Hispaniola (the official name of the island which the DR and Haiti occupy) was the first site of a European settlement in the new world. Columbus first landed about 15km from Luperon and his fleet stayed in Luperon Bay which is where we have been since July. This week, we ventured over to La Isabela which is the archeological site for the town that Columbus founded and settled. At the site, there is a small museum and visitors can walk through the ruins. When we arrived, we were met by our guide who spoke no English so with our level of Spanish skills, we knew we were headed for an adventure. He pulled out his phone and as we went through the museum, he would type single words such as “hinges” or “weapons” to explain what we were seeing in the museum. Needless to say, hinges and weapons are easily identified without interpretation so we just smiled a lot and then gave him a tip for his time. The ruins were well preserved and we saw Columbus’ home’s foundation and a really cool cemetery. Following La Isabela, we headed over to a place we had heard about called Fricolandia. The pictures on the website looked interesting so we thought it would be worth a stop. Upon arrival, we realized that while the cruise ships may not be sailing, their tourist trap destinations are still available for folks with dinero in their pockets. We paid our “entrance fee” which included swimming by the cliffs and really loud Dominican music. I am pretty sure that no one else in the place paid the tourist fee but since there have been no gringos in sight since March, we figured we’d support the local economy. We ordered lunch which turned out to be reasonably priced and actually tasted good so we were pleasantly surprised. While eating, we watched many of the locals jump from platforms into the water. We noted that the majority of them were wearing life vests so we assumed the area must be deep or the currents strong. After changing into our swimsuits, we decided to take on the swimming adventure. We entered the water through the cave area instead of jumping off the platform so we could make sure we did not need life vests. As we stepped into the water in the cave, the water depth started at 1 inch and possibly made it to 12 inches as we walked into the swimming area. The swimming area made it to about 5 feet at best so we were not sure why the locals needed life vests, however, we did determine that the Dominican Republic had more than likely never won a medal at the Olympics in the sport of swimming!
That night, we stayed in an Airbnb called, “La Casa Del Pie Negro” which translates to “House of the Black Foot”. Never could get an answer to why the motel was named as such so that mystery shall just have to remain a mystery. Upon arrival, we discovered that our host was a Frenchman who only spoke French and Spanish and he, of course……owned an Italian restaurant! He quickly figured out that we spoke no French so Spanish it was! He took off rapidly explaining something about the water in our room. I am assuming our blank stares encouraged him to slow down and use a massive amount of gestures in order to tell us that the local fire department had used all of the water in the area to put out a fire earlier that day. We had running water but it was not potable so he kept gesturing drinking followed by a huge headshake ‘no’ followed by an expression of someone being very ill. Ah! So don’t drink the water….we got that message loud and clear! Perhaps the black water pouring out of the shower and sink were the reason the place was called the “House of the Black Foot”. We were the only guests at the motel and the restaurant that night so he sat with us at dinner and we were quite pleased to see how our understanding of Spanish improved as the night proceeded. He spoke more slowly than the locals and used actual Spanish instead of Dominican Spanish so we felt we did quite well. The motel had a huge infinity pool that overlooked the ocean and he explained that he had built the pool by himself and had used the rocks to build the walls around the motel. It took him 12 years to complete the pool! He had lived in the DR for over 20 years but the only thing we could understand when we asked, “why” was that “France was bad”. So, having been to Paris and treated poorly by the French in Paris, I had to agree with his statement and move on. When we returned to the boat, our friends asked us if we wanted to drive to Puerto Plata on Saturday to do some grocery shopping. One day of grocery shopping turned into two nights in Cabarete at our favorite Airbnb place. Living on permanent vacation is such a grind! Lisa and Erik had not been to Cabarete so we enjoyed showing them around and they fell in love with the area. We spent Saturday going on the cable car in Puerto Plata. The cable car goes up the second highest mountain in the DR (2600 feet above sea level) and they have a Christ the Redeemer statue on top of the mountain. Our guide explained that while the DR Christ the Redeemer may be smaller than Brazil’s, the DR statue is worth more because it was made out of bronze instead of rock. The guide was very adamant about this point so he was obviously tired of people insulting his statue over the years! We spent Sunday on the beach and ate way too much food at the restaurants. Nights were spent in the pool and we all went to bed fat and happy each night….and we had USA ESPN in the condo so we got to watch the Dawgs beat Auburn…..always a happy ending! My final observation for the week was on our way back to the boat this morning. In the DR, they generally have at least 3 or 4 people on one motorcycle. This morning, we passed a mother and her children all on one motorcycle. No helmets. But they were all wearing Covid masks. Thank goodness they won’t get Covid before they all get a head trauma! I hope you have a wonderful week and I’ll try to look like we are doing some work this week!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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