Cows heading Home in Fantino

Something you have to get used to while driving the rural streets of the Dominican Republic and sometimes even the streets of the larger towns, is sharing the streets with livestock. The term “when the cows come home” refers to the way a cow (usually) just ambles along at a slow pace, and really takes meaning when you find yourself coming up to a herd in the street that is completely unaffected by your desire to pass.
In most cases the owner of the herd is nearby and will try to get the animals to move to one side of the road so you can pass, this has various degrees of success depending on what is distracting the cows at the time. So, this often means weaving through the cows if you’re on a motorcycle or waiting till they pass if you’re in a car.

Weaving through a herd of cattle can be a little nerve wracking at first. Some of the bulls are very large and as you sit on your bike, you find yourself looking up to the head of the Bull or at best eye to eye with a set of horns. Considering that he might take offence to you getting between him and his harem this isn’t exactly the most comfortable place to be.

Really though, the animals are quite used to people and motorcycles and if you don’t do anything to startle them, you are usually pretty safe. I just try to take it slow and anticipate which direction the individual cows might decide to take.

Accident Laws

Accidents are frequently caused by animals in the streets, especially at night. With few street lights in the rural areas you often don’t see the animal until you are very close. While the speeds people travel here are relatively slow compared to the States (usually 20 – 40 mph), this can mean a lot of damage and at times death when there is a motorcycle accident.

One typical case that recently happened in my area was a motorcyclist traveling at night who hit a horse in the street. This accident left him paralyzed from the neck down. (more…)

If you plan on spending much time in the Dominican Republic you will no doubt at some point take a shot at driving here. Driving in the DR definitely poses additional problems then driving in other countries like the US. Poor roads, drivers that don’t obey safety or other traffic laws and just poor driving conditions make many decide not to own their own car here. Whether you own a car or just rent on occasion when you get behind the wheel you know you are taking a chance.

One thing people don’t often expect is to have to deal with police shaking down drivers for money. Unfortunately here that problem is pretty common. A report was written today in the Dominican online newspaper (more…)

One of the major drawbacks to living in or traveling to a “developing country” is the crime and the inconsistency of law enforcement. If you have been here for a while or have read the news about the Dominican Republic you likely know what I am talking about. As foreigners, we stand out as targets. The majority of the local population don’t have a lot of money, and in the opinion of most residents of the DR, all foreigners or extranjeros are rich.

Dangers traveling from the Airport

Recently there have been alerts from the US Embassy in Santo Domingo about persons in taxis, public cars and guagua being stopped and robbed by people dressed as Police while traveling from the Las Americas International Airport near Santo Domingo to nearby hotels and even when traveling to private homes. This is one report which involved Airline Employees traveling to a hotel (more…)

The Dominican Republic presidential results will be announced later today. The early results put Danilo Medina ahead of Hipolito Mejia by 51% to 47%. As a reminder, most businesses will be closed today which also means that it will probably be difficult to get a public car if you are planning on going anywhere.

While there is a prohibition on selling alcohol today you can expect things to be getting pretty loud and a lot of drinking going on when the final presidential results come in so it might be a good idea to stay off the road. Even with Medina as the early winner there are still people (a lot of kids) walking up and down the streets screaming LLego Papa.

Election Result Day Safety

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A point of interest if you plan on driving in the Dominican Republic. If you are a foreigner, you will often get pulled over and asked for money by the Dominican Police. This has happened to me a few times now, the most recent while my family was heading into Le Vega last Monday. As you head off the freeway, you turn down a road that heads into La Vega and in this case there were 4 Dominican Police stopping traffic, most people they just let go pass, apparently they are looking for something or someone.

In these cases, when they see someone that they think can pay, they pull you to the side and ask for money. While you could probably argue your way out of this, or play dumb and act like you don’t know what they are asking for, it is usually easier to just give them 50-100 pesos. Yep, that’s right, you bribe them into letting you go for $1.50-$3.00. I’m guessing that this wouldn’t work if you were actually speeding or doing something wrong, (more…)

Motorcycle Insurance Card

If you drive a vehicle in the Dominican Republic, by law the vehicle should be insured. Whether this insurance really does any good or not remains to be seen. When you rent a car from an agency the car is usually insured, the policy is a minimum policy that only covers the other person and the car, not your injuries.

Another car insurance policy you might consider is a policy to protect you from being killed by the family if someone dies in an accident (No Kidding!).

If you are on a “staycation” of a “holistay” in the DR and plan on buying a vehicle for your time here, you will want to purchase insurance in order to stay legal. This is pretty important because you car or motorcycle could be impounded if you don’t have the proper papers. More likely though if you are pulled over you will need to give the police officer a hundred pesos or so whether your papers (drivers license, vehicle license, and insurance) are completely in order or not.
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If you’re planning of staying in the Dominican Republic for an extended “staycation” you will probably in time want to get some sort of Motorcycle or car. After a while it does get a bit tiring walking or getting stuck in a public car with 6 other people. There are a number of different brands of motorcycle in the DR. Many of them you probably haven’t heard of. Of the major brands that are available Yamaha is one of the most popular.

While you can buy larger bikes in the DR, most of the bikes that are sold here fall I the commuter class. Usually between a 70 and a 125 cc. You will also find a lot of smaller 50cc bikes like the Honda Cub. Larger bikes are usually found in the larger cities and are harder to find parts for than the smaller more common motorcycles or “motors”.

Dirt bikes or endures are also sold here but the most common types of bikes are scooters (pasolas) and the commuter street bikes (motors).

Yamaha Scooters
There are two styles of scooter found here, the less expensive small tired scooters and the more expensive scooters that use wheel closer to the size of a standard motor cycle. These scooters come in anything from 90cc to about 150cc, with the 90cc to 125cc scooters being the most common.
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Las Terrenas Beach

Likely you are flying in from Santo Domingo, Santiago or Puerto Plato, from any of those it will probably be easiest to take Caribe Tours to get you to Samana. None of these go directly to Las Terrenas, so from there you will need to catch a public car or Taxi.

This is where the fun comes in! Depending on how busy they are, there is a lot of room for negotiation. On our first trip to Las Terrenas we planned on taking a public car from Samana to Las Terrenas. It turns out that the majority of the public cars are pickups and you sit in the back. This is about a 20-25 minute drive and it rains frequently. Unless you are really into budget traveling this may not be the best option. However, because that is what we told the taxi drivers that asked us if we wanted a ride, they kept lowering the price to talk us out of it.

In the end we went with Taxi Luna ((809) 667-0344 or (809)355-8752), the driver didn’t speak English, but we speak enough Spanish so that it didn’t matter. Likewise, as long as you have the name and address of the Hotel you want to reach in Las Terrenas, you don’t really need to be able to speak to them much, they will find your hotel. We got the price down to 1200 pesos or about $33 USD. This price was pretty good, because when we got to Las Terrenas we found a taxi location that stated the price to get back to Samana and the price was about twice that or 2200 pesos. (more…)

Unfortunately, at this time visitors to the DR should by very cautious while traveling in the Southern part of the country.

Leaders of two rival bus owner groups are battling for the rights to certain territories and are using violence to achieve their goals. At this point the problems seem to be centered around the Santo Domingo area heading toward San Cristóbal. So using the countries public transportation North of Santo Domingo is probably still safe. Near Santo Domingo it might be best to use Taxis until this gets worked out.

You can view the articles written in Dominican Today at these links.
Dominican Republics owners strike again injure reporters
The country’s owners stage showdown over bus routes 7 injured
Dominican Republic owner mocks the Government from Congress
Dominican Republics owners continue standoff 2 injured

If you are planning to stay in the DR for more than a few months, you will likely need to look into some sort of driver license. While public cars, Guaguas, Taxis, and Motor Conchos work, it’s nice to be able to drive yourself at time. There are a several ways you can do this.

• One is to get residency and apply for a Dominican license.
• Two, is to leave the country every three months in order to get your passport restamped (your foreign license is then good again for three months)
• Three, get an international License.

Which option to choose will likely depend on your long term plans. If you don’t plan on staying more than 6 months or so, it might be easier to just plan a small vacation where you leave the country for a few days. When you get back you will get your passport stamped again and your license will once again be good for another 3 months.

If you are planning to stay over a year, then you likely want to get residency and eventually get a Dominican drivers license. Even then you might need to either get your passport restamped or get an International License to keep you going during the long wait you are going to have to get the residency complete.

For me the easiest option has been getting an International Drivers Document.

1. First question is does the Dominican Republic honor an International License? (more…)