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So I left Santiago today. I am on my long way to Barahona. The trip is so long that its mandatory to take some stop. 110 cc bike, my back and ass dont allow to travel for really long distances. So after 200 km I am making stop in Bani. It is a city in DR located tens of kilometres of Santo Domingo - not that far away, actually...
So I thought that I will be rewarded with some cozy town after my 200 km trip. I thought that I will relax here, and get some calm... But it's not the case with Bani.
Bani is just a really busy dominican city. Transit city - crossed by the busy road Santo Domingo - Barahona. Noisy, busy and polluted city. Almost like Santo Domingo.
Well, maybe tomorrow I will see something interesting in the area. There is a desert near here, salt mines and some bay. But as for today - I just need to relax and take a rest after 6 hours trip.....
Josef Stalin reincarnated and now sells furniture in Dominican Republic. In the free time he still thinks about freedom of working class.
I had some funny adventure before I landed in Bani. Just around 50 km before that city, near San Cristobal (the city where Trujilo was borned) I was stopped by some military patrol (they have military uniforms and automatic guns, that was enough to "convince" me that they were maybe from military 😉 and well - literally asked for some bribe. And I wasnt the only person stopped by these guys. They just organised normal, classic, blockade of the road to get some money. Like they said - they wanted some money for the "juices and beverage'. First they asked for 200 pesos, but after some thought I gave them 100 pesos - which is around 2,5 usd. I could easily not pay it, as I was in totally legal status. I didnt have any drugs with me, no guns, all papers were the order and so on. So I could argue with them, smile and try not pay it..Or just give them 100 pesos to make their day better and mine - and not worse...
. Now - multiply those 100 pesos by 100 stopped vehicles - and you will have 10,000 pesos of nice profit for few guys. Maybe they will give it to support their families ? Maybe they will spend it on booze ? I dont care....Their salaries are so low that sometimes they do organise such actions to get some money.
But to be honest - it's really rare for something like that to happen in DR. If you are totally legal - you dont have to pay anything and you cant argue if you want for those 2 bucks. Military guys usually dont to such things here in DR, unless they REALLY wanted some money. It is much more probable to be stopped by AMET (road police) if you for example drive in some city without helmet and that way be asked for some money. Which is usually also really low, like maybe 200 pesos.
Only two times during my over one year stay things like that happened to me. This was the first time, when I gave the guys 100 pesos, and for the second time - I gave some police guys 50 pesos. So 2,5 usd and 1 usd during one year - it's not that bad, right ? And it's still nothing normal of course - but it was some kind of adventure and something to write and talk later, as a good memories. Like I am doing now 🙂
Next day
Beach located in Bani is not impressive at all. What really gets on my nerves here is the network of one way streets everywhere in this city. Because of that - it's hard to navigate, even on the motorbike here.
Las Salinas near Bani, Dominican Republic
Around 20 km from Bani there is village Las Salinas - located in the nice bay. The views are generally OK, but after what I saw already in this country - nothing THAT special.....1 km before said village there is also desert - probably the biggest in the Antilles. They made National Park from it. I pay 50 pesos to get inside and take some some photos...Too bad that at the same time my camera gets broken. Damn. It is still probably because of that sand from the beach in Las Terrenas...Probably I will have to buy new one...
Desert in Dominican Republic.
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