Plan B is not Plan A Recylced...The Saga of 3 Beaches in 3 Days

This is the story of how 6 girls piled into 1 CRV for 62 hours of Dominican Sand and Surf. Teaching in the Dominican Republic has had it’s perks in the month of January…like no 5 day weeks of school! So to celebrate Juan Pablo Duarte one of the founding fathers of the FREE Dominican Republic we hit to road.

On Saturday morning we loaded our backpacks and snorkel gear and took off for the North East coast. We drove from Jarabacoa to San Francisco to Samana to Las Galeras. Being in a car for nearly 6 hours was not as much fun with the roads that awaited us.

The drive from Jarabacoa to San Fransico was a nice pleasant drive very reminiscent of driving through north Wisconson in the summer…pine trees, beautiful rocks, and a 4 lane highways with good quality pavement. Also on the way to San Fransico we say our first glimpses into the farming industry of rice. They use airplanes to crop dust and huge tractors to turn over the fields yet do most of the harvesting by hand.

After leaving San Francisco the roads turned dramatically worse. Sometimes the road was so bad that it was sometimes one lane. We drove through Nagua which was the first time I had seen the ocean other than flying over it. Seeing the ocean for the first time was great; despite the pouring rain outside the car. We left for our trip with a 55% sun and 40% rain prediction. (Thankfully most of the rain came while we were driving and not on the beach enjoying our vacation.) In Nagua I saw some of the devastation that was left by the hurricanes this fall. Nagua is on the NE coast where most of the hurricanes hit the hardest if they came from the north. Entire neighborhoods were gone and all that remained was cinderblock foundations many of which were no larger than 10 x 10. Those small foundations probably housed a whole family.

The roads the rest of the way were 2 lanes with potholes that nearly covered the whole road…so our wonderful drivers had their hands full with maneuvering to keep the rest of us comfortable the best they could.

The next big town we arrived at was Samana which is known for it’s bay and for whale sightings. We didn’t go on a whale expedition but it was easy to tell that whale watching was a huge industry. The downtown area was very nice and well kept due to tourism. But as soon as you left the town it was back to shacks and poorly held together outhouses. I saw lots of wildlife sitting in the back of the car…there were pigs, goats, horses, mules, ducks, chickens, and the occasional wild turkey (I was the only one who saw them…but they were there).

We drove about 6 hours to reach our final destination of Las Galeras…a town that the main road literally runs into the ocean. We stayed at a hotel and were within walking distance of food and the beach. We headed to the beach the first afternoon after naps and lunch. The beach wasn’t spectacularly kept but the views were great. There is huge resort in Las Galeras so that is where most of their money is at.

On Sunday we had the grand plan (Plan A) of driving to Boca del Diablo and then hiking in to Fronton a small beach that is only accessible by boat or a hour hike. To our dismay we went to leave to find that our car would not start! So after trying to figure it out on our own we were assisted by 5 kind Dominican men. Despite the language barrier, no owner manual or any mechanics it took 7 hours to identify the problem, fix it and then decide what to do. We instead settled on heading to Playa Rincon (Plan B).

Playa Rincon involved a half hour drive down yet another bumpy half there road. On this road we were passed by car after car ignoring the bumps. We concluded that people who drive that way either replace their axles every year or just buy new cars. In one of the towns we passed we came across a lady killing her chickens…some of us actually saw it….not the most pleasant thing ever. Along another point we saw fields of pineapples growing and more wild turkeys.

If you’ve been following my blog you know that it rains a lot here. We saw the results of the rain in road width red clay mud puddles. It was definitely an off-road experience but with a road still present. Anyways we got to the end of the road or so we thought…people had parked. Only when we had stopped to look did we see why people had stopped. The road the rest of the way down was completely flooded. Imagine walking outside of your house and seeing water knee deep, whole street across and about 30 feet long sections of road not visible. Yep that’s what awaited us at the bottom of the hill. We considered throwing out a plan C but we were “rescued” by Esitllo Tours. We managed to catch a ride on their big Daihatsu truck with one of their tour groups. The ride through the puddles was much happier. We were able to watch everything else around us; like whole families walking through the water, supercross bikes (dirt BMX style), and the ice cream man on his little moto. It was quite the experience. But the beach was worth it. The water was pristine, the waves, nice sand, and about a mile of untouched beach. The palm tree groves were spectacular too. Here I went body surfing with some of the other girls; it was so much fun (despite the salt water up my nose)!!!

Sunday we finally made it to Fronton. When we first got to Fronton we saw 2 cruise ships sailing. Cruise ships are huge!!! It’s crazy to think that I live on an island that is a cruise destination. When we started hiking it was so frustrating because I didn’t know what to expect; since breaking my camera this year while hiking I am a bit more apprehensive. The hike to Fronton takes you through the forest along the coast. The area of the trail we hiked is rumored to also be used for drug trafficking from Columbia. No drugs were seen in transit along the trail; happy day. Every once and a while we would come across and opening and see the blue expanse of the ocean…holy cow is it beautiful!!!! The last half of the hike was tricky due to hiking mainly on coral and mud, but the beach was worth it. I received my sunburn here and a few blisters.

After hiking out we went down to see Boca del Diablo (Mouth of the Devil). Basically it’s a giant hole in the ground that gets filled with water. When the water pressure is to great is spits spray out of the top. You can throw things inside and they will get spit back out…we sent a palm branch shooting out maybe 20 feet in the air. The sound it makes is not a happy sound it’s very dark and menacing. Then it was time to pack up and come home.

It was a great trip and I really enjoyed it! I will try and post pictures soon. I am at home today with pinkeye, but have already felt a huge difference in my eye since starting drops last night! I have to continue the drops for 5 days and then it should be gone. Thankfully my pinkeye is more of the North American strain…the Dominican version involved pockets of stuff on your actual eye…gross. So I’m pretty happy I caught it early!