Thursday 2 May, Dom Rep day 9: Walk Las Terrenas town, chill by the pool in Aligio hotel, and outboard tried to get revenge on us for locking it in a room all day.
Reasonably good nights sleep considering just one small reef separates us from the Atlantic swell. Over breakfast we see a guy on the catamaran in front of us so we go over and ask him about outboard security on the beach. He advises us to remove the outboard and tells us Mauricio, the owner of Afrika hotel, will keep it safe for us. So that’s the plan and we set off to the beach.
But before we have even landed the dinghy on the beach, a guy in gray-kaki military uniform is approaching us from the top of the beach. He announces himself as navy and wants to know our status. Oana tries her usual best to deflect him, like she managed to with the last such uniformed guys on the beach of Cayo Levantado island. But this guy is standing his ground. He wants to come out to Cloudy Bay to inspect it and see our paperwork. Oana manages to tell him politely that there is no way he is boarding our boat! And that I will go back and get all the paperwork and our passports. So that I do.
And as I dinghy back out, leaving Oana on the beach, I do wonder how on earth these guys are tracking boats. I mean, they don’t seem to have any boats themselves (!) yet every place we have stepped onto land from the dinghy, they have been there, waiting! (excepting the deserted Los Haitises National Park that is).
Back on the beach with the paperwork, he takes what he wants (despite our protests) and photographs the rest of the documents. Then tells us we will need to come and find him in his office, when we want to leave for Puerto Plata, and he will issue a new departure document. Sounds to us like he wants to get us somewhere private where he can take a bribe. Well, we will see about that at the time. All this of course is conducted in Spanish. Without Oana’s linguistic skills I’d be doomed!
Once he has left us we joke that we actually should have taken him to the boat on the dinghy… he would have got absolutely soaked! And then make him board the boat climbing on the side, without lowering the swim platform. On the other hand we didn’t want his big sandy boots in our dinghy, on our deck or worse, inside the boat.
We then remove the outboard, thanking ourselves for having a small lightweight 6HP now. No way could we have carried the 20HP up the steep beach, across the road and into the hotel! Once secured in a locked room we thank Mauricio and set off into the town.
First stop is at a French bakery where we relax with a coffee and pastries while watching the world go by. Mostly hundreds of scooters running in all directions. But otherwise very civilized.
We notice there are lots of French around here and also lots of French real estate agents.
We are quite intrigued by the very reasonably priced properties. Apartments in a complex with pool facilities for just $100,000. And very nice 4 bedrooms villas with terraces and pool for $400,000. Curiosity raised, we visit one of the real estate offices and chat for a while with an agent, mostly to see where the catch is. But it seems there isn’t one. Even the property taxes are very low and there is no barrier to foreign ownership. What we didn’t ask, and wished we had, was why are there so many properties for sale? The agent mentioned she has 64 villas listed in Las Terrenas alone. And there are tens of real estate offices in Las Terrenas town. Anyhow, it certainly sparked our interest especially as we are both starting to have good feeling about this island and its people.
We wander further into Las Terrenas town, which is long and thin based around two one-way streets. At the beach end it’s very much geared for the tourists, with lots of hotels, shops, bars and restaurants. Whilst the inland end is very local, with small houses, and lots of shops and shacks selling anything from lottery tickets to second-hand clothes. But so clean and tidy everywhere.
We pop into a supermarket which is very modern and well stocked and prices are very reasonable. $0.50 for a pineapple! Finally we are on an island that doesn’t export all its fruit production. So nice to buy fruit and veg that is sold at room temperature and not refrigerated (imported). Here everything is fresh, locally grown and tastes wonderful.
On the way back to the boat we pass the entrance to Aligio Hotel, a very nice apart-hotel complex facing the beach, and decide to go in to have a look and a cooling drink. The apartments are very modern, the whole place is manicured and looks new, or at least very well kept. At the pool bar we buy a beer and ask if we can use the pool. Answer is yes, and on we go into the lovely pool. Bliss. To cut a long story short, we end up spending the entire afternoon there, having a very tasty lunch and pulling ourselves off the sun beds only at 6pm, when the sun finally disappears over the pool area. We have a wonderful afternoon relaxing there, and really don’t want to leave!
After releasing the outboard from its locked room and reuniting it with the dinghy, we set off back to Cloudy Bay. But not before a very near accident. When launching the dinghy into any surf, it’s important to get the engine in the water and started as soon as possible. Because without power, the surf quickly spins the dinghy sideways and sweeps it back up the beach, often swamping it or worst,
flipping it over. So normally, Oana gets in first, I push the dinghy hard into the surf, jump in, put the outboard down, quickly get it started, and off we go.
But this time I tried to be smart by walking the dinghy a little deeper than normal, putting the outboard down and starting it before I get into the dinghy. Well, for some reason when the outboard started, it started in gear! It’s thrusting propeller quickly span the outboard around and the dinghy started to violently spin with me still in the water… the propeller just inches away. It could have been a very nasty situation. And one I’ve seen before, which ended with the guy heading to hospital with his leg in shreds 🙁 Luckily my reaction was to throw myself into the dinghy before the propeller could hurt me, where I managed to get it under control. The experience left both of our hearts racing. Oana was rightly annoyed with me. It was a really stupid thing to do. Big lesson learned.
Back on Cloudy Bay we have tea and relax in the evening… like we did all afternoon too! The wind is very light this evening and we are peaceful at anchor. We kind of like it here in Las Terrenas, so we may just as well stay put for a day or two.
