The story of the farting motoconcho, and other things of that nature.....

El Limon waterfall on the Samana Peninsula

Ahh, the Dominican Republic, what can I say?  It's different, it's nice, it's unusual.  We have now become somewhat locals of the country after now being here for 23 days with another 11 still to go.  Our week in Santo Domingo was eye opening.  We had no idea how little english anyone spoke, nor the amount of harrassment you would receive from various vendors while walking down the street.  We weren't ready for the poverty that we saw, nor the happy, party-go-lucky people we would meet.

Our first day involved walking around the Colonial Zone, which history shows, was the first established European settlement of the Americas.  Columbus arrived here in 1492 and there are still several ruins and buildings in this area that prove it.

The reason we ended up in the DR in the first place was so I could make an appointment at the US embassy to get a US travel Visa.  This was an experience.  My cabdriver didn't speak a word of english and took me to the wrong place before I ended up at the consulate.  I walked through the door after being searched several times, and after walking through a throng of people begging outside.  Once inside, I had to make my way through a sea of about 300 Dominicans.  I'm not sure what they were all doing there at 8am as I'm pretty sure they weren't US citizens.  I guess there must be a lottery of some sort to obtain admission to the US, or something along those lines.  I had an 8:30am appointment that ended up starting at 12:30 and lasted a whole 2 minutes in duration.  But my visa was approved and my passport arrived safe and sound 5 days later.

Santo Domingo is full of culture, history and party people, but 1 week was enough and Rick and I jumped on a local bus up to the north coast to a place called Cabarete.  The scene here is more touristy with many all inclusive hotels, lots of europeans and beautiful beaches.  One of the ways to get around this town is on a motoconcho.  These extremely diligent motorbike drivers will usually scream "moto" at you as you walk down the street.  We usually submit because a) it costs about $1 to go about 3km, b) it's pretty fun and they are actually very good drivers, and c) you just want them to shut up and leave you alone so you can enjoy your holiday!  And the bonus?? the two of you might be on the back of a motoconcho, enjoying a lovely ride home in the pouring rain, not understanding a word the driver is saying, and then he farts.  He doesn't hide it, he's not embarrassed.  In fact, he's quite proud and mutters something in spanish along the lines of "take that gringos", and laughs.  But it's okay, at the end of the ride he gave me his card to make sure we could have the pleasure again.

So we are enjoying our time here.  The people don't have much but they are happy.  We've met some great ex-pats and other fellow travellers.  Right now, we are trying to cleanse our livers while we take in some action sports and improve our spanish.

Adios for now, amigos!