Discovering the area around Los Patos, in the Dominican Republic
March 14, 2014
1.25pm
We are in San Rafael. Giordano recommended this place. There are some natural pools created by a stream coming from the mountain, before it gets into the water; they put some stones together to create low walls and here you are five nice small pools with freezing water in the middle of the valley, one over the other. I like them because the ocean is a bit rough for me, but the water is too cold to stay inside for a long time. This place is similar to what should be in Los Patos, but there they are doing some works at the moment. By the pools there are small restaurants/huts and people relaxing.
We had lunch with a cereals arancino with meat and a fish&chips Dominican style, with sliced platano, pressed and fried, in place of the chips; it was good. We eat it quickly because we left our towels on the other side of the pool, at a table that is part of another restaurant; I was afraid they discovered our betrayal and would hide our towels.
Here come schoolchildren on a trip. They must be a hundred. All in denim and white shirt. Some of them to be different wear a hat, a wool scarf, or a gilet.
3pm We were about to leave, because in the sun it’s too hot, but we stopped at a table among the Dominicans drinking rum, take a bath with soap in the pools, move at the merengue rythm, and laugh when some white people find the courage to jump into the cold water.
4.05pm We are at a Comedor in Los Patos drinking a very sweet coffee by the road (in the local custom). A gua-gua to Pedernales has just passed by. So tomorrow we know sooner or later there will be a gua-gua taking us there. But we actually knew that already, because on the gua-gua from San Rafael to here, Luca shouted “c’è un gua-gua che va a Pedernales?”, just like this, in Italian, without adding any “S” to make it sound more Spanish (this is how we Italians speak Spanish when we don’t know the language). He shouted because he was in the third row and wanted to ask the driver; but he ignored him and other people replied, that soon started to debate about Pedernales being a city or a municipalidad or who knows what.
In front of us, on the other side of the road, some people are gathered around a pile of second-hand clothes, on sale on the sidewalk. Probably clothes coming from Pedernales, where today that is Friday, there is an international market (Haitian-Dominican), where people sell clothes that the UN and NGOs send to Haiti to dress those that have no money and in some ways end up on sale on the streets of the two countries.
6.43pm We are back to the comedor after the shower. They can offer us lambi (local fish) with fried platano. I’m sorry we are not eating at Giordano’s, but we need to save some money. Dinner with sea view.
I’m going miss Los Patos, I like it here. If, as Giordano says, it’s the best area of the Republic, we will have to come back. Luca seems keen on going to Haiti. Because he doesn’t want to go back to Barahona on the same road we came here; or probably to Santo Domingo. Last night Giordano cooked us a fish similar to stone bass, cooked in coconut milk, because I told him I would like to eat local food. And it was delicious.
The lady at the comedor where we are eating has a house along the main road of the town and thought of exploiting the location to transform it into a restaurant. She put two small tables and six chairs out of her door, cooks in her kitchen and offers what they eat. Tonight: lambi with fried platano. But you can choose: lambi normal or with vinagrette. I prefer the normal. It’s actually delicious. And the platano does taste like chips. The lambi normal is cooked with small green peppers, onion and tomatoes. It’s really good. I think I will digest it tomorrow though.
After dinner, the lady kindly told us we could stay a bit longer people-watching. Good, my favorite past-time.
4h49pm Here we are at the Hotelito Oasi Italiana in Los Patos, Paraiso. We’re staying here at least three days to recover. The Hotelito is a true oasis of peace and tranquility. The owner is from Verona, near where I live. The Lonely Planet recommends this place for the food; I’m not interested in eating Itailan, but the place is really nice. With a swimming pool, two parrots and two bunnies.
The hills here are close to the ocean, so the road that runs along the coast is all ups and downs and with gua-gua falling apart you are lucky if you get to your destination (in fact we crossed a gua-gua along the road with the passengers waiting in the shade).
I’m surprised again. We paid to get here from Baraona 100RD$ (about 1,7 euro), the same price that paid those that stopped in Paraiso, a couple of kilometers before Los Patos. And they even took us to the entrance of the hotel, that is a bit up the hill!
One of the parrots gets anxious when there are new guests. Now he’s calmer and he’s walking around us.
The owner of the hotel is Giordano Mettifogo, he’s from Verona but his family is from Arzignano (my town – and there are in fact many Mettifogo there). He’s been living here for 13 years and he now struggles speaking Italian (he probably thinks he talks a clean Italian, but sometimes it’s difficult to understand him because he speaks a mix of Italian and Spanish). He confirmed that they are bouganville the beautiful trees that we saw around. In Italy they are a bit difficult to cultivate (I don’t know), but here if you cut a branch and put it into water it will grow roots and if you put it back into the soil it will grow.
Luca is happy. He says arriving here was an adventure. Ah ah, poor soul, he doesn’t know what a real adventure is :P.
6.56pm Ok, the “travel diet” has officially started. Today one only proper meal (that we haven’t had yet), a part from breakfast (we actually had too: one at the hotel with two slices of toasted bread, and once we were able to get cash, to celebrate we had a cappuccino, a cheese empanada -with a thin slice of yellow cheese, the same they gave us at the hotel to put on the toast- and a small white dessert that I don’t know what it was).
We are at the beach. It’s lovely here. The sun set behind us and the moon is out. Will this man take me to dinner once it gets dark or not yet???
We asked Giordano if there’s a malaria risk here. No no, only the dengue fever. Oh, ok then…
7.56 pm. We are at the hotelito restaurant. We decided to treat ourselves for a few days. Tonight lamb and dorado; the first is a mollusk that you can find in a huge shell, served with polenta (a Veronese adjustment); the other a fish fillet cooked in white wine. As aperitif two caipirinhas, if they will bring them to the right table (there are three french guys sitting next to us that when they saw the cocktails with some grass inside they tasted them, and once they understood they were not for them they passed them to us …). And tomorrow for lunch we ordered langoste (lobster) to eat at the beach. At 500 RD$ (8.50 euro) for pound (450gr). Lobsters are forbidden during mating time.
Caipirinha to start and sorbet to end. There’s a guy selling jewels in Larimar, a stone that the Dom Rep is famous for, with amber. He showcased his products just for me here on the floor. It’s making me anxious because I know I won’t buy anything).
Giordano tells us his story. He came here on holiday various times. About 15 years ago a client (I think he was a professional photographer) offered him to rent his house in Los Patos; he came here and never left. He suggested not to go to Haiti. Apparently Port Au Prince is dangerous and all Haiti is crazy expensive because of the NGO workers that live there and go on holiday in the island.
The hotel is costing him 2.500 RD$ (about 40 euro) per day, and since they started some construction works at the river that creates a natural pool for which Los Patos is famous, there are very few clients. A local shop went from selling 200 to 20 kilos of rice per month. 15 families that were renting cabanas by the lake and lived off that, are now left with no money (they don’t have the habit of saving money here, what you earn you spend, so they didn’t have any money for these months of no earnings). The government says that works should be done before the Holy Week, when American tourists arrive, but Giordano doubts it.
The new Dominican President, Danilo Medina, is from the South, Giordano says, and local people have great hope in him. He promised to build a road that connects the North to Paraiso. That would be great, as at the moment to go anywhere from here you have to go back to Santo Domingo first, that is 4-5 hours away. There are a lot of hills between the two coasts though. I think it will take years to build this road…
