Dominican adventures in the Caribbean!

12 April 2019 • Travel time: with 22 February 2019 on 07 March 2019

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Dominican adventures in the Caribbean!

Well, are you ready to listen to a fairy tale about an exotic and distant island? An island that combines the beauty of the Seychelles beaches, a country that has the same beauty in places as the Maldives. Light shades of central India will add adventure, and all the colors of the most beautiful seas and a calm pace will let you relax to the fullest. If you are ready to immerse yourself in this fairy tale, then go into our memories on this very long and comfortable nine-hour flight on a Boeing Dreamliner. The journey will be eventful, dangerous, but wonderful. So, let's begin!

Preparing for the trip

After a complete mess with the transfer of flights, we finally flew home from Montenegro. It seemed that I didn’t want to fly at all anymore. And now it will be necessary to deal with the airline.

Finally we are at home, I go online and stumble upon Dominican tickets. By all logic, it is clear that the price is low (699 euros for two, about 21.500 UAH), it will be a season and the country should be cool, you need to take tickets. Dasha started crying and said that she didn't want anything else at all, except to sleep. And the prospect of a 9 hour flight just killed on the spot. We lay on the couch for about 20 minutes and soberly discussed that there was still six months before departure, and in six months the desire to fly would definitely return more than once, but this action would no longer be. They pulled themselves together, the logic showed that it was necessary to take. The decision was not easy. At the time of purchase, Dasha noted that these are the first tickets that we take not only without joy, but also with tears. Bought, went to sleep.

The organization of the trip was very difficult. Online, we bought TUI charter tickets from Belgium, in return we received almost no documents other than a number.

The authenticity of tickets could not be verified in any system other than the airline's website. But even there, they, frankly, did not inspire confidence that a flight for such a price would take place at all. I was even asked on one of the forums to unsubscribe if I successfully fly off in the end.

Time went forward, for Montenegro we received compensation more than the cost of the tour, many new trips have passed and all those old problems have already been forgotten. UIA has successfully canceled tickets to Brussels and back. And now on hand only tickets for a charter flight. The UIA system offers us a bunch of options with transfers, but they do not suit us, as additional vacation days will be wasted. As a result, as it turned out, people also work in the technical support department, and we were able to agree on a very profitable replacement of tickets. We were transferred to Lufthansa planes and given a special stop in Frankfurt for 13 hours.

These conditions satisfied us completely. Now everything is ready, we can fly!

Story about Frankfurt here.

The plane's display lit up "09:00 until arrival in Punta Cana" and the countdown began. So, I'm mentally prepared, I'll serve these 9 hours. Oh, one minute less! Oh for two! No, it's kind of slow. You need to do something urgently. The screen displayed the following inscription “Get ready for breakfast! ". O! It will be better this way. The flight was intense, we chatted, I watched Rick and Morty, I watched “Beyond the Hedge”, I slept, I walked, slept again, listened to music, tried to look through the neighbors through the window (the choice of seats was paid, so we sat in the aisle), went around the plane in a circle, went to the toilet five times. In general, the fun was still the same.

But despite the long flight, it was quite comfortable in the Dreamliner, we were fed several times and offered various non-alcoholic drinks a bunch of times. And it was always a joy to chat on the eve of a big trip. “ 00:09 left before arrival in Punta Cana” Oooh yeah!

We flew over the azure beaches and landed softly under the sun's rays. The airport met us with live music and a very unusual design. These were houses with a thatched roof and no wall separating the runways from the waiting area. In the first second, we plunged into the atmosphere of the trip that had begun. Since the plane was a charter one, almost everyone flew on package tours. We approached a girl in a tour operator's branded T-shirt to ask where the buses were. She kindly asked what hotel we had in order to send us for a transfer.

“Um, we don’t have a hotel with a transfer, we just bought tickets from a tour package. ” The girl assured us that there were no buses here, and only taxis for crazy money (they bargained with us, knocking down the price to $ 60 for moving Airport - Bayahibe).

One taxi driver had an important argument that by other transport, if even possible, it would take a very long time to get there, but my argument was that we have 13 days to get there and return, we must be in time.

No, there are definitely buses around here somewhere. I see stops on the map. Literally everyone tried to assure us that there were no buses and, by a happy circumstance, literally everyone had their own car to take us. But to the question of where the nearest buses are, everyone confidently told absolutely about different cities in such a way that the readings did not coincide with each other. Okay, we need to find someone without a car.

I left Dasha with things and went behind the airport. On the way, I apparently came across a student who looked very young and wore glasses. For some reason, the presence of glasses always gives me some confidence that this is not a swindler. “ Excuse me, where is the bus to La Romana? ” The guy quickly showed me a stop in the distance and something else convinced me in Spanish. Most likely transplants. Great. We moved with Dasha to a stop, and began to move on foot towards the nearest city. Minibuses picked us up quickly. We had to go far and to a specific village, we obviously won’t get off with one minibus here. The driver said that we had a dollar each and drove off to Bayahibe.

I also tried to close the door, but it turned out to be an air conditioner. We are on our way. On the way we were dropped off and told that a bus would pick us up soon.

So it was, after an hour and a half the bus dropped us off in the same way and said that a minibus would pick us up across the road, which, in turn, took us directly to the village. Wow, we were lucky, how did everything turn out, or is everything so thought out here? Okay, let's check again. The route was made by Dasha, I hopefully asked if this was our farthest crossing, since we drove a large part of the island on the map, but Dasha explained that it was just the shortest. The problem is that there is practically no information on the Internet about exactly how to get by bus around the island, but there are dry facts that different travelers have already traveled this way between different cities, which means we can handle it. Still, here the majority speaks only Spanish, and not alien.

Bayahibe

A long sandy beach with beautiful water was waiting for us, but since it was already the second half of the day, we will be able to see the true beauty of the water only tomorrow. We wandered carelessly along the beach, lava bays and village streets. We had bananas with us, which we got during transfers on minibuses. At the last transplant, Dasha was left with her things and a local guy approached her and began to talk about the Dominican Republic, about Haiti, how they live here on the same island and similar interesting things. At that time, I ran to the ATM with money for the whole trip, bought water and a bunch of delicious sweet and sour bananas. In the Dominican Republic, it is advisable to always have bananas with you, they will not let you go hungry during long wanderings through the jungle and deserted beaches. We did not mark the beach in the village itself as something special, since there are much more valuable tourist places here. Although the beach is beautiful.

At 19:00, the thickest darkness sets in, the village in which loud music plays at every step turns it on even louder. It seems that the Dominicans never sleep. Locals start selling local street food. Mostly fried chicken, sweet potato and fried bananas. If you are lucky with the location, then the assortment of pasties is at your service. Everything is cheap and tasty, a large portion of food costs 150 pesos ($ 3), a savory medium cheburek 50 pesos ($ 1). But pasties and sweet potatoes are far from being in all villages.

The hourly shift relative to Kyiv was 6 hours. At about 20:00 we went to the hotel, lay down on the bed, and I began dictating notes to Dasha in our “Logbook”. The Logbook is a set of notes on a mobile phone for a future story about a trip. I noticed that Dasha fell asleep right during the recording, I asked: “Are you sleeping? ". But I couldn't hear the answer myself. Full of strength and energy, we woke up at 3 am.

I had to force myself to sleep. Waking up at 6 am, we set our absolute record for all-all-all trips with 10 hours of sleep. As a result, the whole trip turned out to be super-sleepy for us, every day we tried to force ourselves to lie down later and before dawn we got an unprecedented amount of sleep during the trip.

Del Este National Park

At 6 in the morning it was still dark, we slowly got out into the street. Silence, then the music here is noisy around the clock, after all. Luckily, the first Dominicans to wake up were those who prepared the breakfasts. The most beautiful sweet potato with eggs, fried doctor's sausage was already waiting for us. The locals were obviously pleased that we had such a love for street food. That's just why there are no hot sauces - a mystery. Okay, we must be brave, we will survive without disinfection!

We start our route, in about 30 minutes we got to the track and without having time to blink an eye, we were already being taken by a bus to Dominicus. But since we were the only passengers, and the bus apparently belonged to some hotel, the driver was happy to take us directly to the entrance to the national park, which was located at a rather distant walking end of Dominicus. Once again, we were glad how quickly and simply everything is decided with transport. But they never bought water with them on the trip. Luckily, the coast guard of the five-star hotel gladly filled the bottle for us. Today we have a route along an endless coastline. Jungle on one side, deserted beach on the other.

Since the length of the coastline exceeds 30 kilometers, we can consider the beaches endless. It is clear that we will not go through that much, we just started walking and enjoying the walk.

The sea and the weather changed, now it is raging against the backdrop of thick clouds, water breaks out through cracks in the frozen lava, then a perfectly blue sky and a scorching sun illuminates the sandy entrance to the milky-azure water. There were always interesting things along the way.

Mr. and Mrs. Pelicans flew in a couple of times. Sometimes we stepped barefoot into a pile of sharp balls of thorns. Once such a thorn began to wrap around my toe, I jumped in horror with a scream, spreading my legs in different directions, well, like there is such a jump in the dances of the Cossacks. It turned out that Uncle Crab made it clear whose territory is here, the crab itself quickly ran away towards the sea.

Further, Aunt Murena peeked out from under a stone in a tiny lava bath. In the continuation of the route, birds similar to hummingbirds and bright green mini parrots sometimes flew to us.

The beach going to infinity is not something that would please the eye, it was simply impossible to take your eyes off it. To complete the picture, I took a picture with my trusty horse! Don't ask me where I found the horse there)))

The complexity of the endless route is that you need to start going back in time, having calculated the strength in yourself for the way back. We didn't want to stop, but we had already been walking for several hours. We still have to force ourselves to turn back, we still have the jungle in our plans. Moreover, when you walk, it seems that something even more beautiful will be around the next turn. The weather continued to change, the scorching sun continued to be covered with clouds every 30 minutes, and then again shine over the sea. But each time it got stronger and stronger. We reached the turn into the jungle relatively in time, otherwise there would have been sensations in the headlines about tourists who did not have the strength to return to the hotel.

While Dasha was cooling down on a bench in the shade, I made a heroic trip to get water from that very guard. Fortunately, there was a jungle path in that place. The sun was gaining power, and the sea beauty. The water was already glowing with a bright turquoise opaque color. I drank a half-liter bottle in one gulp in front of the guard and took another one with me. On this route, you had to take a few liters no less. But it was always possible to cool down in the sea. The route to the cave lasted about 40 minutes through the real jungle with all sorts of curiosities.

Severe termite mounds, beautiful but obviously poisonous berries, birds. The cave turned out to be really impressive in size, without flashlights there is no way. It's good that in our time all mobile phones already have flashlights. Just like in real movies, the cave had in places a failed ceiling from which roots and vines hung down.

Within a radius of several kilometers there was not a single living soul, only the jungle. A special charm is the sounds of the wings of bats that swept very close. We are great! The plan was completed, now you need to get back to Dominica and catch a ride. I called the way back "Torture of heavenly beauty. " From the fact that the sun was at its zenith, the water was of an insanely beautiful color, but due to fatigue and temperature, our consciousness was kept in the balance. We could not find a way out through the hotels to get to the track. As a result, we wandered into a five-star hotel, where people went without bracelets, drank cold water at the bar and refreshed themselves and went to bargain with a hotel bus. The driver, of course, wanted mountains of gold for our salvation, but he had to agree to 200 pesos ($4).

The guard at the exit from the hotel wanted to write down our room number, so that if they could find us, he was extremely surprised that we wandered into the hotel for 15 minutes. It turns out that the entrance to the hotel is guarded by a security post, but no one expects that tourists will come out straight from the jungle to the beach) Air conditioning! This is what we needed. For about an hour we rested under the air conditioner in the room. We are very pleased with the trip, before the trip we were worried that the sea would not be as beautiful as it was photoshopped on the Internet, but it was beautiful. Although, in fact, a truly beautiful Dominican sea awaits us ahead.

La Romana

Only half a day has passed, we can continue our adventures. We wanted to visit another park with caves, which was very close, but there was a shitty security guard who, like, didn’t have 100 pesos change ($ 2), so he insisted that we should leave change for him.

Besides, he doesn't give any tickets. That is, all day he is paid 200 and 300 pesos for entering the park, and by the evening he has no money at all. Okay, let's basically go back without surrender.

So we change plans, catch a minibus and go to La Romana. Only 40 minutes, and we are in a serious city. The city, as they say, is for true connoisseurs. In principle, Dasha and I are interested in seeing such towns, it's like central India, but everything is not yet so neglected. In any case, it was more interesting to walk around than in Vienna or Slovakia (but this is greatly exaggerated). I wanted ice cream, and we went to the nearest supermarket. There was a carnival in full swing. Everyone was generously poured a cocktail of rum and cola, and when the glass was over they poured more. It was also possible to drink for free a rare drink for the island - coffee. The dancers were rocking, the musicians were playing, there was fun everywhere!

Successfully, we went for ice cream, and yet we move on to the goal, but we were patted on the shoulder and the next second we lit Dominican dances with the dancers in the very center. The locals were delighted, they filmed us on mobile phones and clapped, the atmosphere was saturated with joy. We danced, had fun, and in order to remember the trip to the market, the bartender poured me another glass of cocktail. And all this is free. It's good that they didn't climb into the cave today. Oh, it was good rum.

While we were on the return minibus, we discussed with the guys from America our and their routes in the Dominican Republic. One of them had an ex-girlfriend who was Ukrainian, with the surname Timko, which is consonant with our surname. So the American probably concluded that in Ukraine everyone has approximately the same surnames. The guys gave a couple of practical tips, “If you want it to be good, go to Puerto Plata and Rio San Juan”.

Or two stops on Saona in less popular places on the other side of the island and a stop with the stars. This is exactly what we were looking for. The woman wanted $110 for two, I offered a hundred, since I didn’t have any more with me anyway, and they agreed on that. To the question “when do we leave? ” ” received an unexpected answer “ In 10 minutes! ” and after a couple of minutes we were taken away. It turned out the last two places were. The tour started at 08:30.

Our group of 20 people was taken to Dominica and taken to the beach. A very small boat was sailing towards us. The woman asked the guide if it was our boat. To which the guide said: "It's really hard to believe, but you all fit. " And indeed, after 10 minutes, everyone sat down compactly and our boat developed such a speed close to supersonic. Palm trees, yesterday's route along the coastline, striped stretches of the sea swept by with a whistle.

The road at this speed took about an hour.

I was afraid that the hair on my head would forever remain sticking out. At one of the stops, we unloaded a couple of organizers with food, they went to cook dinner. And we were taken another 10 minutes to one of the beaches. Our boat arrived first. There were no people at all, only black birds with very strange alien chirps were flying around us. We were given two hours to this beach. Some of the tourists immediately lay down to sunbathe. But it's a little strange, you can sunbathe without an excursion in the village, but here, and here, but tuuuut Krassiiivo! The clouds have parted, here it is the real beauty of the Dominican Republic!! ! Many kilometers of beaches without people at all, but nevertheless, basically everyone was grouped together.

Dasha and I did not finish listening to the beautiful instructions in pure Spanish and ran into the distance to be alone with this beauty!

The tour also included unlimited Dominican rum, when the cloud was in the sun the water became less beautiful, you could roll up the rum and everything became more beautiful. But until we explore every meter here, do not put on thousands of photographs, there is no time to drink rum.

People continued to be brought up, but the size of the beaches was enough for everyone to be left alone with nature. I also took a tube with a mask from the guide and explored the underwater world a little. There were fish, even a stingray swam. But for the hundredth time I am convinced that for fish only in Egypt! And it seems only in Dreams Vacation now. Let's not waste time here on fish, let's go to juuungli!

At this stop, I'd rather call them a palm forest. It was very exotic! Why two hours flew by at such a speed, it's not fair, we just sailed. Okay, let's go to the second location.

We were brought to the second beach, where, under shady palm trees, we were served an excellent buffet with unlimited cold beer. The buffet was near the sea. You eat and continue to swim with your eyes somewhere. I noticed that large coconuts are hanging over the heads of our neighbors. The neighbors also noticed that I was staring at the coconuts right above them. They anxiously looked at the guide, he reassured that nothing had fallen on anyone's head yet. While the feast was in full swing, Dasha and I went to the jungle on an offline map to look for some kind of lagoon. There were no longer palm trees, but dense thickets and mangrove thorns. Passed by a tree with delicious fruits.

A local guy came up to us and treated us to chopped fruit. There was something like a date, only very large and juicy. Further among the thickets, a small gray snake was waiting for us, noticing us, she decided that she did not want adventure and crawled away.

It was impossible to get to the lagoon along the paths, we had to break through the thickets a little. We went out to a semi-dry giant lake. The earth was red and semi-liquid. As if we had landed on Mars, under our feet the mud bumps clunked unappetizingly. Well, one of us thought to mark the tree near which we climbed out, otherwise it would be difficult to find a way back through the thickets. How contrastingly different is the Dominican Republic in terms of nature: caves, beaches, and some kind of Martian landscapes.

We returned to the gathering place in complete delight. At this time, our guide took our tourists somewhere around the village, which we managed to climb all the way up and down. One couple took an interest in our route and was a little inspired that we had to go straight to the lagoon, but after the word “snake” their desire was significantly reduced.

But in general, as I noticed, meeting a snake on trips increases the exoticism of travel.

On this beach, by the way, we never got into the water, it was quite beautiful and joyful just to be-exist among such beauty. The next two hours have come to an end, which means it's time to move forward. The next stop was in the middle of the sea near the mangroves. We have already seen mangroves in many places, but in such a way that they grow right in the middle of the sea in the form of an independent island without land - this is something new. After the mangrove stop was the most long-awaited. We were dropped off right in the middle of the sea in a natural pool. The depth was waist-deep here, the water was clear and perfectly beautiful, just as it should be. But, the most important thing is the habitat of starfish. But where are the stars? The captain climbed up and showed me the direction in which to look.

In general, if you turn on local music near a Dominican, he will definitely start either singing or dancing, and this is really cool! Rum and ice cola flowed in rivers.

On the ship, the music played so strongly that, lying on a bench and looking at the serene blue sky with clouds, everything inside continued to dance, perhaps also from rum. But my mother says that she seems to have heard our music a little in Kyiv. While I was looking at the clouds, the phrases and sentences of this story had already begun to scroll in my head. I thought about how grateful I was that the UIA employee agreed to give us Frankfurt, about how cool it was that we flew on the Dreamliner, in general there were a lot of thoughts. It even happens when ideas form in my head on how to describe a picture in text, I begin to feel how all future readers of the blog, including the one who writes me, look through the prism of time at Dasha and me on a trip. It turns out a kind of time machine.

From time to time he glanced at the palm trees that followed each other.

When we sailed into the harbor, the dancing continued for some more time before we landed. We had to jump off the ship into the water. While I was deciding to make a virtuoso jump across the sea right on land, a local guy picked me up and carried me on his shoulders) The tour is of course a little expensive compared to its Asian counterparts, but the atmosphere that you will be charged with here will last for a long time. The blaring music near our hotel didn't seem so loud anymore. It was already evening, pasties rolled out into the street. Delicious, but why do they take so long to make them! In Bayahibe you have to prove with your expectation that you are worthy of this cheburek. Today we were great, we were able to stay up until 20:30.

Caves of Cueva de Chicho

At 7:00, like cucumbers, we already had breakfast with the locals.

40 minutes walk from our hotel, and we are in another national park, this time we had money with us without change. The guard apparently sensed that we would arrive before he opens, so he seems to have spent the night here. When we passed, he quickly woke up. The first part of the route was a road driven by cars, but at some point a fork begins for those who have a car and those who want to walk through the tropics. Four dogs ran out to meet us, they tried to look very stern, but their waving tails fired wildly. After a bit of barking, they decided to leave. Then a very young dog ran out, and looking out from behind our legs, tried to understand who those dogs were trying to bark so menacingly. Well, what are all the cuties here! While we were walking, we saw an unusual phenomenon, it was raining above us, but it did not reach us, it was clear how the drops were flying a few meters above our heads.

We really had bad suspicions: first, the rain, which did not fall on us, then a small dog that did not see us. Large dogs that looked at us very aggressively. We were afraid that we were ghosts ...

We went all the way down

It looks like there are four caves on the route, but now only the last two are open. According to previous reviews, there is nothing to do at all. But the latter promise to be interesting. By the way, they have spectacular cactus forests here in the jungle. We got to the cave, if it weren’t for the sign, I wouldn’t have risked going there in my life. The entrance looked ominous. There were two caves relatively close, connected by an underground lake. The sign said that divers could swim 600 meters and emerge in another cave. But it's hard for me to imagine how someone will drag all the diving equipment here.

The situation is classic, in the next couple of kilometers of people only a security guard collects money. Before us is a dark entrance, then darkness and, as expected, stalactites with stalagmites. I said a loud “U”, and in response I heard the squeak of bats. Well, now it will be interesting. We turned on our flashlights and started descending.

Lower and lower and lower. It went down quite easily, by the way. Fortunately for us, I went first, and Dasha with a camera behind. Since the cave has a lake and is completely windless, the water level can only be noticed by throwing a pebble forward. I was still thinking about how best to jump off the stone or go around to the left. It's good that I chose to go around, if I decided to jump, then I would have gone into the water up to my neck. Waves rolled across the surface of the water. So, with this cave sorted out. Now we're going to the second one and we'll be back here again. With the second cave, we were already smarter, we checked with pebbles so that there was no sudden water.

Everything went just great. We still have if we ask what the most vivid memory from the trip is, then the first thought is swimming in a cave lake. At about 10:00 we returned to the hotel, we had to go further.

Samana Peninsula

How will we get there and will we be as lucky with transport as with Dominicus and the road from the airport? According to the map, our planned move took about 300 km. And nowhere was there any information on what and how to go. The hostess of the hotel sketched out approximate transfer options for us on a piece of paper. True, I had to communicate with her in Spanish, which we do not know. But rather, we already know a little, but that was only the beginning of the trip) Well, go ahead! We went to bus stops. The driver was given the name of the peninsula, which is located on the other side of the Dominican Republic. The driver surprisingly said: “Okay! and our route began.

The drivers passed us from hand to hand. Minibuses were replaced by buses, those again by minibuses, once landed on the highway and told to run around the bend, the bus was already waiting there. In one bus, we watched with horror how a brave man was eaten by a shark with six heads on TV, but before we could see the end, we were transferred to the next one. One of the buses stopped and everyone went to lunch with the driver.

Dasha and I ate a huge meal with avocado meat for 150 pesos ($3) for two. The trip lasted about six hours, during which time we changed 5 modes of transport, from luxury buses to collapsing and slow minibuses. We settled in the village of Las Galeras. Yes, sunset was only a few hours. So that there was no time to have dinner, it was necessary to run for a walk while it was light. If you do not know where to go, move to the cave.

In the morning we were on the Caribbean Sea, and now on the Atlantic Ocean. The picture of the beaches has changed significantly. Now it is a powerful and boundless ocean, long waves that break somewhere far away on the barrier reefs. In the middle of the ocean is a small island with palm trees. On the beach, a Spanish sign reads “Do not try to swim to the island. ” The palm trees are no longer so crowded. Very large space for unhurried romantic walks. And mountains on the left! I already thought that there were no mountains at all, well, okay, then we’ll climb more. There were several kilometers to the cave through the most beautiful green area, and the road ran through a five-star hotel. The security guard greeted us), Unfortunately, the hotel's beach was heavily covered with algae, but at the same time people looked happy and hung out on the territory of the hotel. We were not upset at all, because we are not tied to the hotel, and we have already seen one hundred percent that there are beaches without algae in this country.

Directly KFC) Our hotel in this city looked a bit like a prison cell from the movies.

The only plus is the presence of a canopy from mosquitoes, which in this hotel flew in swarms. When I went to bed, it seemed to me that there could be no worse place on earth. But the plan was this, tomorrow we will move to another and everything will be fine, just survive this night, a very loud night, the intersection of two highways was right outside our window, which had no glass, just massive metal blinds. Early in the morning, things were also far from ideal, nothing is cooked here at such an early hour, and our first several-kilometer route to find food ended with an injured leg and a return to the hotel. The second foraging run ended with battered fried chicken with fried bananas and tamarind juice. In general, it's hard to eat here.

But local dogs always know where it is guaranteed to get a portion of the bones. True, in the morning, instead of a dog, a stern cat sat with such a look that the dogs even approached the kiosk by 10 meters. So let's start the marathon on the beaches.

Eight private beaches of the Dominican Republic

How often have you found yourself on a wild beach where there is no one at all? How about eight? That is, choose the one that you like and it is yours, you can at least take a swim in each in turn and determine which one was better, they are all your personal anyway, the reason lies in a terrible secret ...there are no sunbeds (s). People are sitting in an expensive five-star hotel for $486 a night on a beach where everything is surrounded by algae, and here a corner of paradise is 30 minutes away! But in principle, this is in our hands. We ourselves did not know what treasure we would find now, the millet saw a chain of beaches on the map, and at the end, judging by the pictures, there will be a steep river.

In general, it already makes sense to go to the Dominican Republic just for the sake of this walk along the beaches! We started moving from Las Galeras along the beach line towards the mountains (in the beginning we walked a little around the city). Our guide volunteered to be the dog El Curason (that's what we called him). The dog ran, always showing us the paths between the beaches ahead.

Because of the beauty of advertising Bounty just relax. On the camera, the photos are much worse than in reality. There were small beaches of 100 meters, some were gigantic in the form of an arc, I think up to a kilometer in length. If you're tired, find a refreshing coconut palm tree and have a coconut party with the exotic ocean in the background. Our Kurasonchik also sometimes found entertainment for himself, he liked the crabs that hid in holes, he dug them up and tried to get them. The dissatisfied crab eventually ran into the sea.

And so one by one the beaches succeeded each other for kilometers! Between the beaches, usually up to 20 minutes are not difficult transitions in the jungle groves.

For all the time we met four people walking. On one of the beaches, we did not get out of the forest very successfully and had to walk along someone's beds. At this time, local guys drove by in a car and watched with suspicion as we carefully stomped around in their garden. It was kind of awkward. Of the eight beaches, we chose the two most-most where we swam. Although each next beach was more and more beautiful.

This is how such beautiful places came to be in this world. Dasha and I were so inspired by the fact that there was no one on the beaches that we began to worry about our asociality. Between a couple of beaches, it was necessary to delve into the jungle and pass a security post.

We thought that the route would end there, since the guard was clearly not posted here to let everyone through.

But the main thing is to walk confidently. No matter how confidently we walked, but met directly with the eyes of a man. He clarified whether we were on the far beach, and gladly let us through and showed us the best way to go. Wow! The main thing is that he then let him in back. The ninth beach, 2.4 km long, already had a sufficient number of sun loungers and cafes that tourists already hung out on it. Luckily, there were enough sizes for everyone. People are brought here in cars and minibuses, apparently. We immediately bought delicious coconut bread.

This, by the way, is what we definitely recommend trying in the Dominican Republic. As for me, the beauty of the beach is clearly simpler than the previous eight. But our goal is at the end of the beach, yesterday before going to bed I saw this river in the photographs - Cano Frio.

Thanks to this river, a route along beautiful beaches has developed. This river is made of clear turquoise water, lined with mangroves along the banks.

A very beautiful place where it flows into the sea, but we made it a little more interesting, climbed upstream, found the entrance and swam 300 meters along the mangroves towards the sea. Very beautiful water, on the sides of the jungle, sometimes lianas hang from above. A little scary, suddenly there are some crocodiles. Also due to the fact that we have nowhere to leave things, we need to sail separately.

Dasha boldly declared that she would be the first and sailed away. When I swam in my path, a voluminous leaf surfaced. I thought that they would eat me.

The most excellent river safari. Moreover, there are rivers of completely unappetizing colors nearby, and this one is directly the standard of transparency.

After such adventures, we decided to solemnly feast with an exotic colored parrot fish, which we immediately prepared. Nothing overly special to taste, but the colorful ponytail looked very interesting. It seems to be already half a day on the sandy route, but they could not resist climbing the mountain. We probably spent 40 minutes on the ascent and descent to understand that there is nothing special at the top, but the mountain is subdued. From above, of course, views of the beaches were opened at times, but it is more beautiful to be on the very shore.

How beautifully this day passes, even in the evening I fell asleep as if I had been imprisoned, and in the morning it was as if I had been released ahead of schedule in paradise for a walk. And the best thing is that we are waiting for the way back along the same beautiful beaches. It's a pity that our Kurasonchik decided to stay near the cafes.

On the way back, we found footprints of our friend, they were directed in the opposite direction, so he had already run home. In principle, if you go to the Dominican Republic only across the sea, then you can settle in Las Galeras as close as possible to the beginning of the chain of beaches and go to the beaches every day, just like in a repeating twilight zone, just take provisions for the whole day with you at once.

To be honest, it will be just as beautiful here as you imagine now the paradise beaches of the planet. We got to the very beginning of the route and, with a sense of victory, sat on a log admiring the setting sun. Then there was a sunset, but not the same as in the advertisements, but unfortunately, ugly.

One man who spoke to us this morning said he saw us heading towards the jungle and was curious how far we had come.

I pointed to the mountain on the horizon, I think he did not believe me. Yes, I myself did not really believe that we had already reached there. It was difficult to go back to prison from paradise, but there was no time to physically deal with resettlement today.

One more night and we'll move out. The owner of the hotel said with understanding that she was already used to being asked to return the money for unused nights, as many people move out because of the noise. We also did not have an adapter for a Dominican socket in this hotel. I dismantled a homemade lamp a little and made them a socket for charging. No wonder I have an engineering degree!

La Boca Del Diablo

In the morning we dragged things to another “Hotel” and hit the road. At first, we drove about 7 kilometers by minibus, then trusting the maps, we asked the driver to drop us off at the fork. A local motorcyclist immediately taxied up to us.

And in a couple of minutes we were already rushing with a breeze along the killed road into the depths of the jungle. All three of us fit on one motorcycle and there is also a small hiking bag on the back. It was not at all easy to ride, there were a lot of holes and mounds. Sometimes it seemed that I was driving a motorcycle, and not vice versa. But it was necessary to endure these 7 more hellish kilometers.

But on the other hand, excellent views of steep mountains opened up along the way. The taxi driver brought us to our destination - Diaol's Throat. In front of us was a hole with a radius of a couple of meters, from the hole about every 30 - 40 seconds a powerful stream of small spray escapes. The height of the shot reaches up to 14 meters, the sound at the time of the eruption is very strong and really scary. The main thing is not to approach the hole from the side in which it shoots. Behind the hole there are about 30 meters of lava that has hardened and corroded by water. If you approach the very edge, then below you can see the full power of the ocean.

There is a real storm, giant unruly waves scatter after powerful impacts on the rocks. The sea changes its geometry at very dangerous angles, it's good that the rocks are quite high. Although there are surprises here, on one of these sorties the impact on the rock was so strong that the water level was enough to flood me at the top.

Although it was really high. In general, this is a place where the Dominican Republic is no longer so affectionate and heavenly. The motorcyclist asked: “Well, why are we going back”, but we explained at the beginning that we were only one way. We decided to arrange a real safari through the wild jungle, walk a few hour route to one of the distant beaches. The guy tried to convey to us that it is dangerous and you shouldn't do it. At the same time, an excursion on quad bikes arrived. Our driver went to chat with the guide about us.

A guide came up, who, unlike the motorcyclist, spoke English and clarified whether we were really going to conquer the jungle ourselves. The guide said it was a dangerous route. I said we are aware. In fact, we were not aware of it, but literally on every trip we hear this phrase several times. Basically, everyone is worried about how we are going to conquer mountains in sports sandals, go down into gorges, etc. Well, or at least some wild animals, but a meeting from experience is unlikely. The guide, for example, asked if we knew the way, but I saw the path both with my eyes and on the offline map. In general, we concluded that we were worried about how we would walk along the lava rocks. Saying goodbye to the people, we went down the path inland. Perhaps if we knew Spanish a little better than zero, we would understand the warning of the motorcyclist “This route is dangerous because tourists in the jungle are attacked with a machete…”.

In the meantime, we were walking through banana groves, saw a pineapple. They tried to pick a green banana - a rare muck. A boy was seen leading a horse loaded with coconuts.

We saw how the workers extract coconuts with large sticks and with the help of machetes. Just in case, we did not distract them and wandered on. We had a great picnic on the rocks. We reached another exit high above the sea. Then the extraction of coconuts began, they grew quite high on palm trees. We managed to find such a palm tree, next to which lay a log. It took me about 10 minutes to scroll the coconut a little clockwise with my fingers over and over again, but it was not going to fall off.

On the 15th minute, the coconut turned out to be slightly tilted in its direction. At the final moment, I had to stand on a branch, and completely hang my hands on the coconut.

From our eyes, the hike looked completely harmless, and we couldn't understand why those guys were so worried. But in the eyes of the unhappy-looking dark man and teenager who were catching up with us with a machete in their hands, the hike looked a little different. They came up to us and began to explain something in Spanish, I nodded and waved them forward. But the man gestured that we should go with them. Damn, something didn't go according to plan. Okay, let's go. Dasha asked me: “Are we taken into custody? ” Honestly, I don’t know, it’s the first time in such a situation myself. I already looked closely at the size of the stones lying around. I stopped to tie my shoelace, the dark guy who was closing the convoy whistled, the teenager in front also stopped. They waited for us and we moved on. And as for evil on this particular day, due to the relocation to the hotel, we took all the money and cards with us so as not to leave them at the hotel.

Behind one of the turns was a beach with a bunch of people who sailed here on motor boats. The guys lagged behind us, and we went out to the people. Phew, it seems to have passed. What was it?

Frontó n Beach, to be honest, turned out to be so-so, but the jungle safari itself was just super, and also adventurous. The beach was under a 150-meter cliff, offline maps showed that you can climb the rock and get to the hotel by another road, about 7 kilometers away. We really couldn’t believe that you could climb that rock at all, but the maps work wonders, we really started to climb .

In fact, it was extremely unwise to go into the jungle again, since the same guys could corny follow us. But at that time we were not yet fully aware of what was happening to us. The way back was not difficult, through simple plants, not as interesting as under the rocks.

. But even on this road we were caught up again. So, try to guess who caught up with us this time:

A) A beautiful local on a white horse - the soul of the prairies!

B) One-legged pirate with a real hook instead of a hand

C) An actor from a rather famous film and his crew

D) A man with tattoos and a gun in his hands.

We will find out the correct answer right now! Fortunately for us, it was a guy on a horse who galloped, said hello and disappeared into the jungle. There were more forks along the route to interesting beaches, but the sun was at its zenith and it was already hard to go.

We came to the coastline, which already led to our city. There we met a Russian-speaking man who moved to the Dominican Republic 13 years ago. He then enlightened us about how the trip to the jungle could end and what the phrase “It's dangerous” meant.

But in fact, it doesn’t come to murder, everything that is valuable is simply taken away from tourists, because the police arrange raids into the jungle. He said that even if a tourist grabs a stick, the attacker will most likely run away and will not fight. By and large, if you don’t carry anything valuable with you and only small money, then the route is relatively safe. Needless to say, the next day we even left rings with earrings in the room. Let's sum up our trip today. It was very beautiful and cool, if we knew about the real danger, then we would go on the route, but completely without valuable things. Oh, Dominican Republic, you are so different! At the hotel we had a meeting with the local president. That's what they call beer. The President silently listened to our travels. In the evening we just wandered along the embankment.

El Lemon

The most interesting thing is that the routes were invented relatively on the go. That is, Dasha knew about the end points where she needed to visit, but they figured out how to get there and what else to do on the go, since there was not much information on the Internet. Yesterday's minibus with a transfer to a motorcycle was impromptu. Today we scheduled a visit to the Lemon Falls. We got there by minibus without a single adventure, it’s already a pity somehow. Consider that forty hours have passed in vain. The driver dropped us off on the highway and showed us the path along which you can reach the waterfalls.

This is a whole national park. The place is popularized and tourists are brought here in droves. You have to walk several kilometers, but for some reason everyone who enters the park feels like a cool jockey. Almost everyone we met rode horses. Horse guides ran nearby. It looked pretty weird.

And there were so many horses that horse sausage could feed the entire island. Yes, and some price in the region of $ 30 per horse, in general, some kind of darkness. We proudly walked through the wild mud, which was whipped by the hooves of horses. It's strange somehow. But nevertheless the river flows, the jungle grows, so that everything is relatively picturesque.

For the entrance to the park we were charged something in the region of one dollar. The waterfall itself is considered the most beautiful and full-flowing on Samana, but at the same time absolutely none. But the main thing here is that you can go through the track route through the jungle, and the waterfall is like a spark that gives impetus. We did not stop at the waterfall and went on foot further. After all, each route in the jungle is a new opportunity to get a unique experience. We walked through the mountains, we crossed the river three times, we saw how ripe cocoa fruits grow.

We got out in a real Dominican village, where the music played very loudly. Even though there were no people, the music was playing! I played in such a way that not a single bird was within a radius of 100 meters. What will happen to the Dominicans in old age, how will they hear anything at all? Perhaps the village was empty because one day someone turned on the radio so loudly that no one had enough to reach the epicenter of the disaster to turn it off. However, in the local silpo, the most persistent sellers still sold us cookies by weight and local cola. Over time, we went to the city of El Limon. The town is not touristy at all and, accordingly, the prices are the same. Here we threw a feast to the fullest and overseas fish, and meat and salads, a bunch of different sweets.

While we were having a meal, a member of the forum wrote to me in Viber from turpravda “ Andrey, congratulations, you won in the nomination Author of 2018!! ! ". Dasha was just leaving to wash her hands.

When I returned, I asked her: “How do you have lunch in the Dominican Republic with the best author of 2018? ". Were we happy at that moment? We shone so brightly that at night it prevented each other from sleeping from the radiance. Dasha woke up to turn off the light, and it turned out that the radiance was coming from me. But back to the city with a sour name) We had a great lunch and were full of energy to continue our adventures. The map showed us that there is a beach line two kilometers from the city. True, the sun was getting angrier and angrier. But don't go back. We didn't know what time the last bus would be, but as long as it's light they should definitely run. We went towards the beaches in the hope that some motorcyclist would pick us up. But no one ever picked it up. On the way, they passed by guys who were hacking something hard with a machete. Moreover, they chopped in a ditch near the road, from the side, it seemed as if the guys were getting rid of someone.

We did not disturb them and quietly passed by, although they had motorcycles. The road eventually led us to a luxurious, but closed hotel. Everything looked fresh, well-groomed, without garbage, but there were no people or guards. There was also a path bypassing the hotel to the beach, but we decided that it was not as interesting as walking around the hotel. We passed the gate and walked through the green area. Where did everyone go, the hotel differs from the worker only in the complete absence of people. The sound of a motorcycle was heard behind us, someone was driving in our direction, but in the end did not dare to call at the hotel and drove along the path. We walked further and further until we met the eyes of the guards who sat and watched us with curiosity all the time. With a confident look, we changed the trajectory towards the beaches and went as if we had planned. We went to a wild deserted beach.

It was very long, the waves were very powerful.

It looks like it's not the season for the beach and the hotel is closed, but then we saw the workers watering the plants and taking care of the hotel. But this is such a cool atmosphere, two kilometers from the city there is a closed hotel and a wild beach with the wildest waves. As if the apocalypse has passed, and we are walking along the remnants of civilization near the unceasing elements.

True, at times there were adventurers like us. The maps showed that there was a very strange colored area in the jungle marked “Natural wetland”. Hmm, maybe a swamp, but how will we find out if we don't see it ourselves, though we need to infiltrate the jungle a bit. At first, we made our way along the paths, saw how two men were digging a new channel for a flowing river. After 30 minutes the paths ended and it was only 10-15 meters left to go through the dense jungle to the mark. They are also, as luck would have it, so prickly.

Directly someone from his house traded. We had to transfer to the minibus in Samana to Las Galeras. When we arrived in Samana, the carnival was just beginning there.

Unexpectedly, most importantly, they arrived on time. For about an hour we enjoyed the holiday, hundreds of costumes, images, everyone rejoices, one music shouts over another, the sun is shining. Positively!

But I had to leave for my city, as soon as the sun sets, minibuses will stop running. We were able to calculate the approximate date of the main carnival from the Internet, and these are local ones, they take place throughout the month in different cities and there is no schedule anywhere. We celebrated such a busy day with ripe mangoes.

From Sosua to Santo Domingo

Part 1. Solar transplant in Frankfurt.

Part 2.

Dominican Republic. Bayahibe and Saona.

Part 3. Dominican Republic. Samana Peninsula.

Part 4. Dominican Republic. From Sosua to Carnival in Santo Domingo. <-----

Part 5. Dominican Republic. Detailed itinerary and costs.

From early morning we were waiting for another long journey. We no longer doubted that we would easily get there. It was only necessary to leave the hotel on the track. The next minute, Dasha was sitting in the cab, and I was in the body part, equipped with benches. To say that my trip was a breeze is to say nothing, sometimes it seemed that it would just blow off the body. Then it began to rain, and the driver pulled a tarpaulin over the frame. It became comfortable. At the transfer in Samana, in 20 minutes we were transferred to another minibus and in some 4.5 hours we reached another part of the Dominican Republic. This part of the Dominican Republic is close enough to the border with Haiti.

Haiti is a country where excursions are possible only with guides who have loaded machine guns in their hands. And, unfortunately, the closer you get to Haiti, the mentality of people changes for the worse. Let's just say, if you want to see the Dominican Republic only from the good side, then it is better to limit yourself to the suburbs of La Romana and the Samana Peninsula. If you want a complete immersion that will take rose-colored glasses off you, move towards the border with Haiti. If before that, in order to pay in minibuses, I just got money and the driver took the required amount, then here they can take exactly as much as you give. For example, conductors are constantly trying to cheat and can easily give change from 1000 pesos to 500 instead of 800. They will freeze on demands to give the correct change. And if they come down, then another hundred will be given. But nevertheless, in this part of the Dominican Republic there are interesting places to travel, so we continue the route.

We booked a hotel with a swimming pool, but since no one except us drove into the hotel, in fact we had a private hotel for several days with private terraces and a private green area. Nice hostess spoke English. There's only one problem - we came to the gate, which is not locked, but on the other side of the gate four ferocious dogs are sitting and waiting for me to risk opening the gate.

Fortunately, this was not our hotel, ours was next door. The booking confirmation was adorned with the phrase “Do not bring antisocial girls to the room”. The city itself, as far as we found out, actively practices sex tourism.

There was a small beach in front of the hotel. The sea here is already of a completely normal color, as if you are no longer in the Dominican Republic. We understood this very well when we started moving west. Although in fact there will still be beautiful beaches.

While walking to the sailor, we passed a green snake basking on the bushes. The snake noticed us and, in a fit of awkwardness, disappeared into the thickets.

We rode a little on powerful waves and moved towards the city itself, it was located a few kilometers from the hotel. On the way, a man drove up and offered to give me a lift to the city. When he drove us, he started demanding $10 strenuously. Immediately, someone ran up to the car to help us exchange money if we had very large bills. Mdaaa ...You still need to get used to the local mentality. In such situations, I have only one answer: “Sorry, there is no money at all! ”, Of course, I first asked him if this was not a Dominican joke, but he said that he was not joking. Uncle had to be content with 100 pesos ($2). The city itself, to be honest, did not impress, but this location is convenient for our route.

This city has the most excellent beach, judging by the rating.

” in our direction, I regretted that I did not agree to return. The guy came up to us and clarified that we forgot here, maybe the beach? Just in case, I decided to agree. He said that he would now take us to the beach, and waved his hammer so that we quickly followed him. He walked at an accelerated pace towards the beach, Dasha and I put our hands on our feet and drove in the opposite direction. When they passed by a guy who was preparing burgers in a decent looking stall, the sun shone on him. We decided, if anything, we would hide behind him. When we got to the border of the dumb area, Dasha offered to eat at a restaurant, but I said that we would only eat when we got to the hotel and closed all the locks.

We were returning from the city already quite dark, a taxi driver-motorcyclist volunteered to give us a ride. After a long and difficult road, consisting of two kilometers, he managed to bring us exactly where he took us from.

We went with him on the second call, in the end we arrived at the address. We had to pay 150 pesos, we had a 500 bill with us, he took out 130 pesos in change and tried to convince us that it was actually 350 pesos, and not as it is written in the usual numbers on his coins. And judging by his appearance, he himself believed in it very much. I went to the hotel to exchange money with the hostess, Dasha stayed to chat with him. In the course of communication, we came to the conclusion that the motorcyclist may have been under some substances. Something was not right with him. He also strongly persuaded him to go with him tomorrow to 27 waterfalls along the highway and assured how safe it was))) 140 pesos and said he had enough. Apparently, here a handful of coins is an incalculable amount of money, which is enough to pay for some kind of service.

27 waterfalls

The city was heavily promoting a canyoning excursion to 27 waterfalls. The space cost for two is 7500 pesos ($150). If you repeat the same route yourself, then the cost for two will be approximately 1900 pesos ($ 38). The route consists of only a few minibuses. First, we moved to the city of Puerto Plata, and from there we transferred to a minibus, which dropped us off on the highway near the national park. A mile on foot and we're there. The route is easy, without knowledge of the language and numbers of minibuses we got almost without problems. Although there were some difficulties with the transplant. You need to come to the park in the morning, otherwise some of the waterfalls will be closed.

I understand that it is necessary to arrive no later than 11:30 in February. We chose the best route from 12 waterfalls. Everyone advised him. For the route you need to pay 550 pesos per person ($ 11). You are put on a safety suit and a guide is assigned.

The conductor for 500 pesos ($10) gladly agrees to take pictures of you everywhere without drowning your camera. At first, you need to go uphill for 40 minutes, then we came to an opaque blue river under a cliff, and he said that we could start. It was not just a leap, it was a leap of courage! But, fortunately, it turned out to be deep. Invigorating water - cold.

We started walking over waterfalls and rivers. There were waterfalls swirling like water slides, there were waterfalls with a high drop. One rock was so high that seconds could be counted during the flight. Sometimes we caught up with other groups, sometimes they caught up with us. There were such dumb places that absolutely everyone screamed during the jump down. The guide himself skilfully made jumps with our camera so that the fotik always remained in the air.

Where it was very high, he gave instructions where to jump, and he walked around. It was always not enough for me, and I returned to the places of jumps several times. There were two Chinese people in the group with us. It seems to me that the Chinese dad himself was not happy that he signed up for this extreme, not to mention his daughter. We got the full benefit of canyoning, it was really cool. This was one of the reasons for moving to this part of the island. The total descent lasted about an hour. This is certainly nothing compared to the struggle for survival during the Turkish canyoning, which lasted more than 6 hours. Here, however, there were no tears. At the very end of the route, doctors were on duty just in case. The entire route from the park entrance to the exit takes approximately 2.5 hours.

Puerto Plata

In stock, we had another half of the daylight hours, in the neighboring town there is an excellent cable car. We need to find out where it leads.

While waiting for the booth, I caught wi-fi and I received a notification that Turkish Airlines had started selling off all its destinations. And this means only one thing - today there will be a stormy evening with a list of promotional directions. Buying tickets from a tablet is quite difficult. But starting to plan a trip during another trip is a joy.

True, sometimes it seems that I’m already fed up with trips and don’t want to buy anything, but the Dominican went like clockwork and we easily took tickets for the next 2020 year. The trailer took us straight into the clouds. We left in a high-mountainous foggy park.

The park is very well maintained, thousands of exotic plants. And most importantly - everything is shrouded in thick cloudy fog. Very beautiful, just a fairy tale. I would call it "Adventures in the Enchanted Forest".

And usually the clouds on the cable cars can spoil all the beauty, but here the effect turned out to be the opposite. We spent a lot of time in the park walking the trails over and over again. We even thought about going back down the paths without the cable car.

After a while, assessing the safety of all our Dominican routes, we concluded that it’s good that we didn’t run into that one either. The bright sun was waiting for us at the bottom of the mountain. The clouds specifically caught on the mountain where the park was located. Our hotel had the greatest advantage, if you don’t want to resolve issues with dinner, then the hostess will gladly prepare a full dinner for 400 pesos ($ 8), part of which will also go for breakfast. The sale of Turkish was in my head, I sat with a map and studied intently where it was most profitable to grab tickets.

Rio San Juan

As a Canadian told us at the beginning of the trip, “If you want to have a good time, go to Rio San Juan”. We did just that. As soon as it got light outside, we immediately set off on a minibus route. It was about an hour and a half drive. In the city itself there are mangrove forests from where excursion boats start. But you need to gather a group of people, otherwise you will have to pay for the whole boat yourself. For two, they ask for 1500 pesos ($ 30). If more, then 2000 pesos are divided among all. As soon as we arrived, we saw the departing group. Okay, let's go for a walk while the others gather. While walking along the mangroves for about 30 minutes, we missed another group that had gathered. But we have seen enough of how the dogs play.

Sat down to wait for people. We waited for 10-20 minutes, and finally two more people came. The route at the boat was rather dull, and the whole idea seemed doubtful. We sailed quite a bit on the mangroves.

Of the interesting, white statues in the form of climbing or sitting people often came across on the rocks.

It seems like these are images of the tribes that used to live here. We swam into the cave and onto a rather ordinary beach. But when we arrived at the last - "Playa Caleton" we realized that our whole idea was not in vain.

This is just a breathtakingly beautiful beach, probably one of the most beautiful we have seen on this trip. With very clear water. Few people, cheap food. A few kilometers away there is a route where a minibus runs. Our guide dropped us off for a swim. We soberly assessed the situation, thanked the guide for the tour and sent him back without us. It's not that you want to swim here, you want to live here in such beauty. I also found cool diving glasses underwater. Generally lucky.

A lot of local food was sold right on the beach, we focused on chebureks, and for dessert there was a wonderful “Pina colada” in pineapple. I really saw a little the sacrament of its preparation in unsanitary conditions and I almost had to be pumped out. But it was delicious, and we are alive! But by eating chebureks, we significantly raised the economy of the beach that day. In the meantime, wild tourists were driving up to the beach and we had unexpected and joyful meetings with various people with whom we had previously crossed paths in other cities. We spent at least a couple of hours on the beach. Of course, this is not typical for us, the beach, the sea, and we even swim for hours. But nevertheless, it was so beautiful that if portals are invented, I will definitely go back there again. On the cliffs that guarded the bay of the beach were hidden rows of white stone heads that looked towards the sea.

The sun was blazing concretely, but the desire for adventure was stronger.

The city was not at all touristic. We looked at how the local Dominicans live, children ran out to us in droves to take pictures. And the smallest mothers were brought and placed in the center for the frame. The kids were happy to give us fives and touch us. Yes, and for us a positive charge, it's good.

Caberet

We decided to spend the evening in a popular city among kiters - Caberet. We got there on the so-called “carrrito! ” ” is the second mode of transport in this part of the Dominican Republic. Owners of cars push 4 people in the back and two in front, for this inconvenience they charge about the same price as in minibuses. When there are not enough people, for example, only three wide guys are sitting behind, they invite passers-by to get hooked.

Outside, there is no way to distinguish a carrito, this transport will find you when you need it. Although the minibuses here also sometimes practice the search for tourists specially wrapping in the gates.

In general, the transport system here functions just perfectly, if a tourist needs to get somewhere within an hour, then in the northern Dominican Republic the transport will find it. Once we were riding in a minibus, the driver put a teenager on the seat third. It’s not that we didn’t fit, - there was more of a question “Whose bones will crack first? “Well, I ate fish the other day, phosphorus after all. After a half-hour drive, the guy came out limping a little. I was able to leave faster, as I was hardened to ride the 24th minibus to Minskskaya every morning. In Caberet there is a very expensive park with caves, which is better to ignore, because everything is the same as everywhere else, but 10 times more expensive.

There are a lot of restaurants, we chose Chinese. There is also a long beach with big waves and hundreds of kiters. Apparently, the whole route we had done had already affected our strength, and for the second time in a day we found a place where we rested. We sat and watched as hundreds of parachutes pulled kiters in the sky. It's like relaxation therapy. True, a strong breeze drove the sand into all the cracks. It was about eight kilometers to the hotel, but minibuses and carritos were so full that they didn’t even stop. And local motorcyclists, hoping to hit the jackpot, tried to prove that gasoline for 8 kilometers costs like a bag of gold, and that it is completely safe to drive on the highway. We even started to walk on foot, as we were picked up by a minibus, who believed in the infinite capacity of his transport. Again, I repeat, for us, as for people trained by the 24th minibus at rush hour, there are simply no situations when we do not fit.

There are still 5 hours before the carnival, and we are already in the capital, and we have also settled! True, the room was again a bit like a prison, but it was safer behind so many bars. I wonder why they have so many bars on windows and doors ...

The same guy said that the carnival will start at about 15:30 and end for us around 18:00, since we obviously do not want to risk continuing the festivities with the locals. Five hours before the carnival was enough for us to see the main sights of the center. I want to note that the old town in Santo Domingo really exceeded our expectations, it looks really interesting and cozy. But if there is no carnival, then there is no need to waste time on it, since all the beauty of the Dominicans is in the villages on the beaches.

Literally an hour before the carnival, active preparations began.

Children flew kites, vendors unfolded street food. In bags with ice, they began to carry ice-cold beer for sale. Moreover, the prices are simply fabulous, especially when you consider that this is a carnival, where everything could be especially expensive. For example, a can of ice-cold beer cost 60 pesos ($1.1). Coconut sweetness in caramel on a stick 15 pesos ($0.3), etc.

Dasha and I tasted homemade lemonades. It was great. The festival began at 15:30, the main part of it lasted about two hours, that is, for two hours there was a non-stop parade in costumes with dancing. There were no outfits, a person's imagination is limitless. All action is accompanied by loud music. The procession stretched for several kilometers along the promenade along the embankment. The people at the very peak of the crowd were probably 4 people in thickness. The farther from the VIP sectors, the fewer people, up to the complete absence.

But the dancers got the most out of themselves by going through these sectors.

According to some local tradition, everyone is armed with soft, but elastic cylinders that are attached to a rope. With such a “weapon” you can beat anyone “for good luck” and as many times as you like during the festival. As a rule, they don’t take offense at this, but the larger the victim’s physique, the less often it falls to him, for example, no one ever hit me at all.

Dasha got it. One athletic man was beaten up by a whole crowd of Dominicans in the same masks on their faces, it looked spectacular. The man first turned around, clearly expressing anger, but when he saw 15 identical-looking people, he realized that he was clearly in the minority and forced a smile, as if that was what he wanted. For Dasha and me, visiting the carnival was a very important event, this is our first carnival!

Usually carnivals are held during the rainy seasons, but here right at the peak of the season! Joy and festivities were gaining momentum, for some reason people in devil costumes were already walking not only as part of the parade, but also in the opposite direction among the crowd. Even with one of the monsters, someone grabbed my hands for a very old ceremony, apparently. True, the rite had to be interrupted, because in such a situation, the main thing is to quickly put your hand first in your pocket. A passing guy could only touch the pocket in which my hand was. Oh, failed attempt to dangle money from my pocket. All participants abruptly dispersed as if not in business. Wrong guys attacked, we are hardened by your own jungle already! Even if I had not noticed, we would have lost a completely insignificant amount and one of the bank cards. And in general, judging by the budget of the trip, significant amounts are not needed here in principle.

The main thing is not to lose the camera, although the best photos of the day are sent to the cloud every night. Oh Dominican Republic, why are you so beautiful and so dumb at the same time. However, for those who are looking for adventure - just right. It began to get dark, and the number of people wearing masks grew. And, frankly, I couldn't feel calm anymore. We decided to get out of this story uninjured and reached the busiest streets from the embankment, where the carnival was held, to the old town. A cozy Chinese cafe was waiting for us there. How comfortable it is to sleep in a hotel that is closed with doors and a bunch of bars from the outer city)

On the last day we had Los Tres Ojos park planned. We had breakfast, called an uber, which, as always, turned out to be a few minutes away from us and successfully left towards the park without us. Failure! Attempt two. Good luck, we're in uber.

The first driver could not possibly know the address until they put us in, but apparently it coincided that he did not want to go with us, and we could then track him. From the outside, the park was nothing special, just trees and an entrance fee of 100 pesos ($2) per person. But as soon as you go down the stairs, a charming system of caves and blue lakes opens up in front of you.

In one of the caves, we saw a wooden raft, on which for 25 pesos (0.5$) you can cross the crystal clear surface to the other side. What miracles nature does.

We saw how the Chinese were transported, the woman, knees trembling with fear, went ashore. How cool it is to be so easily impressed. The Chinese are famous for their fear of heights and their inability to swim.

In general, the cashier confused the Dominican with me a little when she gave out the order. I really love frozen yogurts. In Santo Domingo, for 220 pesos ($4.5) they pour an impressive bucket.

Moreover, they take frozen white yogurt and grind it with frozen fruits in front of you, whatever you choose - yummy. It's a pity you can't take a year's supply of yogurt with you. The next morning, having settled comfortably at the frontal panoramic window of a double-decker bus, we set off on a three-hour journey to the airport. Driving through the corner at Bayahibe, I wanted to cry a little, this was the place of our start, we would gladly do this whole circle again.

Summary

What I want to say is that the Dominican trip lasted almost 13 days, it was insanely beautiful, very eventful and, most importantly, varied.

To the question “What was the most memorable thing in the Dominican Republic”, we unanimously answer - “swimming in an underground lake in caves near Bayahibe”. In second place, probably, is the wildness and accessibility of the jungle, there are practically no mountains, due to which the routes turned out to be very long, the beauty of the beaches of the Dominican Republic is a solid five with a solid plus, it really was as beautiful as in the photoshopped photographs of paradise beaches on the Internet, and Maybe they're not so photoshopped. The mentality of the locals can be conditionally divided into two groups, the side that is near Haiti is so-so, but where La Romana or the Samana Peninsula is definitely off! Although street food loses significantly to Asia in terms of taste and variety, it is just as easily accessible and cheap here. The prices for transport and food are completely out of competition with all the other countries we visited, even considering the current hryvnia exchange rate.

Hotels cost us an average of $30 per night, they were so-so in terms of comfort, it made sense to pay more for hotels, unless, of course, conditions are better there. On booking I saw prices and cheaper - $ 90 for 11 nights, I'm afraid to find out what the conditions are there. In any case, we always had a private toilet with a shower and a bed. The number of adventures here is also on top. But all the undoubted advantages are superimposed by one significant problem - this trip turned out to be the most dangerous in our entire travel history. Everywhere everything ended well, in the end no one robbed us, didn’t cut us with a machete, didn’t hit us with a hammer, not one of the four snakes didn’t bite, the spiders turned out to be phlegmatic. Nevertheless, in the Dominican Republic you need to be careful and do not take jewelry and expensive things with you. On the other hand, you can not meddle in the jungle and forests, and not go to wild and endlessly beautiful beaches, but this is definitely not about us.

We have not visited one more part where crocodiles and wild flamingos are found, but this part is already completely on the border with Haiti and according to reviews, it is better to skip it just in case) We, as an adventurer, unconditionally liked the trip and we highly recommend it.

The Dominican Republic won't let us go

When we had already passed all the controls at the airport, our shoes were scanned separately, all our things were intently sniffed by a dog. All that was left was to go and get on the plane. The man singled out a group of 15 people and led them towards the exit from the transit zone. Soon we left the transit area and moved to the baggage claim area, then, despite our canceled entry stamp, we were again in the arrivals area. Something is going wrong and where are all the other passengers. We were taken to the medical center and asked to wait.

Nobody spoke English, we were standing near the door with an abbreviation of four letters. I started googling what was going on, but the officer asked me to turn off the phone. I continued googling. The first thing I found out is that the Dominican Republic has a very serious security system at the airport. The four letters above the door stood for Drug Tracking. Continuing to google, we found out that there is still an additional check, after which you can not catch your plane, and the plane has the right to fly away without tourists. We stood for a long time and there were already 20 minutes left before departure. We were asked to go into the room and go to the device similar to a teleporter. I saw how this device in front of us enlightened the girl so that all her organs, including her brain, were displayed on the screen. The officer gestured for us to pass. I showed you the interpreter that he should explain to us what is happening and whether it is X-ray.

The officer returned with passports and told us to follow him. Let's go! He took us back to the arrivals area and asked if we could see our plane well (there is no wall separating the runways at the airport). I nodded, he said: “Go and get in it! ". Apparently, during the check of our passports, the system identified us as safe. We successfully sat on the plane among the irradiated passengers.

What can I say about this situation. The problem is that we do not know the local law and, accordingly, our rights regarding medical examinations. For example, as far as I understand, no one has the right to force you to undergo any medical examinations on the territory of Ukraine. It is not known how things are in the Dominican Republic, but their service has more than once found contraband inside people. This whole situation was really nervous. But, on the other hand, this is a land of adventure, so everything is fine!

Thanks to everyone who mentally went through this unusual journey with us, we have another day ahead of us in Belgium, but this is a separate mini-story.

Detailed route and costs here.

Translated automatically from Russian. View original