R.R. in the D.R.

Sounds dirty eh? Sadly, it isn’t particularly dirty; the country or the subject matter.

This past weekend marked my last on Gaia, the sailboat I’ve been first-mating on (again, not dirty) since January 2017. We sailed almost 2,000 km from Miami to Puerto Rico, where my attention span ran out and I disembarked. Captain David has new crew joining him and they’ll continue sailing east and south towards Sint Maarten and eventually Grenada. I’m sure I’ll soon regret getting off (again…) but for now I’m excited to turn a page and see what happens next.

I’ve returned to the Dominican Republic because I enjoyed it immensely for the week or two we spent in the country earlier in March. Now that I won’t be stuck in marinas, I’m free to wander the countryside in search of ever-more chilled Presidentes and all kinds of good scenery. Hispaniola (the island on which the D.R. and Haiti reside and, charmingly, the namesake of the ship from Treasure Island) is a large, mountainous rock in the northern Caribbean, and has enough varied topography to keep my goldfish-grade attention span engaged for a few weeks.

For example, while we were in Puerto Plata, we took a cable car up to the top of a local mountain. The view was amazing, stretching north across the Hispaniola Trench to the Silver Banks where whale season was just ending. The ’50s-era Dominican dictator, Trujillo, built a fort on top of the mountain to defend against sea- and air-based invaders… but clouds accumulate on the peak 90% of the time and the structure was immediately proven useless, so they put a Jesus statue up there and converted it into a tourist trap. The jungle gardens stretching through the misty mountaintop haze were a (literally) cool change from the monotony of beautiful ocean vistas…

After sailing east to Samana, we rented a car and drove south to the capital, Santo Domingo, which is reputed the longest-inhabited European city in the Americas after being settled / invaded / colonized by Spain in 1498. The living history of the city is on display as ancient forts and castles dot the cityscape around the Zona Colonial district. Some structures are in ruins, but others have been maintained or restored and are home to a variety of consulates, businesses and museums. Having spent very little time in Europe, the ancient mien of Santo Domingo is a stark change for a nerdy Canadian accustomed to the brief physical history evident in Canada and the US.

Two nights ago I wandered out of the hostel after dark and found the whole district full of locals, laughing and drinking in the streets or settled into plastic chairs outside of corner shops selling cheap, excellent, local beer. Roaming towards the ruins of the San Francisco monastery, I was delighted to find a salsa band set up in front of thousands of spectators, all dancing and carousing as part of a weekly festival. The city has a cultural energy unlike anything else I’ve experienced in the Caribbean.

Even something as mundane as a bus ride was interesting for my stimulus-starved cerebrum. Returning from the capital to the boat last week, I took a three-hour bus that wound upward through thickly-jungled mountains and out onto a high plain patterned with irrigated fields that seemed more suitable to Thailand than the Caribbean. Small towns hanging off the side of muddy hills were dotted with colourful shops and homes, often little more than cement and spray-paint, where locals joked in clusters and thunderous bachata and raggaeton rattled the bus windows as we passed.

I used to (and you may still) think of the Dominican as a cheap, all-inclusive destination, with little to offer outside of gated compounds patrolled by pseudo-militarized guards. Similar to my erroneous preconceived notions of Mexico (which were happily proven asshatted after a month in the country), I wouldn’t previously have listed the D.R. high on my list of travel destinations for the year. But, after deciding to get off the boat and kill a bit of time before heading to Europe, I didn’t hesitate to buy a return ticket here and settle again into the vibrance of Santo Domingo. I’m looking forward to a month of new scenery, spicy food, cold beer, friendly people and enough nerdy distractions to keep me grounded.