The Life of a Gringo

The process of clearing into the Dominican Republic was quite interesting. Shortly after arrival in the harbor we were boarded by three men. Clearly one was representative of the Navy since he was in uniform, not quite sure about the others but one spoke English so he asked all the questions. The main focus was weapons;

Were we carrying any type of gun, hand gun, rifle, machine gun, etc? The other US boats apparently were not questioned as thoroughly on the topic of weapons – maybe it had to do with fact that we have Detroit on our transom? In any case, they were all quite nice and appreciated our clumsy attempt to use some Spanish.

Once cleared by the Navy we were welcomed ashore to continue the immigration process. We headed over to the dinghy dock with boat documentation, passports and cash. Our first sight was a large sow, her babies and several dogs hanging out on the pier, we have since become accustom to seeing goats, chicken, horses and donkeys. As we approached the immigration area there were several Dominicans sitting outside in the shade, all were friendly and greeted us warmly. We were invited in to the first office where we paid $10 each for our tourist cards, then moved to the next office and paid $63 to allow us into the country with the boat. Next the agriculture office where Gladys (looking beautiful in her juice can like hair rollers) asked about animals on board. We have none and paid another $10, not sure if one pays more when they do have pets or just $10 for everyone. Then back to another desk in the first office to pay yet another $10, which we didn’t quite understand but paid never the less. The Dominicans were helpful and efficient with the immigration process and they continue to greet us each day as we pass their offices on our way into town.

Our first stop in town was Wendy’s bar where gringos are welcome and promised the coldest beers in town. Wendy is an impressive business woman and we do frequent her establishment for cold beers, movies, zoomba, poker, hand washing and all forms of socializing and acclimating to the DR.

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The people here are very friendly and seem genuinely happy to have us visit. Language is of course a barrier and it didn’t take long to realize that “Dos cervesas por favor” and “Donde esta la bibliotheca?” would not get us too far. We have both been spending time each day with our Rosetta Stone program in an effort to expand our abilities. We also try very hard to use Spanish when around town and often practice with each other. Initially when using Spanish we were just proud of our effort, hardly aware of any response. We now listen carefully and attempt to continue the conversation as best we can. Occasionally someone understands us and responds in Spanish, often times they just look at us quizzically. We did both take Spanish in high school and hope to make big progress during our travels. We always feel bad that English is our only language and see this as an opportunity to improve the situation somewhat.

Many of the Bahama cruisers head north and back to the states for the summer. Those of us who continue on are either looking for a good hurricane hole to wait out hurricane season or pushing far enough south to be out of the hurricane box by July. We all plan to explore the Caribbean starting in November. Luperon is considered a good hole as is Salinas in Puerto Rico. Our current thought is Puerto Rico for the season but we will see how things play out over the next few weeks before making a decision.

We plan to spend several weeks here exploring and watching weather trends. We miss the clear inviting water of the Bahamas along with the long sandy beaches for exploring. The harbor here is not a place to swim although there is a beach accessible via a short dinghy ride then about a mile walk. We do have access to lots of restaurants and some shops here and the prices are significantly less expensive than the Bahamas. We also experience much more interaction with the Dominicans than we did with the Bahamians which we do enjoy.

We have been pretty busy since arriving. There are many cruiser activities along with some beautiful and interesting places to explore.

Baseball is a very important part of Dominican life and every Saturday there are youth and adult games along with a Dominican versus Gringo game.

The winner of this game buys beer and soda afterward, curiously the gringos often win. The games are fun, competitive and flexible – 4 or 5 outs to an inning, great fly ball catches are fumbled and dropped by the Dominicans, several Dominican kids act as designated base runners and sometimes are on first base before the ball is hit… A fun time for all involved then everyone walks to a nearby bar where language barriers don’t seem to exist.

One morning we rented motorbikes along with 7 other cruisers, this was both intimidating and comical. Lynn, a 70 year old ex pat living here organized the bikes and was our guide. The bikes were not necessarily rental material – just a way for their owners to earn a few pesos. None of our group had ridden a motorcycle for several decades but all did well. We set out from town where the locals all seemed to have been aware of our group and stayed clear while wishing us well.

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Once outside of Luperon we saw very little traffic other than cows and donkeys so we were fairly safe, don’t think we would ride bikes in any of the big cities. We explored an area that is believed to have been settled by Columbus in 1493. There was a museum but all in Spanish with only spanish speaking guides so were lacking in details but it was interesting. The scenery was very pretty and we stopped in a beach resort for a swim and lunch on the return journey.

With the same group of cruisers we arranged a mini bus and driver to take us to the Damajaqua waterfalls about an hour from Luperon. There are 27 falls which you can hike to the top of then journey down by either sliding of jumping at various spots. Since there has been little rainfall in the past several weeks, it was recommended that we only go up to number 12. We took their advice and headed off with two guides for our group, this turned out to be just the right amount for our group. The guides are very good at what they do along with being very entertaining, not unlike some raft guides we know. Gary had a real talent for making animal and bird noises in addition to making bracelets from palm fronds for all the ladies. We had a great time and highly recommend visiting the falls if you’re in the DR. Mary was particularly proud of herself for having done both jumps at the falls, she figured she had to follow through after all the adventures in the Grand Canyon last month.

The exchange rate is approximately 40 pesos to one US dollar and pesos go a long way here. Our mooring ball is about the equivalent of $40 US, we paid $300 for a monthly mooring in Florida. The quart size bottle of El Presidente beer is 90 pesos ($2) and a chicken dinner with salad, rice and plantains runs about 125 pesos ($3). Tonight we’re going to Wendy’s bar to watch a movie where we will have a lasagna dinner for 150 pesos, about $ 3.50. Wendy has a big screen tv and shows movies twice a week, her brother makes popcorn in a pot and hands it out no charge. Water quality in the harbor is not very good so we do not run our water maker but Papoo and Handy Andy offer a service to bring out sealed water bottles to fill our tanks for about $10. Luperon is a very inexpensive place to hang out and offers lots of entertainment, not a bad place to stay for a bit.

We are currently sitting tight on our mooring ball waiting for some high winds to settle down then we plan to rent a car and head out for a week or so to see more of the country.