Something about a trip to the Dominican Republic
Departure from Tallinn at 21.30
Arrival in Helsinki at 22.05, at 22.30 at the check-in, handed over the suitcase and received tickets.
I did not consider it reasonable to pay 85 euros for 4-5 hours of sleep in bed.
Therefore, all the time was spent at the airport (sleeping on the couch, watching a movie on a laptop at a table in a cafe)
That means until 5:30.
By the time the plane took off, another 1.5 hours had passed (departure formalities + late departure).
8 hours in the air and here we are in the port of Halifax (Canada). Here is the waiting time.
After 2 hours - landed at the airport of Puerta Plata.
An hour later - at the Sosua By the Sea hotel.
Course 1 USD = 34 DOP (Dominican peso)
Sosua is a small town, mostly Germans, French, Italians, Scandinavians... in general, "white" Europe.
During the rest, I only heard Russian speech 2-3 times.
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Snorkeling - below average.
With the Red and Andaman Sea - there is no comparison!
There are reefs, but the waves of the ocean interfere.
The surf can hit the reefs.
Others are deep - 6-7 meters.
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February 9 - trip to Santo Domingo.
I got up at 5.00, at 5.45 (instead of the declared 5.30!!! ) a bus arrived for me (the first one).
I immediately collapsed into a row of rear seats and dozed off deeply.
It took about 1.5 hours to gather the rest of the people, mostly from Playa Dorada.
On the way we stopped for a toilet and a cafe.
I took soup, potatoes with sausages - 100 pesos!
In Egypt, in a roadside establishment, you will overpay four times as much for the same thing!
At 11 - in S-D.
The capital of the DR, the population is 3 million.
City where Columbus is buried.
Italians (natives of Genoa), Spaniards, Dominicans - all in unison claim that Columbus is their fellow countryman and is buried with them!
1. National Aquarium sucks!
Cloudy glasses, and water whose transparency cannot be called crystal.
Can impress a person who has not seen anything else but a home aquarium with guppies.
Then the cave of 3 eyes.
"Eyes" - lakes.
The air is humid.
Fish and turtles swim in the water, I would be happy to freshen up!
But it was permissible for some local native.
On the way out, he fought off sellers of souvenirs and other rubbish!
Behavior one on one with their Egyptian counterparts: i. e. It doesn’t matter if you are interested in their product at all or not - it is already being traded, it “knocks down” the price of its bullshit.
Like, "happy hour" - fly in, it's cheaper!
2. So-called. "colonial" part of S-D.
On its territory are:
the first building in the Americas is the residence of the governor of the island of Hispaniola.
Columbus house
The Cathedral, again the first on 2 continents.
First and last time I'm on an English speaking tour. . .
It's one thing to go to the island to swim, it's like a drum with someone!
And quite another - the informative part!
It should be in the language you are fluent in!
The obligatory program of each excursion is a junk shop (primitive souvenirs, etc. ).
Delivery - 1.5 hours and finally they took me the last one!
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There was an opportunity to go on a 1-day excursion to the neighboring state of Haiti for 60 bucks.
When I asked the owner of Mel' Tours about it, he shook his head dejectedly, clicked his tongue and said that this is a very poor country.
The circumstance played a role that for the entire time of my stay in the Dominican Republic, I bought all excursions only from him.
Apparently, the gentleman, who was wearing a good kilo of gold jewelry, did not want a regular customer to come from there disappointed.
After digging around on the Internet, I realized that I didn’t really want to go there...
It is clear that tourists will not be taken to such places, but nevertheless he changed his mind.
Why should I look at their poverty?
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Wave games.
Nice, but quite dangerous game.
The essence of the game is to overcome the waves, when strongly pushing off the bottom with your feet, you reach the crest of the wave. And you are gently carried by a wave for some distance
The danger is the following:
A strong and high wave can arise at such a distance from you that it is not possible to move closer to it in order to simply dive into it and thus solve the problem.
- if you still try to dive, then there will be a hammer and anvil effect,
that is, it will simply fall on you with all its force when you are already in a horizontal position just trying to swim through the wave.
- you can't run away from it.
It will catch up anyway, because the internal currents of the ocean make it difficult to move waist-deep or chest-deep in water.
The situation is unpredictable.
The strength of the crashing wave is such that it easily turns an adult full-bodied man.
You keep your eyes closed at the same time, because sand rises from the bottom.
And it is not known how you will be thrown like a blind helpless kitten.
In such a situation, you are completely at the mercy of the ocean wave.
You will spin head over heels under water, it may well hit your head on the bottom.
With possible tragic consequences.
Hence the question: do you need it?
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Penultimate evening.
Decided to give myself another break.
As usual, he prepared a place for himself on the terrace by the ocean.
This means: I set a table, prepared a hookah, Coca-Cola and local rum "Brugal" for the preparation of Cuba Libre.
Smoke, enjoy.
Starry sky, the sound of the surf + smoking and my favorite music from the laptop.
This went on for 1.5 hours.
Everything was great.
But here, 10-12 meters away, there was an elderly couple at a table.
And now, after 15 minutes, an old man with a handsome face of St. Nicholas the Pleasant comes up and asks me - do I have headphones?
Music (from flimsy laptop speakers! ), reaches him
and you see, it prevents him from listening to the sound of the ocean and talking, you understand, with his woman.
My first thought was: just as politely send him away!
But he changed his mind.
It was written on the muzzle that the old man would not calm down, and the same request would be repeated, but already from the lips of a security guard or an administrator from the reception.
Old age must be reckoned with, fool with him!
I made it quieter, another 10 minutes to smoke the hookah - and into battle!
Rock out at the disco!
Tallinn, Estonia.
March 18.2006, 20:59
