Congratulations!

Things about Which I Know Nothing

After reading so many pages about my personal experiences, you may assume that I know something about almost anything to do with the Dominican Republic. Well, while I surely do have an opinion on many topics, there are quite a few topics I really know nothing about. Here are a few:

Drugs. I often read posts on the Internet about the availability of drugs. I am talking about everything from prescription medications to illicit or illegal drugs. I have been into several pharmacies here, and have purchased sleeping pills and pain pills a time or two. Other than that, I don’t know about buying stuff at pharmacies. I understand that some places are very lenient, while others are not, and require a prescription. I do know that in the DR, the same rules apply as in your home country regarding attempting to carry illegal drugs into or out of the country. Don’t ruin a wonderful vacation by trying to get hold of some pills to take home. Illegal recreational drugs are illegal here, too. The papers tell me there’s a lot of drug trafficking going on. I often read about people being arrested at the airport, but that’s the limit of what I know about it. Can you get drugs? I guess so, but I don’t recommend it.

I also often read about large quantities of drugs that have been confiscated by the government. I assume they are drugs in transit to the United States, but do not really know. I had the opportunity to see a diesel truck pulled over and searched by the drug enforcement agency. I learned that the truck was transporting over 800 kilograms of heroin. The drugs were packed inside boxes of bananas. I have also heard of individuals being arrested for having large sums of money, which has been tied back to drug trafficking. I kind of assume there is a lot of drug money and would bet that a lot of the Ferraris and high end vehicles I see driving around are related, but more than that is entirely speculation.

Prostitutes. A guy on a flight to the DR once asked me whether it was easy to find “good prostitutes.” The question caught me off guard. First, I have no idea what a “good prostitute” is; and second, I didn’t know where to start looking. Now, I am not a total idiot, so I do know prostitution is a big business in the Dominican Republic. However, I really don’t go to places where one would find them, so I know nothing more. One night recently, my wife and I were driving back from the colonial district at about 1:00 AM, and one whole side of Malecone seemed to be lined with women. I am assuming they were prostitutes from the way they were dressed. Also, I’ve heard people talk about serious problems with diseases spread through prostitution.

I don’t recommend paying for sex. There are so many great people in the Dominican Republic – why would you have to lower yourself to paying some potentially disease-ridden hooker for sex?

One last remark on this subject: I have read of instances where women become pregnant from “paid encounters,” and then go after the father for child support. The Dominican Republic has a US-backed task force to deal with this problem. You play, you pay! Beware!

Guns. I guess after you have read my background where I talk about my time spent in the Rocky Mountains hunting and fishing you probably wont be surprised that I was once accused of being a gun freak. Well, the truth is I was not only accused of it but rather than fighting the charge I simply plead guilty. No big deal really. I just like guns. I am fairly proficient with a shotgun. I can hit targets pretty good with a hand gun. But, I am deadly out to about 500 yards with a rifle.

Now, with that said, things changed for me when I moved to the Dominican Republic, where I see all kinds of people carrying guns tucked in the front of their jeans, or shoved down the back of their belt, or just hanging out of their pocket. I remember vividly one day we went to the beach and we saw a guy with his girlfriend walking from their truck to the beach. They were lovingly walking hand in had headed to the water. They looked like a cute couple. She was kind of hanging on him and it was sweet.

The next thing I knew this guy pulls out a hand gun from his right pant pocket and just kind of held it out to his side. He wasn't looking town the barrel. He wasn't aiming it or pointing it at any particular place. He was simply letting the whole world know he was packing heat. I couldn't believe him. I mean where I come from you do not just pull out your gun to let people know you have one.

Anyways, the purpose of this section is to let you know it is very common to see every day people carrying guns. There is not really any such thing as trying to conceal them either. Dominicans do not use holsters and I am guessing there is probably no course for how to properly handle them. In order to get a gun you need to pay a license fee and have the permit. It is pretty easy from what I understand.

My opinion as far as carrying a gun here, however, is that I will never do it. It does not make sense to me to pay all of the money it takes to get one and then risk loss or having it taken from me. I think the reality of it is I would probably have a hard time shooting someone anyways, so it would not do me much good anyways.

If you want a gun for protection there is nothing wrong with it. I just hope you get the right training and keep it concealed.

A Final Frustration. I want to end with something I left out of the book earlier, although it is one of the things I have still not figured out. How do you get directions from a Dominican? You will never get an address; it’s almost impossible to find any place here with an address. The majority of the buildings are not numbered. You could wander around for weeks looking, if you were just given a street number. I have never heard of a Dominican GPS unit that could direct you adequately. I am assuming that’s because it would get lost, too.

When you ask for directions, always remember that Dominicans tell you how to get to a place using your vision instead of following a map. This means they are going to think about the things they see on the way, or landmarks, to describe your route to a particular place. This is the same way they drive, walk, and navigate.

I was recently given the directions to go to a birthday party that was located about forty-five miles away from the capital. We were told to head toward a particular city. Then we were to go over a big bridge (never saw that one) and to turn left at the top of a big hill. The directions told us to look for a gas station, and then make another left. We were supposed to continue through the town over a river, and then take a right at a big commercial center. No distance was ever given. We didn’t know when we started out on the trek whether we were going to drive for one hour or three. We just knew the place was near the ocean toward Bani (about 45 minutes away). How did we end up finding the place? Well, we went the best way we could, and then started asking people to explain the directions.

We did eventually arrive at the birthday party’s location. Nevertheless, the continual failure of the Dominican Republic to produce a standard street address so one can find a place on the map astonishes me. I still have not figured this one out and therefore cannot give any advice.

Good luck with your travels!