Day 10: Partying in Sosua

It's Sunday today and it was very very busy at the hotel.  I laid low pretty much most of the day on the beach drinking a lot of pina coladas con alchohol.  The hotel has their own private beach and there are a lot of older people here and what seems to be the most oddest couples I have seen in a while.  I see a lot of different 'combinations' of couples including fat and skinny couples, tall and short, old and young.. interesting..

In the afternoon, I was invited to play volleyball with the guys who ran the water sport equipment.  We played 2vs2 and my team won.. ya! ;)  That made me very tired so I just rested until evening.

In the evening, I checked out the local bars and parked myself in a bar very close to my hotel called FLO.  It's a cool place and I was able to dance bachata and salsa.  On the way there a guy on a motorbike was telling me his name was Tony Montana.  Tony Montana is codename for drugs.. It was funny how he was following me on his motorcycle telling me to remember him and to ask for him if I needed his help.. LOL.

Day 9: Sosua

I woke up at 5:45AM!! The bus leaves in 15 minutes!! I crammed everything I had in my backpack and ran to where the bus was to pick me up! I made it in time, luckily!!

The guagua was a little minivan and I got a good seat in the back.  The ride was about 4 hours or so and we stopped along the way for a break where I drank a coffee and a cafeteria.

Lucky for me, the bus stopped really close to hotel Casa Marina where I was staying.  I arrived around 11am and had to wait until around 2pm to get my room.  Check out time was 1pm and check in time was 3pm.  They stored my bags and let me walk around so I got some lunch and took a swim in one of their pools while waiting.

View from my room.

The hotel is relatively nice.  It's an all-inclusive hotel. My first actually.  They have 4 pools, 3 bars and 4 restaurants.  The food is OK and nothing to write home about. Internet is not cheap.  I tried hijacking wirelss access in an neighboring hotel, but no luck.. The people are very pushy when it comes to selling excursions like snorkeling or scuba diving.  I didn't come to Sosua for that.  I came to the Dominican Republic to dance, experience the culture and do nothing.  I was in Sosua for the last part..



The Carrito waiting for passengers.



In the evening, I went to Cabarete, which is about a 10 or 15 minute drive.  I took what's called a Carrito.  it's a "shared" taxi.  It was very very strange to ride in it.  The car I was in was a small Toyota Corolla and by the time we were off to Cabarete, I was squished with 7 other strangers in the car!!! The ride costed 50 pesos.  I could have taken a regular taxi, but that would have costed me 10 times more!!!

Cabareta is famous in the Dominican for their strip of bars and restaurants lining the beach as far as the eye can see.  It was very lively when I arrived and I parked myself in a bar called LAX where they had internet access so I was able to catch up on emails and my blog!

I took the Carrito back home.. this time there was 7 strangers squished in with me :)

Day 8: La Playa Coson

Today is my last day in Las Terrenas.  I need to catch a 6am guagua from Las Terrenas to Sosua.  There is only one bus that leaves in the day every 6am.  Another option was to go to Sanchez and take a bus to Sosua.  I decided to take it easy today.
In the afternoon, I went with my friends to La Coson.  It's a beach about 30 minutes away from Las Terrenas.  We ate at a small restaurant which looked was a small shack along the beach.  The restaurant was called Louis Restaurante.  I sat on the back of a moped for the trip there.  It was such a fun ride!

Restaurant a La Playa de Coson.

After laying on the beach for most of the day, I went home very tired to rest and found enough energy to go dancing again to La Bodega and Del Torro. Before going out dancing, I had a bachata lesson with Bolivar Severino one of the best bachateros I have ever seen. I have to wake up really early in the morning.. hope I don't sleep in!


Bolivar and Laure and me after my bachata lesson.



At Del Toro disco

Here's a video of Carlito carving it up on the dance floor:

Day 7: My adidas shoes are WHITE again :)

In the morning, I had a bachata class with Pipo and Andita from Salsa Caribe dance studios. Pipo showed me some bachata moves and gave me some tips with footwork.

Here is Pipo and Andita dancing bachata:

After class, I met up with Laure and we had coffee at a french cafe close to her shop.  They drink in very small cups.  It's a french thing.. While drinking coffee, several boys selling small art work like painted turtles came to us.  I bought a small turtle and gave it to Laure for helping me out.  Awhile later, 2 boys who had a business cleaning and shining shoes wanted to polish my shoes.  In the Dominican, even if people are poor, the one thing they take pride in and always do is to dress well.. and that includes keeping your shoes clean.  I decided to help the little guys business' out and have my shoes whitened and I gave one shoe to each of the 2 boys (although they fought over them both).  My Adidas shoes are very white now :)

Helping out my brothers..

In the afternoon, I went to the beach and soaked up the sun.  After the beach, I went over to my friend's place and we ate Dominican style marinated chicken and Arroz.  In the evening,  we all went to the disco.  Again, it was a La Bodega/Del Torro night out... good night dancing :)

Another night out at the disco.

Day 6: Crazy night of dancing!

Its Wednesday now. Last night was one of the most interesting dancing nights that ever happened in my life! It consisted of a bruised ego and the expenditure of vast amounts of energy dancing!

In the middle of town is a dance bar called La Bodega.  Bodega means cellar but in the Philippines it means storage shack or warehouse. They call dance bars discos or discotheques here. The disco started to really heat up really late like around midnight. I went in at around 11:30 and parked myself at a seat next to the dance floor. Almost immediately, like a swarm of killer bees, I was surrounded by very nice looking girls =D. They started talking to me with the usual small talk and I I danced with a few of them. Some of the didnt like being turned for some reason and asked me not to turn them. OK.. So after awhile they ask me if I want to dance in my room! Now why would I want to dance in my room I thought?! LOL, ok I get it now! La bodega is hookerville! I saw the pattern and noticed earlier that the hardcore dancers were dancing next to the stage area. So, I migrated to the other side of the bar. I had an awesome time dancing and made some good friends. When the bar closed at 2am, I headed out to another bar called Del Toro (the bull) with my new friends, where we danced until 3:30 in the morning! Que buena noche!

It prolly wasn't a good idea to dance so late because I needed to wake up at 7:30. I signed up for a tour to El Limon to see a waterfall. It's a quick 40 minute ride by guagua (bus). At 7:40, I was on my way. Today's guagua consisted of an small pickup truck, and I initially had a seat inside. I was sitting with all girls inside and the guys were outside in the back of the truck. It was only after we stopped for a pregnant lady and a small child that I moved to the back of the truck! It was a fun ride :) ... so much for safety here :) half way to my destination the truck was packed. There were 7 people sitting inside the truck and 8 people on the back. Oh ya.. plus the driver! I kid you not! :)

I arrived at the ranch where my tour started. The waterfall is about 3km in the mountains and I went up by mule. The waterfall was very beautiful, and I was able to swim a bit. The waterfall trip was ok, but not really my cup of tea. I paid 25$ for the tour and they fed me a traditional Dominican meal at the end. Not bad for a morning adventure.

 

El Limon waterfall.



My meal after the waterfall.

  When I got back to Las Terrenes, I met up my new friends that I met the night before at Laure's store.  Laure owns a shop where she sells recycled artwork like handbags made of old records.  There were a few of us there and we were standing in a circle when a bum catches my eye and starts asking me for money.  Laure says to me "hey.. don't open the circle.. you open the circle you let shit in..".  I closed the circle and noone bothered us again:).  Later that evening, we went to their place for some dancing and a BBQ.  They live in a big house with a pool.  There was Laure, Lisa, Valme and Marlene from France.  Carlito and Miguel were resident Dominicans.  Carlito was a dance instructor and can only speak french and spanish and not english. Their place reminded me of that show Big Brother with the setup. It was so much fun and we ate, drank and danced all night long there. I also tried to help them fix their wireless internet access; they wanted to extend the wireless range with an access point router. Kool night..

Day 5: If I die, I want to be buried in Las Terrenas!

For breakfast I had an egg, bacon and cheese pannini at the bar in my most hated hotel in the world! :) The pannini and the bar was muy bueno though :) My sleep was ok and I thank my tiredness from the day before for forcing me to sleep like a baby...

My second plan of action was to get to a new hotel so I checked out some hotels close to town and found one that was OK! I am now staying at Hotel Guayacan which costs 1100RD pesos a night. The hotel has a standing shower, ceiling fan, it's clean and well kept but there is no safe to store your stuff when you leave, so I end up carrying my passport and money wherever I go. It's family owned and operated so I felt good staying here.  The girl working at the front deal speaks good English so I could ask her for more detailed information. The location of the hotel is right in the middle of the city center of Las Terrenas and 2 doors away from La Bodega, which is the main place to dance here.

I haven't had a hot shower since I arrived in the Dominican Republic 5 days ago.  It's probably worth mentioning you don't really need a hot shower when it's really hot here.  I'm sure the fancier hotels have hot showers but a cold shower in hot weather is good enough.. at least for me:)



One nice thing about traveling in the Caribbean is that there is so many Scotiabanks here. Scotiabank is my primary bank in Canada. However, today I was locked out of my account for entering a wrong password ONCE! I made a quick call to the long distance number on the back of my card to ask them to correct it. Its a good idea to phone your bank before you go on a trip like this to let them know what your plans are so things like this won't happen.  I felt good knowing I could have also walked into a local branch and they would have been able to help me out as well.

In the afternoon after settling into hotel Guayacan, I ate at a restaurant called Paco Mer, which is hidden behind the cemeteria and right across from my place.  You need to walk around the cemeteria in the middle of the town to find it. It's owned by a very nice French couple and I ate arroz (rice) and a fish called dorado. I ate 20 yards from the water on the beach and there were no other people around! That's something I don't understand.. There is HARDLY anyone on the beaches and restaurants! I guess it is low season here??

Lunch at Paco Mer





Owners of Paco Mer



After lunch I took a walk around town. I'm kinda getting fat(ter) from eating and not dancing much... Walking around town, I saw the security guard from where I was staying the night before. He told me he was so happy to see tourists because it gave him a job. It felt good talking to him and I offered to buy him a beer. Why not? As we were talking he told me he had 5 kids and asked if I could instead buy some powdered milk for his 2 month old baby instead of beer. My BS detector started to go off but I decided to buy the milk anyways.. whatever! The milk wasn't cheap either. He told me he had 5 kids and I told him not to have any more kids (in a nice way).  In the Dominican Republic, everything is about money..

The rest of the day was spent chilling at the beach and relaxing.  I could get used to this :) Tonight, I will go dancing..

For dinner, I ordered take out pizza at a place called Cacao's Pizza and guess what? The pizza place was right across from the beach (",)





Day 4: Las Terennas

Buenas dias.  It's Monday now.  I woke up early around 8:30am and had a piece of bread and a coffee (which was included with the hostel stay).  I made a reservation to take a guagua (bus) at 10am which will take me from Santo Domingo to not exactly my next destination but close enough - Last Terrenas. The Dominican Republic doesn't appear to have any public transit system.  Instead, they operate on private means of transportation including busses. The bus company I made a reservation with is one of the biggest ones in the DR, called Caribe Tours. The cost was 320RD pesos (~$8CDN).  The terminal is about a 3km walk from my hostel and it's raining today.  I'm lucky my backpack is waterproof.  The Caribe Tours bus company didn't have a direct ride to Las Terennas and the closest place I could get to was a city called Sanchez.  Sanchez is about 15km to Las Terennas and the plan was to take a local guagas or moto concho (motorcycle taxi) to Las Terrenas.

The trip from Santo Domingo to Las Terrenas took about 3 hours.  I was asleep when the bus stopped at Sanchez City and I rushed out of the bus while collecting my backpack, my books and my sleeping bag liner (which I used for a blanket - the air conditioning in the bus was freezing!).  When I exited the bus, I was so disoriented and there were 5 people screaming at me if I want a taxi.  I realized after there was a bus leaving for Las Terrenas and they were asking me if I wanted to take it.  Before I knew it, one of the drivers grabbed my backpack and was going to put it on his motorcycle! I panicked so I grabbed my bag in defense going into "fight" mode - I didn't know if he was going to just drive away with it and someone grabbed my shoulder and told me it's ok and he will take me to Las Terrenas.  On a motorcycle?! Ok.. if I knew the ride would be up and down a mountian, I would not have accepted .. but naively I did.. it was a scary yet fun ride to say the least.  The ride was about 15km on the back of a motorcycle and it costs me 200RD pesos (~$5CDN) .. whatever.. I just wanted to forget that thrilling yet scary experience +_+.

On the drive to my hotel, I was in awe when I saw the beaches of Las Terrenas.  The beach seemed to go on forever as far as my eyes could look.  It was a beautiful sight and it made me forget about my thrilling ride to get here!

Hotel Palapa (don't waste your time here!)

I got to my hotel (Hotel Palapa) in one piece as planned. I reserved it on the internet and it cost 1300 pesos (~$35CDN) per night without air condition and it totally sucks! The rooms could be a lot nicer if they put some work into it like... a new washroom! Maybe I will look for another place tomorrow.  The bar is pretty cool though. It overlooks the beach and the people are friendly.  The hotel had a pool.  I don't understand the reasoning for a pool when they were seconds away from the most beautiful beaches I've ever seen in my life!



Barrio Latino



After settling in, I rented a 150cc motorcycle to tour around the city. I didn't think twice cruising the streets wearing shorts and no helmet but I played it safe and didn't go too crazy on the bike.  If I didn't have a motorcycle, the walk from my place to the city center would take about 15 minutes to walk or I could take a guagas (which consisted of a mini van with the side door always opened) stopping to pick up or let you go out wherever you wanted.  They would honk at you to get your attention to pick you up. You could also take what's called a moto concho which is a motorcycle taxi, like the one I took from Sanchez to Las Terrenas. The cost to go down the street is about .75 cents. For lunch, I had a burger in a bar called Barrio Latino which was situated in the heart of the city. During lunch, it started to pour (actually it was the hardest I've ever seen rain come down from the sky!).  I raced home to dry up and rest...

Las Terrenas used to be a small fishing village but I've heard it's gotten more touristy over the years and there are many restaurants, hotels and adventure shops selling excusions like 4x4ing, sailing, snorkelling etc.  Most of the stretch of Las Terennas is along the beach. The town has a very European vibe to it and you can get by speaking french because every other person here speaks french! The story goes that during World War 2, they allowed Jewish immigrants to migrate here to escape persecusion from the war. Europeans and even Germans defecting also migrated here and made it their home.  Its a cozy little town and I like it a lot.. Minus my hotel Meh!

In the evening, I had some time to relax at the beach .. the beaches were clean and gorgeous!  I decided to stay in tonight because it's pouring rain, otherwise I would have gone out to check the local dance scene. Actually, the real reason I didn't go was my shoes were soaked from biking in the rain in the daytime! :(

Day 3: Domingo (Sunday)



Today, I ventured off the unbeaten path and made my way to Chinatown. It was funny (but kool) to see so many chinese people speaking spanish.  I wondered through all the side streets and was amazed to see beautiful heritage buildings still standing from the 1800's.  I made my way to a big courtyard area called the Borojol which overlooked the Rio Ozama River.  The courtyard was surrounded by historic sites such the Alcazar de Colon and La Casa de Colombus.





Borojol Plaza





Chinatown, Santo Domingo





Most shops close down on Sundays, however in the morning some of the stores were opened still. In the early afternoon, I pretty much took it easy to study some spanish, drink a cafe and smoke a cigar and at a local cafe. 

In the last 2 days I was here, there were no other travellers in the hostel where I was staying, but today a new traveller came in but when I went back to the hostel to rest later in the afternoon, there was a new traveller who had arrived.  His name is Eric he's here for a few weeks and is going to meet up with group of grade 9 students later on this week. Eric and I decided to walk around town and check out the scene and grab a bite to eat.  We checked out a cool restaurant called El Rey Falafel and I ate one of the best falafels ever. 




A very tasty falafel!

 


El Rey Falafel Restaurant



After dinner, we stopped by a courtyard situated in front of an old abandoned hospital in ruins called Ruinas de San Fransisco (it's a historical site and the first hospital of the Americas).  Although it was drizzling, the place was packed with people dancing!  They have this event every Sunday evening starting at 7.  It ended around 1130 but I think it was because of the rain otherwise I  think they would dance all night long!  So fun!

Before heading home we smoked a hooka at a hostel called Nomada hostel.  It was situated on the rooftop of a 4 story building and it had a bar setup and beds - very kool! we also stopped by a small dance place where there were a lot of old timers dancing. I danced one merengue song and Eric couldn't help but take a photo of me dancing.  Fun times!

This was my last night in Santo Domingo and it was a very fun night! Im leaving early tomorrow to go to Last Terrenas.  Buenas noches Santo Domingo..

Day 2: Zona Colonial District

I left Orlando at 8:30am and landed in Santo Domingo at around 11:00am. Upon arrival, I quickly noticed that very few people spoke english and I lept at the opportunity to start practicing speaking spanish so I asked for a taxi and asked how much it would cost to take me to my hostel in the Zona Colonial district in Santo Domingo.  The weather was very hot and humid as expected and I took a taxi to my hostel which costed $40US! I found out later I could have taken a series of busses (called guaguas) for a fraction of the price compared to a taxi but I'm new in the country so 40$ was a good investment to arrive quickly and safely to my hostel. 

The ride to Zona Colonial district in Santo Domingo was a very relaxing ride as we travelled along the south coast overlooking the Caribbean Sea. 

I´m staying at "Betty´s Guest House" in the Zona Colonial district in Santo Domingo. I´ll be here until Monday when I will leave to head north to Las Terrenas. The hostel is located in the center of the Zona Colonial district on the street named Calle Isabelle la Catolica. Its a very good bargain for 20$/nite! The area is somewhat touristy and there are many restaurants, clubs and parks in the area. It´s very hot and humid here and I don´t have air conditioning in my hostel and there is no hot water for showers. With the heat, I don't need hot water. The hostel is a heritage house and has a very traditional. flair to it.  The ceiling must be about 15 feet high and the accomodations can fit an army of about 15 people; there are about 15 or so beds in 3 rooms. It has a kitchen and a foyer and everything I need to rest, sleep and eat. 

The Zona Colonial district is one of the most historic areas in Santo Domingo. The spaniards used this as the landing point to conquer other Caribbean islands and some of the American mainland.  I spent the majority of the day walking around and getting used to the city. In the afternoon, I walked around to many of the heritage sights including La Casa de Diego Columbus and the Cathedral of Santa María la Menor which is the oldest church in the Americas built in the 1500´s.  I also walked along Calle de Conde, which is the main touristy street with a lot of market shops street vendors, restaurants and cafes including a Hard Rock cafe. The shops were OK and other than the myriad of street vendors selling art paintings there was really nothing else interesting.  While walking around, I was harassed by tour guides and shop people wanting my business. Sadly, I felt like a tourist so I changed to wear my sandals and a white tshirt to look as plain as day; that helped a little bit.

For dinner I had a cachapa.  Its made of corn and it looks like a folded pancake and it had mashed up corn and pollo (chicken) inside.  I found out its actually a Venezuelan dish and not from the DR.

In the late evening around 11pm I went out to 2 clubs. One was called La Canolia and the other was Bacha Mamma. Bacha Momma is a neat place; you went inside a building and into the main dance floor which was a courtyard with no ceiling. They played mostly regaeton and RnB music there. La Canolia was kinda dead but they played a few bachata and salsa songs.

When I made my way back to the hostel, I decided to have a drink at a very small bar which was right across from my hostel. I forgot the name of it but I think it´s bc there is no name! LOL.. I think it said "Liquor Store" but I was drawn there because of the loud bachata music playing!¿ The bar was not more than 500 square feet and there were a few  people (like 2 couples) dancing bachata. I couldn´t help but to ask one girl to dance with me.. they don´t do turns much but I fitted right in...

I wanted to check out Ave Venezuela which a few people say is where you can dance bachata all night long, but it wad quite far away and I was enjoying the area where I was.

Tomorrow, I will spend some more time checking some of the landmarks out and trying out some ethnic foods :)

Day 1: Going Away Party!!

I've been in Orlando since Sunday attending a developer conference. Today is the last day of the conference. My brain has been gourging on geek food specific to current and future Microsoft technologies, concepts and practices including what's in the mix for the future of Microsoft application development, Cloud technologies (Azure), Windows 8 (Metro apps <- WOW!) and so much more!  This blog will not be about technology and the future, but I can say that the future is very very bright and exciting; the IT industry keeps getting better and imagination and technology is what will drive the future.  :)

Tonight, they reserved the Universal Studio Island theme park just for the conference attendees (apparently there are a couple of Universal theme parks), so there will be a lot of drunk geeks in Orlando tonight :). I don't know if that's a good or bad thing, but I think drunk geeks are as harmless as chewbacca and are quite fun to party with! :-) 

My flight leaves tomorrow for the Dominican Republic at 7:30am.  I will be travelling first to the capital city of Santo Domingo. I will need to be up exceptionally early to get to the airport and go through customs and what not.  I will be in Santo Domingo for three nights, then  make my way to Las Terrenas located in northern coast of the Dominican Republic for about a week.  Then I will head over to Sosua (also in the north) which is west of Las Terrenas and visit Cabarete the party city of the Dominican and visit Puerto Plata.

My adventures will last a good 2 weeks. I've opted to take the experiential route while absorbing the beautiful beaches of the DR and will soak up as much sun as I can; I want to take in the culture and language first and foremost.  I'm also a big bachata dancer so I am very excited to dance it in the country where the dance was born in!

To prepare for the trip, I've been taking a Spanish course at a local college to refresh what I have learned so many years ago in college, so I hope to excel in my Spanish speaking skills. I'll be staying mostly in hostels until I get to Sosua.  I figure by that time, I need some kind of comfort (at least my body will!?).  To get around, there is a bus company/system called Caribe Tours;  that seems to be a very cheap and popular way of getting around places.  I also am traveling pretty light with just a backpack and about a weeks worth of clothes.  I actually arrived in Orlando with excessive gear, so I had to refactor and send back some "unneeded" items back home in a box (including a tonne of swag from the conference!).

This blog will document my travels in my Dominican Republic trip! Wish me luck!! +_+

Farewell Orlando! Hello Dominican Republic!

Geeks 2^2 ever!!