April 18 2014, 5.44pm
In Juan Dolio they brought the sand for the beach, it would be all rocks otherwise. And here they come to swim from San Pedro and Santo Domingo, La Capital. I like it today because there’s a nice breeze, but at the same time it is annoying because it throws sand onto your face.
8.24pm
We are eating pizza. Italian owners here too. Juan Dolio is full of Italians. One pizza for two because we are running out of money, despite the money we saved by staying at the Fior di Loto.
In Juan Dolio there’s the beach as attraction and nothing more. But it’s convenient from the capital. In Boca de Yuma there wasn’t much to do neither, and there wasn’t a beach neither. There was one sandy beach, but you could only get there on a boat, and there was a cove between rocks where on Sundays Dominicans would go to swim and party, with music and beer, like at the Bahia Blanca. Everywhere else rocks and rubbish. Boca de Yuma luckily is at only 30 minutes from Higuey, quite a big town, where you can find anything you need. Juan Dolio is at one and a half hour from Santo Domingo. From what I’ve heard the capital must be lively and interesting, with theatres, cinema, museums etc. From all over the country you can get to the capital in a few hours, so it’s easy to reach it from anywhere.
Good Friday (today) is a big holiday for them, more important than Easter day. And today they are all at the beach. Big parties and big drinks. In the water with their glasses or bottles. They like to be in the water, and drink while the waves hit them, kids and adults alike.
April 19, 3.15pm Santo Domingo
The plan was to stay in Juan Dolio only a couple of nights and spend the last night before the flight in Santo Domingo, but Mara suggested we stay here and we go back to Santo Domingo on a day trip, if we want to go. And it is actually a good idea, as the airport is between SD and Juan Dolio, so there’s not much difference if we leave from here or La Capital.
We are at a Chinese restaurant in La Capital, near Parque Enriquillo, the square from where depart most of the gua-gua that go around the Republic.
We came here this morning, got off in Parque Enriqullo (that as I suspected didn’t scare us so much after we visited Haiti as it did the first day), we walked around the Zona Colonial, then towards the new part of Santo Domingo, to see the presidential palace and down to the Malecon, the seafront. Without knowing it we ended up in the middle of a big party. They closed to traffic part of the road, brought in sand, plastic swimming pools, music and gym (with the risk to have a stroke in this heat).
We spent some time at the party, enjoying the atmosphere, then we went back to Parque Enriquillo, and here we are, drinking a fanta at the Chinese restaurant. We probably have walked about 20 kilometers today, and Luca has some blisters in his feet, we had to exchange sandals.
