12h45pm with my new Bic Boligrafo Stic Velocity no sabe falgar, that I bought a few hours ago in La Serena, a shopping mall in Higuey, where we also got some cash. I also bought a book by Mario Vargos Llosa, a novel about the former Dominican dictator Trujillo. After we got the money we went for a short walk around Higuey; breakfast in a “French” patisserie and visit to the cathedral and its beautiful park; I think they are the only two sites of interest in town.
1.10pm I sent Luca to buy some empanadas, 20 minutes ago already. Where has he gone? Has he found a pretty girl that invited him on his scooter like last night when we were walking together?
Oh, here he comes.
1.52pm, I’m starting La Fiesta del Chivo.
April 15, 8pm
Luca scared me! This morning he came back to the room whie I was in the swimming pool, because he was tired, he said. When I went to the room, I found him shaking with cold. I tried to warm him up, to no avail. I read in the Lonely Planet that the shakes for the cold are symptoms of heatstroke, dengue and malaria. I don’t know what is worse. The heatstroke can cause collapse and death. Well, probably this would be the worst case scenario.
Now he’s better. We went down for dinner. I ordered past with tuna. He’s hungry. He feels much better, earlier he didn’t even want to get up. He’s still a bit cold. We are at our hotel. They also cook food and there’s a couple coming from outside to eat pasta, at a table by the pool. She’s strange. I don’t mind the 12cm heel, but the nails are about 3 or 4 cm long, they turn as if they were claws. She takes her tissue as if she was using pliers. I would prefer not to look at them, but she’s sitting right in front of me. The tuna pasta is good; a bit too much garlic maybe.
El Viejo Pirata is owned by a guy from Trieste, former deep-sea diver that to celebrate the sea built this hotel that resembles a ship; now he has trouble walking, has various health issues, and he rented the place to another guy from Milan. This guy had shops in Milan, but bureaucracy in Italy is so bad that the business was more a hassle than a pleasure, so he decided to invest in the Dominican Republic instead.
April 16, 9.40am Luca is not feeling better. We don’t know if we should stay or go. Because we don’t just have to get on a car and get off at the next hotel, we have to walk and carry a backpack. We can stay here a bit longer.
Afternoon in Boca de Yuma, town at the end of the world
10h30 I hope he doesn’t have malaria, but the symptoms are the same: he keeps shaking, has fever, headache and diarrhea. If in a few hours he doesn’t feel better we’ll go to the hospital to take some exams. He has started to shake again. He seemed to feel better, but no.
2pm Now he’s sleeping, fortunately. We went to the hospital in Rafael de Yuma, 15 minutes from Boca de Yuma. Sandro was so kind to took us there with his car. They gave him a shot, I don’t know for what, and prescribed an antibiotic and a pill for fever and headache; an hidrating solution and another thing to dilute in water were given to us at the hospital for free. We had to pay the pills (750 RDS, almost 15 euro) because the hospital pharmacy was closed, otherwise we probably wouldn’t have had to pay for those neither. If tomorrow he still has fever we’ll have to go to Higuey for more blood exams, to see if it’s malaria, ameba, dengue or other.
Here if someone breaks a bone, they do the x-ray and put a cast at zero cost, even if they are foreigners. They might not have the X-ray to print the results, but they do them. Because it’s Easter, there won’t be blood experts in Rafael de Yuma tomorrow, otherwise we could have gone there.
Public schools are also free and offer lunch to the students. Because there are many children they do three turns: some kids go to school in the morning, others in the afternoon, more in the late afternoon.
Encounters while I go to buy some water for the moribund
I must go to buy some water and force him to drink. And I must remember to give him a pill every 6 hours and another one, the antibiotic, for 5 days. They gave him a shot, he took off his shorts in the room where he was examined, which is also the room where all other patients wait, and he took the shot without saying a word, and he hates syringes! But in that moment he couldn’t understand anything, he was dumb. As soon as he feels better we will leave; maybe it’s not malaria, just something he’s eaten. Who knows?
When I told the doctor that it could be malaria because we were in Haiti (in the Dominican Republic there’s no malaria), she asked for how long we went and why. 10 days, on holiday. But is Haiti nice for a holiday? Mmmm… not really. And the doctor and the nurse said to each other “So why did they go there?”. Right, why? To see, know, discover.
Breakfast and we leave for Saban de la Mer. Let’s just hope the gua-gua won’t leave while I’m having my egg. The guard of the bank, 50 meters away, is also here; you’d think he’s here for a coffee, but he is actually here every time we come to this splace. He’s a bit weird: he sings, speaks Italian, stays here 5 minutes and goes back to work.
Las Galeras is as international as Las Terrenas, but less touristy and less luxurious maybe. In Las Terrenas there’s a long line of restaurants with western menus along the beach. Las Galeras has a few hotels and one resort, a couple of western restaurants and overall it’s quiet. There are many expats, that manage a restaurant, a cafè, teach English or that are simply retired but can’t rest, they come here to take over some sort of business, often real estates. It’s a nice quiet village, probably because it’s at the end of the road, at the furthest end of the Samanà peninsula, it’s not a place that you pass by by chance.
The main road in Las Galeras. One of the two roads in town.
Las Galeras is the first place where at 7am people are still sleeping. There’s someone at the restaurant, but few people. Maybe because it’s Sunday or because they are more relaxed. The area by the sea is dedicated to tourists (with a couple of luxurious hotels and a resort), but just behind this line of buildings there are places for local residents and for poor tourists like us.
Here comes the gua-gua. A lady with a nice perfume is going to Costa Rica. She was talking with another passenger about her blood pressure and cholesterol. They were saying that we should eat less fat food, less salt, drink a lot of water and walk. Mmmm.. I do walk. The rest, I’m very bad at it. We are not living a healthy trip: we eat a lot of fried food (chicken, potatoes, fish, pork, even bananas), we drink little water because we don’t want to carry it around, we have a lot of salt. When we go back home we need to detox.
A procession while we wait for the ferry
12.21 HATO MAYOR
From Samanà we took a ferry to cross the gulf; as soon as we got on the other side, in Sabana de la Mer, we took a gua-gua to Hato Mayor, where we’ll have to change and take another one to Higuey and then another to Boca de Yuma. I think we should be there by 3pm. It’s nice to be back on the road.
Samanà. “Traghetto” per attraversare il golfo e arrivare a Sabana De La Mer
3.50pm Boca de Yuma, Hotel El Viejo Pirata.
So pretty! There’s a road separating the hotel from the ocean, but the shade of the terrace and the sea breeze make me feel quite comfortable here too. The owner, Sandro, has been here for three days. Before there was another guy, also Italian from Trieste, that for some reason got tired; he still lives here, with the second Dominican wife and a daughter, but it’s now Sandro who manages the hotel. Sandro has a son that manages a resort in Juan Dolio, the place where we are going next. Sandro can ask him to make us a good price, but I doubt it will be cheaper than the hippy hotel mentioned in the Lonely Planet. We only have a thousand pesos left, tomorrow we’ll have to go back to Higuey, at about one hour from here, to look for a bank.
7.22am It wasn’t difficult to wake up at 6.30. Normally at 9.30pm we are so tired that we fall asleep with ease, because for a reason or the other we often wake up early. It’s already hot, this early in the morning; there is so much stuffiness that smog hovers at nose height.
On a horse toward El Limon waterfall
We are waiting for a pickup to El Limon, where we are doing a horse tour to see a nice waterfall (I lost the pictures of this place). At this time of the morning many have already done their morning swim and are going back home to start work, in the shop or cooking. What I regret is that we didn’t have time to cross the border between the touristic Las Terrenas and the local one. We crossed it yesterday on the gua-gua, arriving, it would have been nice to go on foot. The most athletic this morning walk with weights on their wrists or carrying plastic bottles full of sand. No kidding here! On the gua-gua coming here there were some very well dressed women, one even had an iphone.
We are already late on our schedule. The German girls told us to leave before 8am because later there are too many tourists at the waterfall.
Walking by the beach at the Grand Paradise resort to get to our camping on the promontory.
3.15pm EL CABITO
This place! People pay a lot of money (10 euro for an octopus), to have dinner on a stilt house about 50 meters above the ocean. You can even jump, but El Cabito is not responsible for your safety; and there’s a rope to come back up.
Luca don’t jump!
We walked for one hour in the heating midday sun (the time we like to spend under the sun, apparently), to save 3 euro of moto concho. It was a nice walk though, we passed by the beautiful beach of the Grand Paradise, the only resort in town.
The restaurant at El Cabito
View from El Cabito
Tomorrow we are leaving this place, before breakfast (because here it costs 250 RDS per person, and a beer 150! I’ve never had a beer so expensive in the Dominican Republic), because it’s a bit expensive, far from the beach and far from the town. This place is amazing, isolated, and for this reason you have to pay; it’s nice for a night, but we prefer the comfort and prices of the town. Our tiny house is on stilts, with a curtain as door, plus a mosquito net (around the matress, placed on the floor), to protect us from possible attacks. My butts hurt, after this morning ride.
Our cute tree house in El Cabito
7.30pm CHINOLA, passion fruit. This is delicious! In Las Galeras the main road leaves from the beach and goes perpendicularly toward the mainland. Tonight we walked a bit along this road and we got a bit out of the “town centre” (the crossroad of the only two roads that are in Las Galeras) and we walked a bit further because the place where we normally eat wanted 200 RDS for the chicken, instead of 150 like yesterday. So we tried a new place, with no floor and tables outside under a plastic curtain, and we had our nice chicken for 150 and two juices. Two delicious juices. I must tell my mother that once we are back we won’t have chicken for a long time.
April 12
Relax day in Las Galeras. As soon as we came down from El Cabito we found a room in a nice hotel near the only crossroad in Las Galeras. At the Paradiso Bungalows there are 6 tiny houses, each including one bedroom and one bathroom; we are staying in one of these, in another is the French owner, the others are empty.
Our bungalow in Las Galeras
It was 8 am when we arrived, and they hadn’t opened yet. Considering that they have no clients, I’m not surprised. As soon as we put down our bags we went to a cafeteria at the other corner of the crossroad to have pancakes with jam and a lovely coffee. The owners are Americans, a bit hippy. I borrowed a book, “The girl with pear earring”, that I have to read in one day because tomorrow morning we leave town.
After breakfast we went to the supermarket to buy something for lunch (cheese crackers and water) and we went to a nice beach a bit far from the center. We got lost to get there, but it’s really nice. We walked between houses and a bit in the jungle, but you can also get there directly by car. I can’t remember the name of the beach, but everybody knows it in town.
At this beach they also rent sunbeds and there’s a café, but we refuse and lay our towels on the sand in the shade. After a short time next to us come two white elder men with two black girls. They seem to be well established couples, not a flirt. There’s also a lady from Rome that from time to time comes to talk to the men. They are probably spending their retirement here.
We stayed at the beach the whole afternoon, I was reading with no rest. Luca spent his time swimming and watching a pelican flying and diving in front of us.
In the evening after the shower we had dinner in a place at the end of the road, with rice and chicken, the one that a Georgian man last night recommended as the best place in Las Galeras. The food was actually good and it was interesting to look at locals coming for dinner.
It’s only 7am, and I thought I woke up early. But I look out of the window and I see one man cleaning the beach, two guys running. I look out of the other window, other beach: there’s someone swimming, before going to school, someone exercising, the dog taking the owner for some jogging, again, another dog waiting patiently that his human friend finishes to bath. And more people running forth and back in this beach 100m long.
Last night there was a quarter of moon. It was enough to illuminate the sea. The sea is so clear that you can see the rocks beneath even in the night. Time to leave Rio San Juan.
5pm. It’s really hot here in Las Terrenas, I can’t breath. I called mum this morning; she told me she bought a gum little ball for the cats, one of those very jumpy, and Cagliostro is loving it. He plays with it then hides it under his paws. I can tell mum is having fun with the cats, I don’t know why she insists that I should send them away.
Luca has a terrible pain in one ear. It’s probably otitis. We bought a medicine, but it is not miraculous.
Once we arrived in Las Terrenas, we left our bags at the beautiful Casa Robinson and had lunch at an Italian restaurant. Lasagne with aubergine. It’s nice to have something different from time to time.
I don’t like to see white aged men flirting with girls that could be their granddaughters. Las Terrenas is weird because it’s really international. There are Haitians and Italians, French and Italian are as common as Spanish. There isn’t much to see, but that is not too bad, because I have a bit of a headache and Luca that terrible pain in the ear. If tomorrow he’s not better we won’t be able to ride the horses, maybe we’ll go after Las Galeras (where I booked the tree house!).
If I had learnt Reiky better maybe I would know which one is the hearing chakra and I could heal him. But I’m lazy and I don’t know.
6.20 pm. A scene. Nice café by the sea, a juice at 70 RDS (1.30 euro). A pretty Dominican girl with many piercing is dancing while a fat bold man is filming her with his phone, and another old man with a great belly is waiting for the girl to go back to sit next to him to finish her drink. Is she looking for clients or for a possible husband?
<<Once upon a time there was a girl that fell in love with a curly boy with a white beard. Sometimes he doubted this love, what she said she was feeling. But while she looks at his freckles and she gets lost in the blue flower that is his eye, she knows that her love is true and will last forever>>
7.30 pm We are at a cute restaurant owned by a French guy, eating “fish and ship” and “calamarso l’americaine”. But the guy is drunk and luckily there’s a girl helping him, let’s hope he taught her well how to cook (and that he doesn’t sleep with her, she’s too young). Ready. At this time it’s still so hot that only when some breeze comes you feel ok.
I don’t want to leave this place. We are on the terrace, reading, while the sun goes to sleep at the bottom of the ocean.
Today we’ve been to the Playa Grande, at about 10 kilometers North from here. It’s easy to get there on a gua-gua from Rio San Juan. We passed by a golf course.
The beach is beautiful; the dunes formed by the wind gave the impression to be in the desert. And the waves were so strong they took off your swimming suit and earrings. There were very few locals at the beach. It seemed more like a place for tourists or rich people, there’s a sunbeds and umbrellas rental service, and a nice swimming pool right behind the beach, surrounded by gazebo where those with money can go get changed or relax in the shade.
An amazing beach, but maybe too luxurious for us. There are some stalls selling food and drinks, but too expensive, considering you are in the Dominican Republic.
Playa Grande in Rio San Juan
At the end of our day at the beach a dog came closer, looking for cuddles. I can’t stand seeing these poor stray dogs with sweet and sad eyes because they suffer cruelties from humans and other dogs. That look at you with tenderness and just want some love. They are not treated too well dogs in this country.
Morning. It’s about 10am. It’s raining and I have a bit of diarrhea. It was probably last night lambi. It’s raining so hard that we can’t leave our room. We went looking for a place to have breakfast, we gave up the option soup and beans, so decided for a pain au chocolat at the French cafeteria. There were three elder Italians living here talking business. I can see them going there every morning, the only place in Rio San Juan where you can have a Western style breakfast, with a cappuccino and a croissant.
April 6, 8.47am
I have a bit of a headache but luckily the stomach ache is gone. We are at La Estrella having breakfast with a Pain au chocolat and coffee. At the other side of the road there’s a big shop selling souvenirs. I don’t know how it can work, as there aren’t many tourists here. Today it’s hot. Yesterday at one point it stopped raining and we went to the beach for a few hours, in the shade; luckily it’s often cloudy, I couldn’t resist with the sun shining all the time.
The Bahia Blanca owner is a bit weird. This morning she replied a couple of times to a man that wanted to talk to her “She is the one taking orders for breakfast” (pointing at a girl working for her). The guy actually only wanted to inform her that they can’t work at the building site opposite the hotel on Sundays. Probably this morning he was woken up by the pneumatic drill that started working at 8am and will go on until 5. He’s an engineer and knows this stuff, he was trying to tell her. She has the right to ask the Ajuntamiento (the municipality) or La Capital (this is how they call Santo Domingo) that they don’t work one day per week. I didn’t know that. I’ve always seen them working every day, Sunday included. But if there are houses around they shouldn’t be allowed.
Last night we went back to have dinner at the small restaurant where they cook hens paws, liver, heart and “gizzard”, always with yuca. We couldn’t find the rice for my poor stomach, I ate nonetheless and my stomach ache got worse.
We saw two gua-gua full of kids passing by. Are they all going to the beach? Maybe to the lagoon. There was a time when the lagoon was the main attraction in Rio San Juan; now it’s less popular, but it still attracts a few visitors.
Today we are going to a different beach.
8.40pm We are at a restaurant waiting for our dinner. We’ve been waiting for half an hour (and are the only guests). I’m hungry.
So today we went to the Playa del Caleton, a famous beach just a couple of kilometers north of Rio San Juan. It was too crowded though (during the weekend Dominicans like to head to the beach) and we came back after a few minutes along the same dusty road. When we arrived at the beach near the hotel, a beach that I like because it has many trees that create a nice shade and there’s a small bar where you can also eat but that most importantly plays some nice music, there were few people. After a couple of hours it was full here too. And much more people was drinking by the road. They set up an extra stall for the occasion. And huge speakers.
At about 5pm the disco music started, with a live deejay. It reminded me of some beaches in Italy, where you go to party. So, if we moved here there would be a party every Sunday. Some kids were having fun playing with a stray dog: the kids run, and the dog after them; when he almost got them, they jumped into the water; the dog started to follow someone else, until they also jumped into the water. I don’t know how long this sweet dog run up and down this beach.
Tonight first sunset without clouds. A lot of pictures are taken.
