Jarabacoa 12/19-12/22 Part 2 REPOST

“The Hotel”

Major props squared(3) to JimmyDR and Cheeno for their reports. Without those valuable resources this part of my vacation would have never happened and as it turns out, my ATF calls it the BEST 4 days in her life saying she has, “never experienced anything like it before in her life!” You guys made me a ROCKSTAR!

So we get to Hotel Gran Jimenoa (www.granjimenoa.com) and are greeted by a real DomiNIKA cutie-pie who is quick to confirm the conditions of my reservation (which I made online) and to confirm all fees with me in writing before having us escorted to our room, which is in the same building as the restaurant/bar up on the third floor…no elevators so “el burro” hauls two roll-aways and his backpack up three flights (my own wishes) to room 312. The guy opens the room door and promptly opens the sliders that lead to a balcony but before I can even get in the room I here the sound of the JimenoaRiver! It’s not a trickle either, it’s thunder and my brain starts to unwind like it hasn’t since my years of work on Guanaja in the Bay Islands off Honduras….”fucking tits” I think to myself, “this is gonna be great!”

I walk out to the balcony which looks down river through a giant banyan tree…I sit down and listen to God’s music…the sound of the Jimenoa River which is the headwaters for the Yaque del Norte….the place is definitely a great location and rooms 314, 315, 214, 215 in the main building all look out over the river…personally, I hate first floor accommodations but that’s a security thing….others may like those rooms as well. The standard rooms are clean, with two double beds, a TV, AC and a little bar with two stools…no refrig or mini bar. She called it “estillo campo”, lots of wood décor.

Me n’ my gal pal are enamored with the place, so we unpack some stuff and head to the restaurant for a beer….we get downstairs and find a beautifully spacious open air restaurant and bar, decorated and furnished in natural woods from the region, just a perfect place to RELAX….we’re the ONLY ONES THERE….so we grab a table closest to the river…and it is there we notice, things in paradise are not…..

I knew the region had been hit by Tropical Storm Olga, but the devastation by the TROPICAL STORM had been far under reported. My first inclinations were confirmed by the fact that the bridge to the bar across the river was gone, as was as thatched roof over the deck area on the opposite side of the river. The bar/building had a new shingle roof and the gazebo was damaged. I was hoping for head in that gazebo too, when I saw it online. Several Haitians were working to remove debris (tree braches) from beneath the building (by hand) and they were dumping the debris into the river, letting it get carried away in the current….

I scanned the shore line and noted it had been scarified almost 30’ up the banks. I realized TS OLGA was a killer, the flooding in the region was extensive (this is one segment of my business….disaster preparedness, recovery and management). I looked directly below us where the first tier of walkways should have been…they were there, but buried in brown river sand. When I started explaining what I was reading in the environment my ATF said she was told by the hotel on the phone they had “no damage”….so we decided to take a walk.

Several of the stairways to the lowest level near the river we taped off with CAUTION tape, so I led us from the resort until I could walk on the rocks and get off the property….we followed a trail of devastation the proved my hunches correct….the Jimenoa had over run it banks 30’-50’ and in some cases that high on the river canyon walls, carving out trees and plants leaving the exposed rock and soil…. it was when we rounded a corner and found a barbed wire fence that I was able to see the death and destruction……clothes, animal hair and pieces of homes were tangled in the barbed wire for a quarter mile along the shore line, most likely washed down from a pueblo in a higher elevation in the mountains….rather than expose my gal pal to any exposed truth, I changed our direction towards the road across a field….the ground showed evidence of being wet….and river mud six inches thick was within 50 feet of the road…it appeared the Hotel Gran Jimenoa had narrowly escaped being flooded and mudded….as it’s landscape grounds, pool and all it’s buildings on one side of the river looked perfect. We went back to the room with a couple more beers where we sat on the balcony and played until it the sunset….when we decided to shower and go to dinner.

She’s always first to shower, because she takes the longest ...she finishes and I head in to take mine…the water is ice COLD…I mean shrink your dick, ice cold…so I immediately blame her for using all the hot water….”There was none”, she politely tells me. When I asked her why she didn’t say anything, she told me she didn’t notice it…her family does not have hot water in their house…she thought it was the way it was supposed to be…..how blessed are we to be American? I make a mental note to correct that problem for her family when we return to SD for Christmas.

I switch to plan B and grab a travel pack of Baby Wipes out of my toiletries kit…and do an antiseptic, lemon scented wipe down, brush my teeth and finish my prep for dinner thinking, “No big deal, I’ll tell them and they will fix it.” Yeah, right…..the reception desk tells me to turn the hot water on and let it run…it takes a few minutes….acceptable I think, and we go to dinner.

The menu is fantastic; we order appetizers and entrees not realizing our table for SIX (we were the ONLY guests there) would be over flowing with food! Conch salad, rice and beans, bread, clams, calamari, jamon ….I ate til I thought I would explode…dinner is $2100DRP (yeah it’s pricey) but WTF….and damn the ITBS TAX! She tells me, from now on we order ONE service and share, not because of the money, but because of the amount of food…and this ATF rule became a mantra for most of the trip…and the nice thing about the DR is there’s no sharing charges!

We head back to the room for a good night of rest as Thursday is the first of three adventures with Rancho Baiguate (http://www.ranchobaiguate.com/), but first I decide to check the hot water, so I turn it on and let it run…and run……..and run…….and……
There’s no hot water!