This morning we woke up at 7.30, but stayed in bed playing… Sudoku! Another great breakfast. I would stay here just to have this amazing breakfast every morning, until the 21st of the month. Luca today bought two croissants at the supermarket opposite here.
Last night for dinner we had half a chicken by the street. 250 RDS. I don’t think it was worth it: the chicken was good, but the juta wasn’tn. The juta of the breakfast lady is good, soft, with a bit of oil and the sweet onion. How much I love it! Tomorrow I’ll get the 100 RDS breakfast, with the melted cheese! But is it juCa or juTa?
April 4, 8.24am
Last breakfast in Cabarete. It’s not ready yet this morning. As usual I’m sorry I’m leaving, despite the fact that at the beginning three nights seemed too much. I liked the daily routine: good and big breakfast, walk at the beach, some work and facebook, a bit of beach, dinner, internet again, maybe by the pool. Meanwhile Luca has bought two huge croissants at the supermarket. Here we’ve found the best pastries so far. Today it’s sunny, we could have had some tan, it’s double shame we are leaving.
Since the beginning of the trip every morning we’ve been awaken by something: fighting dogs, roosters, the bray of a donkey and… mosquitos. In the last two nights. Nightmare mosquitos that fly around your ears and sting you 5 times in the butt. Autan and other mosquito killers are useless.
Yesterday I brought a beautiful bracelet in a shop that sells amazing stones and laces.
While we were waiting for breakfast came the suppliers of the cafeteria: an elder man with a bag full of oranges, but they were either too expensive or too small, a pickup full of bananas, of which one bunch ended up at hanging at the entrance of the cafeteria, another pickup with oranges, melons, mango, I don’t need anything thank you.
The 100 pesos breakfast with melting cheese is even better than the other one. I’m happy.
12.16pm BAHIA BLANCA HOTEL, Rio San Juan
This place is amazing. Our room is on the third floor above the sea, we could jump from the terrace. There will be only the waves waking us tomorrow morning.
The Bahia Blanca Hotel in Rio San Juan
The hotel is owned by an elder lady from Quebec. The furniture is as old as she is, but I like the white chairs and tables, the stained green sofa, the flowered blanket and the blue plastic curtains. From the two windows I can see the sea, a door opens into a terrace with a sunbed, tables and chairs, the other door opens directly onto the sea (but we are a bit high up). She asked us to pay for one night only because apparently people get tired of Rio San Juan because it’s too quiet and they ask their money back. We’ll see. In the meantime we go swimming. I can see the sea while I’m sitting on the toilet.
6.49am I love this place. Maybe there isn’t much to do, but in this moment I’m on the terrace outside my room, with the sun setting on the sea, I’m reading and writing, with only the noise of the waves and some far away music. What else can I ask for?
8.45 We are in the street having breakfast. In CABARETE!
Champion’s breakfast: fried egg, fried salami, yuta and some sweet onion. Delicious! At first Luca didn’t want it, he preferred something sweet. But he changed his mind and he’s also having a dish like this now.
We arrived yesterday at about midday, after a rather long journey. The bus that at 6.30 was meant to take us directly to Santiato from Constanza was actually at 5.30am, so we missed it. So we took a camioneta to El Alambico, sitting in the truck because I insisted, to save 75 pesos, and Luca was upset because it was cold and he was all wet from the humidity of the night. With the cold and the air from the fast riding down the mountain, he had some frost on his beard.
Before sunrise, on the pick-up from Constanza, Luca was a bit angry
In El Alambico there was a gua-gua to Santiago ready to leave. So different compared to Haiti, where to cover the same distance it took us a whole day! We had already put our backpacks on a gua-gua that was meant to leave from El Alambico and I was enjoying a good dominican coffee made with a moka, waiting for the gua-gua to fill up, when another gua-gua from Santo Domingo arrived and they told us it was going to Puerto Plata, after Santo Domingo, where we should also go. So we quickly jumped on this other gua-gua, dropping the coffee on my t-shirt.
Along the road we picked up some women that didn’t want to come with us, because the gua-gua was going further North and it wouldn’t have taken them to the centre of La Vega where they were going. But the driver promised that he would take them to the centre of the town. “If you don’t take me to San Martin square I won’t pay you”. At the end he does go into town a bit, but not to the square, the ladies get the fare discounted because they have to pay for a moto-taxi to go to the square and after long discussions we can finally leave to Santiago. Because he actually lied to us too, he is not going to Puerto Plata. But he leaves us where we can take the next gua-gua, and considering how big Santiago is and how many “stations” there are, it’s a good thing.
In Santiago I have another coffee hoping to find a bathroom but here comes the bus: I burn my tongue again, to drink the hot coffee quickly. One and a half hour later, on a gua-gua with air-con, we are in Puerto Plata. Last change. Finally I find a bathroom (at the local hospital) and we jump on the last gua-gua, that leaves immediately because it’s super full already. Luca is sitting on a pole that is piercing his butts, legs curled up that after a few minutes they go dumb. One hour and we are in Cabarete. The last part of the journey was not comfortable at all, and we also had to pay an extra for our bags; first time we are asked this.
At the hotel they wanted to give us the 50 USD room, but I said that I asked for the 35 one. At the end they gave us one at 40 (with private bathroom), but breakfast and dinner are not included. Panic. Because this is a very touristic place, will we be able to find a local restaurant with rice and chickent at 150 RDS?
While we wait for our room to be ready, we have a churrasco burger at the hotel restaurant (hotel = a jungle with some houses and a swimming pool in the middle), it was the only thing that cost less than 200 pesos. It was good, but without chips I was hungrier than before. The room is ready. Very nice, large and with a lot of light, the first one we have with real windows (and large) since we left home, colorful and clean. We are too far from the reception for the wifi, but I will survive.
We go out, and a moto driver tells us there’s a comedor further up, in the very centre of the town. We go there, and we do find a plato del dia (chicken or pork with rice) and eat. We feel much better. The street is full with shops and restaurants. It almost looks like Riccione.
We go to the beach. Plenty of kitesurfers and windsurfers. We find a nice spot under some palm trees and we get ready to spend the afternoon doing absolutely nothing. It’s not bad at all. Swim and nap. There are some tall buildings by the beach. Are we really in the Dominican Republic?
All this happened yesterday. Happy with the great and energetic breakfast, we can go for a walk on the beach. I made Luca promise we’ll come back here tomorrow too, for the same delicious breakfast.
It’s about 11.30am. We are at the entrance of Reserva Cientifica Ebano Verde, waiting for someone to open the gate for us. We could actually trespass. There are so many people visiting this Natural Park that there isn’t anyone at the entrance. It was the gua-gua driver that called the gate-keeper.
Entrance to the Natural Park
Last night Luca came back to the room repeating the words “Tambien” and “Manana”. “Tambien, manana”.
Have you learnt two new words Luca? Do you know what “tambien” means?
No.
Too.
I don’t know. They asked me “Tambien” and I replied “Si” and they seemed happy with the answer.
Maybe they asked “Estas bien?” , are you ok?
Mmm… no. It was “tambien”.
Maybe they don’t pronounce the “s” and you understand “ta-bien”.
Mmmm… no. They say tambien to ask if I am ok.
Oh, ok then.
The hills around Constanza
4.04pm After waiting for one hour we decided to enter the park. The road was closed by a gate, but there was a passage covered in scrub that you could cross. Half an hour after we were in the park, here comes a boy, the supervisor. “How could you come in?” Ehm…
To go to the other side of the park, where there is another exit, you have to walk about 3 hours and the other part is supervised by another guy. “Let me call him, let’s see if you can enter. No, you need the authorization from Santo Domingo. You can only get as far as the repeaters.” ???? Which authorization? Nobody told us about that before and the Lonely Planet doesn’t mention it. Of course we can’t go to Santo Domingo to ask for the authorization, so we go to the repeaters. A family lives there, with two kids that instead of going to school run kites. I steal one to the youngest child, but I can’t run it. We go back to the main road.
The 500 pesos, almost 10 euro, for the gua-gua, I would have spent more gladly at food and drinks, instead to try to run a kite.
Not far from the entrance to the park there’s a sanctuary dedicated to Virgin Mary, with an elder lady that spends the whole day here, keeping the area clean and welcoming the few visitors. While we wait for the gua-gua to go back to Constanza, someone drives by and waves hello, others cross themselves (for the Virgin Mary, not for us).
Once we are back in Constanza, Luca has a mirage: a porchetta! Along the road there’s a guy with a whole pork well cooked. We have a piece sliced with the machete, a bit of yuta and dinner is served. Not bad at all!
Porchettona!!!
7.30pm We are having the last burger. Tomorrow at 6.30 we leave for Santiago, where we’ll take a gua-gua towards North, they are waiting for us in Cabarete!
8.33 To get to Constanza from Santiago there’s a gua-gua to Labanico where you take another gua-gua to your destination. Ok, we can do it. As long as they tell us when to get off!
Today the time changed in Italy but not here, so now there are 6 hours difference (they were 5 until yesterday).
3.07pm There’s wifi at the hotel, but it’s not working. I hope they’ll fix it, but I doubt. The owner called a guy a couple of times while we were waiting, but now why should he care?
It’s cold, I’ll have to wear an undershirt and to sleep there’s a duvet. We are in Constanza, 1.200m above sea level. It wasn’t easy to get here! One and a half hour on the truck of a pickup whose owner didn’t bother putting wooden boards to rest our butts, like they did in Cap Haitien. So it was about 10 people sitting on the edge of the truck, a couple in the middle, plus our backpacks and other bags. The landscape was nice, but I was too busy keeping my butts moving (when I could) to shift the pain and to keep tight not to be thrown out, to enjoy the view. All around are cultivations. They even grow flowers and strawberries. As if it wasn’t full enough (there’s never a limit to the number of people they can get on a taxi, that in cases like this is good, because if we are all stuck together it’s more difficult to fall off), a guy took onboard two large bundles of chrysantemums and roses (these with their nice big thorns), that we arranged right in the middle.
There are some huge clouds over there. Nearby thee’s a natural park with a lake where you can bath and walk 12km in the forest, but it’s at the bottom of the mountain, in El Abanico, where we took the camioneta/pick-up.
Encounters on the mountain roads of Constanza
4.45 The sky is darker and darker, almost scary, but I don’t think it will rain. Earlier it rained a couple of minutes only. I think it’s normal here. After a stroll around this tiny village, that is pretty and lives of cultivations and local tourism, we stopped at a baseball field to watch a match, with thousands of white butterflies flying around our heads.
7.02pm We are in a Grill&Tapas, it must be a new place, it doesn’t even have a sign outside. It has diner-style seats and a white Harley Davidson in the middle of the room. Food is not cheap, but we wanted something different from the usual chicken and rice. So angus burger, a chicken cooked I don’t know how, and two caipirinhas. Luca should drink a hot tea, because it’s his turn to be sick, but he couldn’t resist. Ahhh… the caipirinha is so good!
Luca and I got off the bus, but it wasn’t our stop, there are two in Santiago. We are almost there. During the trip I didn’t last long and fell asleep, but Luca says that coming here he saw factories, livestocks, rice fields and nice houses. The bus is luxurious. And the toilet at the station is better than what you would find in Italy.
The Pollo al Carbon, chicken fast food
5h11pm We’ve been looking for a place to eat for an hour. At the end we came to the “Pollo al Carbon”, not really a change from what we’ve eaten so far. We’ve been a couple of hours at a pub to drink beer and plan the rest of the holiday. 500$ (almost 10 euro) for two beers and a packet of 10 cigarettes. What! Well, these are the prices at the places Western-style.
The place where we are now is a chicken fast food; it has yellow and fuchsia walls, and tables of the same colors. I like it! In Santiago there isn’t much to see. The folklore museum is closed for renovations. Since we arrived and left the luggage at our hotel, about 5 hours ago, we saw the cathedral, the fortress, the park with a statue built by Trujillo (the former dictator) as self-satisfaction and that is now a monument to heroes.
We’ve decided to go to Constanza tomorrow, a bit South, in the mountains, and later we’ll come back North along the coast.
Santiago is big. We realized that when we got off the bus. From the map it looked like the hotel was close, but it was at the other side of the town and it took us one hour to get there, with backpacks and weariness that made all more difficult. Near the station, just out of the centre, there are many shopping malls, Mc. Donald’s and big banks. Everywhere smartphones, icecreams, basket fields, florists with real flowers. It feels like Europe.
10.05 Luca is upset because I never speak. Maybe it’s true, but I was checking the hotels in Santiago; if there was something interesting I would have told him. He says that I’m used to be alone and that I like it (we’ve only been dating for a few months and this is my first trip with someone else after a long time). It is true, but I also like being with him.
It’s not raining that much anymore. Luca went to our room, more and more upset.
Now it must have stopped completely because I guy is washing his car. It stopped raining but I don’t want to go anywhere, I would stay here the whole day doing nothing.
4.30 It’s not raining but there’s a strong wind. I’m worried something will struck onto our heads soon. We are at the Comedor Yvelise, the same we had lunch yesterday, for some kid again and a beer. After so much chicken, it’s nice to have a different kind of meat. The sign reads “Benvenidos in Choza”, I almost feel like I’m in Venice (there’s a small town near Venice called “Chioggia” and its pronunciation is similar to Choza, in dialect).
March 28 – 10.33
We are in Monte Cristi, still. It’s cheap and quiet, we need to eat some more good food after 10 days in Haiti.
Today the sun is hot, but on the terrace of the hotel it’s perfect.
Afternoon. Schei fa schei, i peoci fa peoci (money makes money, lice make lice: it’s a Venetian saying, meaning that it’s easier to make money if you already have some, while it’s more likely you’ll be poor all your life if you already are). Luca and I are making projects on how to make money. We are on a bench at the ugly beach of Monte Cristi. The wind is so strong that it moved all the sand and made the beach much larger. We’ll collect lice once we go back home.
Friday: it’s party time with speakers, music and beer at the seaside of Monte Cristi.
Today Luca did a good action: there was a shell walking in the middle of the road, clearly lost. He took it and threw it into the water, saving it from certain death.
It’s Friday night and at Terraza Fedora there’s a party. It’s not dark yet but people are drinking and dancing. Seeing how they move at the rythm of this music so sensual, makes me jealous; I hate how I am flexible like a trunk. We spend a few hours admiring the moving people on the other side of the road, then go back to the hotel. A quick slice of pizza from a hole near the supermarket, served by a girl that kept calling me “sweetheart” and “my love”.
