We quickly learned that Papo had a little syndicate going with regard to the harbor and the cruisers. He brought the commandante and about 4 others out to the boat to "check us in." We had to give the commandante copies of our passports which we had on the boat.There was no asking for bribes or anything unusual which was a pleasant surprise. After they finished with us, we had to go into town to check in with immigration and the port authority. We found the dinghy dock which is a term we use generously. The "dock" is falling down on one side and is almost in the water. Everyone ties to the other side and people fish off the dinghy dock and it is covered in fish scales. But, at least there is a place to tie up. We brought in hand sanitizer every time we got in the dinghy so we could clean our hands after touching the lines that had been in the water. Once we found the immigration office, we had to pay $10 each for a tourist card and $20 to the port authority to have the boat in the harbor then $93 to immigration. The biggest problem was that we had to give immigration copies of our passports too and we didn't have anymore with us. So we were on the hunt for a place to make copies. By this time, we were tired from a night crossing, it was very hot and we had no idea where we needed to go. We wandered around town for about an hour trying to find a place that could make copies but most were closed for siesta or the electricity was out. Luperon, we discovered has only sporadic electricity. In fact, one person told us that when the power comes on during the day, the teachers will leave the classrooms and go do their laundry. So when there is power, there are no teachers. Well, eventually, we found the Claro office which is the local cell phone and internet provider and they make copies (cheap, so we made about a dozen copies for our future travels) and also exchange money there ( a better rate than if you just use US$ in a restaurant or store, though not a huge difference. About 44 pesos to the dollar.) We got our copies made, saw several other cruisers at a restaurant and stopped for lunch (then we were much less grumpy) and then returned to the immigration with our passport copies. We got back to the boat and had a good nap. Later, we met "Handy Andy" another local who does just about anything cruisers may need. We bought jugs of drinking water several times from Andy, arranged a trip to the waterfalls and a trip to Puerto Plata and had him clean our boat bottom just before we left. We rented the mooring from Papo and had his mother-in-law do our laundry. We never found a washateria. Probably because there is no dependable electricity and most people here do laundry in a tub by hand. Papo's mother-in-law has a washer. They hang things out on a line or fence or anything to dry. We found a few tell-tale holes in some stuff where it had been hung on a barb wire fence the one time we gave it to someone else to wash. Several times we just washed in a bucket in the boat when we didn't need to do sheets and towels.
Most things in the DR were very inexpensive. El Presidente beer which comes in a gigantic 24 oz bottle is 100 to 120 pesos (about $2.50 US). One of our favorite places to eat was Pico Pollo, a local hangout which had fried chicken, the local version of beans and rice and a salad for 350 pesos (about $8 US, for two people! and we had left over chicken!) Other places ranged from 250 to 400 pesos per person but still very reasonable. The food is not very varied and is simple but good. A couple of times we picked up a great whole grilled chicken from this guy who does them on the street next to the police station for 200 pesos.
Luperon is very poor by US standards. There is running water that is used for washing but they buy R/O water for drinking/cooking. There is open sewerage in the streets and it runs right into the harbor, thus the hand sanitizer. The people are friendly and are very helpful.
Lunch at JR's Tropical with Gavin and Catherine
We arranged a trip to Puerta Plata through Handy Andy with 2 vans for 17 of us. We visited the Larimar museum (Larimar is the national stone of the DR, a pretty blue stone) and the Brugal rum factory. Unfortunately, we could only see the part of the factory that does the packaging. But we did buy some good rum. We had lunch at a fancy (for Dominican standards) restaurant, which is not what we wanted but the guy who was our guide, Joel arranged that. He turned out to be a pest. After lunch, we toured the old square and the church and walked around the main part of the old town.
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| At the Brugal Rum factory |
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| Jewelry from Larimar stone |
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| Amber with fossilized bugs in it |
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| Our lunch in Puerto Plata |
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| the cathedral in Puerto Plata |
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| the Old Square |
We took a trip to Santo Domingo with friends on S/V Jump, Gavin and Catherine. We took the bus(like a Greyhound bus, but no bathroom on it) which stops in Luperon. It only costs about $16 round trip per person. The trip TO Santo Domingo took about 5 hours due to traffic once we got into the city, whereas the return trip was only 4 hours. The bus ride itself was an experience. The bus driver stopped at various houses, roadside places, etc to pick people up along the way. Besides the driver there was another guy who would collect the money and would occasionally get off the bus in a town and conduct some kind of business and also load people's luggage in the lower compartment. People would get on at one town, sell their candies, cookies, etc and then get off at the next town. The bus driver used his horn incessantly, honking to get people, cars, motorcycles or donkeys to move out of the way, honking to tell people hello or goodbye, or sometimes for no apparent reason. Literally, there were not 5 minutes that went by that he didn't honk the horn. For 5 hours! Meanwhile lusty Spanish music videos played on a screen in front of us and when they were over, an extremely violent movie that was almost all gunfights and bombs that was made in Japan and dubbed in Spanish played for the next 2 hours. At one point the driver was on his cell phone, honking the horn and coutning money and putting it in various pockets in his suit. All while "driving." The relative quiet of the traffic in Santo Domingo was actually a relief afterwards. We spent the night at a small hotel right on the old square in the Capitol. Right across the square was the first Cathedral in the Americas. We toured that the next day. There is a statue of Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus' actual name) in the square. We toured the Museo de Reall and saw the fort and walked around the old part of town. We ate lunch at a little place like a cafeteria that the local workers all go to. Great food for less than $4. We spent a second night at the hotel and then left the next morning on the bus back to Luperon. Same Spanish music videos but at least no movie this time.
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| Our hotel, the Conde des Penalba, right on the old square |
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| The Cathedral in Santo Domingo |
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| Statue of Cristobol Colon in old square in Santo Domingo |
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| Pretty gate at the side of the church |
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| Strange gargoyle type motif on a gate |
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| Cool sculpture in Santo Domingo |
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| A military museum and tomb in Santo Domingo |
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| The old fort in Santo Domingo |
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| Medievel helmet in the Casa des Reales museum |
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| Suit of armor |
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| This gun is almost as tall as Greg |
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| Beautifully carved swords |
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| Peacocks roem freely in the courtyard of the museum |
We went back to Puerto Plata with friends from Mythago, Sherry and Dave. This time we took the cable car up to the top of Isabel de Torres(mountain) and toured the beautiful gardens there. The views were fantastic too. We visited the Amber museum. Amber is actually a petrified resin from the sap of the trees. It traps insects, etc just like in the Jurassic Park movie. they used some of the amber from the DR in the movie. Had lunch at a little restaurant by the beach.
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| Fort San Felipe in Puerto Plata |
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| Beautiful views of the harbor from the fort |
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| Riding the tram up to the Botanical Gardens at top of mountain in Puerto Plata |
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| Great view of the city and the harbor |
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| Getting up into the clouds |
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| Arrived at the top with Dave and Sherry from Mythago |
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| Statue of Christ the Redeemer at top of mountain |
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| So many gorgeous flowers!!! |
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| And Giant Ferns |
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| Liz Ann and Sherry with our guide, Noel |
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| We've been framed! |
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| A local dance troupe performing at the gardens |
We actually met Bruce Van Sant at Marina Blanco in
Luperon. He is the author of "A Gentleman's Guide to Passages South",
the Bible for heading to the Caribbean. We had a nice visit with he and
his wife, Rosa. He was very opinionated but was actually quite nice to
talk with. Leo at Marina Blanco let us have a pot luck lunch at his
restaurant at the Marina one day too.
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| Listening to Bruce's recommendations for our travels along the north coast of the DR |
A cruiser who has been in Luperon for 4 years teaches yoga at one of the closed marina restaurants 3 days a week for free. So 4 of us gals took advantage of that several times. One of the ex-pats who comes to yoga has a tree house on "gringo hill" in Luperon and we went to visit that too. They have beautiful gardens and such a unique home.
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| The Tree House: reallyjust a bedroom and sitting area |
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| The kitchen, bathroom and storage are on the ground |
While in Luperon, we walked to the cheese factory at the other end of town. We couldn't tour the factory because of sanitation rules (THAT was a surprise in Luperon) but we bought some of their local frying cheese. You cut slices of it and fry it in a little olive oil or butter. The outside turns a nice golden color and the inside softens. It is delicious!
After 3 weeks in Luperon, we finally got a weather window to head toward Puerto Rico. Heading East along the north coast of the DR is almost always INTO the wind. The wind accelerates around the capes and is highest from around 9 or 10 in the morning until sometime around midnight. Of course, we couldn't get all the way to the East coast in the 9 or so hours of lower wind, but we had to time our trip so we went around the capes at the best times. We left Luperon at 0300 on April 18th with Dave and Sherry on S/V Mythago(also a Pacific Seacraft, like ours). Other faster boats were waiting a few hours later to leave. It was a bit nerve racking going out of the harbor in the pitch dark and navigating through the channel to get out of the reefs. But thankfully, the bouys were in place and the lights were even working. We just had to use our spotlight to make sure we didn't catch our prop on any of the fish traps that the local fishermen so thoughtfully placed in the channel! We stayed fairly close to shore to take advantage of the night lee---the katabatic winds from the land blow offshore at night and help turn the east winds to,southeast so they are not so much right on the nose. It took us about 4 hours to get past Puerto Plata which is always rough even in lighter winds. We had 4 to 6 foot swells about 5 seconds apart until we got past Puert Plata. As we approached Sosua, near Cabo Macoris, we turned in toward shore more to get in the lee of the cape and the swells decreased, allowing us to make better speed. Lagniappe does not do well head on into the wind and swells. We just have too small of a waterline. We got around Cabo Macoris by 0900 as Van Sant recommends and the swells started building. Now they were 6 to 7 feet and the apparent wind was about 18 knots. We reefed the main and headed across to Río San Juan just before Cabo Francis Viejo. You must round this cape during the night lee and before 0800 unless you enjoy getting beat up. We wouldn't even make it to Río San Juan until that afternoon and wouldn't have a night lee until much later. So we decided to stop for a few hours at Río San Juan to rest and wait for the best time to round the cape. Easier said than done... The charts for this area are not well marked. We had a little chart let in the Van Sant book that showed the reef and some landmarks to use to get into the little fishing harbor. We really had to use our piloting skills here. Sherry on Mythago (a former Canadian Power Squadron Commander, for all of our friends at NOPS) did some quick figuring and made some waypoints and using that and some ranges we made with landmarks, we made it in through the reef. We anchored among the fishing fleet about 1630 and tried to rest in a somewhat rolly anchorage. Jump, Lequeteau, and Glass Slipper arrived a few hours later. They had a rougher trip around the first cape because they had not arrived there until near noon. Two others, Renegade and Tehani decided to anchor at Sosua before the first cape to rest and wait til night to go around.
This Marina was such a treat after 3 weeks in Luperon. It is part of a resort with 3 restaurants and 5 pools, 3 of which are infinity pools. We also had showers and laundry facilities! And it was only $1.00 per foot per night! If you stay longer than 2 weeks, the rates drop dramatically. We rested, replenished our spirits, and thoroughly enjoyed the luxury of the marina for 3 days.
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| Outdoor patio of the Resort in the Marina |
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| The lobby. The place seemed to be empty of clients but we certainly enjoyed the facilities. |
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| One of the many pools |
Then it was time to cross the Mona Passage. This is one of those dreaded passages for most cruisers.....frequent thunderstorms, heading into the wind and just an overall miserable time. We got very lucky! We had a good weather window with light winds and no storms! We did have to motor the whole way but that beats the stories we've heard and read about from so many sources. The worst part of the crossing was actually getting out of Samana Bay. We went in the late afternoon as recommended but had rough seas and wind on the nose the whole way out of the bay for about 5 hours, making only 2.8 to 3.8 knots. Once we got past Cabo Rafael, the seas were calmer and the wind was a much better angle. We made it to Punta Macao by 0600 and headed offshore into the Mona. (Another place you have to be well off the shore by 0800). We passes hourglass shoal around 1 a.m. And headed toward Isla Desecheo. After passing Isla Desecheo at 6a.m., we headed down the west coast of Puerto Rico, being careful to stay off the Tourmaline reef. Unfortunately, we arrived off the coast of Puerto Real, Puerto Rico by 11 at night. Most of our fellow cruisers went in in the dark. We didn't want to go in through the reef in the dark and into an unknown harbor where we couldn't even see other boats that might be anchored there (read that, LIZ ANN didn't want to and I won the discussion) so we hove to (along with Mythago) and stayed off until daylight when we went in and actually took a slip at the marina so we could get in and wash and dry the sheets and take apart and dry the bed which of course had gotten soaked as we battered into the waves in Samana bay, another reason we hate beating into the waves. We still haven't solved that problem. But overall, it was not a bad experience crossing the Mona. If we had to do it again, we would probably skip Samana just because of how rough it is getting out of there. Our experience there was not unusual, it just acts as a funnel and the winds just accelerate right up that bay.
Now on to more new adventures in Puerto Rico.........
Getting our gear for the waterfalls Handy Andy, Greg, LizAnn, Greig (Lequesteau) Gavin and Catherine(Jump)
