Someone, sometime long, long ago, decided that the center of Willemstad, the capital, was the ideal place to situate an oil refinery. Maybe it was because a natural deepwater harbour was located here or maybe someone thought that upper respiratory tract infection would be trendy for the locals in 2007. We think the former was the reason and that the latter was an unfortunate side effect. The Isla refinery, formerly owned by Shell who sold it to the government for USD 1, is now a Venezuelan concern. Its furnaces and phallic chimneys belch black smoke high into the air and spew [View Full Entry]

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As a matter of principle, we must feature Curacao. The trip started there, we will pass thru it at least three times before we say 'goodbye' and, not least of all, we lived there for a year or so. Plus, our friends and fans and history would not forgive us. The island is bright and cheerful in most parts. It is the kind of place where people are not afraid to paint their homes and businesses in the brightest combinations of colours. Curacao is a small Dutch Caribbean island located 40 miles from the west coast of Venezuela. It is a [View Full Entry]

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25-27 May 2007 The sun crept up over the mountains and caught us napping. We were onboard the Caribe Tours bus on the three-and-a-half hour ride back from Barahona to SDQ from where we would connect to Boca Chica. A few minutes ago, a suspicious bus driver had demanded to see Vibert's passport thinking, of course, that he was a Haitian. There is a slight undercurrent between Dominicanos and Haitians. Shanna sharply told the driver that it was not necessary and Vibert quickly relinquished his "Haitiano" status. Back in SDQ we wrangled, pretty efficient this time, and lowered the [View Full Entry]

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24 May 2007 The 415 km bus ride from Rio San Juan to Barahona started at 8 am. It would take us back thru SDQ. At the tiny bus terminal in Rio San Juan, we met the nicest guy - Manny. He helped us store our backpacks and took us to the only open breakfast spot - Pica Pollo Benito - aplace we would have normally bypassed in our search for culinary delights. But Benito seemed to be a local favorite and that morning he served up hot boiled yucca and bacalao with egg (saltfish and egg). Another specialty was deep-fried [View Full Entry]

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We boarded the 8am bus out of Santiago and on to Sosua. We liked Santiago with its big city allure and then not, a kind of big little city feel. The intention was to spend a few hours at Sosua and then gua-gua to Rio San Juan. When we disembarked after two hours, we were met by a taxi driver who attempted to hussle us away from Sosua and on to the ´touristy´areas of Puerto Plata and Cabarete. "Only Dominicanos, nothing to see here", he said. Shanna explained that we were headed to Rio San Juan and since Caribe Tours didn´t [View Full Entry]

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22 May 2007 It was 10.30 pm when the Caribe Tours bus pulled into an empty station in Santiago. We had just wasted four valuable hours in a bus after we missed our stop at La vega. There were two taxis and a gua-gua. We grabbed a taxi and in 15 minutes we were at Hostal del Cibao. Room 10 was reserved. The room was clean, bright and had cable tv. About two feet from the bed, on a raised platform, was the bathroom and toilet. It was unique to say the least but the practicality of it all, and because [View Full Entry]

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The "salvia" had worked again but only half-way this time. Vibert awoke with pain in his right thigh and left calf. He walked like a wounded duck. Shanna was, for the most part, just fine. We had slept deeply on a singing bed, the Pico Duarte adventure behind us. And there was no mistaking where we were as the incessant roar of motorcycle engines indicated that Jarabacoa was already awake. And as much as we liked Jarabacoa, we instantly missed the absolute quiet and peace of the mountains. Breakfast was disappointing. We had opted for hot tea and cheese-and-vegetable pastelitos (or [View Full Entry]

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We want to start this blog with two unusual points - 1. We really do appreciate all your feedback and comments. As a matter of fact we look forward to hearing from you. It´s a validation that we are doing the right thing. And while we cannot, because of time constraints, individually reply to and thank each of you, just know that we´ve seen your message and we deeply appreciate it. Keep them coming. 2. In the last blog we showed Shanna riding a horse being led by Pinto. We understood that Pinto had something like an epileptic attack and fell [View Full Entry]

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"How's you guys doin? My name is Hugo. Todo bien?" His pseudo-American accent was funny at first, this short little man. "Si", was our suspicious answer. Our bus had just pulled into Jarabacoa station after a scenic two-hour drive (which some of us missed). We were anxious to get away from the chaos of the city and Jarabacoa seemed perfect. This little mountain town had to be the nature capital of SDQ. We had actually come to visit Salto de Jimenoa and Jimenoa Uno - supposedly the best waterfalls in the country but our schedules were flexible. Hugo was persistent. This [View Full Entry]

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The alarm was set for 5:30 am. We woke at 5:28, our bodies and internal clocks already finely tuned. In the solitary confines of our detention chamber (read, 'hotel room') we sit in solemn reflection of the day past and we agree that a 'serta-pedic' mattress or a 'sleep-numer' bed has nothing on a worn-out, lumpy mattress when a body is really tired. The sleep was good. The destination is Jarabacoa - a little mountain town on the east back of the Rio Yaque del Norte. It rises some 800m/2624 feet above the sea and lies 70+ miles north of Santo [View Full Entry]

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