The whole Dominican Republic, guagua by guagua

(Amsterdam – Punta Cana – Cortecito)

At 7:00 am alarm, quick breakfast at the hotel in Amsterdam and then train to Schiphol airport. At 9:00 am we are already at the airport. We wear only a light sweater (good thing it's not cold) since we left our heavy coats in a big suitcase at the hotel (they'll keep them for us until we return)! I personally am already wearing sandals! We check in and head to boarding. The plane is 50 minutes late. We drink something in a very nice pub (yours truly drinks a double whisky against her fear of flying) and then we board. The Martinair service is excellent and the seats are very comfortable. Our flight route is westward, we chase the sun, so today we don't sleep! We have lunch (Asian cuisine) and then Carlotta and I play cards. There are also Dominicans on the flight. They seem very close-knit since they laugh and joke a lot among themselves.

Do they already know each other? Are they in a group? Carlotta and I try to strike up a conversation with the Dominican woman sitting next to us (very low-cut and buxom) but without much success. Her friend then doesn't even consider us. We'll see where the famous affability and sympathy of the Dominicans is... for now, on this plane, the only nice Dominicans are a few children. I recall having read something on a French travel forum, where more than one woman, with a Dominican husband, complained about the fact that when they return to their homeland they are not treated very well by their compatriots....of course if they go back with their noses in the air like these.... maybe they should expect it! Anyway since there's no way to chat with anyone, we continue playing cards. Then we watch "Friends"! Halfway through the trip they also bring us a snack! And subsequently dinner.

At 4:20 pm local time, after 9 and a half hours of flight, we land at Punta Cana. The landing is rather rough and violent, so much so that the passengers, who were about to start applauding, at the noise caused by the opening of almost all the overhead bin doors..... freeze instantly! And yes, young man.... you didn't earn the applause! Learn to land! {ED. NOTE: but maybe that's exactly what he was doing!} The Punta Cana airport is so beautiful! I had never seen an airport like this in all my life. Not even in Malé. It's an enormous shed, all open, with sloping straw roofs. Lots of greenery, flowers, open spaces. There are girls in traditional costume who have their picture taken with tourists and, also with us. (ED. NOTE: We discover afterwards that the girls in costume were from a tour operator that was receiving a group!!). The taxi to Cortecito asks for 25 USD.

Since the owner of the hotel via the internet had indicated the figure of 24.... I don't think it's worth arguing! The music, which wasn't at the airport, is on the other hand well present in the taxi! We arrive in blistering heat at the Posada de Piedra, a small hotel with cabanas on the beach. We get the "cabanas" because the normal rooms are already taken. The cabanas (they have 3) consist of huts with straw roofs, concrete floors, two beds (self-propelled), a small table, a central light. No glass, no mosquito nets.... and moreover, the walls that support the roof, in the upper part have an opening of about 20 cm. that runs all around the room (Ventilation system?). The bathroom is outside. As a first contact with the Dominican Republic it's not bad.... Even cost-wise 30 USD for cabanas seems a bit excessive to me... anyway...

here we are! I timidly ask the owner (Peruvian) if there aren't insects here (?!). And she answers me.. "We're not in New York!". I don't dare instead ask if there are also big hairy black spiders (the crap) otherwise I might not even sleep for two nights.... We quickly slip into our swimsuits and dive into the azure Caribbean waters of Punta Cana! Not exactly crystal clear in truth because the sea is a bit rough but with an exceptional temperature! The beauty of this hotel is that you're right on the beach... if it weren't for the structure of the room, it would seem to be in the Maldives. After the swim, we drink a Presidente (local beer) and chat a bit with the owner who, among other things, speaks very good Italian since she lived in Naples for several years. The husband (who isn't there) is instead Argentine! (ED.

NOTE: I thought that the ownership at least of this simple hotel was Dominican but I was wrong). There's also a little girl, Maria, nice and very talkative! We unpack our backpacks and take turns having a shower. In the bathroom I seem to hear noises (which in fact came from the cabana next door) so I open the door under the sink and find a big turtle (alive? dead?)! Surely dead (or at least stuffed) because after 2 days it will still be there, in the same position. Maybe it has its function, who knows? Around 8:00 pm we go out to have dinner. The ATM is right across the street so I withdraw. For 250 euros they give me a nice bundle of pesos that barely fit in my wallet... Meanwhile we hear someone singing a baciata, but in Italian. The music comes from a restaurant right nearby....

No way!! It's an Italian, Luciano Salerni, a former criminal lawyer who has lived in the Dominican Republic for several years and sings and writes songs as a hobby! He offers us an aperitif and we arrange to have dinner together tomorrow evening, so we keep each other company and sing! Tonight we go to Capitan Cook! Capitan Cook is a Spanish restaurant on the beach. We order too many things and we are so tired (for us it's two in the morning) that we can't eat everything. Then we also have to argue over the bill for which they ask us for 110 USD. But the bill is 3000 pesos, which would be equivalent to 85 USD... No big deal: we pay in pesos and solve the problem.

(Cortecito)

At two in the morning Carlotta calls me from her room because she has found two insects and can't sleep anymore. We have those little insects in our room too.. they look like a cross between a cricket and a cockroach. Matteo, on the other hand, is wrapped like a cocoon in the sheet, head included, and sleeps like a rock. I slip into Carlotta's bed and sleep with her. But at four we wake up because neither of us is sleepy anymore. (Time zone?). So we go to the beach and walk back and forth to wait for dawn.... But dawn here comes very late, almost at 7:00 am!!! Around six we move to walk around town hoping to find a little bar open for the sleepless... but everything is deserted, only security guards. Last night we forgot to buy water and since I've been awake I'm so thirsty that I would even drink tap water... but I don't dare.

Carlotta's Coca Cola is full of little flies and mosquitoes... therefore we suffer from thirst! At 7:00 am finally the owner gets up and supplies us with bottles of water. Meanwhile the male representatives of the family also wake up and so, under the first rays of sun, we take a nice swim in the sea! After breakfast a walk in town. Everyone invites us into their shops: "Just look, just look..." but, unfortunately for them, we are not potential good customers because we certainly don't even remotely think of buying souvenirs at the beginning of the trip! In town, apart from various small shops and excursion agencies, there is nothing. We return to the beach and continue walking along the shoreline. Both to the south and to the north there are big all inclusive resorts. They seem, however, apparently deserted. The weather is splendid and the sun very strong....

so we spread on a protection 8 cream but, after a while, we realize that we are all glistening! Heh heh... by mistake I bought a sunscreen with glitter!!! Also along the beach it's full of little souvenir shops. Matteo and I, returning toward the hotel, manage to speak five different languages, just to please all the shopkeepers. They think we are German, American, French.... and they try in all the idioms! Then they discover us... "Ah... so you're Italian....!!!" Well yes!. (Hungarian, however, no one speaks). Actually no one speaks Hungarian. For lunch today we go to the Langosta del Caribe (this one also Spanish-owned)! Dominican restaurants still none..... nor little bars, nor stalls.... nada de nada. Compared to Capitan Cook this restaurant is beyond compare! The service is excellent, the paella is fantastic and you also spend less, indeed, much less!.

Today, before lunch, Carlotta and dad told me that they saw a small shark in the sea. So, in the afternoon I limit myself to entering and exiting the water quickly, amid everyone's laughter.... because it was a joke! Mid-afternoon we set off again for a walk along the beach but, after half an hour, Carlotta and yours truly, destroyed by sleep, collapse on two lounge chairs of a deserted all inclusive and fall asleep. Giampaolo and Matteo instead cover kilometers! After the shower we go to the Supermarket, we buy cigars, water and a small bottle of rum with two beautiful little wooden glasses, so we can drink it in the moonlight! We then meet at the restaurant of the Cortecito Inn, where we had arranged to meet Alfredo, the Italian singer from last night. There's also another Italian with him.

And here we feel like we're in an old little New York place from the days of Italian immigration. In the end we all start singing: Volare, O sole mio... etc. Carlotta and I eat an exceptional ceviche (South American dish based on raw fish marinated in lime and seasoned with onion, tomato and peppers cut very small). At 11:00 pm we go to bed!

(Cortecito – Higuey - Bayahibe)

At 8:00 am we are already having breakfast. Backpacks ready (the insect had even gotten inside mine..). Today we go to Bayahibe to the All Inclusive of Dominicus Beach. 200 USD a day for four... if I think that yesterday here we spent 300... We still don't know how we'll get there but they told us that you just go to the bus stop and tell the driver where you have to go and he drops you off at the various connecting stops. At 9:00 am we are on the road to Higuey. We have already changed 3 buses... but the changes are so quick and easy that there's no problem moving around by public transport. Basically they are the ones who stop you at the right place and the next bus picks you up. They are small private buses, they call them guagua. They are generally managed by a couple of people. One drives and the other gets people on and takes the money. On the bus there's also music.

Along the road villas, shacks, small houses with sheet metal roofs, cigar factories, warehouses of material for the hotel industry, plantations. At 9:40 am traffic slows down. We are almost at a standstill. There's an enormous herd of cows and oxen on the road, accompanied by cowboys on horseback and, amusingly, there's also the road sign indicating cow crossing! The herd turns off a little further on and the journey continues. I expected the buses to race like crazy, instead (at least so far) they drive quite well and cautiously. Whoever said that in the Dominican Republic they drive badly or dangerously should take a little trip to Sri Lanka! At Hig

(Bayahibe)

I wake up at 6:30 (improving!). I make myself tea and drink it on the terrace with a sea view. The weather is gorgeous, and the sea even more so. Around seven they bring me the photocopies of the New York Times! Nice service. After breakfast we go to the promotional presentation... They wanted to sell us a €10,000 package for vacations to be used in years to come... They give us two t-shirts and two caps anyway for our time. When the kids wake up we go for a canoe ride, but it's tiring, so we buy some inflatable mats, more comfortable. After all, this is a natural pool! Tonight we've booked at the Italian restaurant at the Palace. We don't even have to pay extra; we discovered that our wristband is VIP and entitles us to use the Palace facilities too, drink imported liquors, and lots of other things.

Does that mean that by booking online, besides paying less, you're also privileged? Maybe even the morning newspaper and the swan decorations are reserved for VIPs? We have lunch at the main restaurant and then take a stroll to snoop around at what's at the Palace. There's a little pond with pink herons. The beach is the same. The bars and restaurants similar. We take a peek at the Italian restaurant, and since it's not outdoors we cancel. Instead we book at the "Grill" on the beach! Better. We're in the Caribbean, with gorgeous weather, so going to dinner in an indoor restaurant seems absurd to us! Afternoon with salsa and merengue. A chat with some Italians (here everyone is Italian), aperitif and shower. They've brought more towels, on top of the ones for the new swan-shaped decoration, so now we're at 18! Dinner at the "Grill" isn't excellent but edible...

At 10:00 pm there's Latin American dancing with live music, and then a show in the disco with "Madonna" (?!). I fall asleep on the disco sofa, so we all go to bed fairly early.

Wednesday (Bayahibe)

This morning we woke up at 8:30. Fantastic!!! I've gotten back into my routine. After breakfast, Giampaolo and I go looking for a hotel for the end of the month (since we'll be passing back through here on the nights of the 29th and 30th). The Cabana Elke (Italian-run) isn't bad, but they're asking 130 USD for just the room… While walking around we find the Hotel Bocayate, under new management (Italian, just to change things up). Here they ask 100 USD for two double rooms. It's quite nice and only a 3-minute walk from the beach, so we accept on the spot. On the way back to the Viva we realize that the tourist center is completely in the hands of Italian operators.

Real estate agencies, restaurants, bars, excursion-booking agencies, diving, souvenir shops and even the supermarket!! A veritable colony!! We stop by the Palace and there are two tourists there who had called a guard, telling him there was a huge hairy spider (the famous cacata?) that had run up a palm tree. I was expecting a scene like an action movie where the guard pulled out his gun and "Bang Bang"…. took out the intruder… but instead he simply said "It's completely harmless, NO PROBLEM." We have lunch at the central restaurant, which in the end is the best one, and then we give ourselves over to beach life! We do a bit of snorkelling, though there isn't much to see (a few solitary little fish) and then a Merengue and Salsa lesson (mandatory for Carlotta!). A good aperitivo in front of a gorgeous sunset and our day comes to an end.

Dinner at the central restaurant with Asian cuisine (there's even Sushi with a Japanese chef doing a demonstration). And, since it's the last evening here at the Viva Dominicus, we decide to take part in all the activities: the show, the disco and even the pizzeria (the pizzeria is open until 7:00 in the morning…). Tonight's show is hilarious, maybe because it's put on by the guests?

Thursday (Bayahibe – La Romana – Boca Chica)

This morning Carlotta and I are the ones who wake up first! Breakfast and off to the beach! Then Giampaolo arrives too and gets stung by a jellyfish! Ouch Ouch Ouch… To make up for it, I get stung by a wasp so the two of us can both complain! At noon we go to pack our bags and at 13:00, right on time, we check out. "Can we have lunch?" "No problem at all…" In fact, as far as they're concerned we can even stay until tonight! Anyway at 14:30 we head to the bus stop, right in front of the Dominicus. On the guagua there are also some Italian tourists from the Viva (finally someone curious who ventures outside the Hotel) who are going to La Romana. The first guagua takes us to Bayahibe, a sleepy fishing village with a pretty little harbor. It's from here that all the excursions to the islands depart (Saona and Catalina). In Bayahibe we change vehicles and take the connection to La Romana.

At 15:15 we enter the city of La Romana. At the port a huge cruise ship is docked. They let us off at Parque Central, where the guagua stop for Bocachica is, and it leaves right away. It almost seems like they're always waiting for us to leave. This guagua is very folkloric. People getting on while it's moving, the driver's buddy banging incredible slaps on the open door to make him stop. It even pulls up alongside, while moving, another guagua to swap money through the windows on the fly. The driver drives quite fast, makes incredible overtakes at the expense of other guaguas. What is he? Schumi? But after a while we discover that, on the way out of the city, he was trying to grab more customers than the others; in fact, once it's full and it reaches the highway, he starts driving at a steady pace.

At 17:30 the guagua drops us off on the highway and, after 500 meters on foot, we arrive at Boca Chica, where we are literally set upon by touts. Two are particularly insistent and follow us all the way to the Hotel Cachela. There they demand that the owner give them a commission.. She asks me if they brought us. I show her the Lonely Planet where I had already underlined the address and so she dismisses them. Or at least apparently, because an hour later we still find them there. (ED. NOTE: The waitress at the Viva had said at lunch today that in Boca Chica we would find the mafia…). The Hotel Cachela is a little inn with nice rooms, on the street parallel to the beach (Ave. Duarte). It also has a nice shared terrace overlooking the street, which in the evening is closed to traffic and fills up with tables and chairs from the various bars. We go have a beer at the bar across the street.

We then go to scout out the beach, even though it's already dark. We walk its entire length, to the West area of the parking lot, where stalls selling fried fish with plantain and/or fried potatoes swarm! They can't be bad either…. After an aperitivo at a bar on the beach, we head back to the hotel. The room is freezing because Giampaolo left the air conditioning on max, so I sit out on the terrace. The street is filling up with tables, little tables and chairs from the various bars. There's music and lots of people. We go to dinner at Fernando's! Exceptional. Maybe tomorrow evening he'll get us lobsters. Heading back home there's pura vida! Music at full blast, bars overcrowded, people dancing. It seems almost impossible to me that I read in a travel diary that Boca Chica is very quiet and there's no nightlife….… Huh?

Friday (Boca Chica)

Woke up at eight, at least Giampaolo and I did. Matteo and Carlotta are sleeping and we let them be. Meanwhile we go to the beach to find a spot for the day. It's full of bars and little restaurants that provide sunbeds and loungers if you consume from them. As far as consuming goes, we're experts, so we pick ourselves a nice little spot on one of the most beautiful stretches of the beach. It's a German-run restaurant, so rightly full of German patrons. Next to it, on the other hand, is an Italian restaurant, full of Italian customers (and then they talk about a United Europe!). Even though Boca Chica seems to be the center of prostitution, I must say there are also many regular foreign couples and also many families.

Boca Chica, after five days spent in highly touristy spots (Punta Cana and Bayahibe), seems to us a more genuine town, more South American, with the shoeshine boys, and those who ask you for charity; with the touts and the fried fish stalls. I don't understand why some advise against going to Boca Chica. In my opinion it's a place worth seeing. {ED. NOTE: Of all of them, in fact, it will be the one that leaves the most favorable impression on us!} We spend the day indulging in a little bit of everything! Carlotta gets her hair braided (15 USD and not 40 euros like in Bayahibe). Giampaolo gets a pedicure. We lounge about on inflatable mats in the calm crystal-clear waters.

One mat broke so we buy another from a street vendor, but it's… PURA VIDA!! It's the first time since we've been in the Dominican Republic that we manage to give money to the local people and we're happy about it! I even eat 12 raw clams, actually alive, with a little lemon (delicious!!!), bought from a friendly street vendor, who insists on making me eat Lambi in tomato sauce too! We even drink a coco loco with added BRUGAL ANJECO! Then, with Carlotta, we go taste the fried fish they make at the stalls. Here the people are likeable, warm, especially the ordinary people. For lunch we eat Wurstel… and drink beer!… (in a German restaurant it's inevitable). The staff is extremely kind. After lunch Matteo and I try "El Tubo Special" a sort of floating mat that you hold on to while bouncing from wave to wave, while the speedboat driver towing you… has fun.

Carlotta too… since she got permission to get on the speedboat with the driver…. Low point of the day: Carlotta drops her digital camera and it stops working! It's BROKEN..! In the afternoon we dedicate ourselves to shopping from the local vendors. We buy necklaces, bandanas, cigars… and then? Then the money runs out so Carlotta and I run back to the hotel to get more supplies. We pay the restaurant and, before leaving, we look for the mat vendor we want to leave our two mats with. Since starting tomorrow, for over a week, we won't need them anymore, he'll have the chance to resell them! We had a wonderful day here in Boca Chica. We felt like useful tourists! We were also struck by two beautiful children, to whom we gave two pens, but they didn't know what they were. They asked their mom, who was selling bananas on the beach, who answered that they were for school (ED.

NOTE: who knows if they'll ever go to school?). Then we had them try drawing. We wrote their names and ours and they tried to copy them. When we get back to the hotel Via Duarte is already lively. For dinner we go back to Fernando's!! Fernando has prepared lobster and four lobsters for us. We also eat a shrimp cocktail and a delicious paella, even treating ourselves to a bottle of wine! In total we spend 2000 pesos for four including the tip! (60 USD) {ED. NOTE: the lowest amount by far that we'll spend in all of the Dominican Republic}. Around 22:30 we head back to the hotel but there's a strange atmosphere around… People running, a girl feeling unwell, others crying, bars putting away their chairs and tables…. What happened? The doorman explains to us that they killed a boy. It's the consequence of easy money, prostitution, maybe even drugs….

And those who end up in the middle of it are young people without education, without a future, exploited by organized crime. Unfortunately it happens in Europe too.

Saturday (Boca Chica – Santo Domingo)

At 7:30 we're already on the road, backpacks on our shoulders, headed to the guagua stop in Bocachica. We stop to get a coffee in a little bar that's open. There we meet an Italian gentleman who tells us he's been living here for six years. We chat a bit and, remembering our exceptional dinner last night, we tell him about Fernando's restaurant. You won't believe it but he doesn't know it. He says he prefers to cook for himself at home, a couple of spaghetti, because he doesn't like Dominican cuisine. People are really strange! How can you live here for six years and not try the restaurants? (and besides, there are maybe ten of them in total!!). While we sip a tea and a coffee, the shoe shine boys arrive. Since we don't have shoes but simple sandals, we give them some pens and offer them a slice of cake.

Meanwhile a taxi driver approaches and offers to take us directly to the hotel in Santo Domingo for 24 USD. Of course, this morning we really walked very little! (10 m!) We booked the Hotel in Santo Domingo online. It's called Hotel Palacio El Conde. It's right in the historic center so on foot we can visit all the most important monuments! Entering Santo Domingo, the taxi driver goes past the Faro a Colon, so we take a photo. There's no time to visit the inside and besides we're not that interested. The hotel is beautiful, we have an enormous room with two king-size beds where six people could sleep! The bathroom is gorgeous…. and the light turns on automatically when you approach the door! (ED. NOTE: Thank goodness it's a standard room, who knows what the deluxe is like?!). All this for only 98 USD for 4 people. The entrance opens onto a very relaxing interior garden.

But we don't have time to relax and so by 9:00 we're already out and about in the historic center. The center of Santo Domingo is clean and tidy, there are few people around on the streets, and besides the shops are still closed. We have breakfast in Parque Colon, then visit the Catedral Primada America, the first Cathedral built in the Americas or at least the oldest one that has survived to the present day, since apparently there had been a Cathedral built earlier in Mexico, which however was destroyed over the years. The first stone of this cathedral was laid by Diego Columbus, Christopher's son. After visiting the Cathedral we go looking for the Museum of the Family, but it's closed. There's a beautiful Chapel nearby, which we take the opportunity to visit (La Cappella del Terziero Ordine Dominicano). It also has a nice garden in the back.

We then walk toward the Fortress of Osama, but we take the wrong street and end up near the port where there's a not-well-identified reinforced-concrete monument (reinforced concrete must be very fashionable here). We go up onto the terrace at the top from which we admire the port. The port area is chaos in its purest form, columns of vehicles, trucks, pick-ups, honking their horns like crazy, traffic jammed, hundreds of people moving along with suitcases, briefcases, trunks, boxes. One man even has a bed with him! They're loading the ferry for Panama. We head back to the center and go visit the Fortress of Osama. We go up onto the tower from which you get an excellent view over the city. Too bad that in the courtyard they're preparing an event, putting up tents, stages and setting up tables.

The basic colors are red white and green, could it be an Italian festival? On the way back from the Fortress, we pass by the Museum of the Family again, which is now open. The Museum is the reconstruction of a house of a Dominican family (RICH!) from the colonial era. There are very well-preserved pieces of furniture, fine chandeliers and various pottery. There's also a baby's cradle. An old black-and-white French fashion magazine next to an Italian-brand sewing machine! The Museum, both inside and out, is very well maintained. Coming out of the Museum it starts to rain. We take shelter under the arcades of Parque Colon. There's music because there's a party in the square. There are also puppets. Carlotta dances a bit of salsa with a Dominican. Then, once the downpour is over, we stop by a couple of Rent a Car agencies. Starting tomorrow we'd need a rental car for 4 days….

Our plan calls for going to Comendadores, going down to Lake Enquirillo and then reaching Barahona, from which you can visit the Oviedo lagoon. A somewhat complicated plan to pull off with the buses. But the first office (Italian) has no cars available except "super" jeeps at a cost of almost 100 USD a day, the second one has cheap ones too. It even tells us that, if we come back in the evening (before 20:00), maybe a car for 35 USD will be returned. Ok we'll come back tonight.

Saturday (Santo Domingo)

At 13:00 we sit down in a restaurant chosen at random, in Plaza de la Hispanidad, the Square where the ancient House of Columbus's Son is, today the Alcazar de Colon Museum. The Square is very spacious and relaxing. Full of bar-restaurants, today though almost all empty! The restaurant we've chosen turns out to be Brazilian and offers a fixed menu based on meat…. Let's try it! They bring us 18 types of different meat, from beef, to rabbit, chicken, veal….. plus various side dishes. Good thing we're not vegetarians. We get up from the restaurant nice and stuffed!!! We ate divinely anyway. After lunch we go visit the ruins of the Monastery of San Francesco, a monastery built by the Franciscans in the 1500s. There's an air of peace inside this monastery and in its gardens, too bad the garbage disfigures this place.

We then head to the Alcazar de Colon Museum, the old residence of Diego Columbus. Inside there are some pieces of furniture and furnishings that they say actually belonged to his family. But for us Europeans it's not so hard to believe, after all they're dated only a little over 500 years ago! We then move on to the Royal Palace, though some members of my family are starting to show signs of wavering. We visit all the halls, including the one with the weapons collection. Here too, in the inner courtyard, they're setting something up. A wedding, they explain. On the way out we take some photos of the Sundial (a sort of meridian) then we decide to head back toward the hotel. We pass by Parque Colon again (today is already the fifth time!) where there's now a dance show. We stop for a bit but it's terribly hot. So we decide to go to the hotel.

Once we arrive at the Hotel though, Carlotta convinces me to go back to the square. In the end Matteo comes too, but when we get to the Parque, everything is over. Instead we enjoy a parade along the central street of girls belonging to a modeling school. All dressed in white, there must be about fifty of them, but almost none of them are smiling. We then stop to book the restaurant for tonight. Recommended by the Lonely Planet: La Meson D'Bari. When we get to the restaurant we're a bit puzzled. It looks like an osteria, with lots of people eating, drinking and making a racket… An annoying cocktail of music and voices. But the upstairs floor is very elegant and quiet, so we book a table for 20:30. Outside the restaurant there are very luxurious cars parked. Matteo points it out to me: there's even a Porsche Cayenne.

Before heading back to the hotel we stop at the supermarket to do some shopping. We have fun with the little cart because it's basically a basket fitted with wheels, that you pull. We buy nougat, rum and mineral water. At 18:30 we head back to the hotel. Then a quick shower and Giampaolo and I go out to go to the car rental. So we're back at Parque Colon (this is the seventh time we've passed through here!) but the rental is closed… And now? Simple: GUAGUA!! That means we'll skip the Comendadores stop. We retrace our steps and stop to have an aperitivo on the pedestrian street, in a nice little bar with waitresses who drink beer, sing and dance! Then Giampaolo gets his shoes shined (which he put on for the evening in the city!) and finally we go pick up our kids to head to the restaurant.

We warn Giampaolo that the restaurant is like an osteria with lots of noise but it's well frequented as you can see from the parking lot (now there's even a Land Rover Discovery). Indeed he too is puzzled at first glance. But then we go upstairs where everything is very beautiful and romantic. Next to us there's an enormous table of a group of friends (we assume) who will keep exchanging gifts among themselves, for the entire duration of the dinner, and with personalized speeches for each of them! {ED. NOTE: we'll witness this spectacle on the following days too and in all areas of the Dominican Republic. It's the tradition among friends or acquaintances, to exchange greetings and gifts before Christmas, and besides for them Christmas is considered the whole period that starts in mid-December and ends with the New Year. A good excuse to celebrate every evening!} We eat very well.

I personally enjoy a nice guinea fowl cooked in red wine. After dinner we go looking for a dance hall listed in the Lonely Planet, but the management has changed, the name too and the place is deserted, even though it's Saturday night. So we just have a drink and then go to bed.

Sunday ( Santo Domingo – Barahona)

Since there was no way to find a rental car, last night we decided to move to Barahona by guagua and, if need be, rent a car there. We have a taxi take us to the bus station and there we buy something to eat and drink, but it was useless because, at least until we get out of the city, every ten meters dozens of vendors of all kinds of food get on and off the bus. Today too they chase and overtake each other to grab customers. Outside the colonial center, Santo Domingo looks rather dirty and badly kept, piles of garbage along the roadside and very poor houses, practically shacks. Typical outskirts of South American countries. This guagua is big, and it even has air conditioning. On top there's even a dog (perro) only the funny thing is that the perro in question belongs to no one… (ha ha). From Bani onward the landscape goes from flat to hilly and it's all very green.

At noon we stop at a kind of service station "El Parador Donde Hay Todo"! A good chance to smoke a cigarette, go to the bathroom and get ourselves a cold Presidente! We should arrive at 13:30 but I have my doubts…. Indeed we arrive at 14:00! At the Barahona station we go to the bathroom. The bathroom is under construction and for now consists of a six-by-six-meter room with, at the far end, in a corner… the toilet!! No door… so we take turns standing guard. We call a taxi to take us to a strange place, read about in the Lonely, run by Swiss…. It should be a hotel located in a lovely spot, about 10 km from Barahona. But when we arrive we're disappointed. The place is nice too, but it's located over a kilometer from the highway and there isn't a living soul…. What can a poor Italian family do in a place in the middle of nowhere and without a car? ABOUT-FACE. We go back to the city.

We try stopping by the Hotel Guaracuya. Even though there are quite a few guests, due to a wedding between a German and a Dominican, they have two rooms. The taxi driver meanwhile, for the fact of having brought us back, asks us for double… "Me desculpe… porché? You were going back anyway, no?!" No! He's immovable! In the end we agree on 30% more. Wow, the taxi almost cost more than the guagua from Santo Domingo to here…. Oh well. The Hotel is on a rocky little beach, where they're setting up the tables for the wedding (you can tell they love getting married in December here). The owner of the Hotel is a Dominican (about time!), a retired ex-policeman and, from what we gather, he runs it together with his relatives. He's also friendly and offers us a beer.

The hotel isn't very well kept and, even though it's full of people, it seems to be in a state of abandon! Given the owner's kindness, we ask him if by any chance he knows where we can rent a car for three days. But from his expression we gather that car rentals… NADA! He says he'll try asking some acquaintances, but the only thing he manages to do is to get us a tour guide. The tour guide in question, who must be another retired policeman, proposes to us – since we told him we want to save money – to accompany us himself on public transport…. We laugh…. If we have to go to Lake Enquirillo by guagua we can go by ourselves, no?! We sit down to chat with a German couple. They too arrived in Barahona convinced they'd find a rental car to go see Lake Enquirillo and instead they're here admiring the sea.

They come from Sosuá and she, looking at this little beach with few attractions, says to me: "To think that over there there's a gorgeous sea…". Anyway, to visit the Enquirillo Park, they've decided to rely on a local agency and have booked an organized excursion for tomorrow. We instead will go to the Oviedo Lagoon tomorrow so then we can exchange opinions and, if need be, the day after we'll move on to Enquirillo, or rather La Descubierta. But no stress… we're on vacation! So, Giampaolo and I go for a walk on the beach. A few meters from our hotel there's a natural little harbor with lots of fishing boats and kids swimming. We meet a nice little family who ask us if we want to take a photo of their twin girls… and of course we do! We take it of the whole family, then have them give us the address so we can send it.

At six in the evening we go for a walk in the center to withdraw some money and take a look at the city. The city is strange. On the seafront road there's a row of beautiful villas and little houses, while the center is mostly a cluster of poor houses, without windows and rather run-down. Ordinary people are cooking along the street. A boy stops with his nice motorcycle and asks Carlotta if she wants to go for a ride. {ED. NOTE:… sure I'll give her permission….} We go back to the seafront, where there's a series of little bars and an unimaginable racket. The racket is produced by the juke-boxes of two adjacent bars competing over who plays the music at the highest volume.

Added to this are the cars parked on the street, with their trunks open from which mega stereo speakers poke out blasting music at a thousand decibels! We have an aperitivo and eat two papas fritas, since we haven't even had lunch today. People keep arriving. Lots of them and elegant too. On the street, dozens of cars and SUVs worth at least 80 thousand euros each are now parked. Where do all these people come from? From what we've seen so far, Barahona certainly hasn't given us the impression of such a rich city. Must be people on vacation? Of course the image of those children swimming today at the fishermen's little beach is in stark contrast with these people showing off several kilos of gold around their necks and luxury SUVs. We head back to the hotel just to change and, making our way through the mosquitoes, we go back out to the seafront to head to the restaurant.

The restaurant is practically on the other side of the city. Passing by the area from before, we notice that now there are even more people. They're dancing and singing. There are also little stalls selling food and in the middle of the street there now sits a truck, with two stereo speakers of at least a thousand watts, with which it manages to overpower the music of all the others. No tourists. We arrive at the restaurant Las Brisas del Caribe, the only real restaurant in the true sense of the word in Barahona. Here too the parking lot is full of luxurious cars. The restaurant is packed with very well-dressed people and there's also the usual "Christmas" table, exchanging gifts and greetings. We ask the waiter, friendly and kind {ED.

NOTE: I must say that in this area everyone is friendly and warm}, if there's some festival in town? He answers that no, it's just Christmas but since in Barahona there are lots of people who live and work abroad but who come back home for the holidays, they take the opportunity to get together and with the occasion celebrate Christmas together with relatives and friends. We also ask him if this town is rich and he answers yes, precisely because so many people work abroad. But this explanation doesn't quite convince us, because even abroad, if you're not a big executive or a professional, it's hard to afford cars of this kind. {ED. NOTE: We'll be told later that many people who live especially in the United States, but also in Spain, are nothing but drug traffickers….

So at least one mystery is solved!} After dinner we go to bed, also because tomorrow we have to cover quite a few kilometers!

Monday ( Barahona – Laguna de Oviedo – Los Patos - Barahona)

At 9:00 the happy Grignani family is sitting on a guagua traveling along the coast of the Perdenales peninsula, toward Oviedo. The first guagua takes us as far as Paraiso. In Paraiso we drink a nice cold cerveza Presidente and then wait for another vehicle. A scooter passes with a couple and the man asks us: "Vous etes francais?" "No – we answer – nous sommes italiens." At that he brakes, turns the scooter around and comes up to us. He's Italian too, his name is Daniele, he has a Dominican wife and has lived here for fifteen years. Exactly in Los Patos, where we should be passing this afternoon. He's surprised, because usually he only meets French people who travel the way we do. We explain that, in fact, we wanted to rent a car around here, but we couldn't find any. He asks if we have insect repellent, since we're going to the Oviedo lagoon. (No… I forgot it!).

He goes to get it at his house and…. then chases our guagua, which meanwhile has picked us up, and…. passes it to us through the window! Here you breathe the air of South America!!! Today instead of the dog, on the bus, there's a rooster, but it has its owner. We pass through the town of Enriquillo, pretty. We also see the food market. There's also a small stadium for cockfighting! Wandering around Enriquillo we lose at least a quarter of an hour because this guagua must also be in charge of delivering packages and various goods. In theory the route should have ended here, but since another couple got on who needs to go to Oviedo, the driver decides to take us! THANK YOU! He takes us right to the ticket office at the park entrance {ED. NOTE: Maybe he was afraid we'd get lost…} The park appears very well organized and clean. Too bad that besides us there isn't a single other visitor.

At 11:30, having hired our guide, we set off for the boat tour of the lagoon. The weather is bad and it's also windy. The lagoon waters are choppy. First stop the Island of the Iguanas. Cute little leaf-eating creatures, that even follow us! I left the repellent on the boat so the mosquitos have time to devour us. We also go up to the Mirador but the weather is nasty… The second stop is near a small islet (there are dozens in the lagoon), where the pink flamingos gather. They're there waiting for us and, when we clap our hands, they rise elegantly into flight. The last stop instead is on the island of the Cueva de los Tainos (cave of the indigenous people). We advance into the jungle, quite cautiously…. The cueva is nothing but a small cave where some pictograms from the Taino era were found (dating back about 700 years…).

At 13:30, they take us back to shore, all wet and cold because the wind was so strong it sprayed all the water from the waves onto us. We settle at the guagua stop (they told us there are lots of them….) but by 14:00 none has arrived yet….. At 14:05 one passes by, packed, with passengers hanging both off the back and off the doors… GREAT… and now? They tell us the next guagua is at 15:00. We go into a food shop and buy Casabe, bread rolls from the ancient Taino tradition, made with cassava flour (tapioca), two beers and some coca cola because they don't have water. We chat a bit with some kids who are there at the stop (but they're not waiting for the bus, they're just passing the time). We give some pens to the smaller children playing in the street. They play with very humble toys. But they have fun anyway. At 15:00 another bus passes, even more packed than the first.

They explain that today in Perdenales there was the Haitian market and so the buses are full. I see…. but us? At 16:00 I gather there's the last guagua… And what if that one's full too? IDEA! Let's try hitchhiking. It'll be tough because few vehicles pass and besides they're almost all already full too. But instead, after the fifth failed attempt, a pick-up stops and picks us up! He takes us as far as Enriquillo: from there there are many more guaguas, he reassures us. The pick-up drives fast… and we bounce around on the flatbed. People on the street laugh when they see us… maybe they've never seen tourists on a pick-up? When he drops us off at the guagua stop for Barahona, we try to give him some money, but he doesn't want it, in fact he almost takes offense! At half past four we arrive in Los Patos and look for Daniele, the Italian we met this morning.

He has a little restaurant, on this truly enchanting little beach. He says he didn't think he'd see us again…. {ED. NOTE: And he's right!} The kids order a roast fish and we order a beer. Meanwhile we chat and take photos. The beach isn't sandy but pebbly, but what's picturesque is the river which, before flowing into the sea, forms a natural pool of incredible beauty! It's tempting for a swim but the water is truly ice-cold. Daniele tells us his story, it makes me a bit sad. Then we talk about the Perdenales area. There isn't much tourism from what we've seen and he confirms it. They live mainly off Dominican tourism. There were also some resorts here, until a few years ago, but they've shut down.

We tell him about our travel plans, we explain that tomorrow we'd like to go to Lake Enquirillo… But he doesn't give us a great picture of Enquirillo… he even tells us that the Oviedo Lagoon is more beautiful! (?!?). At sunset we head out onto the road to catch a guagua. Just imagine if there weren't any left? … but instead one passes and picks us up. It's also full of friendly and warm people. There's nice music, even though the last customer who gets on has it changed to a series of sappy tangos. We arrive at the hotel quite tired. We're also covered in mosquito bites. We take a shower (ice-cold because the water heater broke), change, and go out to dinner.

Tonight we don't feel like walking all the way to the end of town so we stop in the chaotic area of the little bars from last night, which tonight by the way isn't so overcrowded anymore! For tomorrow we have 2 alternatives: either move by guagua to La Descubierta, visit the Enquirillo Lake national park and then stop there to sleep, or head directly to Jarabacoa and skip the lake area. What definitively convinces us are the two Germans, whom we meet on our way back to the hotel. They've just returned from the excursion on Lake Enquirillo, and the description they give us of the National Park is so similar to what we saw today at the Oviedo Lagoon (apart from the crocodiles which, by the way, they didn't even have the luck to see) that we have no doubt: we give up going to the Enquirillo area and stay one more night in Jarabacoa. So tomorrow morning we go back to Santo Domingo!

( Barahona – Santo Domingo – Jarabacoa)

We wake up with frightful blisters on our legs. We scratched all night and we're going crazy from the itching. It reminds me of the fly-sand effect (sand fleas) from Cuba. Could they have been their relatives? We go down early for breakfast, also because here it takes at least half an hour.. We've already paid the bill since you pay in advance. We take a photo of the splendid sunrise over the sea and then we set off! At the bus station we discuss whether to take a guagua or the Caribe Tours bus. I opt for the guagua, both because the Caribe leaves in an hour and a half… and because it has air conditioning which personally I can't stand… But in the end this guagua too, the express to Santo Domingo, has air conditioning and a strong one too…. On the road we're stopped at lots of checkpoints (on the way there it didn't happen).

They explain to us that they're checking there are no Haitians… Of course you can't understand how they check, because they just limit themselves to looking at people's faces: do Haitians look that different?? Our driver drives very cautiously (to think that when I saw him so young, I feared he'd drive like a maniac…). After the usual stop at the "Parada Donde Hai Todo", for the toilet and a snack, at 12:00 we enter Santo Domingo. The driver drops us off directly at the Caribe Tours station, from where at 13:30 the direct bus to Jarabacoa departs (the times mentioned in the Lonely Planet are perfect!). The Caribe bus also has a TV and a toilet. But it doesn't have the atmosphere and style of the public transport we've taken so far. At four in the afternoon sharp we arrive in Jarabacoa. First thing to do is look for accommodation, but calmly.

We sit in a bar, drink something and meanwhile consult the guidebook. We go see the hotel Brisas de Jaque, there in the center, nice, but it's full! The lady at the reception, very kind, calls the Gran Jimenoa for us. I thought it was more expensive, instead the price is 50 USD per room with breakfast. Perfect. We take a taxi (because the hotel is a few kilometers

( Jarabacoa – Costanza - Jarabacoa)

Wake up at seven and breakfast on the river! The weather is gorgeous, even though it poured last night. Breakfast of mashed potatoes and eggs, then we're off. The first stop is at the Jimenoa Dos waterfalls. The only other tourists besides us are three Russians! The place is stunning and the scenery idyllic. The waterfalls are reached by crossing a series of suspension bridges. The waterfall (the "jump"), about 50 meters high, plunges into a very inviting natural pool, but where the water is truly freezing, so we skip the idea of a swim... Once we've finished visiting the first waterfalls, we set off for Costanza, reserving the other two for this afternoon, on the way back from Costanza if there's time left. Leaving Jarabacoa, after the first few kilometers, the road becomes terrible. Good thing we rented an SUV.

In theory, the road could be driven with any vehicle, but even with the jeep, you proceed at reduced speed. The scenery, though, is enchanting! Rocky and partly mountainous landscape. The Lonely Planet guide says it's reminiscent of the Swiss Alps... but for that comparison I think you'd need a rather vivid imagination!! We stop in a very pretty little village, with all the houses colorful. Immersed in greenery and surrounded by valleys and mountains. We stop to take some slides, and from a very lovely house with lots of flowers in the garden, a lady comes out who takes the opportunity to ask us for money to buy clothes for her little girl. From the town of Rio the paved road begins again. Costanza lies in a valley planted with strawberries, lettuce and garlic. You can even smell its pungent odor.

We take a stroll around the town which, however, beyond the view over the hills dotted with many residential villas, doesn't have much to offer the visitor. We look for... the Japanese {ED: it would be fun to photograph a Japanese person farming the fields here in the Dominican Republic} since, in the era of the dictator Trujillo, a colony of Japanese had obtained plots of farmland from the Dominican state at very favorable prices, which quickly became very prosperous! But the Japanese left several years ago. Not even one family remains. For lunch we stop at the Aguas Blancas restaurant. The service is particularly slow so we lose at least a couple of hours.

On the plus side, we have a pleasant chat with a very likable and friendly Dominican and eat an excellent guinea fowl (guinea) in red wine! At 3:30 pm, on the way back, we stop in a village to pick up a couple who were asking for a ride. He's the town doctor, a Dominican from Santiago, and she's his American girlfriend, from Louisiana. In the car we even sing (... despues que pasa il temporal...) but we don't sing for long because at a bend, some woodcutters wave us to stop. We have a flat tire! GREAT!!!! We look for the jack (el gato), but we can't find it... The lug wrench, on the other hand, doesn't fit the bolts on the spare tire.

And now?? No problem! We stop a couple of vehicles until we find a wrench of the right size! The woodcutters lend us the jack, but since it's from the truck, it doesn't fit under our car! But the problem is solved right away: the woodcutters lift the jeep by hand and place it on top of the jack! Too good, I film the scene... meanwhile they offer me a swig of Rum! GRACIAS. After a good half hour and after handing out tips left and right, we set off again but, when we reach the paved road to Jarabacoa, we notice that the steering wheel is dancing the merengue and the wheel is wobbling alarmingly (it's not the right size!). We stop at a gas station and have them call the rental company. Since it's already almost five o'clock, we give up on the other two waterfalls and have ourselves taken straight back to the hotel. We play a couple of games of billiards and have an aperitivo.

Tonight we dine at the hotel. It's almost cold by the river, so we put on our sweatshirts {ED: the only time we needed them on the whole trip!}. We're the only guests and we fully enjoy this corner of the river, completely reserved for us.

( Jarabacoa – Santiago – Puerto Plata - Sosua)

After breakfast we take a taxi to go to the bus station. It's cold, but despite that the taxi driver has the air conditioning on full blast! At 8:30 we're already on a guagua to La Vega. The guagua is small (15 seats) and there are 18 of us plus our backpacks, for which for the first time they made us pay a ticket too! We leave Jarabacoa, its splendid nature, its tranquility, its cleanliness and order. Here we didn't notice much poverty, probably the flourishing agriculture of the area and a good tourism industry that works all year round, thanks also to Dominican tourism, make this place's fortune. Now we'll see the northern coast! At La Vega we change vehicle and take one to Santiago. This one is also small and overcrowded. And here too they make us pay tickets for the "maleta." In Santiago, the guagua practically does a whole tour of the city.

The city of Santiago, which is considered the second capital of the Dominican Republic, appears clean, tidy and modern, especially the center. There are beautiful houses and very modern buildings. Little chaos and European-style shops. They then have us change guagua, to go to the "Javilla" bus station, where the buses to Puerto Plata depart from. "Javilla" is a fairly big company... in fact tickets even exist! This guagua is also full but it's fairly big and comfortable. Menacing black clouds appear on the horizon. In Puerto Plata, which appears to be a half-abandoned, messy, chaotic and dirty city (at least in the outskirts), they drop us on the highway, where we'll take the guagua to Sosua. It's the fifth of the day. We don't even have time to get off before they practically load us by force onto a very battered minibus already full of people.

They don't even pay attention to our protests. Matteo is buried under the backpacks... I, on the other hand, receive special treatment!... In fact Carlotta hypothesizes that the driver's friend likes mom! We arrive in Sosua, where the guagua guy even helps me cross the street (maybe Carlotta was right?). After 400 meters on foot we reach the Anneliese guesthouse, booked on the Internet. The big clouds are still menacing but for now it isn't raining! The guesthouse is lovely, it has a pool and also a nice terrace, from which you get a beautiful view of the ocean. There's a bit of a mess at the bar but they probably haven't cleaned up yet. The welcome isn't the best since they don't even accompany us to the rooms, they give us the keys and we find them ourselves. Overall though, it seems like a good choice. The rooms are very spacious.

Matteo complains about a few little insects in the room but nothing tragic! We go to eat at the Water Front, which is nearby, and from which you access Alicia beach. Alicia beach is beautiful but it is completely lacking in any services, like sunbeds, bars, etc., so we decide, by mutual agreement, that after lunch we'll move to Playa Sosua. At lunch we don't eat very well and we also spend quite a bit. To get to the beach we cross the center of Sosua which is lovely, with lots of little shops and bars. The beach is unusual and lined with lots of palm trees. It stretches for about a kilometer in length and is flanked by an endless series of little shops, bars and small restaurants! They offer us sunbeds but they ask for 60 pesos each which, if it were for the whole day, would be fine, but it's already 4:30 pm and the sun will set soon... So we just sit at a bar and have a drink.

We also take a nice swim. The sea is a bit rough. Not very much actually, but enough to make the water a bit murky, so I immediately bang my foot against a rock I hadn't seen! Around five, Matteo and I decide to do a thorough reconnaissance of all the restaurant-bars on the beach to choose a "right" place for tomorrow. The prices vary enormously from one place to another. The menus, on the other hand, are always the same. The last part of the beach toward the West is full of somewhat sketchy places with women galore. So we turn back. We also find an Italian restaurant, run by a woman from Bologna. It started pouring rain, so we're forced to take shelter there. A guy from Milan explains that he came here two years ago on vacation and stayed. "And what do you do for work?", we ask him. "I make others work - he replies - this is a paradise!" To us it doesn't really seem like a paradise...

but we don't dig deeper, plus we haven't even understood what he does. Another young Italian-Canadian explains instead that in the Dominican Republic it's enough to put a little money in the bank and with the high interest they give you, you can support yourself more than well. We have big doubts about that but, in any case, it's not our problem. The rain shows no sign of letting up at all so we decide to face it, at most we'll get a little wet... But along the way the rain becomes torrential, streams of water run down toward the shoreline dragging shrubs, stones and mud with them. We reach where we had left Giampaolo and Carlotta (who in the meantime had taken shelter inside the restaurant) completely soaked! For tomorrow, Matteo and I, by mutual agreement, have chosen Miriam's little restaurant! They're Dominican, friendly, and it's on a nice stretch of beach.

On the way back to the hotel Giampaolo suggests making a stop at the Piergiorgio hotel, owned by an Italian stylist and which, apparently, is an architectural gem. The hotel, Victorian in style on the outside, is indeed very beautiful. We decide to have an aperitivo on the terrace. Matteo rightly points out to us that we aren't exactly dressed in keeping with the place but... meanwhile it starts pouring again so we have no other alternative but to go in! At seven we arrive at our guesthouse. The bar is still all in disarray, dozens of empty beer bottles, ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts... but doesn't anyone clean here? Meanwhile Giampaolo yells from the bathroom that there's no water. I go look for the owner who informs me that unfortunately the pump has broken. GREAT. And for washing? And for flushing the toilet?...

She gives us buckets full of water, drawn from some dark well into which I don't dare think what might be inside... Giampaolo gets nervous, I instead throw out the idea of washing in the pool! So, after a few minutes, the happy Grignani family finds itself all together, in the pool, in the dark (there's no light in the garden?). We even undress, since there's no one to see us anyway... At eight thirty we go to dinner. Carlotta chooses a French restaurant "A La Vache," because she likes the ambiance, the color and the decorations. It has just been opened by a French couple from Montpellier. Well, I didn't want to go, given my fixation with local cuisine, but we ate divinely! (Personally I had a little bundle of veal kidneys that was worth at least 3 Michelin stars). After dinner we do a couple of spins on the dance floor but go to bed early.

Tomorrow is a day of beach and sea!!!! On the way back to the guesthouse, mouse hunt, it had sneaked into the kids' room! But we manage to throw it out in a few minutes.

( Sosua)

I wake up at 8:00. The weather is awful and it's pouring. Plenty of water outside and no water in the room! Everyone is sleeping, I leave the room and go see if anyone is available to make me a tea. The owner's mother is there, apologizing for the lack of water, and reassures me that around 10 in the morning there will be some. Her daughter's husband has gone to Santo Domingo to buy a new pump. She asks if we heard the thunder tonight... Thunder?!... I didn't hear anything. She tells me there was one that even made the walls vibrate... (maybe she's exaggerating)! I discover that the owners (both the mother and the daughter) are German... I never would have said it: they seem like true Dominicans... especially judging by how they keep the common areas.

In the bar area (which is still exactly the same as yesterday morning) I chat for a bit with a Korean guy who complains that he can't take a shower. I advise him to move a few meters outside the roof and take a "natural" shower!! Giampaolo wakes up and we have breakfast. Let the little ones sleep... with this incessant rain, what can you do anyway?! Giampaolo confirms to me that last night there was crazy thunder, one clap of which was spectacular... he thought I would wake up but I showed no sign of life... Even the kids spent a couple of hours awake because of the thunder... (am I going deaf?). Since the weather is so bad we decide to take it easy. We do some shopping and look for a laundromat to make a few items of clothing reusable... Then we decide by mutual agreement to go to the beach anyway.

Nobody feels like visiting the Jewish Museum and we don't even think about going to Cabarete in the downpour. So the four pilgrims arrive at Playa Sosua around noon, in the rain and amidst mud and debris, caused by last night's storm! The beach is deserted. Even the vast majority of shops and restaurants are closed. But our restaurant "El Coco Rico," Miriam's, is open! It stopped raining a bit and they set up a little table with an umbrella (in this case anti-rain) for us on the beach. They pamper us all day long. They bring us drinks on the beach, change our ashtrays, cook us shrimp and lobsters. They even make us coco loco, pina colada... prepared in the whole pineapple with the pulp cut into little pieces...

and WOOHOO!!! Between downpours, swims in the sea and South American cocktails, we soon reach sunset but, before ending the day, I treat myself to a feast of oysters bought from a beach vendor! Small but very tasty. When it's time to pay the bill we realize we don't have enough money (deja vu!) so I offer to go to the guesthouse to get it. After about fifty meters though, a crazy downpour comes along so I turn back soaked! After five minutes we set off again (Carlotta comes with me too) but this time too an exaggerated deluge surprises us! The beach becomes a river again. What do we do? We take a motoconcho, which quickly takes us to the guesthouse and brings us back among puddles and streams of water. To distract ourselves from the rain, on the motorbike, we sing Russian songs at the top of our lungs. (They must have taken us for crazy!?... or maybe for Russians?).

In the evening, after a nice shower (there's water!), we go eat at a restaurant specializing in grilled meat, but where the shrimp are better. A little game of billiards and then we all go to the disco. The music at the disco, as usual, is based on merengue, salsa and bachata... but then again we mustn't forget that we're in Santo Domingo. There's also a Dominican woman dancing in a way I'd call almost pornographic. It's in very questionable and vulgar taste. Then a group of tourists from an all-inclusive in Cabarete arrives and the place comes alive. At 2:00 we go to bed.

( Sosuá )

We wake up to gorgeous weather! A beautiful sun and a sky so clear it blends with the blue of the sea. We decide to stay here one more day and finally have a day at the beach! We return to Sosua beach and settle back at yesterday's little restaurant, to the delight of the managers. Today the beach is full of people but also of street vendors. They'll parade before our eyes all day: oysters, shrimp, clams, bananas, coconuts, pineapples... etc. We spend the day between swims in the sea and sunbathing. Matteo and Carlotta take a ride on the "tube" but keep falling into the water... On the beach we meet the Korean guy we met yesterday at the hotel. He's 22 and studies in Canada. He's here on vacation alone. We chat a bit and then, with Matteo and Carlotta, they play with the sand. They make castles, sculptures, bury themselves...

in short, they have fun! We have lunch at Coco Rico as always and chat at length with Miriam's brother. He's very kind and friendly. He calls coco-loco coco with vitamins and calls pina-colada pineapple with vitamins! Toward evening Carlotta makes friends with the guy who drives the banana boat. He's 18, has graduated but has only found this job. He does have plans though and we wish him success in achieving them. We then ask him if he'll take us by boat to Playa Alicia (where our guesthouse is) so we can also experience the thrill of arriving by sea! And indeed we have fun! And, when we land at Playa Alicia, our Korean friend welcomes us. He tells us he came down to see who on earth would arrive by boat at that hour...

Who, us?! OF COURSE! After a quick shower we all go, separately, into town to buy Christmas gifts that, tomorrow evening, we'll exchange during dinner, Dominican style! "With a personalized speech and everything" - so Carlotta decided! For dinner we return to the La Roca restaurant for a good fillet (maybe we're starting to get tired of fish?). After dinner, though, we only play one game of billiards and go to bed, because tomorrow a very long transfer awaits us

( Sosua- Rio San Juan – Las Terrenas)

Wake up at 6:30. No breakfast because the Germans still haven't bought the bread. We drink a tea and head toward the highway to catch a guagua. The guagua spots us from afar and picks us up, packing us in nice and tight along with our backpacks! On this 13-seat minibus there must be at least twenty of us! They ask us for 500 pesos to Rio San Juan. 15 dollars, which seems a bit excessive given the crowding... Halfway they have us change guagua, also completely full! We're packed in like animals, with our backpacks on us and our legs wedged against the seatbacks in front. Maybe it's because the guaguas here are small or maybe it's because today is Christmas Eve, but up to now we'd never experienced traveling like this. Anyway, we're still more comfortable than those hanging outside the bus...

We arrive in Rio San Juan (which isn't even halfway between Sosua and Las Terrenas) and, having dropped off all the passengers at the terminal, the driver makes us a proposal: for 1500 pesos he'll take us to Las Terrenas. We all look at each other and, if the alternative is traveling like this again... Of course! We accept, so we also get to try the "Rent a Guagua" experience! The road passes through tourist resorts and rather poor villages. Along the streets there are dozens of fruit and vegetable stalls, carts overflowing with palmitos, butchers and little pigs already roasted! It's Navidad! The rented guagua runs like a train... the driver isn't even young but indeed, since the odometer isn't working, he probably doesn't realize it.

In the Nagua area even the coast isn't interesting, the sea isn't clean, it has a gloomy color that tends toward brownish, maybe because of the many streams that flow into this area. There are also many rice paddies here and the landscape could recall the Po Valley, if it weren't for the palms in the background. Around 11:00 we reach the Samaná peninsula. The weather suddenly transforms from beautiful to pouring rain! We have to close the windows on the fly (Carlotta's with a pair of pliers because it doesn't have a crank). From the highway at some point, dodging dogs and potholes, the minibus takes the turnoff for Las Terrenas and, as if by magic, the landscape goes from flat to hilly, or rather mountainous. The road climbs between hairpin turns and curves amid splendid vegetation. Forests of palms and jungle. We arrive in a dusty little village: we're in Las Terrenas.

The driver doesn't know our hotel (it's the Viva Samaná, where we booked for Christmas) but we tell him not to worry, we'll take a taxi. And what a price! If I had known they'd ask us for 15 usd to cover 5 kilometers... I'd rather have given it to them!!! The Viva Samaná on our arrival appears deserted.... The welcome is friendly and kind, though not very professional. Italian guests here are clearly in the minority but on the plus side the entertainment, compared to the Viva Dominicus, is made up of quite a few Italian guys, also likable and kind. They'll give us the room at 15:00, as usual, so we go for lunch first. Once we've finished lunch (at the restaurant the service is a pain...), they give us the room key but the beach towels are no longer available (oh well, we'll use ours), they can't give us a second key, the shower arm is broken, the terrace light bulb is burnt out....

Here everyone is friendly, kind, amiable... but organization zero! The room, on the other hand, is very beautiful. It has two double beds on the ground floor and a double bed in a loft in the attic, and it also has a splendid terrace provided with a sofa too. Too bad we're only here for two days. The sea is very beautiful. The weather is so-so.... But we knew that on this part of the coast December isn't the best period. In the afternoon we lounge on the beach, then we have a merengue lesson. Aperitivo at sunset and then we get ready for Christmas evening. When we arrive at the restaurant, the spumante promised to us is finished! The buffet is very beautiful and rich, the service instead is always pitiful.

The wine (as at the Viva Dominicus) is undrinkable, so we order a bottle at our own expense! At the end of dinner we exchange gifts in the Dominican style and have a great time! Then there's the dance show in the theater. They're also good but I'm sleepy and I fall asleep (the theater evidently lulls me to sleep). At midnight, the entertainers have set up a living nativity scene on the beach. Truly very beautiful. Then, again on the beach, people dance merengue and salsa. At one we decide to go to bed even though Carlotta wants to stay and watch people dance. When I get to the room though I find it freezing because they left the air conditioning at 15 degrees!! So I go back out to the beach, where Carlotta and I dance some Latin American dances (she's very good!).

( Las Terrenas)

At 8:30 I wake up, I make myself a good tea that I drink on the terrace and wait for Giampaolo to wake up so we can have breakfast. At breakfast too the service is lacking. The beach lounge chairs are already gone but on the plus side today there are towels! At 11:00 a boat arrives at the beach from which Santa Claus gets off, with a sack full of gifts for the children! In the afternoon, the weather turns wonderful and we even manage to get some lounge chairs. Pura Vida! Towards evening we meet some Hungarians who are here on vacation and chat with them a bit.

When we go back to our room we discover that they haven't even remade the rooms, the terrace light is still burnt out and the shower arm is still broken! So I get angry and go to argue at the reception! Around 20:00 the assistance service kicks into gear, they come to redo our rooms, fill the minibar, repair the shower and lights (too bad we're leaving tomorrow morning!). After dinner Giampaolo and I lie down on the lounge chairs on the beach and... we fall asleep! We wake up chilled and join our kids at the disco, where we stay up late! Tomorrow we have to move to the other end of the peninsula and we still don't know how.... The hotel we booked for tomorrow night doesn't answer the phone... and we don't even know exactly where it is!

( Las Terrenas – Limon – Samaná)

We wake up late so we can't catch the hotel's free shuttle that leaves at 9:00. Oh well... we'll shell out another 15 USD for a taxi for those 5 km to Las Terrenas. But it won't turn out that way, because at check out, the shuttle driver from the Hotel asks us if we already have transport and where we're going.... After some serious negotiating we agree on 45 USD to the hotel in Samaná, which actually isn't in Samaná but is between Samaná and Las Galeras! {Editor's note: after all, we would have spent 15 USD just to get to Las Terrenas and there's no point arguing because even the entertainment staff told us that if they miss the shuttle they have to pay the 15 USD out of their own pockets. In Samaná, or at least in this area, taxis are really expensive!}.

Driving through the town of Las Terrenas, we get the same feeling as the other day: a dusty little town, not particularly interesting and messy. We pass by the Limon Waterfalls area, which we don't go to see though since it takes too long on foot and most of our family doesn't ride horses!! At 11:30 we're still on the inland roads of the Samaná peninsula, where the landscape is beautiful and the nature lush! We enter the town of Samaná which appears modern to us, with a beautiful seaside boulevard, a nice tourist harbor and lots of restaurants. We continue on and arrive at our "ghost" hotel Playa La Tambora, in the locality of Los Cacaos. An all-inclusive owned by Italians found on the internet! It's in a beautiful location, set on a slope that descends toward the sea and ends in a small private cove, complete with bar and beach service. Too bad the sea is rough.

They give us two rooms we could have slept eight in! They're two-story bungalows with two bedrooms and two bathrooms each! (who knows why they gave us two?) all for 40 USD per person all-inclusive! We meet the owner. He's a friendly guy from Veneto. Some of the bungalows in the complex have been sold to tourists who come back year after year. There are also two Italian families with children. The sea is rough so you can't swim.. Anyway there's no time because we have to find transport to go see the Las Galeras area and Playa Rincon! Rental cars: none! Four-wheel motorbikes... we could rent them but they cost a fortune... (and what if I don't know how to drive one?). We ask at the reception. Taxis expensive.... A guy offers to drive us around all afternoon with a truck... and for only 24 USD. A truck? He explains that it's a truck with seats....

So we decide to have the "Rent a Truck" experience too! After lunch (limited choice but decent cooking) we wait for the truck, which turns out to be a real truck, with two rows of padded benches positioned on both sides of the bed and a roof! All for us.... Wow!!! We set off toward Playa Rincon! After forty minutes we take a turnoff and after a few kilometers of dirt road we arrive at the famous Playa Rincon, listed among the 10 most beautiful beaches in the Caribbean. The beach appears deserted. It's wild enough but, at least at first glance, it doesn't appear as beautiful as we had imagined. We take a swim in the sea. Seen from there it takes on more charm, thanks to the lush hills that form its backdrop. From the sea, moreover, you don't even notice the dirt and the trash scattered on the sand. We walk toward the end of the beach.

Toward the far end a river appears, which runs along the beach on the left side until it flows into the Ocean. In this area of the beach there are lots of people, especially Dominicans. Aside from us, we've only seen three or four foreign tourists on the whole beach. On this side there are also a couple of food shacks! They're very simple structures (a piece of the awning that serves as a roof even falls on my head) but the cooking must be delicious. An inviting smell comes from the grills: lobster! Too bad we just had lunch... We just order two coconuts and a couple of beers. And one for our driver (the RENT A TRUCK one!). We stay at Playa Rincon much longer than expected, because the atmosphere is special. There are whole groups of Dominicans eating, drinking, laughing. Of course the music is there and the girls dance merengue in the River. Carlotta and I try to imitate them...

but it's better to dance out of the water because the River is freezing! Some guys play baseball on the beach (one of the sports most loved by Dominicans). There are also children on the beach, probably part of the families who cook though! At five in the afternoon we set off again. We had a really nice afternoon. We give a fisherman a ride to Las Galeras, then continue on. We go as far as Samaná, where we take a little stroll around the center. In Samaná there are also motorbike rickshaws like Asian tuk-tuks! On the way back, our driver downs a nice little bottle of Brugal, with even a stop in the middle of the road to share the toast with a guagua driver, overloaded... with passengers even on the roof! FELIZ NAVIDAD! At the hotel at dinner there are quite a lot of people. This morning it seemed deserted, apparently they were all out on excursions. After dinner there's even a show.

Unbelievable but true! The show is actually performed by the tourists but it's still quite entertaining. Then there's dancing too (of course merengue and bachata)!

(Samaná – Sabana del Mar – Juan Dolio )

At 6:30 I wake up (no choice... we went to bed at eleven.....) I take a walk in the beautiful garden of our hotel to pass the time. There are chicks, hens and even a rooster crowing (I'm almost tempted to bring it under our room's window so the others wake up too!) At eight they open the bar so finally I can drink a hot tea. There are also two kittens, and I almost sit on one of them..... At ten, by taxi, we head to the port of Samaná from where we'll take the ferry (passengers only) to Sabana del Mar! The ferry leaves punctually at 11:00 and they only sell tickets 15 minutes before departure, so I don't understand why they advised us to come here 40 minutes early! The sea is very calm. The ferry arriving from the opposite direction is not full....

It is more!! We leave on time! This time on the "guagua of the sea" (calling it a ferry seems excessive to me) there are also two French tourists! The weather is cloudy but nothing dramatic. After an hour and a half of sailing we disembark at Sabana del Mar. "Disembark"... in the literal sense of the word since, a few dozen meters from the shore, due to low tide, we have to transfer to smaller boats, which take us to shore. Even before setting foot on dry land they offer us, taxi, minibus, guagua..... But it's 12:20 and so it's better to stop and have lunch first! As soon as I say the word "comedor", a friendly gentleman "kidnaps" us and takes us to his restaurant! Behind us a minibus driver follows persistently, offering to take us to Juan Dolio for 2000 pesos. "No thanks, we'll take a guagua". But he follows us anyway. At the restaurant there's a group of Italians with backpacks.

No way?! But we discover they're with Avventure nel Mondo. {Editor's note: Of course, here you have to invent the adventures yourself!} We chat a bit with the group leader, very friendly, and exchange opinions about the trip. From the way she describes the organization I'd say I could very well offer myself as a group leader for Avventure! Talking about the places visited so far, it emerges that at Boca Chica they found it absolutely deserted.... In the evening at nine there wasn't a single place open and barely a soul on the street. We're stunned! We explain to her that in the evening, when we were there, there were dozens of places with tables on the street, restaurants, pubs, music and lots of people. {Editor's note: There are two possibilities: either when we were there it was the town festival or when they were there it was a day of mourning.

A mystery that will remain unsolved!} At this restaurant we eat divinely, without a doubt the best garlic shrimp in all of the Dominican Republic. We also spend next to nothing, compared to the usual, of course. The minibus driver is still there. Surely he's not waiting for us?! I repeat to him that we're taking the guagua. So he lowers the offer to 1500 pesos.... No thanks. We discover that it's the minibus that brought the little group from Avventure nel Mondo here this morning, that's why he insists... he has to head back anyway! Meanwhile we order some Brugal extra viejo, as a digestive. A French family arrives: two adults and two children. The parents are dragging two enormous Samsonites while the children have backpacks. Carlotta asks me why the kids have the backpacks and the parents don't...

simple, because the kids are smarter! We pay the bill and say goodbye, but the minibus driver makes us another offer: 1000 pesos!. It's more than a good price (with the guagua we'd spend at least 600 if not more) so we accept! (Thanks also to Avventure nel Mondo!!)

(Samaná – Sabana del Mar – Juan Dolio )

At 14:00 we set off and at 14:10 all the other members of my family are asleep! We cross the Cordillera Oriental and the weather changes. It becomes beautiful! The road runs between cultivated fields and lots of greenery. This is a farming area. The people here have as their only source of income the cultivation of the fields and livestock breeding. They work the land hard, live in simple wooden houses with sheet metal roofs and hang their laundry practically on the edge of the road. At 15:00 we stop in Hato Mayor, a town located in the center of the Cordillera Oriental, for a coffee and a bathroom break! From Hato Mayor onward the road crosses endless fields of sugarcane. At 16:30 we arrive in Juan Dolio. I tell the driver that the hotel should be around the height of the Shell gas station, at least that's what it says in the Lonely Planet. Nearby he asks a person for directions and....

they talk for at least ten minutes, gesturing and pointing in various directions. (Can it really be that far?...). Then he gets back in the car, turns at the first left and the hotel is right there.... (I wonder what they were talking about??). The Hotel Fior di Loto is owned by an Italian woman. Mara from Bologna, who lives six months a year here and six months a year in India, where she has also created a foundation for the development of female education. The hotel is decorated in Indian style. The background music is Indian. On the second floor there's also a yoga center. The bar area is very relaxing, full of drapes, big sofas and low tables, lots of cushions and.....

a cat! But it's such a big cat that even Carlotta and I are afraid to go near it! Could it be a puma?! No, it's really a cat and its name is Gnogno {Editor's note: It must be the hotel's guard cat} We chose this place because, since we were going to stay in foreign-owned hotels anyway, we thought we might as well choose a special place. It's inexpensive and moreover part of the proceeds go to the Indian foundation. The Foundation, Mara explains to us (she also shows us lots of photos) runs an education program for 230 girls, in a town in Rajasthan. Even the consul of the Dominican Republic is a supporter of this Foundation. We ask her why she hasn't done something for the education of Dominican children? She explains that she tried, but it wasn't possible. Many legal but also social and political problems prevented the realization of the project.

{Editor's note: Probably the fact that in theory schools here exist and are accessible to everyone doesn't give valid grounds for supporting a project to support education} The room for four is a bit small, but after all we just have to sleep in it. It's very bright and airy. Having put down our backpacks we go to see the central beach, which is a disappointment! The sea is very rough and also rather dirty! They explain to us that there's been a violent storm and, when the rivers are in flood they dump all sorts of trash into the sea, which consequently stays like that for a couple of days! The beach is full of little tables along its entire length... are they all bars? No... they rent chairs and tables but you have to bring your own drinks and food. So we continue on. Further along a guy stops us asking if we want something to drink.... We tell him that if it's possible here, gladly.

We order two beers, a coke and a fruit juice. It's full of Dominican tourists having picnics. Some are even equipped for barbecues. We ask for the bill. 600 pesos!......18 USD!! Is he crazy?! He explains that we also have to pay the rental of the chairs and the table. But excuse me... for 15 minutes? I get furious and stop one of the tourist police. I ask him if for him it's normal to pay 18 USD for 4 drinks. At first he tells me no but then he starts talking with the table guy and they come to an agreement... The policeman, while I'm beside myself, tries to explain to me that I have to pay the rental of the chairs and the table! I insist because in my opinion he should have warned us beforehand like the others did. We're foreigners and we're not expected to know the customs of the place. But there's nothing to be done.

In the end we agree on 520 pesos, which is still always too much! So much the worse for them since surely tomorrow we won't set foot here! And there's no need anyway because, on the west side relative to the hotel, there's a fabulous bar-restaurant with beach lounge chairs available free of charge to customers who consume! {Editor's note: us!!!} We'll come here tomorrow! The little beach is moreover fantastic, sheltered from the waves and very clean. On our way back to the hotel we stop at a supermarket to buy cigarettes. They ask me for 60 pesos.... I ask if they've gone up?! They tell me no, that's the price.... "But we've always paid 50 pesos all over the Dominican Republic?" The lady looks at me very seriously and says: "Impossible." Let's drop it.... This little town so far hasn't made a good impression on us! We go back to the hotel, get ready and go out for dinner.

Restaurant La grotta Azzurra. The cuisine is Italian (not bad actually) but the ownership certainly isn't, otherwise there wouldn't be all those spelling mistakes on the menu! It's also reasonably priced. After dinner we all go to bed!

(Juan Dolio )

I wake up early... and by seven I'm already in the lobby. Mara is already there so we have some great chats and she tells me how her volunteer work in India goes. Meanwhile I sip a good tea. All my family members are asleep. And they'll keep sleeping, until 10:00... I spend three hours chatting, first with Mara, then with some Belgian tourists and finally with some French people who arrived by plane last night! Finally, at the dawn of 10:30 the Grignani family manages to get out of the hotel! We go to the restaurant-bar with a beach that we discovered last night. It's gorgeous! The water will turn out to be a bit shallow for long swims but it's clear and blue! The beach facilities are very comfortable and enjoyable! The lounge chairs are real beds with canopies, curtains and sunshades. There are also rocking lounge chairs, and lounge chairs in the middle of the water (like stilts).

They also give you towels. The drinks are in fact a bit expensive but nothing so excessive compared to the other places in the Dominican Republic. Making a comparison with the quality of service I'd say they're more than fair! They even bring you little bottles of water in an ice bucket! At 12:30 the sky suddenly clouds over. So we decide it's time to eat! Carlotta Matteo and I eat a delicious fish ceviche! They then continue with a plate of ravioli and pizza {Editor's note. But in Juan Dolio do they only serve Italian cuisine? Maybe too many Italian tourists come to this resort?} After lunch we go back to the sun, which in the meantime has peeked back out. We try to snorkel but the water is too shallow and the rocks are just below the surface, also full of beautiful black sea urchins! I only spot a couple of little fish: one black and one yellow.

I do find, however, a nice pair of Giorgio Armani sunglasses. In all likelihood they're even authentic! In the afternoon we meet a family from Riccione, she's from Riccione, he's Argentinian and they have two children plus their son's friend. They've already been here 6 days and I don't envy them.... They're friendly, so we end the afternoon chatting with them. Their impression of the Dominican Republic is very similar to ours. We decide in the evening to have dinner together and to look for a typical Dominican restaurant! We arrange to meet at their guest house at eight. They direct us to Gaucho and, after crossing an uncultivated field (as a shortcut), we arrive at the highway where a few meters away is the restaurant! You won't believe it but the Gaucho restaurant has a list posted of pizzas, pasta dishes, etc.

The cook is Italian and is cooking a grilled steak that is slowly carbonizing! We head back to town disappointed and go to Sueno. Here too there's only Italian cuisine but at least the place is more characteristic. After dinner we decide to go for a few dances at a disco but the town is dead! The only disco is one at an all-inclusive where they ask us for 18 dollars per person to get in, justifying it with the all-inclusive. We try to negotiate the price but, in the meantime, Giampaolo goes in to see the place and discovers that there's no one there. So we abandon the negotiation and go to bed.

(Juan Dolio – S.Pedro/Macoris – Cuevas M. – Bayahibe}

Wake-up at 7:00 for everyone!!! Today we have to move to Bayahibe and stop to see the Cave of Wonders, located between San Pedro de Macoris and La Romana (not mentioned by the Lonely Planet!). We haven't yet decided how to get there because we don't know whether the entrance to the caves is near the highway where the guaguas stop or not.... and since we have our backpacks with us we wouldn't want to risk having to walk kilometers! We try asking Mara if there's a taxi that can take us from here to the Cuevas and then wait for us... The taxi turns out to be expensive enough so we tell her we'll try with the guagua. So she tells us that, if we don't mind the taxi being a bit banged up, she knows a cheap one!!! That's fine with us.

In fact, to take us from there to the caves (with a stop in San Pedro at the post office), wait for us with the backpacks in the car and then take us to the guagua stop for La Romana, he only wants 24 USD! OK!!! Mara explains though that he can't come pick us up here in front of the hotel (to keep the peace with the taxi drivers of the Juan Dolio cooperative) so we have to go to the highway to wait for him. NO PROBLEM! On the highway we wait a few minutes, fending off the various guaguas that in the meantime stop to pick us up, and then our taxi-man arrives! The car is not a little banged up... but it runs.

We stop in San Pedro de Macoris to buy stamps and mail the postcards at the post office (today is the last useful day since from tomorrow until January 2 everything is closed!) The clerk is friendly but they make us stick the stamps on ourselves, all of them one by one; then they stamp them in front of our eyes. We've already experienced the same scene at the post office in Sri Lanka! The postcards are 51! Then, since some of the postcards are going to Italy and the rest to Hungary, they ask us "Donde sta l'Hungary?" We look at them in disbelief (they don't know at the post office?) "It's in Europe!" we answer. {Editor's note: who knows if the postcards will ever arrive???} Our taxi driver, Delimon, is friendly! He even has a radio in the car... (not that it's a very strange optional feature for the Dominican Republic but judging by the car...).

We arrive at the Cuevas de las Maravillas around 10:00. {Editor's note: You could very easily come here by guagua because the entrance is right on the highway, the offices are well organized and they could hold our backpacks and moreover on these roads there are lots of guaguas, big and nice and comfortable!!} After about twenty minutes we start the tour accompanied by a truly kind and friendly guide. They even let our taxi driver in, who seems really happy to be able to see the caves! Before entering the caves you pass through a very well-kept botanical garden! He tells us about the various plants, including the Yuca, from which the Tainos extracted the flour for baking. The caves are fantastic!!! We're not cave enthusiasts but I must say that these are truly beautiful, well kept and excellently organized. The lighting system is very modern. The temperature is cool but not cold.

Our guide explains every detail to us, including about the maintenance works. Only 30% of the caves is open to the public, the remaining 70% is still closed to visitors; bats and "cacate" (mud) live there (and... yes, we'd heard that they like the dark...) Toward the end of the visit, we reach an underground lake, near which, on the walls, there are several pictograms from the Taino era. The cave, however, seems not to have served as a Taino dwelling but was rather a temple of worship for the dead. The Tainos believed in reincarnation and many pictograms have this theme as their basis. A legend says that when a tribal chief died, his favorite wife was buried alive at his side, so that, on the passage to the afterlife, they could still be together. I timidly ask whether the favorite man of a deceased woman suffered the same fate but...

a great laugh follows! We leave a good tip for our guide, because he was truly special, and we take our leave. I don't understand why these caves aren't marked in the Lonely Planet guide (latest edition), since they've been open for over three years!!! On the way out of the caves our taxi driver offers to take us for only 15 USD extra, directly to Playa Dominicus. How can you not accept an offer like that? So we set off! The weather is nice. We hope it lasts... since in the last few days it hasn't been very generous! At 12:30 we arrive at the Hotel Bocayate, in Bayahibe, in the Dominicus area! It's nice and the rooms are very well kept (when we booked them two weeks ago we hadn't seen them because they were occupied)! We put on our swimsuits and head straight to the beach! We eat at the only Dominican-owned restaurant in all of Bayahibe....

But here too the cuisine is closer to international flavors than Dominican ones... Our garlic shrimp, for example, or Carlotta's fried "colorado," are certainly not comparable to those we enjoyed so much in Sabana del Mar! These taste almost like nothing. {Editor's note: Perhaps the exaggerated presence of Italian tourists from the nearby all-inclusives forces the restaurateurs to adapt to their tastes, adjusting garlic, chili and various spices differently, to please the refined palate of the average Italian? But it's wrong... because that way they end up not cooking well either Italian or Dominican! I'm very picky and critical about cooking (since I cook very well) but abroad I usually prefer to enjoy the local cuisine both because I eat Italian all year round and because cuisine is also part of a country's culture.

But it has to be done well!} After lunch Matteo and Carlotta go to buy two air mattresses, so we can have fun on the waves (today the sea is a bit rough here too). There are no lounge chairs for rent so we make do by spreading our towels on the beach. Carlotta and I, toward late afternoon, along the beach and through the Palace, go to snoop around at Dominicus Beach! Compared to two weeks ago there's an incredible crowd.... The lounge chairs are piled one right against the other, empty glasses everywhere, bar tables dirty with ashtrays overflowing with cigarette butts.... What a difference! Since we still have the bracelets on our wrists Carlotta says to me: "Shall we try to order something at the bar?"....Let's try....

Two cocktails! We sit at the little table to admire the sunset and I even get the crazy idea to ask a gentleman, sitting at the table next to us along with a group of Italians and Americans, for a cigarette. He gets up, very kindly, and offers me a cigarette, he even lights it for me... he even pays me a compliment... I timidly, wanting to apologize, tell him that I'm sorry, but I left mine at the Palace.... Then I realize that the guy in question isn't even wearing the bracelet and all the others have the VIP one! AND AWAY WE GO... I must have run into none other than the mega-manager of the Viva?!! Uh oh uh oh... Are they going to throw me out now?! Carlotta and I burst out laughing...

We drink our cocktail, retrieve our air mattress (and yes, because we brought that too!) and head back to our beach! There we get acquainted with some Italians who have been coming back here to Bayahibe for three or four years. Now they've bought an apartment that will be ready next year. They spend the day on the free beach of Bayahibe lying on towels and the older kids instead hang out at Dominicus Beach, where it's also possible to buy a day pass bracelet! {Editor's note: If I really had to buy an apartment in a seaside resort, the Domi[nican Republic...]

(Bayahibe/Dominicus )

At 7:00 I'm already out and about... everyone's asleep. The little beach bar is still closed... I go back to town but there too everything's closed. Finally at 8:00 a bar opens and I can drink something hot. When I get back to the hotel, after withdrawing some money from the ATM, I find Giampaolo awake so we go have breakfast. Of the hotel owners there's no sign at all! Around 9:00 we wake Matteo and Carlotta and head to the beach. Since yesterday we arranged with the owner of the little restaurant to get us, for this morning at 9:30, a boat to take us to the natural pool (where the starfish are), we don't want to be late...

But the worry is pointless because he hasn't gotten us anything at all! Not even the lobsters for lunch.... We negotiate a boat with a guy with several kilos of gold hanging around his neck, but the negotiation is too tough. For less than 100 USD for three/four hours, we can't get him to budge! Before leaving, the restaurant owner asks us what we want to eat for lunch "So," he says, "when you get back it'll all be ready!" Carlotta decides not to come because she's afraid of a storm, since black cloud banks are appearing on the horizon. The boatman is very kind and also friendly. The trip is wonderful. The natural pool a bit less so... It would even be beautiful but there are dozens of big boats, hundreds of tourists, loud music and lots of noise! Poor starfish...

The cheerful vacationers also drink rum, included in the package......but our boatman has rum too and he offers us some!! Very few starfish, in fact very rare! Giampaolo, who was here 30 years ago, is even upset by it.

BAYAHIBE – NATURAL POOL

Finally, around noon, all the boats of the excursionists leave and only we three and our boatman remain. So we can swim and snorkel in complete peace. In total we only see three starfish! I, on the other hand, find an enormous conch shell, which originally must have contained an enormous 'lambi'. Around 13:30 we return to the base, leave a good tip for our friendly captain, and head to the restaurant. Of course nothing is ready.... It'll only be ready after more than an hour (so much for having asked us in advance what we wanted for lunch!). On the plus side, he found us lobster! So we have lunch based on fried fish, wine and lobster (the fried fish today is cooked very well!!!). After lunch beach, sea and sun! Toward evening Carlotta makes conquests on the beach: three boys from Santo Domingo, with whom she even exchanges phone numbers.

Actually the sister of one of them is also there, to whom Matteo "is pleasing".... but he vanishes! Then we also meet the parents. A friendly couple who ask if one of these evenings we can have dinner together! What a shame, we're leaving tomorrow morning. I'm really sorry because it was a good opportunity to exchange opinions with a Dominican family. We've met so few Dominicans in our whole stay, aside obviously from taxi drivers, tour guides, boatmen, cooks, etc.. We go back to the hotel at six and by seven we're already out! We have to buy souvenirs to give to friends! (always at the last minute). Unfortunately the nice souvenirs, like the wooden sculptures, are too heavy and bulky... So we limit ourselves to a couple of little larimar jewels, rum, cigars and a few naif paintings.

Dinner is booked at our hotel! The cook has prepared for us one of the best "ceviches" ever eaten in all of South America. It's so good that I even have them bring me the tub where he prepared it (and where some is left over...) to empty it. After all... even the owners don't want to taste it! A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THE COOK! After dinner we all go to a disco in the town of Bayahibe, about 10 kilometers away. You can take the Viva Dominicus shuttle. It's free and is available not only to the Viva but to the whole Dominicus area! The disco is nice and we get home at two thirty!!! Guys... tomorrow wake-up at seven!

(Bayahibe – Higuey – Punta Cana/Bavaro)

Seven-something.... we wake up. We drag Matteo and Carlotta out of bed (who rightly left the room door open) and set off. We stop along the small commercial street to get a coffee at the little Italian bar, but it's closed! The owner though, who sees us, makes us coffee and tea anyway. THANKS! By nine we're already on a guagua to Higuey, which on the first leg is almost empty but about halfway it fills up with Dominicans, friendly ones too. They mistake us for Americans {Editor's note: You've got to wonder if after living abroad we've lost the look of Italians?}. In Higuey we change guagua. This is a 50-person bus and looks more like a Caribe Tours bus than a guagua! We tell the ticket taker that we need to go to Bavaro and he says he'll ask the driver if they can make a detour. And they do it!!!..

How kind! They drop us right in front of the entrance to the Barcelo complex! And here's the funny part... because from the entrance to the various resorts it'll be one or two kilometers on foot! At the gatehouse they check our reservation and then ask us if we're walking... "Is there any other way?" - I ask - "No!" - they answer.... So we start walking. But after a few minutes a Barcelo shuttle picks us up and takes us to the reception of the Bavaro Beach. This time we've organized ourselves so I kept a separate bag with towels, flip-flops and swimsuits, since the room, I assume, will also be given to us at 15:00 here. However, no! Here they give us the room right away. Better. The Bavaro doesn't appear as well kept, the beach is full of seaweed... (don't they clean it?! ). The sea is rather rough and the water is murky. There's probably been a storm here too.

The weather doesn't promise anything good. The entertainment seems non-existent but probably, since it's New Year's Eve, they're preparing this evening's show. After walking the long beach back and forth, we go to lunch at the central restaurant of the Beach. The buffet has a large variety of dishes, the food is good, the wine is at least drinkable and the service is more than satisfactory! After lunch big black and menacing clouds start gathering above us! At a certain point the wind comes up too... and it's so strong that we begin to suspect there's some hurricane coming. They explain to us that for a couple of days the weather has been changeable... it goes from beautiful weather to violent storms! {Editor's note: Now we understand why the beach appeared so badly kept!!}.

After going back and forth all afternoon from the beach to the bar awning, we go to our room! I call the Punta Cana airport to make sure tomorrow evening's flight is confirmed but.... they tell me that Martinair has no evening flights to Amsterdam but only in the afternoon and with a different flight number!! I get worried (of course) but after various phone calls the answer is always the same. I decide to postpone solving the problem until tomorrow morning. Tonight is New Year's Eve!!!! We go to dinner. At the central restaurant there's a very long line, so we decide to go to the restaurant on the beach, since tonight's menu is the same everywhere anyway! Tonight also happens to be the anniversary of the Barcelo chain (75 years) so they've even given us gifts: a bottle of extra viejo Rum and a Dominican Collector's Doll! The line at the beach restaurant was shorter...

but we did our math wrong because, since the restaurant is smaller and also more romantic, people linger longer! After half an hour in fact we're still there. Soon we'll all be a bit drunk too because, to make up for the delay, they keep offering us prosecco (even good prosecco!!!). The dinner will be excellent! Various appetizers, avocado soup, grilled lobster (a whole one each!), sorbet, grilled beef fillet and desserts. The wines are also excellent! Only Matteo, though, manages to eat everything. The only sore point is that we finish dinner almost at midnight and so the show, which must have been very beautiful, we don't get to see. Of course if the weather had allowed, they probably would have set up the dinner poolside... but it's cold, rainy and windy. We go to bed relatively early.

From the room's terrace I throw out my old sandals (it's good luck to throw away something old on New Year's Day, right?) HAPPY 2007!

(Punta Cana/Bavaro - Amsterdam)

I wake up at 7:30 and call Martinair in Amsterdam. They confirm that tonight's flight is there and on time. I call the Punta Cana airport again where in fact they tell me everything is ok. So were yesterday evening's employees already drunk? Already celebrating New Year's Eve?? They even made me worry!! I go to the reception to ask if we can keep the room until 17:00. No problem, you pay a difference of 25 dollars, in total. The weather unfortunately is still bad and the rain doesn't leave us. After lunch we manage to enjoy an hour of sun (a miracle!), then we pack our bags. At 17:00 we take a taxi and go to the airport.