight over to what looks like a hotdog stand except it has a Brugal marquee over it. She gives me a free drink and says welcome to the dominican republic. Wow, that alone made me think that this long weekend vacation was going to be kickass.
I met up with some other people who missed the flight outside, initially I was going to rent a car and drive to boca chica but then we all decided to get a taxi. I'm not sure if we overpaid the taxi driver or not but we wound up paying about $30 each for the close to 3hr 200km ride from the airport to boca chica.
The taxi ride started out pretty normal when leaving the airport. For some reason though, when I opened the window it seemed like there was a smell of burning wood. Maybe there was a forest fire or something nearby? or maybe it was emissions from the other cars on the road and I thought it was wood *shrugs*. The other thing I noticed is that there are giant brugal signs every other mile all throughout the highway, at first I thought Brugal must own the highway or something.
After the first hour of being in that taxi I was sure glad that I didnt rent a car the first day. Nothing could have prepared me for the general chaos that is driving in DR on the first night. People crossing in the middle of the highway, motorcycles driving against traffic on your side of the highway, trucks trying to run you off the road, but the worst part was the rain and the darkness.
I finally get to boca chica around midnight, initially the driver gets lost but I packed a map of boca chica and tell him where to go, get dropped off at the Hamaca, get a general feel for where I'm at and wind up walking to el candil instead. El candil surprised me, even though I got there at around 12:30am with no reservation the owner giseppe showed up, welcomed me and got me checked into an apartment with no hassles.
The next morning I woke up at about 7am with hypothermia practically. I didnt think it would be possible for an air conditioner to be THAT strong and set it to the coldest.... but trust me.... it was. I didnt mind waking up shivering though because I didnt sleep the night before I left for DR and would have probably overslept anyways. As I'm walking out of the hotel I see giseppe and ask him for advice about where to go on the beach. He tells me to go to the beach by the park by the church.
As I'm walking to the beach some little kid asks me for money because he's hungry, I give him RD$100. Then like 5 kids come out of nowhere and ask me for money. I was like 'uhhh... go ask that other kid I just gave him like $100 pesos or something. Next thing I know I see them chase after him.
When I get there I rent a chair for about RD$90 and get a 22oz presidente for $100. I'm by myself and the guy who rents me the chair is watching my stuff which consists of a bag with my shorts, a towel, and about RD$1500 while i'm in the water.
When I get back out of the water it begins. For the next four hours the vendors are constantly trying to sell me junk at ridicoulous prices in english. "Hey, I have gucci sunglasses for RD$1000". "Hey I have cohiba cigars for RD$2000". I speak spanish (i'm cuban) and tell them I'm not interested. Then I decide to play it smart and buy some crap (for like 1/10th of whatever they ask) so that when the next vendor comes along I'll have already have one of whatever it is they're selling and I'll wave it around and they'll buzz off instead of trying to offer me better deals. Although that backfired on me when I realized that although everybody seems to walk around with the same suitcase, they all contain different crap. The beach was really beautiful but the way the vendors were coming up to me made me wish I'd have stayed at the hamaca and used thier private beach.
Between the vendors and the beggers I'm starting to get bummed. I got rid of one kid who followed me for a whole block and a half by telling him in spanish that if he didnt leave me alone i'd call the politura and as soon as he heard that he vanished. I wondered if this approach would work on other people but wound up spending most of my vacation in Santo Domingo (1/2 of saturday and most of sunday) instead where I didnt run into such problems....
Although, all in all I had an excellent time. The beggars and vendors were ANNOYING but only a minor nuisance. Only thing that sucked majorly was waking up one morning with a buncha bumps on my feet and calves caused by whatever the hell type of insect bit my feet while I was on the beach.
