Exploring the whole south coast of Dominican Republic
Exploring the whole south coast of Dominican Republic
We actually weren't planning on visiting the Dominican Republic, but we were in Peru and our flights to Europe kept getting cancelled, as did the flights to the middle east, so as we were deciding what to do, Kurt Caz messaged me saying that it looks like over in the Dominican, they didn't have stupid mask rules or entry restrictions or any of that crap, so he was heading there. We decided to do the same, but we planned on different cities and we wouldn't actually cross paths as we'd only have 1 day on the island at the same time, so not enough time to meet up.
We'd be flying into Punta Cana, staying a week, getting a bus to Santo Domingo for the night, bus to Barahona for two nights then a "guagua" (minibus) to Pedernales for a few nights, which was the main place I wanted to visit, right on the border of Haiti.
We then did the same route back to Santo Domingo and stayed there for a few days.
Kurt would be landing in Punta Cana on the day before we would be flying out of Santo Domingo. However, he messaged me that day saying 'Brah, I'm in Santo Domingo centre right now, come meet me!' I was staying literally in the centre, so it took me 1 minute to find him 😆. It turns out his flight was cancelled so he rebooked to fly to Santo Domingo instead. I told him about Pedernales and the Haiti border, then you all probably know what happened after that. Shout out Makendi.
Dominican was cool, very cool. The beach and ocean in Pedernales was easily the nicest beach I've ever been to. We were the only people there, the water was crystal clean, no trash, the sand was perfectly clean, the sun was shining, everything you want. It was boss.
Pedernales had a strange feeling to it and we were the only tourist there, the only white people except the hotel owners who were Italian. I didn't really feel any danger, just a lot of people staring at me, but generally people were friendly. A lot of kids were very rude though, extremely rude. But like older teenagers and adults were all friendly - perhaps an issue with 'youths' these days in Pedernales.
Barahona was a bit shit to be honest. Apparently some places up in the mountains are pretty nice, but I wouldn't go back there.
I'd definitely revisit Dominican again, but on the north side of the island this time.
Oh if you're wondering why I didn't cross into Haiti - I tried to do it illegally but was met by shotguns. I couldn't do it legally as it would have caused issues with getting into Greece due to Covid. It's really easy to cross legally actually, just walk across the border and get your passport stamped. Shame I couldn't. Fuck pointless covid restrictions.