Dominican Republic

[Quail]

After Mexican, Canadian and Cuban, that was the turn of the DR caves this year: 2 weeks, more than 3000 km of fun driving, 21 wet and dry caves, 20 dives. Cristian from the DRSS (www.dr-ss.com) was the best guide for me in the Santo Domingo – Bayahibe area. You can rent tanks from him and he will show you an entire cave on a single dive, where you could need 2 or 3 just to find all the jumps. I am writing this mainly to say him: Thank you very much, Cristian!

Caves (explored, easily accessible, and safe to dive) are in several distinct areas. In Bayahibe, probably the best place for sea diving as well, and to the east from Santo Domingo (you can stay in Boca Chica 2-3 days), they are in 20-30 minutes from dive centers. On the Northern Coast it takes more than an hour to drive to Sosúa to get tanks refilled. So, it’s a good idea to rent a car, stay several days in one place, and then move on. Driving can seem crazy at first sight. The worst thing would be to remain long exasperated at others for not following the rules. Or to assume that nobody will crash into you, if you just cross an intersection on a green light without looking around. Within a day or two, you will understand that honking and light flashing are not aggressive; the other driver just wants you to become aware of his intentions, because blinkers are obviously of no use.

Sidemount is much more practical both in caves and while getting to the water. Most of the caves can be seen with 2 aluminum 80s. If you want to go to Pedernales (and you should, because the caves are quite different there), visit Denis from Golden Arrow (www.cavediving.com.do) in Santo Domingo for clear directions, to share your passion for rebreather diving, or just to meet an unpretentious and friendly man whose arrows were first in many caves in the DR. Or contact Horst Julius in Sosúa to rent tanks or any technical equipment at incredibly low prices and to organize a trip with his mobile compressor. I could not find a dive center on the entire coast from Pedernales to Barahona.

What else? The country presents some climate and landscape diversity. It’s not Guatemala, but the Northern Coast is different from Jarabacoa, Punta Cana from Los Patos, and so on. You will find a remarkable biodiversity around the Lake Enriquillo, in air, on land, and in the water. Bring binoculars, repellent to prevent dengue. For the interested in history/anthropology, there is the Museo del hombre dominicano in Santo Domingo, the first European brick-and-stone settlement in the New World near La Vega (1494 A.D.) and Taino petroglyphs and pictographs in many caves throughout the country. Google “La Cueva de las Maravillas”, if you can endure cement paths in a cave. Take some of your favourite music with you, because you will soon get bored with the local radio. Education seems to be a problem in the country, but Dominicans are very nice people. With a smile and a bit of Spanish, finding a cave may be almost as fun as diving. Have some sweets/food in the car for kids, when travelling through poorer places.

Don’t let all those small arms in the streets discourage you. Military, Politur are friendlier/less corrupted than the regular police. But the only accident I had with the latter was a guy who first threatened to search the car (I said I was ready to follow him to the police station) and then changed his tactics talking about his anniversary and a gift. At that time my limited Spanish suddenly got even worse, I could not understand a word, his Tiguere capabilities ran out, and I was let go. I need to say that was at night and I stopped at a gas station to rest, rather than to buy fuel. In many cases, they were rather nice and helpful. My trick was to ask for a direction or any other help. They then become very complaisant, and once, when I was looking for a dive center in Barahona, they even brought me to a house where they just had seen big green tanks with oxygen to be delivered. Of course, I could not use it for diving .

So, it’s safe. Go diving, explore the country, support the local exploration teams. Hopefully, this will result in less trash in cavern zone and fewer bar counters in dry caves. And, if you are still not convinced, subscribe to the DRlocal’s channel on Youtube. And don’t leave your arrows everywhere just to show that you have been there too, it’s not cool.

Safe diving,
Alexei

[Neptuno]

yeah... leave many arrows in the caves, I always need more arrows for explorations

thanks for the visit, and really cool that you traveled a lot, you did visit several cool caves around, hope you come back soon for more .

driving is very crazy, police asking for money is the most common thing, they normally do fake checks in the morning and near noon to ask for breakfast money, is safe around but depending were you need to be carefull, could be very dangerous some times.

was a pleasure taking you around, going to see the pics now