Language barrier
Landed safely in Santo Domingo, and quickly felt like I was back in Jamaica. The language barrier was immediate, as I would find out that my Spanish is very limited right away. After gathering our luggage, we were quickly ambushed by cab drivers wanting to charge us $500 or more for a trip into Port Au Prince. After a polite denial to a few cabbies, we found a larger Dominican fellow who offered to take us to the bus station for $40. We decided that would be the best course of action, and hopped in. Through broken English he started to explain the buses and times, and we responded as best we could. I apologized for our lack of Spanish, to which he chuckled and started to tell us the names of roads, tunnels, hotels, etc. in English and then Spanish. I learned more Spanish in 5 minutes with this man than I ever did in school.
After a quick call home, he waved me off my cell phone to tell us that he would take us all the way to Port Au Prince in 4-5 hours for $300 total. Not much more than the $250 the 7 hour bus ride would’ve been. So I yelled, “Yo, home to Bel Aire!”
Wish it wasn’t still dark out, as I’d love to take some photos of the DR. It’s very beautiful here, and much like Jamaica, traffic laws are more of a guideline. Should be an interesting ride!