first of a few reports 11-18 to 11-28

Ok this may take a few reports to keep many from falling asleep. Spent 11 days over thanksgiving with my GF in the DR( she lives there). One big plan was a trip to Higuey for her. She wanted to see the big church. I asked around before I went about possible other things to do or see to break up the drive, and I want to thanks those that replied. The trip was planned as :
Depart Moca sat am, after a first night spent dancing in Santiago Friday night( I arrived early Friday ) well we went through four vehicles all the way to sat night before we got one that MOST things worked on ESPECIALLY the stereo-cd player? they had the stereo apart at 9 pm in downtown Santiago Saturday night trying to fix the cd player for me!! We found a nail salon luckily that was open till 10, ish believe it or not!?any way back to Friday?we didn?t go out because bandits had taken over the LiCey road as well as the Tamboril road ,so her father didn?t want us to try to get into Santiago that night. So we pushed the trip back one day thus the radio repair in Santiago sat night before we went dancing. Ok Sunday am we leave on our trip, first stop, is Santo Domingo, to see the National Aquarium, and spend the night, hopefully dancing some more. The Aquarium was ok I guess, at least from my view. Lots of little species, they seemed to cover most things. I am getting the idea they don?t feed the fish enough, when I saw one of those huge fish that look like Blackfish, (ugly face) take a crap, and in an instant he turned around and ate it before the crowd converged on its location! Ha ha ha ha?.I mean that was a slow big fish and he did a U turn pretty dammm fast!!!!
Its me, my gf and her mother. We stayed at the Hotel Holdelfia or something like that , about a block from the end of the Conde monument. Nice place only drawback?was you had to pay extra for all the stuff in the fridge, and the bathroom shower stall was small?.my GF mother ate the fridge dry! Cost me 1800 pesos! Ha ha ha?..she had her own room. Went to JETSET disco but they were closed. Cabby took us to another, that was nice?danced about 2.5 hours. Not too crowded?Had no trouble getting to SD or the hotel but had all kinds of problems getting out of SD to get on rte 3 towards La Romana. They just refuse to but signs up when roads split.. there are so many big roads in SD that split into up to four different routes and they don?t say which is which?so sign for the cities ahead or even the original route number! Ask?go ahead and cross your fingers. The cops don?t even know how to get around the city?four gas station attendants tried to help, but throw in the roads splitting with out a hint of which one to take, and all bets are off?.ok enough for now?..Higuey, Nightmare in San Pedro De Macoris, awful hotel between SP de macoris and Bocha chica?trucks without lights!!! another lost path in SD, a thanksgiving day party in Sosua( why did I think it was in Puerto Platta??), and dogs sleeping in the road! maybe more to come?.bob

well we had made great time TOO SD and once out we made great time to Higuey. Highlights were limited to some pictures at the La Romana bridge of some locals fishing and while going over the other river with the metal bridge thats low to the water we saw some fish jumping as we passed. made it into Higuey and I have to say everyone has their tastes but I think that thing is kind ugly. The outside looked like it was set with really poor concrete forms by 100 drunk mexican day laborers. Inside wasnt too bad. Took some pictures. Then spent a few hours shopping. I will say that the furnitures store we stopped at seemed very high priced for the dinning room tables i liked..nice inalys. Back on the road i could see we werent going to get into Boca Chica to find a hotel during day light like i wanted. The closer hotels i had called from the states were all booked. so I set my sights for the shore just past San Pedro De Macoris on rte 3. It hugs the shore really tight so i figured there were hotels there. but I forgot about my plans to get lost in SPdM!!!!! thinking the shore is to the left and wanting to get close ,so as to not miss rte 3 some how i took a turn into Oblivion!...man the dirt rutty road with a houses as close as they could be to each other only an arms length out the window( it seemed) just kept going and going... no possible thought of turning around with 400 eyes on you....ha ha ha..after about a mile it seemed at 2 mph!!!! we popped out the other side into of all things! STREET lights.....oh the things we take for granted!!!. stopped at a gas station and was lucky enough to NOT have my GF unerstand the guy so he volunteered to have us follow him for 100 pesos and he would drive us to the door of the hotel on the beach. I felt much better when his wife and kids got into the car. He was packing a pistol so i figured he was a station manager or owner. he took right to the door step of the CORAL HILTON. I paid him 300 pesos and polished his shoes!!!! ha ha ha..just kidding about the shoes. The palce was so-so ish, the food was alright... the entertainment was tacky somewhat. the beach was really small. the disco was dead all night. but it is laid out kinda nice ,everything close..not too big. the rooms had plenty of problems. way too many for the price they wanted.. and for what happened in the morning. We went into boca chica for another disco but couldnt find one. the main road ( another sign problem) just ended in construction with no detour...we went arond and asked at a gas station and they directed us to another big Hotel..but we didnt want another hotel disco. so we left. On the way back we had a very close encounter with a huge truck with no lights going our direction in front of us on the wide open highway. When I entered this huge super black cloud of smoke i thought to my little minded self.."what causes thick black smoke that you cant see through in the middle of the highway" and I hit the brakes when I figured the answer wasnt going to anything pleasant and when I went though the smoke screen I was skidding to within a toothpick of the back of the truck! heart attack CITY!!! not one single light front or back and as black a smoke exhaust as you have ever seen....made it back to the hotel and played pool till about 2:30 am. next:

How to run a buisness the wrong way....JUST BECAUSE THATS WHAT THE RULES ON THE SHEET OF PAPER SAYS..........bob

sorry....I can take advice...will adjust.....bob

Ok some info on the hotel, because thats one of the benefits of trip reports i think. I think there are certain standards that need to be met to be good hotel. Als for me there are two types of times i want to stay in a hotle, one just a place to sleep and shower and I would be off in the am. the other would be a place you stay for multiple days.

I asked for 2 rooms next to each other one for my GF mother and one for me and my gf. they said OK. price was $175 US for the room me and my gf had and $125 for the other room. We get up to the room and they are 1231 and 1233... there is a seperate room between ours!..not really the end of the worls because we can be noisy at night. The room for my gf mother , the door wouldnt open!, and then our door wouldnt open unless you lifted the handle! Instead of the usual push down and in motion. they fixed the one door not my rooms. the the TV changers didnt work took and hour to clear that up. The hot water didnt work in the sink in my room , nor would the bathroom door even come close to closing( not a big deal for us) the cold water in the sink was very low in pressure. I washed my hands and face with the shower water!!!!! If you flushed the toilet in our room, when the water filled up the tank the tank would shut off and it would vibrate-whine at a really high pitch for about 15 minutes. You could not even think about slepping when it did that. my GF mothers room had a balcony as did the one BETWEEN out rooms, they were nice. Our room didnt and the window owulndt lock at all. Well the balcony of the room between ours was only about 3 feet from our window with a good 10" wide lip-sill. You could easily reach our window and open it by hand with just pressure on the glass, and slide it open! So I had to keep my valuable in the first room!

The room comes with a mini bar that has 2 presidentes and 2 cokes as complimentary. Plus a ton of other stuff. There is a sign on the fridge what is free, and that the rest must be paid for. the one in our room was locked. I called about 11 pm when I realized it. they said they would open it in the morning!. I said I aint getting up till 9 or 10 what good it it then when I have to leave by 1pm. I want it now. Too bad, is their reply. so the next day we get up kinda late and have breakfast, decent...super dry french toast though!!!! And then we rented some 4 wheel ATV's. It was a 2 hour rental, but i said I only wanted to ride for an hour because we had to shower before we checked out at 1 pm. The atvs were really nice and the guide took us on some back woods trails and finally to the beach. I stopped to ask him how far back was the hotel, because I wanted him to go back and get my camera. He didnt understand me that well, and i had to keep reminding him I only wanted ands hour ride!. Well the older woman who was skinny dipping on this beach in the water heard us , and thought we couldnt understand each other . So she comes out of the water and walks up to offer her "help" So my gf has her own atv the guide is near me on his dirt bike and me and my gf mother are on my ATV, the naked lady walks right up to us within 2 feet and says you want me to tell him what you want?. My gf 's eyes are rolling. this older lady has a really decent set of hooters to boot! She must have deligently worn her bra! ha ha ha. Turns out she is from L.I. Ny!.....it was really humorous. so back to hotel because it would take too long for the camera trip.


Now I go up and ask at the front desk for a new set of towels before i shower. and i wait and wait in the room. it is 12:30 I called at 12:40 where are the towels?. they are on the way. I call at 12:45, I say hey i have to check out at 1 pm where are the towels? at 12: 50 I walk around the hall and find a house keeping cart and take a towel myself. At 1pm the lady comes to the room and says what do you want? ha ha ha......1/2 hour and no towel. so we shower and get ready to check out. they guy says that there is an extra fee for one room because stuff was taken from the min bar. the charge is $19 US.. I ask what they were. The items i was charge for were a bottle of water an extra soda and acan of peanuts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! $19 DOLLARS, are you kidding? So i say no problem my mini bar was locked and you never opened it and I didnt get my CPMPLIMENTARY items, lets call it even!

OHHHHHH no we CANT do that, you HAVE to pay for the items you used! So I say ok are you going to pay me for the items I didnt get?. NOOOO, you didnt use them , thats your fault!. NOOO the fridge was locked and you refused to open at 11 pm!.. the guy would budge, so i had to talk to the manager. I hacked it out with him for 30 minutes and he wouldnt budge a bottle of water a soda and a can of peanuts undeniable outrageously priced, and knowing all the problems with the rooms and mu mini bar and this guy wouldnt budge...I would not be compensated at all and I would HAVE to pay for the items used..its the RULES!!!! I told him you are shooting yourself in the foot. This is a place that needs to CATER to people not spit in their face. You have a classic suicidal buisness policy here. In the end I said well GIVE me the free items from my room that I didnt get use of. And he agreed, I didnt want them I just didnt want him to have them. I said i want them cold too! it took another 1/2 for the to locate the GUY for that job, finally I walked up to the room and their is a guy standing their chit chatting with a housemaid. I yelled, hey you lets go NOW!, and walked him to my room , what he says, open the door, then open the mini bar, so he does, I grap two presidentes and 2 sodas and walked out.. the place is a circus they could care less about the clientel. I didnt moan at all in Santo Doming when it cost me 1800 pesos for my GF mothers binge in her mini bar!. hey Ill pay, but I hate get taken advantage of, and I stood my ground for principle..terrible room and service on top of an outrageous bill for 3 items!........but you know they have the enviroment for a nice place. later sleeping dogs, a mucho fortunato mano on my GF at the roulette tables, and the turkey in sosua ....bob

I guess you need TWO blank lines for paragraph to form!. I had plenty of paragraph when i typed it!......bob

Coral Hilton just outside of San Pedro De Macoris on the way to Boca Chica.

ok I spent much time in the Santiago-Moca area. Went shopping alot downtown, the shops are really great, they are packed tight together, lots of people lots of faces. There are plenty of deals in santiago. We went to the casinos in santiago 4 times and once in Puerto Platta. It was a first for my GF. we started at poker by accident< i wanted black jack, and didnt notice the table, stayed anyway and lost maybe a $100, moved to black jack lost another $50, then went to roulette, and made most of it back. We both played poker and BJ, but only she played roulette. I have never played it either. She had a blast the first night at roulette she just used 5 peso chips but she did so good we left jst a little in the whole. Plus we used up 500 pesos in slot machine chips as well. That casino wasnt the one near the big super market. we went to that one the next night. Played roulette only and she won about $450. We played $1 chips there. played about 4 hours. the next time we played at jack tar in POP and she did ok maybe even , nothing great. Two more times back in Santiago at the big hotel, she wont another $200 one night and lost $60 the last night. we had to move every time a woman dealer came up...it was badluck for her. It is awfull how the single guys will plow right in next to her and try to lean all over her in a fainted effort of "playing" just unblievable......

the thanks giving dinner was great, but for some reason I thought it was in POP and kept trying to find a non AI hotel to sleep in overnight. in the rain that took over 2hours A really nice hotel up on the hill was booked, couldnt find any tohers , and stayed at the atlantic virgin or something like that, but you know the sign out front said THE DOMINCANA and was for sale.. very few people there. I pulled in and the first question I asked..DO YOU HAVE BLOW DRYERS?. got to take care of the girl..he said i think so....I said I am only satying if you do... it took a few tries and I got my money back once before one of the workers fianlly found a room that had a working one! ha ha....1100 pesos...no food or drinks with the rooms, but they were like a little suite that the bedroom could be closed off with two different doors. I liked that a stove and some pots and pans a fridge, decent bath counch and chairs and table lots of room in the bedroom.....good deal and perfect for us.... the malecon( main road out in front of the hotel, and the shore, was all tore up with construction.

I got directions from two different gas station attendants of how to get to Eddys spotsd bar in PUERTO PLATTA! ha ha ha ha.....until I finally called Eddys to find it was in Sosua after all!. and we came the Moca route through cabarette , and sosua to get to POP!!!!! oh well. we went back to santiago thorugh the navarette route, and we made the time in about 1.25hours each way...way faster than most led me to believe....dealt with very few trucks on my way back, so that helped.

one highlight, and i wish I could post pictures myself here. was a huge tarantuala crossing the road near my GF's house. I had her father with me and he couldnt believe I wanted pictures. i took a bunch and had him take some of me with the spider... then I just got back in the jeep, but he aid HEY we got to kill this thing. so he did!...hey its close to his house!.

Did have a one bad thing happen, the last night the road was covered with dogs. I actually saw more dead dogs this trip than all others combined. maine road and I had slowed to about 10 MPH or less when the dog woke up and made a bee line for the side of the road where i had already taken a path...he went between the wheels, I back up and he wasnt there. But i felt him roll under the car. Maybe he will live.......but those dogs are a big problem. there are soo many. Lots of rain and clouds on this trip. But no scouchers temps either......bought a 500 gallon water tank for their house and had it installed, because thier water gest shut off for 4 days at a time sometimes. so they have a 350 on the roof and a 500 in the yard. Plus bought a water heater that goes onto the spigout that comes out of the wall. Man that water gets cold with 3 days of clouds!... a guy could have a heart attack taking a shower..... and the flys this trip!...a million.........bought some poision and my GF mother was sweeping them up for a week! ha ha ha...by the end of the week they were 90 % gone!....

my GF drps the bomb she wants pig..no 2 pigs!..her uncle next door has some piglets and she want to buy two to raise to sell......at first i thought she wanted those mini pigs........ok its not totally trip related.....but i was on a roll.......bob