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Published: April 14th 2011
The sunrise that greeted us to the DR
This sunrise was taken the morning we were getting close to the coast of the Dominican Republic. It is always a great sight to see after a long night passage.Last time we communicated with you we had just arrived in Luperon in the Dominican Republic. As you may be aware this is a very large island made up of very impressive mountains. It has had a very interesting history that the United States has been very involved in. Both Janice and I feel like this is our first truly foreign port of call. Up to this point all the countries we visited English was the common spoken language and European culture mostly prevailed. DR, as it is commonly referred to around here is a lush tropical island with abundant rainfall and productive agricultural and industrial development. The country not only feeds itself but exports to much of the Caribbean. Luperon is in an isolated bay hidden behind a number of high cliffs and impressive mountains. It is extremely well protected and is one of the best hurricane holes (sailing term which I believe is self-explanatory) in this area of the Caribbean. Our first big surprise was when we went to land how inexpensive food was. Throughout the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos all food was imported and therefore was quite a bit more expensive than in the United States.
The $2 DR beer
The price of a 22 ounce beer in the Dominican Republic was only $2. They have 2 local beers and they are both excellent. They are usually served in bamboo “cozies”. With the price of the meals it was hard to not eat out often here. We could have a very nice lunch for both of us with beverages for $6 Fruits and vegetables are grown here in great abundance and are therefore very inexpensive. In the Bahamas a bottle of beer (this is the standard gauge of economic cost by cruisers) was four dollars. In the DR a bottle of beer is two dollars and it's a 22 ounce bottle almost half again larger than standard bottles of beer, and it's very good. If you're looking for someplace to take a break from the weather up north I think you'd find it well worth checking into.
Luperon is definitely not a thriving metropolis but would be easily classified as a backwater third world town. Roads are partially paved and electrical power is intermittent. The people are extremely pleasant, generous and helpful. The government bureaucracy is known throughout the Caribbean as complicated and confusing. What follows is a description of the check-in process. If you have an allergic response to long tedious and confusing information you might want to skip to the next paragraph. When you first arrive you put up your little yellow flag, quarantine flag and you're supposed to wait for the commandant to arrive. However, due to a lack of fuel it is common for the commandant
Barbed wire clothesline
We saw that one of the benefits of the barbed wire was that no clothes pins were needed when hanging out the clothes. Hopefully it doesn’t matter if your clothes wind up with small holes in them when they are dried. not to arrive so you take your dinghy and go in to the Immigration Department. You hand your passports and your boat documents to the man in the first office and he writes up a number of documents and charges you $64 US. He then sends you to the next office where the same information is once again taken down (on a plain piece of paper-no official form) and you are charged $10 US. You then go to the tourist person 2 feet away who fills out the same information and charges you $10 for every person on the boat other than the Captain. You then go to the agriculture person who is sitting in the same room at another desk who fills out you guessed it the same information (this time on an official form) and guess what they charge you $10 US. All of the people are extremely pleasant and none of them speak any more English than I speak Spanish. At that point you are directed to the commandant who with his sidekick (commandant wears a uniform, sidekick no uniform and no indication of who he is or what he does). The commandant and the sidekick have
A typical street scene in Luperon
A typical street scene on the main street through Luperon in the Dominican Republic. to come out and inspect your boat. Unfortunately he does not have enough fuel so therefore he needs to come with you in your dinghy. Problem is there are already four people in your dinghy (we took the people from Snowbird ashore to deal with this process) and the commandant in his very nice well pressed camouflage uniform (high quality American camouflage by the way) will not fit in our 9 foot dinghy. All of a sudden they come up with a 12 foot runabout with a 40 hp motor on it, problem is the engine doesn't work very well and the sidekick spends a significant amount of time restarting the engine before they finally arrive at your boat. The Commandant boards, the sidekick climbs on board, and they look around, sit down at the table and ask if they could have a piece of paper and a pen at which point, (I know this is getting boring), he takes down the exact same information everyone else has taken using your paper and your pen. We offer them something to drink which they accept. Again with very limited conversation because our Spanish is as limited and their English is, eventually
The fishing fleet
The boats in the foreground are typical fishing boats while the larger power boat is owned by one of the more successful fishermen. One of the many cruising boats is anchored in the area as well. we get it worked out. Upon leaving the sidekick asks for a gift of maybe $10, I know you're all surprised by that amount. Having been informed of this by other boaters we act stupid (not extremely difficult based on the mind numbing bureaucratic process we have already gone through) and after a fair amount of apologies on our part and confusion on their part we all smile, shake hands and they leave the boat. Again I want to emphasize at every step of the way they have been pleasant and very nice to work with. We are told however that before we leave the country we must get a "dispatch" which is only provided after your boat has been boarded to ensure that you have not taken on any local people to help them get to someplace else which nobody really makes clear as to where that is. Oh and by the way this costs $20 US.
There are lots of shops in Luperon and lots of services available which are very inexpensive. We had our laundry washed, dried and folded for less than $10. On a regular basis we would eat lunch in a local restaurant and have
The typical mode of transportation
Motor scooters and motor cycles are the most common form of transportation in Luperon. They are even used as taxis! Here one is loaded down as a delivery vehicle with fresh bananas. very nice meals along with beer for less than six dollars for the two of us.
One of the boats we came in with is a young Swedish couple (Martin & Johanna on Snowbird) that we've gotten to know quite well. They're very nice and we enjoy traveling with them. The four of us decided it would be great to travel and see parts of the countryside. We have been told that there is a very nice waterfalls that is a must-see. In the process of trying to contact a driver who had a van we met a young woman who said she would make all the arrangements. Her English was pretty fair and we were able to communicate. She made the phone call to a driver that was recommended to us, came back and said she had arranged everything for the next day. We negotiated a price which was a bit high but not outrageous. The next day when we met her up drives a small Toyota Corolla and we realize the intention is for the four of us, the driver and the young woman to all travel in this car. At this point we realize that the young
Some typical homes
These are all separate homes that surround a single yard. We found out that a few of these house some of the Haitian refugees that are now living here since the earthquake hit their country. man driving the car is not the individual who we thought it was going to be and this young man could speak no English, none-at all. We politely thanked her and told her we will make other arrangements because this was not going to work. We had previously checked out a rental car so immediately went over to the rental car agency, rented the car and took off on our own. We stopped at several markets and gas stations and asked for a map and received pretty much the same response” you don't need a map there is only one road you can't miss it”. You guessed it, we missed it but figured it out and with a minimum loss of time made it to Puerto Plata. When we parked the car in what looked like the old part of town, we got out of the car a very pleasant gentleman walked up to us and told us he was from Luperon and could he help us. We asked if he knew where there was a restaurant nearby. He immediately took us to a very nice old home that had been turned into a restaurant. We had a very pleasant
Some of the local flora
These are all separate homes that surround a single yard. We found out that a few of these house some of the Haitian refugees that are now living here since the earthquake hit their country. relatively inexpensive lunch and shared the table with this very pleasant gentleman. He asked us what we wanted to see and he immediately became our impromptu guide. He was extremely pleasant and very helpful. One of the things that the Dominican Republic is known for is amber. In fact those of you who are science fiction movie buffs it is worth noting that the movie Jurassic Park was filmed partially in the Dominican Republic. If you also will remember the basis of the movie was that they used insects caught in amber to reconstitute DNA from dinosaurs. Well, our first stop was a place where they make amber jewelry which also contains a small, really small, museum which takes about 10 to 15 minutes to go through. You then are immediately taken into the show room where the jewelry is. These people are no fools because right next door to the jewelry showroom is the cigar store where a young man shows you how they roll cigars and even gives you a small one to smoke if you choose. You see the Dominican Republic is also very well known for its cigars. Our guide immediately took us to another shop
Cattle in the street
It was common to see herds of cattle and their cowboy herders traveling through the streets while in the Dominican Republic. where amber jewelry was sold at a significantly reduced price. He then asked us what else we're interested in and our friends said they were looking for cigars for their friends back in Sweden. We're immediately directed to another cigar store where they demonstrated the making of the cigar and we were introduced to the owner, a German gentleman who came to Dominican Republic many years ago after he is separated with his wife in Germany. He remarried and now ran this small cigar factory and jewelry store. All of these places were a little on the rough side but definitely intended to draw in tourists. Our next stop was the fruit market which is where the people in the city buy fresh fruit grown out in the countryside. Definitely a rough approximation of a farmers market but there was an enormous amount of fruit and vegetables of all varieties. At this point we said thank you and goodbye to our guide, provided him with a small gift in the form of American dollars and we parted company. On our return trip we stopped in a supermarket in the city. This was about the size of your average Wal-Mart and
The local tire shop
This is a one stop service for all your tire needs. In our case there was nail in the tire of our rental car. The man found it, repaired it and put it back on the car within a half hour and we then went on our way to explore. This is a great example of having very low overhead but still being able to get the job done. contained everything you could possibly want at extremely reasonable prices. They even had a Domino's Pizza in the front of the store. We stocked up on some basics and also picked up some ice cream which has become one of the great delicacies since we began cruising.
One advantage of getting a rental car was that it was significantly less expensive if we got it for two days. The original plan was to do everything in one day but now that we had the rental car we were able to slow things down and spend our second day going to the 27 waterfalls which were about 45 minutes away from Luperon. Again no map because there's only one road and you "can't miss it". Well, we missed it but not by much. When we arrived we were one of the first groups. This is an extremely well organized operation and for a very small fee you get life jackets, crash helmets and an English-speaking guide. While talking to the person at the entrance we saw that this was a Peace Corps- USAID joint project. That was completed about four years ago and was organized by a volunteer named Joe Kennedy
Waiting at the shop
Johanna and Martin of Snowbird and Bob are waiting near the tire shop for the repair to be completed. and yes, he is one of the Kennedy clan. In fact Sen. Ted Kennedy had visited the project, something the local people are extremely proud of. There are three options: you can do all 27 waterfalls, the first 12 or only the first seven. We chose 12 because we had heard that they were the best ones. Also for a little over five dollars apiece you could have lunch upon your return. There were four of us so we had two guides, Omega and Jacob. The waterfalls were spectacular as they cascaded through limestone and soapstone. This was a physically challenging but not impossible hike and with the help of the guides we made it climbing up the waterfalls using ropes and steps which were cut into the stone. The water was cool but comfortable and perfectly clear. I expected the stones to be slippery but that was not the case and in fact we had very good traction while climbing the stones. Around the gorge was a dense forest with lots of mango, bananas and other fruit trees. The return trip down the falls was the most fun. You could either slide down the smooth waterfalls or you could
Papo of Luperon
Papo is the resident entrepreneur. You first meet him as he directs you to a mooring, then informs you that he can bring anything you need to your boat. This runs the gambit from diesel, water, beer and ice. He is an excellent resource for everyone that comes to the harbor in Luperon jump off the cliffs (guess which of us did the jumping and which did the sliding!) The cliffs ranged from 20 to 30 feet and was a little bit daunting because of the narrow gorges you were jumping into. Often the gap was only 10 foot wide and never once did I hit bottom when jumping. It was beautiful and we had a lot of fun. If you ever get to this part of the world don't miss it.
After showers and lunch we climbed back into our rental car and headed for Santiago which is a city of 1,000,000+ and is in the Central Valley of the Dominican Republic. It always amazes me how cities all over the world are becoming very similar, even the advertisements on the side of the streets look the same even though they may be in different languages. The American consumer model is spreading all over the world and I'm not sure this is a good thing but I'll save that for another blog.
While in Santiago we visited the monument in the center of the city which is to the heroes of the Reconstruction. The monument was built in the 1940s and is
The entrance to Luperon
This is the first sight you see when coming into the town of Luperon. The roads are in very bad shape and they had a water main break that they continued to work on the whole time we were there. an extremely impressive structure. The view from this is also impressive because it gives you the true feeling about the size of the city and the surrounding mountains. We walked through the beautiful park obviously commemorating Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World. You see the Dominican Republic is where Christopher Columbus chose to live until his death and his brother was the governor of the first colony.
Those of you who are sports fans probably know about the Dominican Republic because of the large number of Dominicans who come to the United States to play baseball. I believe every town we passed through had an extremely impressive baseball stadium. These people "LOVE" baseball! Every boy dreams of coming to the United States and being a professional baseball player. Team logo baseball caps, T-shirts, and backpacks are what the cool people wear.
On Thursday morning we got up and were listening to the weather report and were told that a good weather window was opening for a passage to Puerto Rico. The first rule of sailing is when the weather window opens you go. As a result we contacted Papo for a delivery of diesel which he brought out to
Some of the architecture in Puerto Plata
These are examples of some of the Victorian style houses found in Puerto Plata. This is the second oldest town in the New World. the boat – quite a service. This is also one of the major passages of our trip. We will be crossing the Mona Passage which is the gap between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. This can be an extremely treacherous part of the ocean if you get the wrong weather. So we now have to rapidly convert our boat from a home back into a sailboat and get ready to make what will most likely be around a 48 hour passage to the southwest corner of Puerto Rico.
A short additional note, we made the passage and are now in Puerto Rico, none the worse for wear. It was very tiring and very bumpy but we made it with only minor bumps and bruises. We also somewhere along the passage lost the lens to our forward navigation lights which doesn't surprise me considering the size of the waves we were bashing through on our trip here. Luckily we will have easy access to supplies and should be able to repair it without any difficulty. We'll get you more information about the passage in our next blog.
Hope you are all well, we are still out here and still having
Puerto Plata
The Parque Central of Puerto Plata is quite impressive. fun (well, most of the time) although it is kind of surprising how fast the time is flying. Take care and love to all of you. By the way, we really appreciate the comments we get about the blog, thank you.
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