dramatis personae:
dv8
minovio
gosia
place: POP-samana
time: last weekend
curtain opens to see out heroes setting from the malecon on friday afternoon.
sun was shining and i was getting excited about leaving POP for few days and exploring DR. gosia was getting excited about "the paradise" as she calls DR (at this moment she doesn't know yet what surprises DR has in store for her...) and chatting happily. by the time we reached playa dorada she suddenly grew very silent and we found out her claim about falling asleep in anything that moves were true - so much for admiring the views...
part of the road is good, almost to gaspar hernandez, right after the holes start and one has to slow down. as much as i do not like POP i like the countryside in DR, fantastic cliffs near rio san juan and hills all the way down the penisula - very beautiful. and even thou generally the beach does not do anything for me i admired playa diamante, playa grande and even strange playa gringo close to nagua. no tourists, quiet and empty - just how i like it.
samana, well, small. but i can see there is lots going on and with two airports nearby it's bound to become another touristy destination, hopefully bringing more money and more jobs to the are. road is in desperate need of fixing, all the way down i was grateful we sold peugeot and got a jeepeta. all the are from nagua to samana is rife with motoconchos, worse than POP, because the road is narrow and curvy, not that easy to spot them.
we reached samana after 3.5-4 hours drive and went straight to our accommodation which turned out to be an ordinary dominican house, one of those i see in POP every day, with additional living spaces built above and on both sides, looking like some sort of mad lego structure. as we were set for CHEAP and all the hotels we called before were full i was happy to see that place was fairly big (living/kitchen space plus 3 bedrooms) and fairly clean (dust does not count as dirt to me, as a teenager i dusted shelves in my room once a year. dusting is only beaten my ironing as my least favorite house jobs).
shower had only cold water (no surprise for me but poor gosia was not very happy) but there was a stove, fridge and clean and all the womeware. also cable tv with HBO - clearly shows that for dominicans is does not matter if they wash their butts in ice cold water as long as endless stream of telenovelas is provided. as could be expected power went off almost as soon as we arrived plunging us into darkness and the first part of "the gringa in DR" installment by gosia:
"there is no electricity. why is there no electricity. is it gonna be back soon? five minutes? what do you mean - in the morning? i don't understand. can someone do something about it?"
we have all been through it, haven't we?
next morning we went to see the whales. small catamaran took us out in the ocean (pretty depressing that the closest land is right under your feet) and soon we saw? ugly! ok, they may be wonders of nature but really, you?ll be better off watching the discovery channel. i still feel a little bit sick when i think about those waves. as everyone knows the boats have to follow regulations that dictate how far from the whale can you actually be. and quite far it is. unless a whale decides to swim gracefully under your boat ? i admired that part of the show while releasing back to the ocean the tuna we had in the morning.
after half an hour of nausea i was saved and we had a stop over on cayo levantado. gosia was getting quite enthusiastic but thankfully mal de mer reached her as well so the next two hours we simply dozed off in the shade.
the day was finished by en evening walk of this narrow bridge leading to a bird sanctuary. and what a bird sanctuary it is! since the stairs are half buried as the effect of a landslide, one only walks the bridge to find out his (or hers) efforts are not gonna be bring a prize of wandering around among wild birds. and the road to reach the bridge ? a joke, full of holes sandy tract among the debris of a barrio on one side and stranded ships on the other. not pleasant, not safe and certainly not passable in a normal car, water in one of the puddles (or should i say ?pools?) reached half way up the car door!
as soon as we reached home another dominican surprise followed. We had the electricity but no water. in her week in DR poor gosia has experienced: a broken down bus on a way to santiago, electricity cuts, cold water and no water. i told her she should embrace her luck, she saw a country like one of the locals, not like a tourist!
i would like to apologize to everyone i promised to visit and we didn?t, there was little time and mal de mer held me hostage for a full day. not too mention less romantic motion sickness i suffered on a way there and back.
regardless of how unenthusiastic i might have been ? samana is great. great views all the way there, great air. food less so as it turned out i picked up a parasite and an intestinal infection sometime during that trip. it was all worth it (and i have lost 7 pounds too?)
dv8
minovio
gosia
place: POP-samana
time: last weekend
curtain opens to see out heroes setting from the malecon on friday afternoon.
sun was shining and i was getting excited about leaving POP for few days and exploring DR. gosia was getting excited about "the paradise" as she calls DR (at this moment she doesn't know yet what surprises DR has in store for her...) and chatting happily. by the time we reached playa dorada she suddenly grew very silent and we found out her claim about falling asleep in anything that moves were true - so much for admiring the views...
part of the road is good, almost to gaspar hernandez, right after the holes start and one has to slow down. as much as i do not like POP i like the countryside in DR, fantastic cliffs near rio san juan and hills all the way down the penisula - very beautiful. and even thou generally the beach does not do anything for me i admired playa diamante, playa grande and even strange playa gringo close to nagua. no tourists, quiet and empty - just how i like it.
samana, well, small. but i can see there is lots going on and with two airports nearby it's bound to become another touristy destination, hopefully bringing more money and more jobs to the are. road is in desperate need of fixing, all the way down i was grateful we sold peugeot and got a jeepeta. all the are from nagua to samana is rife with motoconchos, worse than POP, because the road is narrow and curvy, not that easy to spot them.
we reached samana after 3.5-4 hours drive and went straight to our accommodation which turned out to be an ordinary dominican house, one of those i see in POP every day, with additional living spaces built above and on both sides, looking like some sort of mad lego structure. as we were set for CHEAP and all the hotels we called before were full i was happy to see that place was fairly big (living/kitchen space plus 3 bedrooms) and fairly clean (dust does not count as dirt to me, as a teenager i dusted shelves in my room once a year. dusting is only beaten my ironing as my least favorite house jobs).
shower had only cold water (no surprise for me but poor gosia was not very happy) but there was a stove, fridge and clean and all the womeware. also cable tv with HBO - clearly shows that for dominicans is does not matter if they wash their butts in ice cold water as long as endless stream of telenovelas is provided. as could be expected power went off almost as soon as we arrived plunging us into darkness and the first part of "the gringa in DR" installment by gosia:
"there is no electricity. why is there no electricity. is it gonna be back soon? five minutes? what do you mean - in the morning? i don't understand. can someone do something about it?"
we have all been through it, haven't we?
next morning we went to see the whales. small catamaran took us out in the ocean (pretty depressing that the closest land is right under your feet) and soon we saw? ugly! ok, they may be wonders of nature but really, you?ll be better off watching the discovery channel. i still feel a little bit sick when i think about those waves. as everyone knows the boats have to follow regulations that dictate how far from the whale can you actually be. and quite far it is. unless a whale decides to swim gracefully under your boat ? i admired that part of the show while releasing back to the ocean the tuna we had in the morning.
after half an hour of nausea i was saved and we had a stop over on cayo levantado. gosia was getting quite enthusiastic but thankfully mal de mer reached her as well so the next two hours we simply dozed off in the shade.
the day was finished by en evening walk of this narrow bridge leading to a bird sanctuary. and what a bird sanctuary it is! since the stairs are half buried as the effect of a landslide, one only walks the bridge to find out his (or hers) efforts are not gonna be bring a prize of wandering around among wild birds. and the road to reach the bridge ? a joke, full of holes sandy tract among the debris of a barrio on one side and stranded ships on the other. not pleasant, not safe and certainly not passable in a normal car, water in one of the puddles (or should i say ?pools?) reached half way up the car door!
as soon as we reached home another dominican surprise followed. We had the electricity but no water. in her week in DR poor gosia has experienced: a broken down bus on a way to santiago, electricity cuts, cold water and no water. i told her she should embrace her luck, she saw a country like one of the locals, not like a tourist!
i would like to apologize to everyone i promised to visit and we didn?t, there was little time and mal de mer held me hostage for a full day. not too mention less romantic motion sickness i suffered on a way there and back.
regardless of how unenthusiastic i might have been ? samana is great. great views all the way there, great air. food less so as it turned out i picked up a parasite and an intestinal infection sometime during that trip. it was all worth it (and i have lost 7 pounds too?)