On Saturday night, Maria sent me a message saying that she would be able to go to Altos de Chavon with me on Sunday, only catch was, she was already in San Pedro so I would have to meet her there. This, of course, meant me taking a guagua by myself, which I have never done. But, I figured it couldn't be too bad, plus I could always call Maria if I ran into any issues. So Sunday morning, I got up and got myself ready. I called a taxi at 9:20 and then went to wait outside since they had told me it would be there in 3 min. Well 15 minutes later, the taxi showed up. First thing he says to me (conversation in Spanish) is that I didn't give the right address, and that he was over somewhere else, blah blah. So I just said to him, it's Correa y Cidron, #11. And pointed to where it was written on my building. I've never had any trouble with the address and taxis before, but as I was soon to learn, this guy was just out to make my life hell. So he asked me where I needed to go and I told him the ASTRAPU station. He asked me if I wanted Duarte or Nuñez, and I said Duarte (didn't know there was one in Nuñez). Then of course, he asks me where I am headed, I told him to San Pedro, and like all good Dominican taxi drivers, he tries to convince me that he will give me a good deal and take me the entire way. (To understand this, the minimum taxi fare in the city is RD$150, for me to take an air conditioned bus an hour outside the city to San Pedro is RD$110, so unless he wants to match that, it's not a good deal for one person.) He continues with this, but also taking the time to keep saying to me, you don't speak Spanish, and calling me Rubia directly to my face (normally guys will yell that at you on the street, but I've NEVER had someone call me that in a direct manner, especially when I am paying someone for a service. Once we arrive near Duarte, he tries to tell me that the station is on our left. I tell him no, it is by the big park. He's like, well this is Duarte, and I said I know, but it is not here. So he pulls over and asks a few guys on the corner to tell him where the station is, but the guys on the corner don't get what he's asking them so they ask me, and I tell them, the ASTRAPU station near the big park. They understand this and direct him that way. He continues to tell me that I told him the wrong place, and I keep arguing no I didn't. He then starts speaking to me really quickly and when I say that I don't understand him, can he slow down, he just keeps doing it, as if taunting me. Finally I know exactly where we are so I just start directing him. When we arrive, he turns around and tells me that this isn't on Duarte, it's on such and such a street. I pretty much yell back at him, yes, and it is 1 block away from Duarte, thus, it is close to Duarte!!!! Then he wanted to charge me RD$400, I was so pissed off at him, I didn't even argue, just handed him the RD$150 and walked out and onto the bus. I was so angry.
Luckily, I had still made it onto the bus that would leave at 10:00, getting me to San Pedro around 11:00. Maria had told me to tell the cobrador (guy who takes your money and tells the driver when to stop) to let me off at the McDonald's in San Pedro, but that I didn't know where it was so to please let me know. But apparently, my accent when saying McDonald's is not comprehensible, or at least not to the cobrador and the lady beside me. (Again, entire conversations in Spanish) I mentioned the words "restaurante" and "para comer" but that didn't help. I even pulled out my little book where I had written down exactly what to say, and showed him. He still had no idea and neither did the lady. He carried on, collecting money and I called Maria in the mean time to have her talk to him. When he came back, I put him on the phone with her. She told him that I needed to be dropped off at McDonald's. He didn't understand the first time, but when she said it again, he exclaimed, "McDonal" (pronounced like Mc then the name Don and the name Al). The lady then also exclaimed, "Ohhh McDonal." We all had a good laugh. The lady asked to see my book again and when she read it that time she was like, "ohh I don't know why I didn't understand that." The lady then started asking me questions, like where I was from, what I was doing here, etc. So we had a nice little chat. When we arrived in San Pedro, the lady was getting off before me, and when she left, she reminded the cobrador to not forget about the Americana, which I thought was really sweet. (I had told her that I was Canadian, but that doesn't seem to make a difference here). I was one of the last people on the bus and we were nearly at the McDonald's when one of the guys nearby started asking the cobrador where the Americana was going, then this caused all the people in front of me to turn around and try to sneak a glimpse of me. The cobrador told them I was going to McDonal. When I got off the bus, I was swarmed by the motorconcho drivers, I just kept telling them, "No!" and finally made it across the street where Maria had just arrived. We went to find a bus to take us to her mom's new place and were successful, sort of. The chofer spoke some English and I guess he was trying to speak to me in English, but I couldn't hear him over the noise. So he just kept talking to Maria in both Spanish and English. This particular guagua took forever to get to where we needed to go. Eventually, we just got off and walked the rest of the way. It was a nice walk, minus one crazy man in pink who was yelling at us, and I got to see a new area of San Pedro - which I really liked! When we arrived at the house, Maria's aunt, uncle and two cousins were there to pick up an adorable puppy. Inside, I was greeted by 5 dogs and another aunt and cousin. We ate sandwiches quickly before Maria and I headed out to get ourselves to La Romana. We were running short on time, so Maria asked me if I would be okay with taking a motorconcho to the bus station since it would be much faster. I agreed. The driver who took us was really quite smelly, which was unfortunate for the two of us, sitting behind him on the bike.
We caught a guagua right away and were off to La Romana, unfortunately, there was no air conditioning in this one. Once we arrived, we went and sat in a park to wait for our taxi driver.
Once the driver arrived, we headed to Casa de Campo - the exclusive and beautiful resort complex in La Romana. For us to get in to see Altos de Chavon, we had to pay US$25 per person. It was then that we found out that the fee gave us access to the beach and the marina as well. Had we known that, we would have brought our bathing suits and made a day out of it! It was a bit of a drive to get to Altos de Chavon but an enjoyable one. So essentially, Altos de Chavon is a little 16th century Mediterranean style village that was built using historic techniques and materials in the 1970s. It's a very beautiful place. We wandered around, took pictures, did some shopping, ate ice cream, had drinks, got a tour of the museum and finished the afternoon off with some pie and coffee at the French bakery.
When it was time to call the taxi again to pick us up, we had to call to the front security at the resort so that he could be let in. We had some issues since the lady kept telling us that they couldn't authorize the taxi to come in and pick us up. Maria kept telling her, we are visitors with the day pass, we don't have a car, you let him bring us into the resort, so you need to let him come in to pick us up! Finally she agreed, after taking down every detail possible about the taxi driver and his vehicle. Here's Maria making it all happen, using both of our blackberrys at once.
Once we got to the main gates to leave Casa de Campo, the driver had to hand over his keys to the security so that they could search his trunk. Intense stuff. The taxi took us to the bus station and we hopped on the first bus to head back to San Pedro. Once we arrived, we were again, surrounded by the motorconcho drivers. It is so annoying, they barely let you get off the bus before they are grabbing at you and trying to get you to take a ride with them. Maria got really angry and yelled at them, which was funny and they totally deserved it! We were able to catch a guagua that dropped us off across the street from Maria's mom's house, which was helpful. We stopped in quickly so that Maria could grab her bag and her puppy, Luna. While I waited, I showed her cousin the pictures we had taken on my camera and then her mom gave me a set of dominoes. But not just any set, HER set. The reason she did this is because she had wanted to get me a set with that particular design, but they are a bit harder to find, and since she knew I was leaving soon and didn't want me to leave without a set, she gave me hers. It was the sweetest thing and I was so touched, and I nearly started crying. I gave her mom a huge hug and thanked her so much. I will definitely treasure those dominoes forever - especially because she was the one that taught on me how to play, with that very set.
After another set of goodbyes, and me promising to vacation in the Dominican frequently and to come to San Pedro, we caught another motorconcho to the bus station. This time, the guy was not smelly, but he did have one of the amusing, yet kind of disgusting seats. There was one moment, while stopped at a red light, that I looked back at Maria and then at Luna, who was tucked in Maria's purse. It was so cute. Luna was just looking up at the two of us with her big eyes, seemingly saying, "why am I in this situation right now?" We bought our tickets, got on the bus, ate our sandwiches that Maria's mom had packed for us earlier in the day (which were now squished and a bit soggy from being at the bottom of my bag all day) and headed back to the city.
We took a carrito to Tiradentes, then I walked with Maria a bit until we were near her street, then I took a carrito down Tiradentes till my stop. I had two blocks to walk to get to my apartment. As I started walking, I looked across the street and saw this guy:
Yep, just a random horse, standing on the sidewalk, eating away. An odd feeling to be walking down a street in the middle of a major city and find a lone horse.
That place looks cool. I like the concept and the way they went about recreating it.
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