Troubles in Las Galeras

We read about this in the paper this morning and were surprised. Last time we were there (February/March) the ban was already in effect and as far as I could tell people seemed quite pleased with it.

There is excellent access to Casa Marina and beyond via the proper road, and the beach is a much quieter and safer place without motoconchos, quads and cars careering up and down that track.

Cirilo, please do keep us posted if you can.

Who are the protesters?

Cirilo said:

...The reason is the application of the new law not authorizing motorized vehicules to drive in the 60m area from the sea...!

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What exactly does this new law say???

There are many places in DR where you can get only by using the beach road!

There is no other option.

Does this new law apply to Playa Rincon? If it does it is no good for anyone.

It's specific to the beach at Las Galeras, otherwise it would be absurd.

Stranger things have happened, though.

Thanks for clearing that up, Cirilo. If the ban is on motorised transport on the beaches themselves, you would have to designate a track like the one along Las Galeras beach as an official road to get round it.

To get to Playa Rincon, once you get to the beach there is roughly 2kms of track in each direction to both ends of the beach, so it would be a trek for most visitors if they had to park on arrival. Even if the track along the beach at Rincon does not count as an official road, who would police the ban? The stray dogs that roam the beach?

The difference between Rincon and Las Galeras is that at Las Galeras you do have an alternative route to the other end of the beach, so no-one should complain.

I wonder though, will this law really stop all the people who drive right up to the shoreline and blare bachata out of the car speakers at popular beaches like Boca Chica?

They'll be stopping jet-skis and speedboats from slicing up swimmers next!

sorry but let's get it right

this is nothing but a land grab by the hotels and obviously politicians were paid under the table. from what i understand, club bonito put up a 30 mtr x 1 mtr high cinder block wall from the front of the property down to the beach to "privatize" the beach in front of the hotel; and the locals tore it down. there was never to my knowledge complaints about cars or motorcycles or horses going fast down the road along the beach - for one, it's too bumpy to do such a thing. this is very important that the locals stand up for their rights. club bonito and the beach don't have 60 mtrs between them. look for yourself http://www.club-bonito.com/ .if that law stands then that will set a very bad precedent for the whole beach down to casa marina which has already closed off the beach. and that will obviously expand to playa rincon. it is a precedent for 2 classes of people - the locals and the tourists - and it would make the locals 2nd class citizens who can't even enjoy their own beach.

Now that puts a totally different spin on things. Closing the road to motorised traffic is one thing. Closing a portion of the beach off to locals is another.

I'm off to phone my sources there.

Edited to add:

I just spoke to someone who lives there and her version is closer to Cirilo's. She says it's a case of poor communications, that the measure was not explained to the locals, and that they have interpreted it as a grab by the hoteliers when in fact it is simply a pedestrianisation of the beach. She says the place is in a complete state, with garbage and broken bottles, felled trees blocking the roads. They were due to travel to Bonao today and have had to cancel their trip because they can't get out.

Even if she is biased and the protesters are in the right, what a way to attract the tourists!

Chirimoya said:

Now that puts a totally different spin on things. Closing the road to motorised traffic is one thing. Closing a portion of the beach off to locals is another.

I'm off to phone my sources there.

Edited to add:

I just spoke to someone who lives there and her version is closer to Cirilo's. She says it's a case of poor communications, that the measure was not explained to the locals, and that they have interpreted it as a grab by the hoteliers when in fact it is simply a pedestrianisation of the beach. She says the place is in a complete state, with garbage and broken bottles, felled trees blocking the roads. They were due to travel to Bonao today and have had to cancel their trip because they can't get out.

Even if she is biased and the protesters are in the right, what a way to attract the tourists!

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tell me that if a hotel puts up a 30 mtr wall from their property to the beach with the backing of a local politician or tourism board - neither of whom paid for the wall i'm sure - that that hotel will then not start filling up that new space with their lawn chairs, maybe a bar etc. and any locals, tourists, ex pats who just want to put their towel on the beach or maybe have a picnic will be told that they have to pay 200 pesos for a lawn chair and that they can't sit on the beach without a lawn chair a la casa marina. since club bonito is the first hotel on the beach, certainly the whole stretch of beach will be lost to the locals. the locals are not stupid. they have seen it dozens of times before in the country. there are many examples. and the fact that the tourism body anawhores might be sponsering it is no big surprise since they are made up of hoteliers so what is good for the hotels is good for them. if the govt doesn't back down on this there will be serious violence in las galeras over the next few days. you can count on it. if i were a guest in club bonito, i would get out now.

There are those that...

would love to privitize the beaches of the Dominican Republic; the eastern end of the Samana peninsula, Las Galeras and Playa Rincon included. When I read the DR Travel News item regarding the banning of motorized vehicles within the 60 meters I immediately wondered how many of the DR's beaches (and specifically these Samana beaches) could be accessed. And to have to walk to them and then down the beach to find the right "spot" is ludricrous at best when there is a a perfectly good, unpaved road that goes to and parallels many of these beaches anyway. And as the roads are unpaved, full of ruts and holes and generally not improved, vehicles racing down them and endangering pedestrians just doesn't happen. Occassionally some fool will try on his dirt bike or quad and they usually dump it and discover that sand can produce road rash just like asphalt and many also end up with a "Samana Tatoo," a burn on the leg from the hot exhaust pipe. However, it DOES happen in Las Terrenas where the road beside the beach has now been improved and paved. Before this, you couldn't exceed 10mph without tearing your vehicle apart. You still can't on the roads along the beach in Las Galeras or Rincon.
I wasn't aware of the wall down to the beach that Club Bonito built, but I do know that the owner of the hotel has wanted to and tried to privitize "her" beach for as long as I can remember. Casa Marina Bay has in fact achieved this "de facto" as they do not encourage non-guests from enjoying Cala Blanca beach in front of the resort. And in fact, about 4 years ago, one of their armed guards escorted some of my hotel's guests off the property at gunpoint. They were riding our horses along the beach in front of the resort and needless to say, when they returned and told me of this I went ballistic and paid the manager a "social" visit to discuss this reprehensible action. He wouldn't speak to me for a long time after that and was still wincing the last time I saw him.
And although I don't condone violent strikes by the populace (bad image for tourism), I am standing shoulder-to-shoulder with them in this instance (even though I am currently in Florida until next November). This law is nothing but an attempt to privitize the DR's beaches for the benefit of a few (mostly hotel owners) and accordingly is a bad law. I've seen the same attempts at privitization here in Daytona Beach and Volusia County, Florida and I fought it as the elected Vice-President of the Sons of the Beaches (I was the second biggest SOB in Daytona for a long time). Not only were we fighting for continued public access, we also fought charging a toll to be able to drive on the beach.
We were eventually able to keep the entire beach open for pedestrian traffic, but did not succeed in getting rid of the toll. Resultingly, as there is very little off-beach parking, there are now huge stretches of our 42 miles of the "world's most famous beach" that are virtually deserted due to the steps taken after we lost the fight (some in the name of "turtle" protection; gotta' give 'dem turtles plenty of room even though it deprives much of the poorer population of the simple pleasure of an accessible beach). And guess where they are: in front of many of the large hotels and condos and very expensive, oceanfront-homes.

De Facto privitization? You bet it is and the same thing is now happening in the DR. Shame on the politicians that support this and greater shame on the hotels that are pushing this unjust and short-sighted law.

you tell 'em andy! i think that it's an attempt also to increase the value of the hotel property which she has been trying to sell prior to the airport's opening. if she had any guests ever in the hotel i would say boycott it!

yes i just heard the same but that they would be opening the beach. seems the governor was there. however, i don't like the sounds of meeting them in santo domingo. sounds like a lair. this is not just about the beach being closed. it's about that rock ash still in arroyo baril and lots of kids with bad skin rashes; it's about no jobs; it's about broken promises; no water; high prices on food. that wall was just a symbol for all the angst in the community. that's how out of touch the politicians are there. i'd like to see the area east of the town of samana get their own central municipal govt so that some idiot in santo domingo just doesn't pass laws with no concern or understanding of the local sentiment. i'm talking about las galeras, los cocaos, rincon having their own municipal govt. samana politicians are out of touch with our communities there.

apparently church leaders from las galeras have gone to santo domingo to try and work this out. locals are cleaning up the street today and it should be pretty much back to normal by tomorrow. main street is apparently now opened and police from nagua have gone back to nagua.

if you want to support the locals, please email the German-Canadian owner of Hotel Club Bonito and tell her how you feel about the attempted land grab so she'll think twice before she or anyone else tries that again: clubbonito@codetel.net.do