Blogs from Boca Chica, Dominican Republic, Central America Caribbean

(Day 23 on the road) After a fairly painless flight and a late-night Uber into the city, I arrived in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The main reason for coming here was to take a language course for a week to brush up my Spanish, before hitting South America a few weeks later. The school was located in Sosua, on the north coast of the island; and all in all, it was the right decision to start with the course. I did learn a lot, and since my co-students did not always show up for class, I often ended up being the only student. Nice. The next couple of weeks I spent exploring the island - the beautiful Samana peninsula in the north-east, the capital of Santo Domingo, Jaracaboa in the mountainous inland ... read more

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 taxi fare from 1000 pesos to 600. The bus didn't do the Boca Chica run and we were too tired to gua-gua. The coast was scenic as we sped past the airport on to what would be ... read more