12pm. First swim in the Caribbean Sea done. Luca likes the pebbles beach because he can’t stand the sand between his toes. I can’t find a laying position without a stone piercing my lung or stomach. It’s hard walking on the stones and getting out from the water is difficult because there’s a short climb to do and you sink and I really can’t come out. I must crawl and move my weight on my arms. Luca laughs really hard at this sight and threatens to record a video.
1.30pm Amelina, with sweet dark eyes, sold us for a few cents a delicious cake made with nuts and a lot of sugar. The sun is out. Soon it’s going to be impossible to stay at the beach.
Big lunch at the beach today: lobster with fried bananas and a nice fried fish with rice and chickpeas. I’m scared about the bill though. Other people have brought a beach umbrella, they were cleverer than us. Amelina is now in the shade with them, hoping to get some more cash. 950 RDS the bill, 16 euro. Not bad.
2.07pm We are at the hotel’s swimming pool. It’s too hot to be around. Here we are in the shade, with a nice breeze, a cactus and a palm tree on one side, banana trees on the others, in the background the bleating of a goat, the parrot calling Gionatan (one of Giordano’s sons) and a rooster from time to time.
The swimming pool at Hotelito Oasi Italiana
6pm Little break. Esprite and coke. We went to see the natural pool at the end of the small river, but it was too in the shade to jump in. The ocean was too wild and it scared me (people in the slums don’t scare me, the ocean does).
The natural pool at Los Patos
So we layed at the beach thinking on what to do next. Giordano already told us that it’s better to avoid Haiti, the capital is dangerous and the whole country is expensive. But I didn’t want to believe him. According to the Lonely Planet it does seem a mess actually. To go from Jacmel, that is in the South-East, to Port Salut, still in the South, it looks like you have to go to Port-au-Prince, North of Jacmel, at about three hours from there and three more hours to go back South, instead of driving along the coast. Maybe for the first time the Lonely Planet is not really helpful. And there are very few hotels at 40 USD. In Port Salut, West of Jacmel, where there seem to be some beautiful beaches, hotels have crazy prices. So I don’t really want to go. In the Dominican Republic there are enough interesting places to keep us busy for 6 weeks, among beaches, natural parks and towns. We’ll see. We’ll do a research in the web and decide once we are in Pedernales (a dominican town at the border with Haiti).
8.14pm There’s another guy from Verona at the hotel tonight. He’s volunteering in a mission near Port-au-Prince for half and a half months. He thinks Haitians hate white people. Maybe they smile at your face because they need a tip or other, but as soon as you turn they want to stab you. And they don’t want to work, when you are not watching they sit down. It might be because of all the international help they are getting: they know they can get something to eat with no need to work. Well, I don’t know if this is true or if it’s just a wrong impression this guy had. And it’s not because they are black, like some racist might think, because here in the Dominican Republic they are also black and they do work, maybe not at the speed we are used to in the North of Italy, but is ours the right way of living? Anyway, this guy from Verona confirmed an impression I have had for some time: the International Aid industry is a “magneria”, as we would say in Veneto, an embezzlement. Of the billions of dollars that were donated in the United States after the earthquake, only 3% was actually used in the island (this is what he said, I didn’t verify). The 97% was spent in the organizations, in administration costs, salaries, expensive vehicles, etc. This really makes me angry. I actually thought of working in this field when I was younger, but realized it’s not how it looks. I think the best way to help poor countries is to stop exploiting their resources and let their citizens move to other countries, if there is need to work.
The Veronese also advised against Haiti, that is a mess. Because they are so poor, they assault tourists anywhere, because tourists always carry some money; some time ago in Port-au-Prince they shot a couple of tourists coming out from a bank and they didn’t even have cash with them; you must be careful all the time, etc. And the news is that from Ainse-a-Pitre (the small town on the other side of the border from Pedernales) you have to get on an overnight boat to get to Jacmel, a wooden boat like a fishermen boat, just a bit bigger, that sometimes sink and people die. Mmm… At this point I got tingling and an urge to go there.
Boats and kids at Los Patos
Some clients call Giordano: their car broke and they are stuck along the road. He asks his waiter/helper/slave/all-around to give him his rifle, gets on the jeep and goes getting them. It’s 9.30 in the night and he doesn’t go anywhere without a rifle, because here it is safe, but it’s better to be cautious.
Iran. I want to go before it becomes too popular. Tourism has already increased a lot in the last years, since the political situation is quiet. On the Italian Foreign Minister website there are no dots for special advices for Iran, no danger warnings; it’s been a while since I visited a country with no dangers. There’s a dot for the UK and France, one for Belgium and Turkey, one for Haiti “travels are not recommended unless determined by real necessity”. So this time we are really good, we’re going to a place where “security situation is good”.
We are going for 14 days only. Normally I wouldn’t visit a new country for less than a month, but this time it’s ok because:
the return flight is only 280 euro (Iran is actuallly not too far from Europe, just South of Turkey)
getting the visa requires some time (and as usual we don’t have time, we decided to go yesterday and we have to be back before the end of February because in March Luca has many garden works to do) but if you go for less than 14 days you can get a visa at the airport (this is for Italy, I know that it’s completely different for US or Israel citizens)
4 weeks would be nice in Cuba or Messico, but we went to a Latin country last year (Dominican Republic), I want to change environment and culture
Iran is not too expensive nor cheap like Asia; I guess it will be around 50 euro per day, traveling on a budget; the problem is that you can’t get cash from ATMs (there are ATMs, but they only accept national cards), so you should bring all the money you need in cash. For 30 days it makes 1.500 euro, 3.000 for two people. I’d rather not travel with all that money in my pockets.
so I have the excuse to go back to Iran on a train from Istanbul and see the North of the country, in another trip 🙂
Luca has to work and it wasn’t easy to convince him to go, two weeks is better than nothing
I’m excited at the idea. Two weeks are not a long time, but it will be a nice culture shock and I’ve been wanting to go to Persia for a long time, cradle of humanity. It might be chilly, because despite the fact that it’s closer to the equator, it’s a bit mountainous; the capital Tehran for example is at more than 1.000 meter of altitude, and in most parts of the country temperature is like in Italy.
It took me a few hours to buy the ticket because I had to check 1. the cheapest company (that is Pegasus) 2. the website with the best offer (directly on Pegasus? On lastminute? Expedia?). At the end I bought it on Edreams because I could pay with paypal; lastminute was 40 euro cheaper, but I didn’t have enough money on my card and didn’t want to postpone.
In Juan Dolio they brought the sand for the beach, it would be all rocks otherwise. And here they come to swim from San Pedro and Santo Domingo, La Capital. I like it today because there’s a nice breeze, but at the same time it is annoying because it throws sand onto your face.
8.24pm
We are eating pizza. Italian owners here too. Juan Dolio is full of Italians. One pizza for two because we are running out of money, despite the money we saved by staying at the Fior di Loto.
Beach in Juan Dolio
In Juan Dolio there’s the beach as attraction and nothing more. But it’s convenient from the capital. In Boca de Yuma there wasn’t much to do neither, and there wasn’t a beach neither. There was one sandy beach, but you could only get there on a boat, and there was a cove between rocks where on Sundays Dominicans would go to swim and party, with music and beer, like at the Bahia Blanca. Everywhere else rocks and rubbish. Boca de Yuma luckily is at only 30 minutes from Higuey, quite a big town, where you can find anything you need. Juan Dolio is at one and a half hour from Santo Domingo. From what I’ve heard the capital must be lively and interesting, with theatres, cinema, museums etc. From all over the country you can get to the capital in a few hours, so it’s easy to reach it from anywhere.
Good Friday (today) is a big holiday for them, more important than Easter day. And today they are all at the beach. Big parties and big drinks. In the water with their glasses or bottles. They like to be in the water, and drink while the waves hit them, kids and adults alike.
April 19, 3.15pm Santo Domingo
The plan was to stay in Juan Dolio only a couple of nights and spend the last night before the flight in Santo Domingo, but Mara suggested we stay here and we go back to Santo Domingo on a day trip, if we want to go. And it is actually a good idea, as the airport is between SD and Juan Dolio, so there’s not much difference if we leave from here or La Capital.
We are at a Chinese restaurant in La Capital, near Parque Enriquillo, the square from where depart most of the gua-gua that go around the Republic.
We came here this morning, got off in Parque Enriqullo (that as I suspected didn’t scare us so much after we visited Haiti as it did the first day), we walked around the Zona Colonial, then towards the new part of Santo Domingo, to see the presidential palace and down to the Malecon, the seafront. Without knowing it we ended up in the middle of a big party. They closed to traffic part of the road, brought in sand, plastic swimming pools, music and gym (with the risk to have a stroke in this heat).
We spent some time at the party, enjoying the atmosphere, then we went back to Parque Enriquillo, and here we are, drinking a fanta at the Chinese restaurant. We probably have walked about 20 kilometers today, and Luca has some blisters in his feet, we had to exchange sandals.
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.
