The long-awaited epilogue
Not! If I knew that this post was going to be made into a sticky, I would have written it better, and shorter! My, I?m a long-winded story teller!
Most trip reports don?t talk about money but I think it might be helpful for those in the planning stages, so I?ll talk about it for a paragraph or so. If you?re not interested (and who could blame you?), just skip the next couple paragraphs. I finally got my credit card statement and it looks like the whole trip (excluding airfare) cost me about $US 600. I think that?s great. That?s five nights at the Hotel Camp David Ranch and one at Eddy?s Condos Dominicano in Sosua. That also includes meals, of which there weren?t many, by my own choice, and lots and lots of Presidentes, lots. Lots. The hotel was less than $US 35 per night. That?s just incredible. I probably spent at least hundred bucks just on taxis. I don?t think that?s typical. But I didn?t want to transport the sponsored kids around town in a publico and also the hotel where I stayed was at least a hundred-peso ride one way. Even more late at night. More on that later.
I also paid for a party of ten or so people to have lunch at Charley?s near the Monument, complete with Cokes and a custom-made cake, and I did a little bit of toy store shopping in Santiago as well. If HB hadn?t been at the toy store with me, I probably would have spent more. Typical gringo me?it would have been too much. So, all in all, not bad, expenses-wise. Less than I expected, in fact. But, what I should have done is brought five hundred in cash, because I would have gotten a much better exchange rate at a Cambio than the credit card company gave me. But, then again, I really had no idea what I was going to spend, it being only my second trip and all. Live and learn. I don?t think there?s a drawback to carrying hundreds of dollars in cash into the country. Somebody may correct me on that.
And save all your ATM receipts. When I used the credit card at the hotel, I got the peso and dollar amount on my statement, but the ATM transactions on the same card only had the dollar amount. Believe it or not, the credit card company wouldn?t tell me what rate they used on those ATM transactions AND told me they weren?t obligated to tell me either. Huh? If you want to dispute the conversion rate that you got for any particular day for any particular transaction, only then will they ?investigate? but to ?investigate? you have to have the receipt. I didn?t and I think I?m screwed on at least one transaction. My advice, use only one card, and check out well beforehand what will be printed on your statement and, if possible, how the rate will be determined. I probably could have found out if I?d been more persistent, but they wore me down. Like putting me on hold for 15 minutes. Man, that?s irritating. Lesson learned.
Taxis. I stayed strictly with the company that services Hillbilly?s family regularly and had pretty good success with them. There was only one really greedy driver in the bunch but the rest of them were OK. Two different days, I needed a driver virtually all day. I had my favorites. HB has his. My very favorite was a guy named Juan who had lived a long time in NYC. We spoke half and half, english and spanish, not really spanglish, just alternating. The cab company is called the Miguelito. Listen to this: the night that I went out clubbing with Adrian, he called Miquelito at about 2:00AM to come and get me from his apartment and the person answering the phone said something like ?yes, we?ve been waiting for your call to come get the american and take him to Camp David.? Didn?t I feel special?
I was surprised at how punctual all of the drivers were, I mean, USA-style punctual. Right on time or even early. However, it was difficult to haggle prices being so far from the center of town. If you didn?t like the guy?s price, you might have to wait a half an hour for a cab from a competing company to chug up the side of the mountain, if they even would (like I said, some of those cacharros barely made the grade [pun intended]). I?m way to non-confrontational for my own good to begin with, and I tried to not keep people waiting for me so I probably ended up paying a little more than I should have. That?s my fault, not theirs. I didn?t want to sacrifice reliability and punctuality to save a few pesos. Lucky for me, I only had one real problem with fare gouging, but, in retrospect, I wish I had been a little more resolute. Once the word got out among the drivers, the fares started creeping up for me. So look out for me next time! Not one centavo more than the agreed price. I mean it! Yeah, we?ll see.
OK, remember that italian restaurant I told you about in HB?s neighborhood? I think it?s a very well-kept secret. I don?t think they have ten tables in there. It looks just like any old house on the street and I don?t think anybody would know it?s a restaurant by just walking by it. But what great food! And service! And everything! So if you?re with HB and it?s getting around dinner time, don?t wait for him to suggest it. Just offer to pay the bill. It?s not that much and it?s worth every peso. You can even blaze up a stogie after dinner, if you want. Oh yeah, that reminds me. The first night I got to town, HB and I were up at the Hotel Camp David doing, what else, having a couple beers, and this dutch guy, a cigar maker/seller gives HB one of his cigars to smoke. So HB lights it up and just by puffing on the cigar, he can tell what kind of tobacco is in it, and there?s more than one kind. He?s just puffing and naming them off. Wow! I was very impressed because like, blindfolded, I can?t even tell what kind of ice cream I?m eating and he?s picking out different tobacco varieties in smoke. This dude really knows his cigars.
Here?s another thing. One night, HB and I went out looking for some snacks at this food vendor in his neighborhood. Kind of like a taco stand or a hot dog stand (I forget what we actually ate, sorry) and we?re walking down the street and getting close to where it should have been and the place is just gone. ?Hmmmm? says HB ?it used to be right over there. Guess they packed up and left.? We start walking back to his house. Then he stops and says ?You know, I can smell it, but I can?t see it. It?s gotta be around here somewhere.? Well, it was. It had just moved. The whole enterprise was on wheels so they had just picked up and moved to the other side of the street and about a block up. It was just dark enough that we had walked right by it. But, what a nose, eh? With all the other smells in the air, including some other restaurants, he sniffed ?em out. Like I said, I don?t know what we noshed on, but it was very, very good. Everything fried. Muy picante. Which made the Presidentes taste that much better. Man, I wish I had some right now.
Language. I don?t how anybody can get by outside the walls of an AI without being at least at an intermediate level of proficiency in spanish. I don?t think a beginner?s level is gonna help you very much. And, by the way, don?t frustrate yourself trying to find shortcuts to learning spanish. There are none that I know of. No hay ninguno que yo sepa. When I made my first trip in October 2001, I was at the end of 2 years of very intense study and had got to the point where I didn?t need to keep a dictionary with me all the time to talk to my mexican friends. Not fluent, no, not even close, but way beyond beginner. By intense, I mean at least two hours a day with audio tapes or textbooks or actual conversation or watching Univision. I also had (and still have) a tutor one hour a week for the really hard stuff. At that time I had a 45-minute commute to work one way and I listened to instructional tapes both ways. I was feeling pretty good about how fast I was learning (those pesky past imperfect subjunctives notwithstanding).
continued..... oh my, there's more?
