So after a month in the big city it was time to leave for the north. SD turned out to be a really good experience in a very friendly if also very chaotic city.
We decided to take make a roadtrip out of our trip up north as we got a really good offer on a long term rental car in Cabarete. So we expanded our trip and rented a short term car in Santo Domingo so we could see the southeast before settling in the northwest. Two days later we set out from Santo Domingo, and headed east along the coast in a normal car. It would turn out to be a trip of epic driving skills and a lot of heavy breaking and sudden maneuvering.
The road follows the coast east past the rather horrible beach tourist town of Boca Chica before turning inland through fields filled with sugar cane. It is cane, cane and then more cane for an hour until you reach the turnoff to the beautifully scenic highway 104 and as we would discover its 4 million potholes. It was unbelievably bad, The last 40 kilometres or so on that road took us two hours to complete. We would constantly bottom out the suspension and touch the ground. But after two hours of intense staring over the steering wheel for potholes in the road dappled in shadows and sunlight from the tens of thousands of beautiful pink flowering trees lining the road, fording a small river and passing more people on horses than cars. We finally reached the turnoff to the beach, and we were delighted to have finally made it. However, elation quickly disappeared as we set down the narrow dirt road that just kept getting worse and worse. Not only was it too late to turn around as the sun was already starting to set, it quickly became impossible to back out of it. So we kept going. dirt became mud, and flat became steep and happyness bacame a cocktail of worry.
I think it took us only 20 to 30 minutes to make it to the strange hotel in the middle of nowhere, but it was clear that the confirmation we had gotten that a normal car would be fine was total bs at this point. And to make matters worse it was supposed to rain for five days starting the following morning.
I could tell you about how beautiful the beach was, how we had it completely to ourselves, etc. etc. But the fact is we had little to no chance to enjoy it. We checked it out before the sun went down, ate dinner and made plans to leave before the rains would make it impossible to get back out the next day. And I am glad we did.
In the morning we left early and got out easier then expected, but the main highway would again turn out to be a major disaster. It took us another hour to get to next town, Miches, and another 30 minutes to find our way out of the town which was in the middle of carnival celebrations. Which frightenlingly enough included painting all the kids head to toe black, and outfitting them with machetes.. It is rather creepy to have 20 kids run excitedly towards your car with machetes. No matter what their intentions are.
Anyways, once we left the silly 104 and 107 highway an hour later things went back to normal and we drove straight across the island up to Cabarete. Happy to get out of the most deserted place on the island with our car, money and sanity in our possession.