Luperon, Dominican Republic

Luperon, Dominican Republic (March 15-April 2, 2013)

It is rumored you can smell Luperon long before you reach it.  Having been told by many cruisers how nasty, smelly, corrupt and dangerous Luperon is and that we would be better off to just skip it, we were blissfully surprised when some 20 miles off the coast we were struck by a strong sweet earthy smell, quite pleasant and very distinct, a smell like none other.  For those of you who choose to travel by air, I'm sad to say you will miss this experience.

As we approached the coastline before daylight, too early to attempt entering the bay, we dallied off the coast peering at the outline of what appeared to be huge mountains.  Upon daybreak, we were stunned by the striking beauty of the mountain ranges, lush green forests, and the spectacular spray from the many blowholes along the coastline.  We, along with our friends, Les and Jeremie on s/v Golightly, were excited we had gone against the grain and decided to make the stop.

The Silhouette of the mountains breaking daylight

 

A beautiful sunrise

The mountainside coming into the bay

No sooner than we came into the bay, we were greeted by Papo and Pedro, the keepers of the mooring balls, who directed us to a great spot we thought we would call home for a few days.  A few days turned into almost 3 weeks.  We hadn't even cleared in with customs and already Papo and Pedro had delivered diesel and water to our boats, all at a very reasonable price. The mooring balls were a mere $2.00 per day.

A partial overview of the anchorage...stunning!

Not sure who made this or why, but some things are best left unknown

Another great view across the anchorage

It wasn't long before the officials began to show up... the Navy, drug enforcement agents, immigration officer and separate agricultural inspectors, one for fruit and one for meat.  It took pretty much the entire day to get checked in.  With everyone boarding our boat and everyone asking for money and, yes, we were asked for tips always being explained as "a tip, you know like you give at a restaurant."  We were then instructed to go into town to the immigration office where we filled out a lot of paperwork and forked over more money.  Preparing to leave the dinghy dock, we were met by a man and woman from the Agricultural Department, who instructed us to take them to our boat for yet another inspection.  We were feeling cheated, until we added up all the fees and realized our entrance fee came to just over $100.00.  This was cheaper than entering into the Bahamas or Turks and Caicos.

Gral. Gregorio Luperon
Heroe de la Restauracion

 When entering the Dominican Republic, we closely followed "The Gentleman’s Guide To Passages South" by Bruce Van Sant and, as such, we were pretty excited to find that Bruce and his lovely wife, Rosa Bonilla, were expected to be at the Sunday swap meet and luncheon at the Puerto Blanco Marina.  Bruce has a reputation for being, shall we say...arrogant.  We found him to be quite pleasant; however, it seems he prefers to talk politics rather than sailing so he and Jim had a lot to talk about.  His wife, Rosa, is a jewel of a lady.  We had unknowingly met her in town at the internet shop the day before and she had been most helpful in acquainting us with the ins and outs of the town.

Gringo Hill - Bruce and Rosa's home.  We were informed they
recently sold this home and, while we were in Luperon, moved
into their new home further south in the mountains

 

We came to realize a lot of cruisers make it to Luperon, fall in love with the place and decide to stay.  Thus, was developed the community at the top of the hill, known as "Gringo Hill." There are also a lot of older men who fall smitten to the pretty young local women, of which most have 2 children by the time they are 19, and end up supporting not only their woman, but her entire family as well.  To each his own, we say.

After lunch, we walked up the hill to the Luperon Beach Resort, a short way we were told...Not!  Luckily, a lady that lives on Gringo Hill offered us a ride.  The resort is closed so not many people were at the beach that day.  We had a nice time and found it interesting how course the sand was on the beach, not comfy without shoes.

Big Beach, Luperon

 

Finding some shade under a palapa

 

Jim has a new friend looking for something to eat

Starving dogs everywhere...heart wrenching!

    

The local baseball game was all the rage in town. So, Saturday afternoon, we went to the game to find that Dominicans take their baseball very seriously and have some outstanding players. What an exciting day!

Les and I watching all the hooprah at the ballgame

The Norman's, who would win today's game

Their opposition

What a great player this guy was!  A player to watch for the pros!

Wendy's Bar and JR's Bar & Restaurant quickly became our daily hangouts.  Lynn, a cruiser on s/v Suits Us, can pretty much be found at Wendy's during the day and is a wealth of information and has a lot of fun promoting movie night with 20 pesos hotdogs and 80 pesos beer.  At 40 pesos to the dollar, that makes for a budget friendly date night.

Wendy's Bar is just behind the "Gringos Welcome" sign

Thanks to the new Commandante, Luperon is a safer place to be

Not in the mood for hotdogs?  Just across the street is JR's Bar & Restaurant.  A great place to hang out and also has movie night, trivia night and daily specials.  Good food and lots of cold beer.  By the way, beer in the Dominican Republic is sold in 40 oz. bottles, a waste on lightweights like me.  Jim was always having to finish my beer, but I don't think he minded much.

A great couple, Peter and Bridget, on s/v White Rose

Bruce (far right) and another great cruising couple,
Peter and Carol on s/v Jak Tar

When visiting third world countries, the simple things we take for granted seem to pop out at you...water, electricity and washing laundry.  Laundry is handled by 2 ladies in town.  Since Papo had been taking care of us, we used his wife's laundry service.  The washing machines below are not always operable and are mostly used as tubs.  She wrings out every piece of laundry and then rinses them in one of the black buckets.  From here, the laundry is hung on any standing object she can find.  On a busy day, laundry will run for blocks hanging on fence posts.  One night while at happy hour, I glanced across the street to see Jim's Ralph Lauren's drying on the fence.  After a few beers, it became hysterically funny that most everyone in town was sitting in chairs in the street socializing and there were Jim's boxer briefs hanging to dry.

The Local Laundry

 

A slow laundry day

While beach and resort pictures depict a luxury lifestyle here, that is not the case.  These are real people living here.  They don't live with the amenities we have and many don't even have electricity.

Mostly unpaved roads

 


 

Where everyone gathers on Friday and Saturday nights

The Chicken Stand
You should see this place at lunchtime

Jim returning from the Commandante's office

On one occasion, when returning to the boat, Jim noticed the boat directly behind us was too familiar to miss.  He said, "There is only one Pearson 36 with gray portholes and that is it."  We both yelled, "Windfreak!"  We spun around in the dinghy and went back to check it out.  Although sporting a new name, we were certain it was the "Windfreak." I emailed the former owner, who was pleasantly surprised by our story and informed me the new owner had a bar in Cabarete.  Windfreak had gone on the market just before I sold my house.  We had highest hopes of purchasing her, but in no time, someone had beat us to the punch and she was no longer available. Looking at the map, Cabarete was only an hour drive from Luperon so we decided to rent a car for a day to meet the new owner and made the trip to Cabarete, in search of the Uno Mas Bar.  The drive to Cabarete was further than originally thought, but well worth the trip to come from the small town of Luperon into such a vast resort atmosphere.  We did meet the new owner of Windfreak, who not surprisingly is one of those people who came to Luperon and never left.  A great super fun kind of guy!

s/v Kallisti formerly Windfreak

For those of you who do not know, "Windfreak" is where our sailing journey began.  One night while surfing the internet, Jim came across their blog and we were hooked.  Reading their blog became an evening ritual and we began to entertain the idea of how we could make this a reality for ourselves.  We decided by getting rid of our houses, moving into Jim's 5th-wheel trailer, buying a sailboat and selling everything we too could enjoy this dream of a lifetime.  With the exception that we gave most of our stuff away, that is exactly what we did.  Jim was quite surprised I was willing to sell my house, give up my job I loved so much AND find a great home for my beloved dogs, Pyper and Junebug ("The Girls"), but that is what I did.  We lived in his 5th-wheel for just over a year while preparing the boat for the journey and, on November 4, 2012, we stepped off the dock into a new world better than we could have ever imagined.

[Back to Luperon]

While in Luperon, we met Peter and Bridgette on s/v White Rose, a lovely couple on their way north from Trinidad, heading to the Bahamas and Florida.  They joined us and Golightly on our trip to the waterfalls and made it all the more fun.   We hired a driver who took us up into the mountains to the well known Damajaqua Cascades (27 Waterfalls).  What a blast!!!  We jumped and slid 12 of the 27 falls, as the upper 15 falls were closed due to lack of rain.  It was a nice 30 minute hike to the top of the falls followed by hours of fun in the water.  There were cliffs to jump, many fun water slides and vast pools of water in which to swim. Afterward, we enjoyed a traditional Dominican lunch served under a pavilion before returning to Luperon.  

Our wild driver AND texting while driving...YIKES!

Those who don't bring proper footwear get the standard issue pink loafers

Crossing the suspension bridge

The trail takes you up the mountain...

And, down the mountain

Where great fun awaits!
L to R: Sherry, Pedro, Les, Jeremie, Jim, and Bridget

Not for the faint of heart, this was quite a workout

First one down the ladder; I hope it doesn't break

Couple's Massage - We spent a lot of time here

It's farther than it looks

An expletive slipped out here...

and here...




Such a great time!

A great way to spend the afternoon!

The trip to and from Luperon was an adventure in itself.  Many of the locals travel by motorbike.  The entire family will pile onto one bike and take off.  Sometimes, 4, 5 or even 6 people on a bike, babies included.  A scary sight for Americans, who tend to be much more safety conscious.  The bikes are rigged according to what they are carrying.  Some carry the locals while others are leased out as motoconchos (or taxis) and still others may carry a load of chickens or pigs.  You may even see a rider on the back lugging a heavy appliance, never losing balance (well, almost never).  There appears to be no speed limit and the motoconchos seem to never stop, never slowing while weaving through traffic to beat the next light.  Going up into the mountains, you will come upon a lot livestock being herded in the road...cows, pigs, goats and sheep.  The driver will proceed honking his horn while pushing the livestock out of his way.  The roads are covered in large potholes so every ride is a rough one.

We enjoyed many happy hours with Golightly and White Rose.  White Rose left Luperon a few days ahead of us, which gave way to another pot luck dinner.  We were joined by neighboring boaters and all crowded onto White Rose to say our goodbyes.  Great fun!  As much as we hated to say goodbye, we knew we too would be leaving the next weather window.

Our last sunset in Luperon

Complete with Poontang and a Cuban cigar

The Dominican Republic is a real stickler that you leave their territory within 24-hours of checking out with customs.  This put a glitch in our plans as we wanted to leave early in the morning, but were told we would have to pick up our despacho papers from the Commandante at 8:00 a.m. the morning we were scheduled to leave. That meant we could not load up the dinghy until we returned from town.  Ugh!

Leaving Luperon

We had planned to head straight from Luperon across the Mona Passage to Boqueron, Puerto Rico in one shot.  That did not happen.  Our first attempt to leave Luperon was met with high winds and waves ON THE NOSE.  Once again, we decided to wait it out, returned to the bay and took a nap.  Later that evening, we departed and headed east taking advantage of the island's night lee.  We were joined by a tug pulling a huge barge, also headed to Puerto Rico.  We made contact and enjoyed the company of yet another vessel headed our way. 

The next day we were quietly sailing along when a humpback whale breached the water's surface and with an incredible splash, crashed back into the ocean.  He rolled twice after that.  As his fins came out of the water, it was as if a high rise building was rising from the ocean's floor.  What an amazing sight!!!

As night approached and the weather deteriorated, we knew the dangers associated with crossing the Mona Passage and sought safety in Samana Bay.