During the second half of our visit to Dominican Republic, we leave the nest of the festival and decide to check out the famously crystal clear beaches on the east coast. We've already seen Santo Domingo, where Columbus first set up camp in the New World, and some of the mountains and tropical forests in the north. So we rent a car and head towards Punta Cana, known for its "all-inclusives" (as in resorts).
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Cacao plantation or bust, road tripping in Dominican Republic
We are driving north towards San Francisco de Macoris from the capital, Santo Domingo.
Little vignettes of this third world country blur through my mind as we speed along. I am groggy, blinking away sleep, but curious. I have never been here before.
Three little black kids pump water into big blue plastic jugs from a well, five small boys play baseball alongside the road on a dirt patch, a man rides a horse with rope reins, goats pick through garbage in the ditch, a cow rummages for food in a dumpster, four men sit at a card table playing dominos. Wooden carts selling coconuts, banana bunches, and white eggs dot the roadside. Garbage is scattered everywhere. These scenes register in my brain a few seconds delayed, we are driving so fast. It seems cliché, like something I've seen in National Geographic, but it's real and right before me.
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