What a Beautiful Country!

On my last post I went on and on about what we don't like about this country.  But....oh....the things we do like!  This is an incredibly beautiful country that only a lucky few seem to have found.  We were talking with a couple who had traveled extensively (Roatan, Belize, Costa Rica and Hawaii).  Although they felt they had seen some incredible sites in those countries, nothing compared with the DR.  There is so much diversity here - beaches, mountains, deserts -- that it's hard to say what section is the most beautiful.

This past week we were fortunate to really step out and see more of this island.  On Wednesday, Harry and Rose invited to join them for a drive to Las Terrenas.  Las Terrenas is in the Samana peninsula on the northeast side of the island.  We've heard so much about this sweet little town that it's been on our "to see" list since we arrived.  In fact, when we were planning our trip here, we had narrowed down our search to Cabarette or Las Terrenas.

The drive into Las Terrenas from Cabarette had been about 3 1/2 or 4 hour but the DR just completed a new toll road through the mountains that shortened the drive time down to 2 1/2 hours.  On the way there we passed through some sweet little towns with miles of undeveloped beaches.  The only town we didn't care for was Gaspar Hernandez.  The toll for the new short cut is $485 RD.....about $12 USD....each way.  This makes the road not accessible to most Dominicans so very little traffic.  A great road with beautiful views.



The only downer to our trip was the weather.  It was raining most of the time we were in Las Terrenas.  We did manage to spend some time checking out the beautiful beaches.  We found the pescaderia where the fishermen bring their daily catch up to the beach and sell it, fresh from the ocean.  There were dorado, snappers, marlin, squid, camarones (shrimp), and the biggest lobsters I'd ever seen.  Wish we'd brought a cooler!

In Cabarette, most of the Dominicans who deal with tourists speak at least a little English.  In Las Terrenas, which has a large European population, this is not the case.  To get by here you should know either a little Spanish or French.  We had dinner at a nice waterfront restaurant, La Yucca Caliente;  Matt took this shot of Rose, Harry and me at the table.

Oyster Vendor at Playa Grande

The rainy weather was dragging on so we didn't stay as long as we'd like in Las Terrenas.  It did clear up on the way back and we stopped at a couple beautiful beaches.  Playa Grande is part of a development of homes and a golf course.  The developers must have been required to spend some money to maintain a beautiful public beach, and they did a great job.  The Playa Grande beach is like a miniature Sosua beach with a few food shacks and vendors surrounding the beach.  It's a bit of a trip from Cabarette but still a sweet little place.

Los Gringos Beach

Beach front tables at Los Gringos

Harry and Rose have a couple of friends who live in the DR for six months each year.  Thanks to these friends, they know of several little out of the way places that we hadn't heard of before.  One of these is Los Gringos.  It's quite a drive down a long bumpy road, but when you get there what a treat.  It;s a nice little beach side restaurant where you can spend the day....or if you like the night as they have three little cabanas you can rent overnight.  We stopped there for a beer and a walk on the beach.  This is one place Matt and I should be able to get back to.....as we could take the gaugau to the entrance off the main road and then hike back to the restaurant.

Mountain top "gas" station

Sometimes the best days just happen....when you don't expect it.  On Saturday we didn't really have any plans.  We decided to get the motorcycle out and go to the Saturday morning market and then to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  The Saturday morning market is more a social experience than a shopping trip and we ran into Jim from Minnesota.  He owns a unit in our building and is here for three weeks this trip.  He invited us to join him for breakfast at Claro.  On the way there, we came across Jim and Cheryl from Canada who are renting a unit in our building for a month.  They decided to join us for breakfast.  Jim and Cheryl have a car and were thinking about driving up into the mountains to La Cumbre for dinner.  We have heard from many of our friends here what a great experience this is, but we have been cautioned about going up into the mountains without a driver.  The road can be treacherous unless you know where you are familiar with the area.  Another couple in our complex, Mike and Linda, also have a car and they have driven the mountains many times and were going to lead the way.  Jim and Cheryl invited us to join them....so new plans,  We left about 1:30 and took our time driving up the mountain.  We stopped often to take photos and just admire the view.  We wound our way through some nice little Dominican villages. Like I've said before, you see some crazy things in the DR.  Here is a pic of a Dominican-style gas station.  We passed several of these....always the same scene.  A couple of bottles with gas, a can of oil and a funnel.  So just in case you were headed up the mountain and ran out, they could fix you up.  No problem going down the mountain, everyone just coasted.  

We took lots of photos on the way up the mountain.  The views were jaw dropping.  This is the area where they filmed some scenes for the movie Jurassic Park. We passed several small villages on the way up the mountain, but at the top is La Cumbre.  Just a few houses and two restaurants.  We ate at La Molina which means windmill.  We had a big table on the back deck where we could look down into the valley toward Santiago.  Dinner was great, but of course the real draw was these incredible views.

View from La Molina

Jim, Cheryl, Mike, Linda, Kelley, Syd & Matt

Erika

Mike and Linda are close friends with a Dominican family that lives in Santiago.  Elvis, Carinna and their two beautiful girls drove up and joined us.  We had a great time with these two little sweeties.  Matt took lots of pics of the girls.

Anna Gabrielle

And to cap off a great evening was watching the sun set behind the mountains.

Then the ride back down the mountain.  That was quite the thrill.  Mike wanted to lead the way.  Elvis and his family came back to our condos to spend the night so they followed us.  We hurried down to take advantage of the little light that was left, but still quite a trip.  But made it home safe and sound.