THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Luperon: The D.R. is about the size of Florida with about 10 million people that speak Spanish. They grow a lot of sugar cane and raise a lot of cattle here on the island. Large green mountain ranges cover most of the terrain. About 50 cruisers set anchor in the bay at all times. It’s kind of like George Town but with a lot fewer boats. Many cruisers come to visit and never leave. It’s affordable to live here and it’s really beautiful. The towns people welcome the tourists see if the There is a small fishing boat that comes around the cruisers need anything. “Just call handy Andy on your VHF radio if you need anything” He delivers diesel, water or propane right to your boat.

Luperon is a port of entry to D.R. Passing through customs is quite interesting. The caption of their Navy makes a visit to your boat, he doesn’t come aboard he sits in handy Andy’s little fishing boat along side. Handy Andy does all the talking for him. He looks over your paperwork and hands it back to you. It’s obvious that he can’t read any of it. Then handy Andy asks for a donation to the navy. Then you need to go to the Immigration office on shore. You pay this guy to look over your boats registration and your visas. Then you see this other guy and you have to pay him again for who knows what. Then a couple of hours later you receive a visit on your boat from the Department of Agriculture you also have to pay them too. She only spoke Spanish, so I got out my Spanish - English dictionary. We communicated pretty well. I gave her a coke and a warm smile, I think she liked me. All she did was look at the dog & cats vet paperwork and asked me if I had any carne meat aboard. I showed her what I had and said si with a smile. I saw her again at a restaurant in town called Caption Steve’s, she came over to me and said hola. Caption Steve’s is a real cool bar & restaurant. We met Steve & his wife Annie, their place is where we went everyday. He let us take showers there he had a real nice swimming pool, his wife did our laundry (we paid for that) but the showers, internet and pool were all free. The food was excellent beer was cold.

Outside of town there is a place with 27 waterfalls, we went on a guided tour. It was great! They made us wear helmets and life jackets. We only went to 7 out of the 27 waterfalls, but that was enough for us. They pulled you up the rock formations that led to the next fall and you swam the whole way. On the way back you used the falls as a slide to get back down to the next level. The last fall you had to jump down. It was so much fun.

We rented car and drove down the countryside to a large town call Santiago. Lots of traffic they drive a lot of motorcycles but still very congested. Santiago has all the tourist shopping that you can imagine. Lots of real green tall trees with palm trees between them. We passed lots of cattle and sugar cane fields. The next day we took the local bus into Playa de Puerto. Watching the locals board and get off was quite an experience. When we arrived a young guy approached us he said he was a tour guide. He would help us find anything that we needed for free. We had a lot of fun with him and we did pay him at the end of the day. We stayed a week in Luperon and enjoyed every minute. Now we will be heading to Puerto Rico The Mona passage. The longest passage we will make so far and it includes night sailing. The weather is just right and about 7 other boats are all going to leave also including the Pas De Deux.