Janette's Santo Domingo Blog

www.colonialzone-dr.com

South Lake Tahoe

I went to South Lake Tahoe last weekend, en route to the lovely town of Fallon, Nevada, to see my dad. Every time I visit South Lake, I fall in love with it again. There's something about coming around the corner at the top of Echo Summit when you see the valley appear before you.

I highly recommend The Beacon Bar and Restaurant at Camp Richardson on Highway 89 just past the Y. They have live music on summer days from Wed-Sun. You get to dig your feet right in the sand, order a Rumrunner ($8, thanks a lot) and groove away. If you get hot, simply pad down to the beach and take a dip in the lake. Or you can set up your lounge chairs and picnic stuff outside the Beacon on the beach. They even have a water taxi which takes you from the Marina at Ski Run Blvd. so if you're hotel is near there, take the water taxi over and back, no need to drive. They also have a cute cable car-style trolley that goes overland.

I highly don't recommend The Elizabeth Lodge at Pioneer Trail and Hwy 50. $66 and I had to leave the lights on for fear of cockroaches coming out of all the gaping holes from dried up caulking peeling away from the wall. Ick.

Reflections on the DR, now that I'm back

My overall impression of the Dominican Republic is that it's a fair place to visit. I personally think the best way to go is to go to one of the all-inclusives. The reason I go to developing countries is that I get to spend more time exploring because it's normally cheaper. But in the DR, anywhere I went, I felt ripped off. It seemed like a struggle just to pay normal prices for things.

Taxis were at least as expensive as what you'd pay in San Francisco area; meals were also expensive. There's a whopping tax and service charge amounting to about 20%! Even drinks weren't all that cheap, around $3 which is what you can get at home on a happy hour.

It was also hotter and more humid than I thought it would be.

Vendors were pushy, maybe because it was slow season and there was a hint of desperation in the air. They also initially quoted prices that were ridiculous. I paid $5 for a coconut candle, down from $8 but saw them in a little store later on for about $2. I paid $5 for 2 cigars, could have gotten them WAY cheaper. Go to the grocery stores for things like candles, spice sets, Mamajuana (the male aphrodisiac cocktail). They even had those little things you crush spices in in the grocery store for far cheaper than what they sold for in shops. If you do go into the shops, bargain hard. You have to be heartless just to get an OK price where you don't feel completely ripped off. This is one of those things that annoy me wherever I go. At least in Thailand you actually got a deal after pushing people off of you.

Buses were reliable and safe in the DR, although as I mentioned, don't use their bathroom. Taxis usually look like the door is going to fall off any minute so I feel at least as safe in an air conditioned big bus.

Flying in to San Francisco, I glanced out at our brown hills and felt a strong feeling of love for my country. A lady from New York behind me said, "it looks brown to me," and I just smiled. The next best thing to seeing what the rest of the world lives like is coming home to appreciate all that we have here too.

The memories of cockroaches, dripping sweat, mosquito bites, and lonely dinners staring at nothing will soon fade and all the good memories of the DR will remain. Happy travels...

Dominican Republic - Cabarete's Cool Beach Bars

Cabarete is on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. It's known for kitesurfing and windsurfing. It really is a great base for exploring the DR. There are plenty of tour companies in town that can take you on a myriad of excursions. Iguana Mama is supposedly the king. They're the only company that takes you to all 27 waterfalls in Damajagua. Other tours include white water rafting, hiking, and snorkeling tours, to name a few.

I stayed at the Hotel Alegria which I booked online before I left. They weren't set up for credit cards so I was a little nervous that my reservation wasn't going to be there. It was though, no problems. I don’t recommend this hotel though, mostly because it’s located at the far end of town. You have to walk about 1/4 mile each way to get anywhere.

The first room I was shown seemed clean enough but had a lot of mosquitos flying around. I asked if they had a room with AC and they did, for $5 more -- well worth it! It was clean and the sheets smelled just like my grandma’s used to. I did see one big huge cockroach in the bathroom on my last night when I came in. I killed it and threw it in the toilet only to watch it not go down the toilet. Four flushes later and fairly freaking out, I went to get the hotel guy to get it out of there for me. He came and picked it out of the toilet for me. Ick!

On to better topics: What's nice about eating or drinking in Cabarete is that you get to dig your feet into the sand and watch the sunset while eating or taking in a cold beverage.

The beach scene at night is VERY cool, aka South Beach Miami or LA. Some places have beanbags on the sand; some have cool white canvas lounge chairs. All restaurants and bars have candles flickering away in bamboo, ceramic, or coconut candle holders. My favorite beach bar/restaurants were Onnos and Bambu Bar. They both play chill music which adds even more to the atmosphere. There was another restaurant/bar with an Asian theme that looked very nice as well. In fact, all of the hip bars are right there next to one another. This area would be a really fun place for a group of good friends.

One slight annoyance is that there were a LOT of prostitutes (they outnumbered tourists, or came close to it) hanging around in these areas at night. If you're not bothered by it, it makes for interesting people-watching.

I would recommend spending at least 4 days in Cabarete. I would definitely come back here if I'm ever in the DR again.

DR: Christopher Columbus' Footsteps in Santo Domingo

On the way back up to the north side of the island (after Bayahibe), I went to Santo Domingo for one night. It wasn't nearly long enough. Santo Domingo is a very interesting town. The sights are amazing and you can imagine Christopher Columbus and Sir Francis Drake running down the very street you're walking on, looting, raping, and burning churches. (Evidently, Sir Francis Drake burned almost every Catholic church in town, as he hated Catholicism.)

I stayed at Casa Dona Elvira ($60 for the loft, including tax and breakfast), an absolutely beautiful hotel in an old brick building. You lift and drop the knocker on the huge wooden door from what feels like a sort of isolated street. A man opens the door like it’s his own home and when you enter, you feel safe and in a different world. It's peaceful, quiet and beautiful inside. The small pool is gorgeous and very cool and refreshing. For rooms, after my little hiccup which follows, I don't recommend the loft, although it's adorable in a treehouse sort of way. The stairs are very very steep, like a ladder. Fine for me but if you have any issues.... don’t try it. There was an AC in the upstairs part of the loft which didn't reach the downstairs very well. I was completely in love with this hotel until -- I felt something in my hair in the middle of the night so I reached back and thought I had left a bobbypin in my hair. I forgot about it for awhile until a little while later, I felt something moving around up there. I turned on the light and there ran a HUGE cockroach from my head to under the pillow, then back into the recessed brick wall at the head of the bed from which it evidently came. I screamed, shaking my head over and over. There never was a bobbypin in my hair. It must have been the darn thing's leg the first time I felt it. This all freaked me out so much I ended up sleeping on the small futon downstairs wrapped in my sarong for the rest of the night.

Santo Domingo is home of the first operating church in the New World . There are many interesting museums, and the oldest military fort in the New World sits on the banks of the river. There are lots of restaurants everywhere. I ate at the Meson d'Bari, very nice creole food.

I met a girl at the bar of the above restaurant named Janette who is from Mars. Mars, Philadelphia. She says is like that on purpose to make people do a double-take. She helps out travelers with her website, www.colonialzone-dr.com which has a lot of information about the DR.

She introduced me to the Supercolmado, a mini market/bar/scene where locals hang out. Supercolmados, or just Colmados, are all over the Dominican Republic. Evidently, car washes are party spots as well in this country. Janette also showed me an after hours bar that I don't know the name of, or if it even had a name. Very hip. It was a house, basically, with sitting rooms and an outdoor patio. There's even a pole (as in pole-dancing pole). You have to ring the doorbell when you arrive and it makes you feel like a moviestar.

If I come back, I would definitely like to spend more time in Santo Domingo.

Day One of Trip to DR: Food Poisoning

At the beginning of my trip to Dominican Republic, I had a Radelism. Radelisms are strange, uncanny, outlandish things that only happen to me. I got food poisoning. Not from the lukewarm chicken, not from slightly undercooked eggs at breakfast, not from the restaurant with the rat turds in the bathroom. Not even in the DR.

I got food poisoning from Burger King at LAX while leaving the US of A. Yes, my friends, this is typical. I had just settled down for a long winter's nap (wait, wrong story) ... I had just taken 1/2 an Ambien so I could sleep on the Red Eye from LAX to Puerto Rico, the 2nd leg of my flight. In my window seat, I suddenly did three of those burps that have substance, you know, where you have to swallow quickly. My stomach was really starting to hurt and I thought uh oh.

About 45 minutes later, I had to wake up my 2 seatmates and run to the bathroom at which time I threw up about 3 times and had diarreah. I was all sweaty and hot. The next episode happened about an hour later. Half asleep, staggering down the aisle, bumping into all those nice people trying to sleep, it was hell. Then I got the chills for about an hour.

I told the flight attendants and they asked if they needed to land the plane. I said no don't be silly, it's not swine flu or anything. In the back of my head, though, that was exactly what I was thinking. Luckily, it passed and the next morning, I was weak but fine. Whew!