I got a travel problem. A friend invited me to head out to the Dominican Republic for a relatively last minute trip. She would be attending a film festival, but had a free place to stay and knows I have an impulsive travel addiction. What I didn't have was any additional vacation days to use, so the trip would only be for a weekend. Would that be worth it? Probably not as I'd have to travel after work on Thursday, then leave Saturday night to be back at work Sunday. I'd never been to the DR, but if you factor in travel time, I'd be there for around 36 hours.
Lo and behold… I ended up working a 6-day week, earned a comp day, and could apply it to this trip. 60 hours is a different ballgame! I'm in. Fly out of New York late Wednesday, fly back Saturday afternoon. Done.
The hotel I stayed in Santo Domingo was the Occidental El Embajador, and had several scenes from "The Godfather Part II shot there (pretending to be Cuba). I didn't see Al Pacino there. But I did see prostitutes. And I'm not talking about Pacino's turn in the Adam Sandler movie "Jack and Jill."
What I didn't realize was that this film festival was in Santo Domingo, which is the country's capital and very metropolitan. I was told there's a significant amount of crime in the city and its one of the most dangerous cities to drive in. No disrespect to the city of Santo Domingo, but there's no way in hell I was about to fly out there for just a couple days to sit in a city (even though there are some places to check out like Christopher Columbus' burial site in the Colonial Zone). If I was going to the DR - I needed to see some beach.
As I researched where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do, everything pointed to the northern part of the island. There's a nice surfing area called Playa Encuentro near Puerto Plata, but even more thrilling - a place to jump off 27 f'n waterfalls called Damajagua! I had to do that. Problem is the only way I can get there without renting a car (which turned out to be way too gnarly) is taking a 4.5-hour public bus ride. That would mean spending around 9 hours - on an already short trip - sitting on a bus. Nobody wants to sit on a bus that long except Otto from the Simpsons, but 2 days of chilling with Columbus' remains didn't sound that enticing. Hello bus.
After landing in DR and getting to the hotel around 12:30a, we woke up around 5:45 and walked a couple blocks to the Metro bus station to hop on a 7a bus to Sosua (which left around 7:30a because you're dealing with Island Time). The buses are like tour buses and totally safe and nice. Best of all, it only cost around $9 US to travel to the entire other side of the country! In Sosua, we hopped in a cab to Playa Encuentro, which I pictured to be a small surf beach with a boardwalk and maybe a couple surf shops and restaurants. Nah bruh. It was just this. Empty beach with a couple huts that act as surf shops.
More dogs than people at this beach.
Fortunately there was one place that cooked food in this Corona commercial gone haywire, Club Mendi. They also had wifi, which was great because we just booked a last minute AirBnb spot and didn't know how we were going to get picked up or what the place's address was (sometimes this is how I travel). I would definitely not call Mendi a club, nor a restaurant. It was more of a grill. But holy shit could they grill! They didn't speak much English, so I ordered some fish that was allegedly indigenous to the area. I thought I asked if it had bones (which would deter me), but who the hell knows what I said, because the fish came out whole with a shit ton of bones. It was completely fried and completely delicious. Normally I'd be so frustrated with the bones that I wouldn't enjoy it, but it was perfectly spiced and salted that I tore through it like the sound of velcro. Naturally, I topped it with a Presidente, the island's beer of choice.
There's no swimming allowed because it's all reef in the area and you'd get cut up. There's also no life guards, unless those sleeping dogs miraculously wake up and save your drowning ass.
Rented a longboard for $20 US/day
Conditions weren't great. Wind-blown and choppy, so it didn't make for many rides. Also, the paddle out was draining enough that I ended up just riding whitewash. You definitely have to be careful getting off the board as it's all reef next to the shore. I haven't really surfed in quite awhile - and I'm not very good to begin with, so that's a pretty solid combo.
I couldn't stop playing fetch with this guy. He loves the water so much. One of the dudes at the grill told me I'd make a friend for life if I threw a stick into the water. He was correct. Then I attached a GoPro to the branch, and started throwing that, hoping to get a cool perspective of fetch. It was just okay.
See you later, Encuentro. #AndByThatIMeanIHighlyDoubtIWillEverBeThereAgain
So after a few hours chilling in Encuentro, we went to Sosua to dive/snorkel. My friend, Angela, is a hard core diver, but I'm just a snorkeler. We went through an outfitter called Aqua Adventures (http://www.scubadivesosua.com). It was around $50 for the dive and $25 to snorkel. I contemplated diving again, but on the drive over I had another President and the dude's wouldn't let me dive. It was for the best I think. So here's a snorkel trick in the DR (don't know if it applies everywhere), but if you bring pieces of banana and crush it up in your hands, the fish flock to it! That's what in the water bottle.
This is a ray. Angela took it with her GoPro. That's all I got.
Apparently this dude has never heard of Steve Irwin.
Photobomb time...
The area we were in is called 3 Rocks. As snorkeling goes, it's only mediocre. There isn't a tremendous amount of visibility, even though it was a relatively clear day. Perhaps because it was around 5p. I did see an octopus - you'll see a crappy shot of it in the video below. Angela saw a lobster, sting ray, eel, much more cool stuff than I.
Sosua Beach.
G'bye Sosua.
We booked a 2-bedroom villa with kitchen, living room in Cabarete… for just $50! AirBnb is the best!
Dinner at Papi's, a seafood place on the sand where we got ceviche, a lobster skillet with spaghetti, crab cakes, and mama juanas - a local liquor. Tipping at restaurants isn't necessary as tips are included.
Lobster skillet. Not too shabby.
This is the main street in Cabarete; the city centre as it's called. Looks quiet. And on the street it is.
But on the other side, there's a strip of clubs, bars, restaurants, people even playing volleyball. It's a very deceptive scene from the street.
We got a carafe of mojito at the Lazy Dog Beach Bar, where we were accosted by a pushy henna tattoo "artist." By "henna," I mean "Sharpie." I tried to drink my mojito as quickly as possible to avoid consuming any melted ice and shady water. Eating ice left me with an unplanned cleanse after my last trip to Mexico. Apparently I have a sensitive tummy.
Another look at the Cabarete strip. It was quiet on Thursday night. Everything open, and also mostly empty. I imagine it's a Friday, Saturday type of town.
Video: Next: Waterfall and cliff jumping with Iguana Mama.
Royal Caribbean Cruise island stop #2 of 6
All photos unfiltered
This bad boy was much needed after my first scuba experience.
Like serious, man. #Respect
Hard to keep track of time on islands.
About to get my scuba dive on at Cane Bay Dive Shop. Never been diving before. Thought I was going to be awesome. #IWasWrong
This little chow is watching over the scuba gear.
So like much of the Caribbean, St. Croix is known for its scuba, but Cane Bay is considered one of the best places to dive in all the Caribbean because of a spot called the Wall. According to the Cane Bay Dive Shop website, the Wall drops from 40 to 3,200 feet, and includes essentially an underwater wall. But you can only dive that site if you're certified. I'm not. Never gone diving before. Thought I'd be a quick learner and asked if I could still do the Wall. Guide scoffed. They put on some 10-minute training video for me to watch, but there was an army of ants in the room and I spent all my time trying to avoid attacks, as opposed to learning how to operate that respirator-thing.
In a beginner's course of 3 people, I'm the only person who's never dived before. The other guys were working on their last dive before getting certified. When it comes to a scuba trip, you only get to stay out as long as the crappiest person. So if they run out of oxygen, everyone's heading back. This would not bode well for the others. After "viewing" my pointless instructional video, we waded out to the shallow end of Cane Bay. My first underwater breathing test resulted in the guide telling me "to calm your shit." I got water into my respirator, didn't know how to release it, began breathing through my nose, started suffocating, it was a shit show like Bravo's primetime lineup. Dipped my head under the water a second time, and the guide was like "good enough. Let's go." Always reassuring. As we backstroked to our dive site about 20 yards or so away, I thought for one of the very infrequent times in my life - that I might actually seriously injure myself. I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and if I panicked deep under water, I couldn't just rocket myself back to the surface without suffering from decompression sickness, the bends, which could cause permanent damage to the brain. The cheap ass part of me was also thinking - man, I might have to just eat the costs of this and swim back to shore, because I clearly don't know what the hell I'm doing!
This photo courtesy: www.canebayscuba.com
So this is some of what's to be seen at The Wall. This is not my photo as the camera I was using at that time couldn't go down to the depths we went. This is also not where I went; the company wouldn't allow me to go to the depths of the Wall for liability purpose. I don't remember how deep we went, I'd guess around 20-feet. Everything you see is incredible. It's as the scuba junkies say, it's the closest thing to space we can imagine. You're just floating around observing sea life do its thing. That said, I couldn't even really focus on enjoying the moment because I was so freaked out about breathing correctly and not giving myself brain damage. I was sucking up my oxygen tank with these huge yoga-esque breaths to calm myself. The guide told me to tap him when anyone hit the 50% mark of their oxygen tank. Knowing how quickly I was sucking up my tank, I tapped our guide at the 55-60% mark. He gave me the OK sign and we continued on. At the 40% mark, I tapped him again. A-OK he responds. 25% mark. A-OK. At this point, I'm starting to get nervous because I have no idea how far out we are, and he's probably underestimating my nerves of plastic. I'm down to about 5-10% of my tank, and tap him again… then realize that we're in a very shallow part of the ocean and if I stood up, I'd be above water. Freaked out for no reason. #WorstScubaDiverEver #DefinitelyShortenedTheOtherDiversTrips #oops
This guy knows how I was feeling post-dive.
Got a mahi maui burger and some tasty cocktail at this spot called Eat. All good. Though this 90-gallon dollop of aioli mayonnaise seems a bit much in retrospect.
Met some local at the bar. The locals there are stoked to meet tourists, forgot the name of the dude, but he was willing to drive me around to some other touristy spots - like the St. Pellier Hut Domino Club, which features a famous beer drinking hog!
Tada!!! This hog has been sucking down so much beer that animal rights activists started taking notice, so the bar and patrons started feeding him alcohol-free beer. If this were the Qwik-E-Mart in "The Simpsons", Apu would be in trouble.
Just being a friendly bartender.
The pig sucks it all down. Makes sure there's not even a drop left.
Then spits out the aluminum can.
You know this dude has a problem, because no one likes O'Douls.
These little guys are hopefully not going to be following in the same non-alcoholic footsteps. Good lord, is this what the other guy looked like before O'Douls took over his life??? #CautionaryTale
Didn't see any domino playing. Just beer-drinking pigs. But that doesn't sound as good on the marquee. #OrDoesIt?
Some random dam my new buddy/tour guide took me to. I asked him straight up - only half joking - "Uhh, you're not going to kidnap me are you? Cuz the ransom won't go for much."
