Tommy is waiting at the bottom near the on ramp to the autopista. He explains how he pulled over a few times on the way down to squirt water from his camel back onto his rear break drum. He says people were looking at him weird as the steam rose off the break drum. Also, a couple bikers stopped to see if he needed help, Nice. I ask if he wants an empanada, not hungry. I eat his empanadas without a problem.
Tommy continues to worry about his motorcycle and the ability for it to make it any further. Where he stopped he has his map out and is motioning a line on the map with his index finger indicating a line running north, back along the autopista toward Cabarete. I feel my heart plunge. ?The end of the ride? I kind of freak out and say ?No! Not back on the autopista. We can ride back toward Cabarete through the center of the island and shoot toward the Samana peninsula. There you can decide if your bike can handle Samana or if you want to run for Cabarete? I pleaded, saying ?Your bike already made it up to Constanza and back. We are done with the mountains now. We can just take it easy and see how it goes? Tommy agrees, he is glad we did Constanza and likes the thought of shooting toward Samana. Whosh! My spirits leap with joy. We push on south back toward Bonao. Ten miles south of Bonao we are turning inland shooting for the Samana peninsula through the heart of the Dominican Republic.
We fly along the autopista. After we pass the Bonao exit we see the hotel the receptionist at the hotel in Bonao was telling us about. His directions in English were 180 degrees out. He said left at the autopista, it was right at the autopista. Funny, but I am not surprised, it is not uncommon to mix up right and left in a new language.
Tommy?s oil injector light is on. We pull into a gas station for oil. Next to the oil I see a bottle of octane booster. I ask if he wants to split the cost of the bottle. The octane debate continues. Hipster says ?You only need hi octane fuel for hi compression engines, racing engines? I agree and say ?Yes! you Need hi octane for hi compression engines, but hi octane fuel will make any engine run better, stronger and cooler? I talk about flame propagation of the explosion inside the combustion chamber. Hi octane fuel burns slower, the explosion?s flame propagates slower resulting in more power transferring to the piston and less energy wasted in the form of heat. The discussions are hi-level and intense. We end it with ?agreeing to disagree? and a smile. Hipster and I have both worked in design engineering for decades, we always enjoy engaging in technical discussions. I feel lucky to have him as a friend.
We turn off the autopista at the city Piedra Blanca. We are heading inland through the heart of the Dominican Republic now. The map I have looks like we should have an easy time of navigation, but no, there are constant decisions to make as to what road to take. I ask directions. One elderly man suggests we ride back into Piedra Blanca, and then turn right somewhere. Our map shows no options to turn anywhere. We conclude that he is mistaken or I understood wrong. A block later, I ask another person sitting on a motorcycle which way it is to Cotui. He confirms our suspicion that we need to go left at the fork, not right. All right, this is fun!
The countryside is very interesting. It is again a new Dominican Republic to us and we are in awe of the beauty of the landscape and the variety of sights.
We see a huge lake off to our right hand side. I see the lake on our map but the map indicated that it should be on our left hand side.
