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Published: January 20th 2016
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Our route on the map
The Pedernales peninsula is on the least developed and most native parts of the DR Most people know the Dominican Republic as an all-inclusive-destination. You enjoy your time chilling at the beach, swimming in the pool and stuffing your stomach at the buffet. But that's definitly not my style of travelling. Last week I did just the opposite thing when I went Backpacking from Barahona to Pedernales with two friends. We spent 5 days on the road. And what we found were great landscapes, lonely beaches, lots of friendly people and some unforgettable memories.
7$ for a Million Dollar View
We started our tour from the city of Barahona in the early morning hours. If you want to get to Pedernales, there's only one road to go. It follows the marvellous coastline south. On the left you've got the Caribean shore, covered with beaches, on the right a lovely green hillside. Our first stop we made in San Rafael, a small fishermen village at the road. We had been recommended a guesthouse hosted by a woman named Marissa. With some local advice we found the entrance to the property. We knew the view was nice, but still we were stunned when we ended up in a palm tree garden right over the cliffs and looked
View over the bay of San Rafael
Photo taken a 5-minute walk away from our guesthouse over the bay of San Rafael. We enjoyed two nights in this wonderful little hostel, for which we had to pay only 300 Pesos (around 7$) per night! The days we spent visiting some of the nearby beaches. Surprisingly there was only gravel instead of the sand we expected, but jumping into the waves was fun anyway. I wasn't happy about having to leave this place again - but the next highlight of our tour came right away. As we didn't want to wait for the bus, we just tried hitchhiking. We hadn't waited for 10 minutes when a Pickup stopped and the driver let us take a seat on the platform. He was working for the Dominican taxing authority and was delivering some tax forms to local enterprises. We had a great time chatting with him and enjoying the cool breeze outside.
Beach and desert
In Pedernales we settled in one of the small hotels in the city center. Our destination for the next day was Bahía de las Aguilas, the eagles' bay, which is said to have the most beautiful beach of the country. The problem was to get there. As we hadn't a vehicle ourselves, the
easiest way was to go by taxi motorcycle. Not comfortable, but cheaper than a boat. We started at 9:30AM with two drivers. The 20km ride took us 40 minutes through the drought savanna of the Jaragua Nacional Park. I wouldn't have expected a famous tropical beach lonely in some kind of desert - but that's really the case. Some kilometers of fine sand, clear water glimmering in turquois. Bringing our snorkel equipment turned out to be the idea of the day. If we had had an underwater camera with us, I could have shown you some nice pictures of colorful fish, a ray and a sepia. And I would know for sure if my buddy really saw the barracuda, of which he asserts that it had been "chasing" him. After hours of joy in the sea, the way back got a bit longer. The chain of one of the motorcycles broke. We were standing alone in the middle of nowhere, the sun was burning and we weren't able to fix it. We, the "gringos", thought we had a serious problem now. But the two Dominicans surprised us with an unusual but simple solution: The driver of the working "moto" just
held out his foot against the frame of the other one, pushing it forward. And yes, this was how we got back all the way. At up to 60 km/h! A quite thrilling experience to end our journey. We just spend one more night in Pedernales, and hopped on the bus back to Santo Domingo the other morning. That's all from this tour, to be continued...
But before I put a stop to this post, I've got some tips for you. If you plan to travel the Dominican Republic outside the tourist regions, these 4 things I recommend:
• Take your time. If you're too busy and stressed to take things as they come, you won't have as much fun!
• Bring enough sunscreen and water. Even though there might be a cool breeze, the tropical climate has its effects.
• Language skills are important. Things get a lot easier if you speak Spanish, and the people are always willing to help if you are able to ask them!
• Don't only go for the natural highlights I just described. Go out to where the Dominicans are. Visit the local market, go for an ice-cold "Presidente"-beer in the next bar. The best oportunity to get to know the culture.
If you happen to do the same trip, I also recommend the Lonely Planet travel guide. It was useful for me, as it includes a detailed description of the route. Here's the link to Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Lonely-Planet-Dominican-Republic-Travel/dp/1742204422/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1452634663&sr=1-1&keywords=dominican+republic+travel+guide
This wasn't my last text about my travel experiences. If you liked it, don't forget to subscribe!
Do you have any comments or questions? What have been your experiences travelling the Caribean?
Let me know below!
Muchos saludos!
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