Dominican republic

Been three weeks since my last update, guess it's time for a new one. I'll start with some basics about this country.

Dominican republic shares the island La Hispaniola with Haiti, located in the exotic vacation paradise the Caribbean. Haiti is one of the world's poorest countries, Dom.Rep. is "only" the third poorest in this continent. Needless to say, both countries face big problems. Yes, this is a country where tourism are growing. The huge, luxurious all-inclusive resorts are popping up all along the coast-line. The country is rich on minerals. It's lush and perfect for growing everything from oranges and bananas to rice and sugar canes. Unfortunately, not much of this benefits the main population. Corrupt politicians selling everything to foreign companies accompanied with crisis after crisis for the past years have done their job in partly erasing the middle class, making the lower class bigger and bigger and the difference between people huge. The devaluation of the currency haven't made things easier, as the salaries for many are still almost the same. Today the informal sector is the biggest here, increasing every day as the unemployment raises. And of course, as poverty raises so does crime.

The public schools are still bad, if you can't afford to pay for a private school you will be more likely to work than go to the public school. There are exceptions. But as an example, for weeks at a time the teachers won't get paid, and naturally won't go to work. What use it is to go to a school without teachers? That's why it outside rich areas and the most touristy spots can be impossible to find anyone who speaks english. Or that understand a map if you're asking for directions.

As most of you know, I speak some spanish after my year here. And the one week with a spanish course was very useful, I needed to refresh and learn some more verbs. In my opinion the most difficult part of spanish, as they conjugate every verb in endlessly many ways.

But, it's nice to be able to travel wherever I like here. And to be able to talk with locals everywhere. Roger arrived to visit me two weeks ago, so we rented a car and have been driving to almost every corner of the country. It's a small island, but diverse. You have picture-perfect white sand beaches, mountains (the highest peak 3,100 metres), mangroves, lagoons, coral-reefs, cactuses and so on.

We've been to Samaná, a small tourist-town called Las Terrenas, where we visited several beaches where we were practically alone. Had one night in Puerto Plata, with a stop at the rhum-factory. Then Monte Cristi almost at the Haitian border in the north. A quiet village with the beach El Morro, more similar to greek beaches than how you usually imagine Caribbean beaches. A small stop in Santiago at the tobacco factory and a bakery I love. Then a trip to the south-west, just south of Barahona.

We arrived back to Santo Domingo yesterday, where we have checked in to an idyllic guest-house, a former nunnery, in the old town. It's a bit expensive, luckily I've managed to get the price for dominicans, making it affordable. And very cheap for this standard and location. We also delivered the car in one piece, almost unbelivable considering the way people drive and some of the roads.

Spent some hours yesterday in a big mall finding christmas presents to my family. The earliest ever, but have to send them to Norway with Roger on monday. So the last days we'll spend relaxing here in Zona Colonial, before he leaves monday and I head for Buenos Aires on tuesday.


-- Posted from my iPod