Friday, May 20, 2016

From DR to PR

Lions in Ponce
The Mona Passage is the body of water between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Even just uttering its name is enough to send chills down a sailor's back. It is notorious for rough seas because swells from the open Atlantic as far as Ireland are subjected to a change in depth from thousands of feet to less than one hundred in a short amount of time. The good news is that by navigating the south coast of the DR we were able to avoid some rough sailing, or so we thought...

While crossing the DR we noticed a significant change in the weather. The forecast for two weeks straight called for thunderstorms and around 1:30 each afternoon the wind would change direction and torrential rain would fall, often with the bonus of thunder and lightning. After a week of this we got a bit used to it and it didn't bother us too much and as we headed out to cross the 100 miles to Puerto Rico there was not a cloud in sight. As soon as it got dark however we began to see a light show off in the distance and the thunder started rumbling. We could see the rain coming as massive purple splodges on our radar screen. We had never heard thunder so loud or had lightning come so close. The strobe-like flashes were so bright that they hurt your eyes and one even hit the lighthouse on Mona Island as we were passing it, too close for comfort.  With fork lightening landed either side of the boat there was a lot of deep breathing going on!  After fighting off 12 hours of squalls with the thunder and lightning and 25 knot winds and cold torrential rain, we were then treated to high winds and seas just off the shore of Puerto Rico. We were so close to our intended destination of Boqueron only to have to sail further north for the easier approach of Mayaguez. Of course as we put the anchor down in exhaustion the clouds broke and the wind calmed to a gentle breeze! Story of our life on Nomads!

Mayaguez wasn't a bad place to make an unplanned stop. Despite getting a bad reputation from cruisers, the town is nice and convenient and the people are extremely friendly. At the dock we asked directions to customs from two locals that were fishing.
Edwin and Betsy
They introduced themselves as Betsy and Edwin and offered to drive us to customs, to get a SIM card, and to the grocery store! They took us to a local restaurant and we all had lunch and had a lot of laughs. We tried the local dish 'mofongo' - mashed plantains - with fried pork, fish soup and crab and lobster stuffed empanadillas.
Mofongo, Empenadillas, Fish Soup
We joked that Betsy could make some extra money being a guide for visiting cruisers especially since her translations were impeccable! The town even had a restaurant with an all-you-can eat salad bar - we haven't had access to so much fresh lettuce and vegetables for a long, long time.

While checking in to Puerto Rico we met up with some other boaters, from West Wind and Imagine 2. We had recognized West Wind from Turks and Caicos. They had taken the traditional Mona Passage route and of course had a lovely sail.  We all had happy hour together in Puerto Reale - best mojito I've ever had! The two boats were horrified that we didn't have a working auto-pilot and Jason on West Wind graciously came over to help us fix it but without being able to order a part from the company there isn't much we can do.
Drinks with West Wind and Imagine 2

We continued around the south coast of PR fairly quickly.
Anchored at La Parguera

Mountains of Puerto Rico

It is an interesting island, being a territory of the United States it could easily pass for another state, albeit one with hot temperatures, Spanish as a first language, beautiful ocean views around every corner, and very cheap and delicious beer.
Cheap!
At 75 cents a can it's the cheapest in the Caribbean. We stocked up on said beer and many other American products with a trip to Walmart in Ponce - it was like being back in the good old USA.
Ponce

We experienced the friendliness of Puerto Ricans once again in the town of Salinas while yet again attempting to fill our fuel tanks. We walked an hour from the marina, which had run out of diesel, to the closest gas station with our jerry cans. After filling them we realized we were going to need some help getting back. It wouldn't be that unreasonable to try to find a ride in a town without taxis - would it? Sure enough after five minutes standing at the roadside with our cans of diesel and our thumbs out, the first pickup truck to pass by pulled over, driven not by a big Puerto Rican guy with tattoos and a goatee but by a mum and her teenage daughter who were dressed up for Mother's Day and going in to work at the family restaurant. When they asked where we were from the daughter started shrieking 'Justin Bieber!' We threw the cans in the back and ten minutes later were back at the boat. Thank you Elizabeth and Elizabeth!

Salinas
The next day we headed to the Puerto Rican island of Vieques. After the usual squalls and downpours, we were treated to the dolphin show of a lifetime. For two whole hours the dolphins swam either side of the boat performing an impressive selection of jumps, back flips, belly flops and spins! It was incredible and by the time the show was over we were almost there. After a rejuvenating day at the beach in Vieques it was time to move on to the Virgin Islands!


It was a choppy sail so the dolphin footage is a little weak :(

Ponce

Ponce

Latin Beats

Bay of Eagles

From Jacmel, Haiti we headed east to the other half of Hispaniola - Dominican Republic. We spent the first night with SV Dark N Stormy in the Bay of Eagles, a beautiful serene National Park. We went swimming and for a beach walk and had a large puffer fish follow our dingy around!
Puffer

The next evening we set sail for Isla Beata a few hours away. We slept there for the night and waited out a thunderstorm the next morning before leaving for Barahona. The wind as per usual was against us and the seas were fairly large and choppy so it was around 2am when we finally arrived. At 9am sharp the next morning we had customs and immigration knocking on our boat to do an inspection and fill out the paperwork for our cruising permit. After that was taken care of we all set off in our dingy to try to find somewhere to land it so we could explore the city. As we approached the beach we were bombarded by a group of about 4-6 year old boys who were laughing and waving and all jumped onto and into our dingy! After untethering them from the dingy and explaining that they couldn't come with us, we finally found we could tie up to the beaten-up Navy dock.

We spent 2 days in Barahona as we were in dire need of fuel and food.  We walked around the city and had a great lunch at a local restaurant and had our first "jumbo" sized beer!
Enjoying una jumbo!
It was definitely a city full of life - there was an upcoming election and supporters drive around hanging off vehicles waving flags and cranking music from the largest speakers I have ever seen or heard. Loud latin beats are a mainstay in every town in the country! When we had first arrived, one of the customs officers had offered to "help" us get fuel. James and I had originally planned to just walk to a gas station a couple of times to fill up our jerry cans just enough to get us to our next stop with a fuel dock. However, if we could get more fuel without having to walk we were interested in "help" from the customs officer. I wasn't part of the negotiations but apparently it was a bit of a disaster: the plan was for someone to lend Dark N Stormy some jerry cans since they didn't have any and to drive to the gas station a couple of times. For this everyone wanted to be paid - someone for being the broker, another for translating, a rental fee for the jerry cans, and the kicker was the navy wanted 10% of the price of the fuel for all the fuel being loaded off their dock!
Election Time
This was our first introduction to greasing palms in the DR. In the end Dark N Stormy left without fuel and James and I reverted to our original plan and walked the 30 minute round trip twice with 5 gallons of fuel - man I'm getting some serious biceps! The walk took us to a beautiful part of the city full of cafes, small bars and people sitting outside loudly playing dominoes and slapping the pieces on tables.

Once we had enough fuel in the tanks we left for Ocoa - a little coastal town which is where the wealthy from Santo Domingo have their weekend homes. Since it was a Sunday when we arrived it was packed with people - many of whom followed us in their boats Jetskis and waved as anchored. After a night here and a wander through the town picking up veggies and eggs it was onto Las Salinas.

Ocoa

We had originally planned to leave the next day but when we got out to sea we found ourselves beating into 30 knots of wind with very square seas and making no progress at all. We turned back after 4 hours as it would have taken us 24 hours at the rate we were going to make it to Boca Chica 65 miles away. Some strong winds had come a lot closer to shore than they had predicted and were going to be in Las Salinas for a few days so we decided to make the best of it. Since there is nothing to see or do in Las Salinas we took the local bus into the capital Santo Domingo and booked a little "boutique" hotel for the night. The local bus (which has wifi!!) is a commuter van playing loud latin music and packed to the gills with people!

In Santo Domingo we spent two days in the Zona Colonial - the old area of city settled in the late 1400s by Don Cristobal Colon (Christopher Columbus).
Cathedral of Santa María la Menor

The House of Diego, Columbus' Son
Parrots at the Monastery 
It is called a "town of New World firsts" since it was the first place in the New World to have a monastery, a nunnery, a hospital, a cathedral etc.  Many of these structures still exist and we were able to see them - sadly many resemble Roman ruins after being ravaged by hurricanes.  Santo Domingo is a beautiful city - a wonderful mix of a cobblestoned city from Western Europe and a vibrant city from South America. We spent the first day visiting the New World's oldest monastery and cathedral and touring Christopher Columbus' son's home. The Monasterio de San Francisco are ruins from 1508, as you wander through them flocks of parrots and other wild birds fly overhead! The cathedral is the oldest in the Americas it was commissioned in 1504 and construction was ended in 1540. It is a beautiful building combining Gothic and Baroque architecture with an incredible rib vaulted ceiling. Alcázar de Colón was built in 1510 for Diego Colon - the Viceroy of La Espaniola and contains an incredible collection of Medieval and Renaissance art - not bad for a US$2 entrance fee!

We also visited several "panaderias" (bakeries) and drank plenty of local espressos and freshly squeezed juices. We even ate at a vegetarian restaurant - I haven't seen one of those since we left home!
  
Big Smiles for a Vegetarian Restaurant!
Hotel Breakfast
For dinner we went to the grocery store and picked up a variety of delicious foods and ate in our hotel room while watching TV!!! The only thing in English was a marathon of "Elementary" with Lucy Liu - when you haven't watched TV in 8 months you're not picky ;)  We swam in the hotel pool and had multiple long hot showers and slept in air conditioning.
Luxury

We got up the next morning to an incredible breakfast of eggs, fresh bread, homemade jam, all you can drink lattes, fruit salad and fresh juices. It was a little slice of heaven! We did some shopping and toured a rum distillery and then headed back to our boat in Las Salinas.

From there we headed to Boca Chica, a touristy town full of resorts and small hotels. On our way there we sailed past a pod of about 30 Pilot whales!! They were right next to the boat and just floating around with their funny melon heads. We didn't have our camera on deck and I was afraid I would miss them if I came down to get it so unfortunately we didn't get any photos. Once we arrived in Boca Chica we walked around the shops and ate breakfast out.
Breakfast in Boca Chica
We took a mooring ball at the marina and while the marina was kind of a dump it did allow us to do laundry, shower, fill up with diesel and go grocery shopping. The marina dropped us off at the grocery store and then the grocery store drives you home so we didn't have to haul bags and bags of food back by foot! The grocery store resembled a North American superstore style grocery store with a massive produce section, lots of cheeses, a huge bakery, even a kitchen and home goods section. After months of tiny little shops with canned good and the odd questionable cauliflower we had no problem filling our shopping cart here!

The most challenging part of cruising in the DR is the need to check in an out of every single town you visit where you need to get a "despacho" from the "commandante" - many of whom expect a tip and none of whom received one. The worst one we dealt with was at Bocca Chica.

This commandante, head of the navy in the town, insisted on photocopies of our passports even though he has nothing to do with immigration. So James had to walk all the way back to the marina and find a photocopier - the marina helped us with that and were horrified that the commandante was requesting this. When James brought the paperwork back the commandante decided he wanted to inspect the boat despite us already having an inspection when we checked into the country a matter of days before. The commandante had to round up several other people (all who had already inspected the boat) including drug trafficking and customs. The marina manager was furious that he wanted to inspect our boat and apologized many times. It was a complete waste of time. Yet again this lead to us leaving many, many hours later than we wanted and meant yet again arriving somewhere in the dark - not advisable when it can be avoided since not many areas are lit. The despachos can only be obtained right when you want to leave, which is problematic when you want to leave at 4am since they only work business hours, and the commandantes can take as long as they like to do it. When we arrived in Las Salinas we spent almost 4 hours waiting for a commandante in the hotel lobby to "check-in" to town and he never showed up!  It was an extreme exercise in patience and made it stressful because our boat is slow and in order to arrive in the daylight we frequently need to leave places in the very early hours of the morning, something the despacho made impossible.

We checked out of the country in La Romana.
Rio Dulce, La Romana
When we checked in to the DR in Barahona we double-checked and were told there were no fees to check-out and that it's all paid up front. Not surprising when we tried to check-out there were all sorts of made-up fees. The woman at the commendencia office even tried to charge us the local marina fees despite us being anchored in the river! James flat out refused to pay anything and just said we don't have any money left and they begrudgingly stamped our passports for free. We then motored to the Island of Saona and waited for a weather window to cross the Puerto Rico.

One of our favourite things about the DR was the fruit stands. In each town there is at least one "fruiteria" - a little stand selling fresh local tropical fruit that you can either buy whole or have cut up and made into a fruit salad drizzled with local honey - seriously addictive! They're so popular that when we took the bus home from Santo Domingo the driver stopped and took orders from passengers!

Driver Ordering at the Fruiteria for his Passengers

The DR is really not set up for cruisers, especially not the south coast. I'm sure it's better if you plan on spending extended periods in a couple of towns but when you're trying to make progress each day and need to obtain a despacho every day it's a real headache. But seeing Haiti was worth putting up with it! That being said the DR is not on our list to cruise in again.


Bay of Eagles

Santo Domingo Town Square
 
The Only Indian Not Killed by Columbus!

Casas Reales

Alcázar de Colón


Rum Museum


Sunday, May 8, 2016

Haiti The Final Instalment: A City of Artists


From Ile-a-Vache we headed to the town of Jacmel. As we turned into the channel for the anchorage the boat started rolling side to side and everything went flying - there was NO protection from swells at all. It was so bad that we almost left and headed for the Dominican Republic. However, we were all excited about seeing the city so we stuck it out and despite not sleeping at all we were glad we did. It's a city full of poets, painters, filmmakers, French colonial architecture, and artists working in papier-mache, stone, metal, canvas and wood. It truly is a city of artists and is most well known for the giant papier-mache costumes it makes for Carnival! The city is decorated with masks, and full size costumes of animals and characters that can be worn in the Carnival parade. It was the first city in the Caribbean to become a member of the UNESCO Creative City Network!
Papier-Mache Costumes


Sadly the damage from the 2010 earthquake is very visible - the cathedral had to be closed and it's clock stopped when the tremors hit. The post office, city hall, the market and about 70% of the homes there were severely damaged.  After the earthquake Canadians and Americans did a lot of work in Jacmel - a American
Mosaic along the boardwalk
group designed a seaside boardwalk full of mosaics done by locals and Canadians were heavily involved in the rebuilding of homes. Since Jacmel is known as one of the biggest tourism areas in Haiti the goal was to get the city back up and running to help the economy. As soon as we arrived and got off our dingy we met Flacco, a local dog. He ran right up to us and spent the better part of the day with us. The locals joke that he knows when someone is Canadian because he was unofficially adopted as a pup by some Canadian Armed Forces who were stationed there after the earthquake and who named him, trained him and fed him. He was another dog I desperately wanted to make our "boat dog" but mean old James wouldn't let me!
Flacco, my dog soul mate
We spent the day wandering around the city and trying to convince our friend Michael to get a haircut in one of the local barbers - we thought he should get "I love Haiti" shaved into the back of his head - we came pretty close to convincing him. All around the city there are artisits carving wood or stone and others painting and varnishing their papier-mache creations. We had cold drinks in Hotel Florita - a converted mansion built in 1888 at the height of the city's wealth when it was a well known coffee port. Despite wanting to try some of the local coffee we were too hot. We also saw Le Marche en Fer - it was built in 1895 and modelled after the market in Port-au-Prince.
Hotel Florita

Drinks at Hotel Florita
We visited just about every art boutique and then took a break for lunch to discuss what we wanted to purchase - everything was so beautiful and so inexpensive it was hard to choose!
Beachside Lunch
Sadly James and I totally ran out of cash and there was no bank machine so we could only purchase one item! We had a delicious lunch at a casual beach cafe and then went back to the stores to make our purchases. James and I bought a painting from the beachside market of some traditional fishing boats because we felt it would remind us of our sailing around there. Had we had more cash though we could have bought enough to decorate an entire house with beautiful art!



Our fondest memories from Haiti are: Seeing all the photoluminescent plankton in the waves breaking beside our boat during all of our night sails - it seemed particularly vivid there since there is almost no light pollution at all. The smell of wood smoke, rain and wet earth coming rolling off the mountains as the katabatic winds start. The smiling, waving, skipping, laughing children who always wanted to say hello. The delicious mouthwatering local foods. The genuine and kind people we met all through Haiti. In Jacmel we met Mme Charlotte - a local artist who our friends Micheal and Rebecca bought some art from. We spent some time talking with her and about our time in Haiti and what a beautiful experience it had been- her final words really resonated with us "When people talk shit about Haiti you tell them what it's really like".

One of the many masks decorating the city

Ironworks along the boardwalk - our boat in the background

Papier-mache masks in artists workshop



One of the best beers we've ever had! 

Also not allowed to keep her

Open air atrium, Hotel Florita

Old Post Office, now closed


Fosa Atelier

The Marche en Fer 


Earthquake damage to Le Marche en Fer 


The New Post Office!




Boardwalk